There was a time when a great afternoon required nothing more than a handful of quarters and a glowing screen. Arcades were loud, exciting places where Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Street Fighter ruled the room.
Most of those spots are long gone, but Illinois has held on tighter than most states. From world-record collections to pinball palaces, these nine spots are keeping the golden age of gaming very much alive.
Galloping Ghost Arcade – Brookfield
Over 1,000 arcade cabinets packed into one building sounds like something a kid in 1987 would have dreamed up during math class. Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield opened in 2010 with 130 restored machines and simply refused to stop growing.
An arcade database counted 1,098 games as of July 2026, making this one of the largest collections on the planet…