Star Worlds Arcade

It was a fun place, and added something really fun to Dekalb! Which doesn’t already have a lot of stuff. There were a couple fighting games, but it only had two, and those games were the most popular, he had ALL the pacman games (Baby Pacman? really? but no Mario? or ninja turtles or street fighter?) I dont know if its just because the most popular games are just rare, but to me I was missing ALL of my childhood 90’s arcade games. The games i liked the most were Crazy Taxi, Donkey Kong, the racing games, the scary shooting games (House of Dead), but after that most of the games seemed boring and just classic arcade games from this guys past. I saw a lot of ppl coming wondering around LOOKING for games, and passing the current selection, it was kind of sad. I think he should reassess customer demand and need versus what HE likes to play. A lot of these game graphics are so outdated I think kids can make computer programs better than them. Classic or not stay up to date with your market demand bro. I liked the deal he had in place as well as the purrell he had on the counter that showed customer appreciation, OH and the score board on the wall of top players! He should hold tournaments, but should do them with more competitive games, like Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Komabt, etc, and market them on the college campus to get competitive players marketing the hell out of this place. Other ideas for games: Rampage, Ridge Racer V, X-​Men (huge movie franchise, means more money for YOU!!!), Double Dragon, Captain America And the Avengers, any sports game (NFL Blitz&NBA JAM), more fighting games! ditch one pinball for a famous fighting game, it’ll pay off ENORMOUSLY!

My son wanted to go to an arcade. Star Worlds fit the bill today. We’ve been to Chicagoland’s most infamous arcades and this one should be included to that list. Smaller than the others, Star Worlds is confined to maybe 40 – 50 games. They don’t have the assortment like the other larger arcades but then again, they don’t charge $ 15 to play either. Nope, it’s $ 5 for 30 tokens and you feed the machines old school style. Kind of liked that. We played a few of the classic shooting games and of course the staples like Pac-​Man, Galaga, Robotron, etc. They did have one game here that I’ve never seen before called Revolution. It’s a shooting game with an Aerosmith theme. Good stuff… Evan and I fed tokens in for a half hour as we shot our way through anti-​music goons.
The owner is a nice guy. He wants to keep his 30yr old operation on the small side, and keep it fun. He’s done a nice job. FYI. cash only. That’s part of the old school charm.
Cheers!

Can get crowded in such a small spot but go on an off day and the place is all yours!
They have a nice rotating collection of pinball machines (which is what drew me there in the first place) and will even sell some to you as well.
The range of games go from the early 80s to early 2000s with the DDR machine in the corner. And you have a great selection inbetween. I personally spent most of my time on the original Donkey Kong cabinet trying to get past the 3^rd level –_​-​)*
Overall a nice spot, and apparently can be rented out for parties. Very nice.
Also as always, make sure you use Purell that’s on the counter. I don’t need to tell you how germy arcade machines can get, especially 30 year old ones!

If you take a glance at my review list you’ll notice I visit a lot of arcades. I prefer classic arcades over new modern ones like Dave and Busters and Gameworks. Star Worlds has been on my list for quite awhile and last May I finally had the chance to stop in and check it out.
I was actually on a weekend arcade hop with a friend who was leaving the state the following week so we wanted to do an old school run of some of our favorites like Arcadia in McLean, the galloping ghost and Emporium. Star Worlds happen to cross our path on the way back home, so we thought we’d scope it out.
The initial attraction (due to the fact every arcade we visited that weekend had classics), was that they boasted having a DDR Solo 4^th Mix Plus. This was a mix I have never played and it’s sort of on my «things to do list» to try and play every mix ever created (including Disney Rave, which I finally knocked off).
Anyway, we arrive. It’s a bit early so we go find a food/​drink and head back. It’s now opened. Now I never ever ding an establishment based on location, and I won’t this time, but this locale is in a seriously sketchy part of DeKalb. I mean I get it, keeps the rent low, but still, I can see this being a turn off for any casual visitor.
As we enter we discover how small the place is, I mean packing a lot of games into a small room is always a challenge, but there definitely times when I felt uncomfortable. I’m a tall person and the room seemed very short and way over crowded, and not in the best way. The area near the front has several, maybe half a dozen machines in disrepair, including some pins, which is always disappointing. In addition, there was a very heavy tobacco scent that was choking out all of the fresh air in the room. I’m a not smoker and it honestly almost made me turn away, but I always give something the full experience especially when I drive off course to visit it.
Still we pressed on and walked from room to room briefly to scope out the inventory. Overall it was a decent selection, nothing I hadn’t seen before, but some great classics to be enjoyed. My usual complaint about the classics is the lack of dedicated cabs, and unfortunately this place had a few cabs that weren’t dedicated. I always feel a bit jipped when someone palate swaps some games into an old cab.
Still these issues we’re small compared to the service. We wandered around aimlessly for about 5 minutes while some awkward dude (who i’ve now collected is Pacman Pat based on photos and forums just stared at us. Finally we walked up to the counter and asked «so, how do we do this?» He then sold us some coins out of his apron and placed them into a dixie cup. Just get a coin changer man. He spoke very minimally to us while we walked from room to room playing games. There was no ambient music, or jukebox and I found the atomosphere to be very daunting by that point.
We played classics for about an hour and decided to play DDR before we split out. To my horror, it was an old Solo 4^th Plus Mix that had been stripped down and turned into a makeshift ITG machine. Most people would probably see this as a bonus, but not I. I was only disappointed. To add insult to injury he didn’t even have a song folder for the aforementioned mix on this super computer of song titles. It was a single pad (obviously) so we had to take turns and I wound up playing one round and stopped. We had mentioned Arcadia and The Galloping Ghost before we left to make chit chat and he had one of those «I don’t wanna hear that» expressions on his face so we bolted.
If you’re a casual patron from the area, you probably won’t enjoy this place (we saw more than one group of people walk in, and promptly walk out). But if you know of this place because of it’s rich history in «gate keeping’ or whatever Twin Galaxies awarded them for, you should probably stop in to check it out.
As for me? Unfortunately, I won’t be back.

Pat, the owner of Star Worlds, loves video games and video game culture and that shows in every inch of Star Worlds Arcade. He’s been doing this for 30 years and all of that history is on display. While it is small, Pat rotates games in and out with fair regularity. Classic cabinet games and pinball. Half the fun of Star Worlds is the décor. If you grow up in the 1980s like I did, this place might blow your mind. Pac-​man, Donkey Kong, old gaming consoles and even old advertising for the Atari E.T. game (which almost killed the system.) Star Worlds also has close ties with the video game Hall of Fame in Iowa and regularly hosts dating competitions.
I’m sad to say I no longer live in DeKalb, but it is still worth the half-​hour drive to visit. My son loves old cabinet arcade games and this is one of his favorite places on earth.

I have been going to Star Worlds for about 3 years. I stopped in on a whim one afternoon when my then-​toddler seemed to be infatuated with pinball, hoping this arcade on the outskirts of town might have a machine. They had 4! From our very first visit the operators were helpful and positive. It is obvious that they love their business and do everything they can to make it the best arcade it can be. Less than 5 minutes off the interstate, a great break during a long drive, games are swapped in and out regularly so it’s always a surprise. On a personal note, I can’t express here what great people run this joint. They always make us feel a part of something special. Thank you Pat and Glenn for everything you do!

I thought this was an old seller of arcade machines but after walking in low and behold it actually is an arcade. I was often starred at owner as I walked around and reminiced about old arcade days. This is no Galloping Ghost in brookfield and the place is very tiny. No way could it hold more than ten people without everyone bumping into each other. Three small rooms of often the lamest of the eighties arcade games makes this place a rural joke. no Asteroids or Pac man too, Cmon. Your going to reopen an eighties arcade and not have those two games.

Seriously. The best arcade I’ve ever been to.
Star Worlds is a much smaller arcade than you might expect, but that’s part of the joy of the place.
When you walk in you are bombarded by all types of old arcade and video game memorabilia. The owner of the arcade has been collecting this stuff his whole life, so it’s neat seeing all the stuff from 30 years ago in pristine condition.
The game collection is awesome. Great classics, some pinball, some new shooters, some racing games, and the cool part is the games are constantly being switched out. So if you went to Star Worlds 2 months ago, you might go back and find some new selections that were not in the building before. Usually all the machines are up and running, and if one isn’t they are usually pretty quick to fix it.
Last time I took my date there, I spent $ 20 on games… And $ 20 lasts what feels like forever! We were there all afternoon.
If you miss the arcades, or maybe you have someone younger who has never been to a real arcade, I highly suggest checking this place out. And if you are thinking of coming from out of town, I would make the trip. It’s well worth the ride!