Editor 's note : The staff at CNN.com has been intrigued by the journalism of Vice , an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn , New York . Motherboard.tv is Vice 's site devoted to the overlap between culture and technology . The reports , which are being produced solely by Vice , reflect a very transparent approach to journalism , where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process . We believe this unique approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers . Brooklyn , New York ( Motherboard.tv ) -- Tucked between a bodega and a bar in a former industrial neighborhood on the border of Brooklyn and Queens , an unassuming door leads to New York 's newest , most radical punk scene . But the slouched-over kids and bearded scenesters who slide into the cavernous space , known as Silent Barn , are n't just here for the fine underground music . They really come for the video games . This is the home of Babycastles , an underground collective and gallery dedicated to pressing the reset button on the concept of the video game arcade , with loving help from a growing culture of independent developers , players and fans . Do n't expect any change machines , prizes , or incessant video game musak wafting across a linoleum-lined room full of pale adolescents . Descend into the basement of Silent Barn on any given night , and you 're likely to encounter a rowdy scene that looks more like CBGBs if it had been founded by hackers with a predilection for florescent neon . That 's how you might describe Kunal Gupta and Syed Salahuddin , who met each other through the independent gaming scene after college and launched Babycastles with a smattering of music and beer-soaked events in 2009 . They grew up in the 1980s and '90s , as a steady stream of home gaming consoles were eclipsing the arcade and the privacy of the living room was replacing a lively -- if not completely functional -- public space . `` It was a dark , dingy place with a lot of teenagers who were really into arcade games , '' Salahuddin says of his favorite arcade from childhood , the recently-closed Chinatown Arcade . `` There were a lot of random strangers and friends you made that night . People stood around these machines discussing the games , talking about the games , deconstructing these games . '' In Babycastles ' cozy underground space , visitors gather around homemade games , installed on often aging computers that are embedded inside ramshackle cabinets . The games -- often constructed around an array of silly , bizarre and downright fascinating conceits and told in a vibrant , minimalist aesthetic , are designed by young developers from New York and around the world whose clever antics are more accustomed to internet message boards , blogs and IRC channels . The cabinets are lovingly decorated in all manner of artwork , from intricate painted cardboard panels to collage-covered wood panels . See the rest of Babycastles : DIY Arcade at Motherboard.tv . For the opening exhibition at a temporary space near Times Square last year , Thu Tran , the inimitable maestro of the IFC show `` Food Party , '' turned a former storefront into a veritable zoo of brightly-colored furniture and cabinets . In painted wood and styrofoam , it was a masterful and whimsical refusal to answer that pesky question of whether games can be art . Here was a kind of proof that you do n't have to choose . Nor do you have to play by the rules -- in fact , often no one knows what they are . In B.U.T.T.O.N. , a staple of the gallery , players are left guessing at the objective : will they be asked to beat their opponents to a single magic button , to force their opponents to press the button , or to carry out instructions printed on the screen in Danish ? In the current exhibition , hosted at a separate music venue in Williamsburg , a game by Ivan Safrin lets players reenact a popular YouTube video showing a zealous ATV-rider with a giant American flag who celebrates the death of Osama bin Laden by firing his shotgun aimlessly . A game by Adam Saltsman simply asks users to press any key -- they win when they find the correct one . Doing things the wrong way -- an ethos obvious in the eccentric , sometimes iconoclastic design of many of the gallery 's games -- echoes the progenitors of other devil-may-care and do-it-yourself artistic movements . That 's why the music and games at Babycastles events play together so nicely . Indie rock and punk fare is n't the only soundtrack at Babycastles -- the collective also pairs up with a steady global roster of chiptune musicians , who , with their hacked Game Boy controllers and Genesis consoles , are in many ways the musical breatheren of today 's lo-fi game developers . ( Babycastles launched as a party alongside the Blip Festival , a showcase of chiptune musicians ; this year 's festival begins this week in New York . ) Meanwhile , the patrons of both of these independent communities are in one way or another striving to experience something new -- something that ca n't be bought in a store , but that is available for anyone to see and hear if they look in the right places . Just like indie music , the independent gaming scene is trading in neat , mass-produced convenience for a rough-hewn , playful provocation . `` [ At big gaming studios ] games have become massive undertakings in which each developer acts like a cog . The budget for games has increased by billions of dollars , and developers do n't take as much risk anymore , '' says Salahuddin . `` So you see a lot of rehashed games from the same video game engine , like another `` Unreal '' clone . '' The independent gaming movement `` is in response to that . '' The implications of Babycastles remixing go wider than the music , art and gaming worlds . The hope , says Salahuddin , is to build a kind of economy for independent gaming developers outside the large studios , something akin to what supports indie musicians who make much of their money through touring and merchandise . Babycastles ' other mission is to bring an obscured world of hobbyist game development to a larger audience -- a public that may be jaded with a culture often built on testosterone-fueled first-person shooters , or that tends to roll its eyes at the premise of games altogether . It 's a formidable challenge , but , as the gallery 's raucous and diverse gatherings prove , one that is n't so hard to beat . Still , mixing games with the underground music scene can have its downside too -- some musicians who come to play fall in love with the games in the basement , Salahuddin says . `` So bands started missing their sets . ''
Underground space in nondescript New York building home to indie video game arcade . Score: 6 Owners , patrons strive for an experience that `` ca n't be bought in a store ''