What are the opening hours?

Monday 2:30pm - 11pm Tuesday 2:30pm - 11pm Wednesday 2:30pm - 11pm Thursday 2:30pm - 1am Friday 2:30pm - 1am Saturday 11am - 1am Sunday 11am - 11pm

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The Star Chamber Arcade

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Athens, OH
The Star Chamber Arcade

Athens Ohio's only arcade -- come join us for arcade games and pinball, beer and boozy seltzers, hard scoop ice cream, novelty candy, and fun!

07/21/2026

Hey Athens! I heard you like to get your freak on.

Or, at least, you THINK you like to get your freak on 😜

Maybe you're honestly not sure how brightly your freak flag shines. AND THAT'S OKAY!!!

That's what we're here for, to provide a place to play all your favorite classic arcade games and pinball machines from throughout the ages, and also, to help calibrate your freakometer.

TO WIT: the game we just put out on the floor today, Victory Road, is FREAKY DEAKY!

Part of its freakiness lies in its pedigree: It is the sequel to the legendary arcade game Ikari Warriors, in which you star as Ralf Jones or Clark Steel, two Rambo-ripoffs whose sole goal is to rip through swarms of indeterminately "Other" guerrillas.

The politics of Ikari Warriors was typical Reagan-era post-colonial neo-imperialist racism and hyperviolence. BUT, the gameplay itself was famous for its innovative rotary joysticks (which allow you to move in one direction while changing your aim to a different direction at the same time), top-down POV, and the ability to hop into tiny little tanks and buzz around like Shriners in weaponized Shrinermobiles.

It feels kind of icky playing a Ikari Warriors today, which is why we don't have it in the arcade. BUT, we do have the MEGABIZARRE sequel, Victory Road.

What makes it so weird? Well, you still play as Ralf or Clark, but at the very outside of the game, they are abducted by a huge floating space alien head (which looks an AWFUL lot like Zardoz) and taken to some weird otherworld dimension full of nightmarish creatures.

The rotary joysticks are still there, the top-down view is also still there, but the abhorrent politics (and, unfortunately, the adorable tiny little tanks) are FULLY ABSENT. You CAN have your cake and eat it too--fun fun game play in a bizarro universe in which the protagonists are without sin and the opponents CLEARLY will kill you if you do not kill them first.

AND IT'S FREAKY!!!!!!

07/20/2026

"Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces."
... Is what you'll hear us say if you wander by the arcade between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00 this evening. Because it's summertime, it's a hot July, and we ALL IN ON JAWS, BABY! We're going to bring in a pile of sand and flood part of the arcade with water, and try out a Jaws LARP thing we've been rolling around in our heads for a while.

07/19/2026

HEY-O ATHENS!!!!! We've got a private event to kick off the day Sunday, July 19th, so our doors won't be opening to the public until 1:00 p.m.

BUT ONCE THEY'RE OPEN, BOY HOWDY DO WE HAVE A TREAT FOR YOU.

It's National Ice Cream Day! And as an arcade that also likes to think of itself as a l'il bit of a scoop shop, we want to celebrate! So, for every 60 minutes of paid game play today, you get a free scoop! ARE YOU NOT JAZZED, M'DUDES?

Fun fact: National Ice Cream Day was actually signed into law by Ronald Reagan back in 1984, to be recognized on July 15th, 1984. That was the only official government designation of the "holiday," but the ice cream industry has since run with the idea and ceaselessly promoted the third Sunday of every July as National Ice Cream Day. AND WE HERE AT THE STAR CHAMBER ARE NOTHING IF NOT SHILLS FOR BIG ICE CREAM.

07/17/2026

DUDES, have you looked outside yet today? The air is a dense miasma of extremely harmful smoke and fire byproducts. It's so thick, you could CUT IT WITH A KNIFE 🔪🔪🔪🔪

Health experts and regulatory agencies are advising everyone in the area to LIMIT OUTSIDE EXPOSURE, which we understand to tacitly mean OTHER THAN YOUR OWN HOME THE ARCADE IS THE ONLY SAFE PLACE.

07/16/2026

Come join us Thursday July 16th at 6:30 pm for our Brew In Hand Split Flipper Tournament!

We're Celebrating Ohio Brew Week with a Pinball format that keeps one hand free for a drink at all times. In a split flipper tournament, we play in teams of two: one teammate works the left flipper, and the other works the right flipper. Each player must keep their spare hand off the machine at all times (can't use it to nudge or for the action button), keeping that hand free for one of our many Ohio Beers or Seltzers.

We are planning on this being a head-to-head three strikes tournament. In each round, teams face off on one machine with the losing team earning a strike. After the third strike, that team is eliminated from the tournament. Due to space restrictions, we may pivot to a single elimination bracket if we have a large turnout.

You do not need to have a teammate to register for the tournament. If you come solo, we'll match you with a partner! Players are not required to have a brew in hand during play, just to keep that hand off of the machine during play.

Costs:
Tournament Fee: $10 per person. All of this goes to the cash prize pool. Please bring cash for the tournament fee (laws are weird)
Venue Entry Fee: $10 per person. Star Chamber arcade has a flat $10 entry fee for tournament participants from the start of registration (6:00 pm) until the end of the tournament (or 9 pm, whichever is later). All machines are set to free play, no quarters necessary. Tournament players may continue to enjoy the arcade after being eliminated.

Prizes:
The cash prize pool (from the tournament fee) will be split among the top three teams as follows:
- First place: 60% of prize pool
- Second place: 30% of prize pool
- Third place: 10% of prize pool
Total prize pool is number of participants * $10

Registration and reduced entry fee begin at 6:00 pm and registration closes at 6:30, with the tournament starting shortly after.

07/15/2026

We know that word's gotten out about the amateur apiary experiments happening afterhours at The Star Chamber, so we're bringing the truth out into the bright light of social media's purifying rays: WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO HUSBAND A BREED OF SUPERBEES.

We don't really have an endgame with this--maybe we use the bees as endless swarms of supersoldiers and overthrow the world's governments, or maybe we just teach them tricks and go on the vaudeville circuit with "The Star Chamber's Electrifying, Wholesifying Bee Circus" (like a flea circus, but with bees, get it?).

Anyway, today, Wednesday, July 15th, we're going to be doing some active superbee training exercises during daytime hours, so the arcade will be closed from 3:00 to 5:00pm. But we will have all the bees put back in their beeboxes by 5:00, so then you can come game!

07/12/2026

NEW GAME INCOMING!!!!

Took a road trip today to pick up a title I think we'll make a lot of people happy! If you are the first person in the comments to correctly guess what game it is, you'll win a $15 gift certificate to the arcade!

(A few people received advance Intel and already know what game it is. If you're one of those people, please don't post --that's not guessing, that's cheating!)

Hints:
(1) Pinball machine
(2) Made in the last 5 years
(3) Zany

07/11/2026

Creature from the Black Lagoon is finally in the arcade!

The history of this game in its 1 year of ownership by the Star Chamber is pretty ridiculous.

The game was purchased from Automated Services in Connecticut last August (as part of a bulk buy with King Kong and GNR), and after being safely transported back to Athens, operator error when setting up the machine caused it to catch fire on its inaugural play.

The transistor on the power driver board had been accidentally shoved into a plastic molex connector, and 5 minutes after the game started, smoke begin bellowing out of the backbox! The power driver board was toast: A new one was ordered, but upon installing it, pop bumper coils kept locking on and smoking, and it was clear that some awful doodoo had occurred deep within the central nervous system of the machine.

Still a novice at pinball repair and desperate to get the arcade open on time, I mothballed the game, with plans to fix it at a later point when time and knowledge were more plentiful.

That day came in early April, when I set the machine up in my garage and begin the time consuming process of tracing down the various secondary faults that had occurred as a result of the initial calamity back in august.

By late April, the machine was fixed! But it was still not ready to go out on the arcade floor. There are three enormous plastic ramps in the game which take up about 40% of the viewable playfield space. The ones that came with the game were cracked and darkened, and made the whole experience pretty shabby.

So I ordered spiffy new ramps, and REALLY spiffy aftermarket LED addressable light controllers for the lights that go on said ramps. While waiting for those parts to arrive, an 80 ft Black Oak tree fell onto my garage, and, (as you may have seen in a previous post) Creature from the Black Lagoon single-handedly held up the entire collapsed mess--the tree, the roof, ceiling, and garage door structure--thereby saving countless other belongings within the garage. AND CREATURE SURVIVED WITHOUT HARDLY A SCRATCH!!!

And now, after having received all new plastic art inserts, CREATURE IS AT THE ARCADE PLAYING LIKE A DREAM!!!!!

07/10/2026

Dudes, if you didn't already know, Brew Week is here!

Like many watering holes in town, we're excited to welcome out-of-towners to our wonderful little burg.

VISITORS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

We are not merely an arcade with tons of great video games and pinball machines. We've also got an amazing selection of local and regional fermented beverages curated by our ever-perspicacious Liv!

AND, we are the only place in town where you can play the legendary bartender-simulator-game Tapper whilst throwing back cold ones. LIFE DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS!!!

07/09/2026

Are you self-financing an opera exploring Miss Piggy's humble origins amidst a porcine community of overbearing religious fundamentalists, with most of the libretto comprising lines of dialogue lifted verbatim from the movie "Footloose"?

Well, if so, you should stop! Because there's already somebody doing that, and they're renting out our arcade for 2 hours tonight to put on a dress rehearsal. Why do a dress rehearsal of a weird misguided opera at a video game and pinball arcade? Man I don't know, just let eccentric be eccentric.

Point being, come game from 2:30 to 7:30 today, or 9:30 to 11:00. But don't come from between 7:30 to 9:30, as there will be operatic tomfoolery afoot!

Address

74 North Court Street Suite 1
Athens, OH
45701

Opening Hours

Monday	2:30pm - 11pm
Tuesday	2:30pm - 11pm
Wednesday	2:30pm - 11pm
Thursday	2:30pm - 1am
Friday	2:30pm - 1am
Saturday	11am - 1am
Sunday	11am - 11pm

Telephone

+17405940400

Website

facebook.com

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