Ben Schwartz, the actor and comedian, dunked the ball without looking at the joystick. “This is just like muscle memory,” he said.

On a frosty Monday afternoon, Mr. Schwartz had sneaked away from publicity rounds for an hour of arcade games at Barcade in the East Village of Manhattan. A few day drinkers slouched on bar stools, but Mr. Schwartz, 38, had the run of the machines.

“Playing video games by myself makes me happy,” he said.

Raised in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, he spent much of his childhood hunched over a controller. On weekends, he and friends would go to the local Nathan’s, spending the day playing arcade games and scarfing hot dogs. Did it impress girls? “Are you crazy?” Mr. Schwartz said. “Almost nothing I did impressed anyone.”

Then his parents bought a Super Nintendo and he could play video games at home. “I was, like, addicted,” he said. “I loved it so much.” He still loves it.