Galaxy World, 7814 Two Notch Road (at I-77): 1980s 5 comments
As I wrote in my post on Robo's Video Ardade, nothing says "80s" like an arcade. But perhaps an even better example than Robos is the arcade which was at Two Notch & I-77 (although actually I-77 wasn't completed to that point at the time).
This arcade was a spec-built freestanding building located a good ways from any customer base, or foot-traffic. Robos was across the street from the University, other arcades were in malls, this one was meant to be a destination in itself, and it worked for a while...
I remember that in the summers while I was in grad school, I would drive out to Bell Camp (to be the subject of its own post someday) for an afternoon swim and drive home via Two Notch with my hair still drying in the breeze from the car window to make a stop at the arcade. I recall that the set of games skewed a bit from my favorites, but I still found enough I could play that I could drop a few dollars and spend an hour or so.
Soon after that, the arcade phenomenon crashed and arcades all over town closed down. My memory is that the next occupant of this building was some sort of carpet store, and that there may have been another before its current tenant, a golf center. I do know people who like golf, but I'd still rather visit an arcade.
UPDATE 16 July 2010: Finally updated the post title from "Video Arcade" to "Galaxy World", and added the full street address.
UPDATE 7 January 2014: Fix street address from 7813 to 7184.
5 Responses to 'Galaxy World, 7814 Two Notch Road (at I-77): 1980s'
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jjt
30 Mar 09 at 8:07 pm
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I remember Galaxy World as well! I remember they had a School District 2 special where if you got an A on your report card you got two free tokens and a B got one. Quite a motivator. And I swear this story is true: one time my sister was playing a Tempest cocktail machine and I ran up to see what level she was on. My knee grazed the coin slot (I was wearing shorts), and static shocked the coin box and gave her like 10 free credits as if I had somehow shorted the mechanism or something! Man we played Tempest till we got sick that day (in fact we just left 6 or so credits there because our dad wanted to go home).
RIP Galaxy World! It was one of the all-time greatest arcades of all time!
Wh00kah
22 Oct 09 at 9:38 pm
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Now that you mention it, I remember as a Lonnie B. Nelson Elem. kid getting free tokens to go there. I only went once or twice with my dad, and then they closed down and it became Codgill Carpets..
Dave
22 Oct 09 at 9:52 pm
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I remember going there a few times, and it was kind of weird having this really space-agey arcade place in the middle of what was kind of nowhere back then. My dim memory has it bathed in bluish light inside.
Blaine
17 Aug 11 at 12:29 am
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I was feeling nostalgic when I read this -- I remember when stand-alone video game arcades were the rage. But it didn't last long, and as memory serves (I'm 49) it was over by the early-to-mid 80's. But what a blast!
Ted next time you're in the CSRA here are two I remember: (1) 614 E Martintown Road in North Augusta, a place that did free token promotions with schools (2) 2603 Washington Road, a huge building that I think is now owned by Augusta National.
Andy
9 Nov 21 at 11:39 am
Wow, that was Galaxy World. They designed it to look like the bridge of the Enterprise from Star Trek with all of those tabletop cocktails tables games in the middle. What luxurious red chairs to sit on while you played. I remember they stayed open late (well later than the mall arcades, remember Land Of Oz in Decker Mall?). They didn't last too long, but was awesome while they lasted. I never could figure out the location though. Hard to find and get into.