Boy's cardboard arcade goes viral

What began as creating a home-made arcade using cardboard boxes and cello tape has turned into a viral sensation.

Nine-year-old Caine Monroy from Los Angeles spent his summer vacation building an arcade in his dad's auto-repair shop using old cardboard boxes and his imagination.

The only problem was he didn't have one customer, until filmmaker Nirvan Mullick stopped by to buy a doorhandle for his '96 Corolla.

Nirwan was so impressed by the carefully created cut-up games, including minature football and basketball, he decided to make a short film about it.

The film was released on Tuesday and has gone viral. The 11-minute video has picked up 1.4 million views on vimeo and another 708,000 on youtube.

Not only did Mullick showcase the arcade to the world, but he set up a donation box for a scholarship fund on Caine's arcade website.  So far people have donated more than US$100,000 (NZ$121,940) to the young entrepreneur.

"He doesn't really understand how big this is," Caine's dad, George Monroy, told ABC News. "He sees himself on the screen and he laughs. He doesn't understand how everyone is just pouring their hearts out to him."

- © Fairfax NZ News