Star Worlds Arcade facts for kids
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| Established | 1985 |
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| Location | 1234 East Lincoln Highway DeKalb, Illinois United States |
| Type | Arcade game |
Star Worlds Arcade is a really cool place in DeKalb, Illinois, where you can play lots of arcade games! It first opened its doors on January 11, 1985. Back then, it was in Maple Park, Illinois, and only had 18 games.
Today, Star Worlds Arcade is much bigger. It has hundreds of games that change regularly. The arcade moved to DeKalb in 2004. The owner, Patrick O'Malley, and his partner, Glenn Thomas, needed more space for all the games and more visitors.
Star Worlds is mostly a video game arcade. It even has special rooms just for games from the "Golden Age of Video Arcade Games." This was a time when arcade games were super popular, especially in the 1980s. It's also like a small museum! You can see lots of cool items related to arcade games, home video game consoles, and other fun stuff from the 1980s.
Star Worlds Arcade is so special that it was added to the Twin Galaxies International Registry of Historic Video Game Arcades. This means it's recognized as one of the few old neighborhood arcades that are still open since the 1980s. A famous gaming person named Walter Day helped make this happen.
How Star Worlds Arcade Started
Patrick O'Malley began collecting arcade games when he was a teenager. He kept them in his parents' garage in Maple Park. Later, he moved his games to a bigger building. He also bought the Star Worlds chain of arcades, which used to be in Geneva, Illinois, and West Chicago, Illinois.
The First Games at Star Worlds
When Star Worlds Arcade first opened, it had 18 exciting games. These were some of the very first games that people loved to play:
- Q*bert
- Space Invaders
- Hangly-Man
- Asteroids
- Rapid Fire
- Wizard of Wor
- Sky Raiders
- Depth Charge
- Frogger
- Space Encounters
- Kangaroo
- Donkey Kong
- Stargate
- Pengo
- Le Mans
- Scramble
- Make Trax
- Pac-Man
Star Worlds in Movies
Star Worlds Arcade and its owners have even been featured in some documentary films! These movies tell stories about the arcade and its history. Some of these films include Star Worlds: A Pocket Full of Tokens and I'm Heading to the Arcade, Man vs Snake, and Go Big.
