Algonquin arcade offers 1980s games
Want to play 1980s video game classics like Asteroid and Robotron and a variety of newer games and pinball all day long for just $20?
No Limit Arcade in Algonquin offers just that — and even the chance to buy the games if you just can't part with them at the end of the night.
The 3,200-square-foot arcade at 2719 W. Algonquin Road opened in mid-December with about 60 machines grouped according to themes — driving games, sports games, fighter games, shooting games, pinball machines and classic '80s games.
There is also a family area with a couple of tot-sized games, and a flat-screen TV so parents can relax while kids play.
On Tuesday night, several youth checked out the arcade, many for the first time.
“It seems like a pretty nice place,” said Jon Williams, 21, of Huntley, who especially liked Space Invaders. He and his brother Nick, 18, and their friend Lexi Nichols, 17, of Algonquin, were also impressed by the pinball games, which they said they'd never seen in an arcade before.
The arcade's opening was delayed by several months because its owners, Mark Battaglia and Kevin Slota, were caught off-guard by Algonquin's yearly licensing fee of $120 per game. The village denied their request to lower the fees, so it took awhile to get together startup capital, Slota said.
Slota, of Chicago, and Battaglia, of Huntley, have known each other since the 1980s, when Slota managed — and Battaglia played bass for — the rock band No Limit. The two later launched a business selling a guitar protector.
Battaglia is the video game expert, while Slota takes care of the upkeep and repairs. “Mark plays the games and tells me what's wrong with them,” Slota joked.
Playing video games while making money has been Battaglia's passion since he bought his first video games for $50 apiece at age 16 — only to sell them to friends for $100 each. “The arcade is a dying breed, so you have to be different,” Battaglia said.
The all-you-can-play fee is very reasonable, said John LaGrippe, of Algonquin, whose 11-year-old Jason is an avid player. “You can end up paying a lot more at other places,” he said. The rate for students is $15 Monday through Thursday and free for kids younger than 12 with a parent or guardian admission.
Slota and Battaglia are also renting the space next door, which eventually they want to convert into a space for Xbox 360 tournaments. “We want to have couches and 10 TVs, so two teams of five can play,” Slota said.
Friends Anthony Krieman, 21, of Crystal Lake, and Josh Warner, 22, of Algonquin, love the idea. “That will be really cool,” Krieman said. “This is like no other arcade I've seen before. They have everything.”
The arcade's grand opening is Feb. 12. A World Class Bowling video game machine will be raffled among all of the arcade's Facebook friends.