A new Arcade in Lake in the Hills, IL?

hisnice

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Does anyone know these guys that are trying to open this?
Or do you know people in the town committees that are blocking this from happening?

Algonquin officials didn't budge on their intention to charge licensing fees to a proposed new video game arcade business, but village officials will consider whether they can waive those fees for the rest of the year, officials said.
On Tuesday, business partners Kevin Slota of Chicago and Mark Battaglia of Huntley were granted a special-use permit by the village board for a "No Limit Arcade" with classic video games such as Asteroids and Frogger at 2719 W. Algonquin Road in the Winding Creek shopping center.
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Algonquin's fees could mean game over for potential arcade
Customers would pay a $15 admission fee to play unlimited games, instead of the traditional "pay-as-you-go" method.
Slota and Battaglia had asked the board to waive the yearly $120 licensing fee per video game, which would amount to $7,200 to $9,600 for 60 to 80 video games. The board's only concession was to charge a bulk amount of licensing fees for the year, rather than impose a fee each time a machine is substituted.
Slota said that after the board's vote he asked the village staff if the fees for the second half of 2011 could be waived. The partners could pay the 2012 fee in full immediately, he added.
Algonquin management assistant Mike Kumbera said the staff will evaluate whether the village code allows waiving those fees, and then make a decision.
In the meantime, Slota said he received a call from a Crystal Lake village official who offered to look for a space for their business. The partners also are looking at potential locations in Lake in the Hills, where video game licensing fees are only $30.


Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110908/news/709089895/#ixzz1YRUMJe4J
 
My wife showed me this article as well. I don't know the guys, but I use to work with the Mayor of Algonquin for a number of years and gave him my take on the situation. I support one opening for sure. Hopefully, he'll spread my thoughts to the rest of the board...
 
That sounds similar in business strategy to a fellow planning for an arcade in Independence, MO. He already did a pilot weekend and I understand it went pretty well.

Scott C.
 
I'd be surprised if Crystal Lake didn't charge as much or more than Algonquin per license per game. BTW, Crystal Lake is a city, not a village...

Back in the Golden Age Crystal Lake had three big arcades: The Machine, BJ's and The Milky Way. The Machine outlasted the other two by quite a while (1976-1996), while the other two were open around 2 years (1982-84).

Someone set a very short lived world record on Robotron at the Milky Way in the fall of 1982. I want to say it was 42 million but I don't recall the exact score. The game reset on him. For the rest of the Golden Age, the guy who set the record (who was in the local paper for it) used to tell everyone at the arcade "Hey I'm Robotron John, don't you know who I am?"...and no it wasn't me...A friend of my brother actually owns that Robotron machine now.
 
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I really wish one would open back up here. If they had some good games, and a bunch of them. I would no doubt drop $15 for unlimited play. Hell I used to drop $20 just on one single game BITD.
 
Does anyone know these guys that are trying to open this?
On Tuesday, business partners Kevin Slota of Chicago and Mark Battaglia of Huntley were granted a special-use permit by the village board for a "No Limit Arcade" with classic video games such as Asteroids and Frogger at 2719 W. Algonquin Road in the Winding Creek shopping center.

I don't know Kevin, but I know Mark. He used to have an arcade & pinball store called No Limit in Elgin (right next to Algonquin). Was only open on Sunday's, up on the third floor of a big commerical warehouse building.
 
Did the The Milky Way use tokens? I see some with The Milky Way on them.

Yes they used tokens. I suppose it's possible that another Milky Way arcade existed back then. What exactly does it say on the token? Can you post a picture?
 
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