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Former Atari Headquarters
Welcome to the Registry of Historic Gaming Locations.

This project is a labor of love that was inspired by a trip to California in May 2011. I was headed to visit a video gaming project at Stanford University and decided to visit Borregas Ave. in Sunnyvale while in the area.

This street was home to Atari during their reign as king of the video game industry in the early days of electronic gaming. Having seen some of these buildings in magazines, books and news stories from back in the day, it was both exciting and depressing to visit this location.

For a gaming historian, this was setting foot on historic ground, but at the same time there was no evidence that anything significant to a major entertainment industry ever taken place here. No signs or markers or memories of the days when Asteroids and Centipede set the gaming world on fire. Just buildings, some occupied, some empty.

This project was started with the goal of helping to recognize locations of historical significance to video gaming. Film, television, sports and music all have historical sites and markers, and it's time for the video game industry to start having them as well.

This project is starting small, currently existing as content on this website. In time, this area can hopefully expand to not only include more and more locations and history, but can also gain the support and funding needed to provide historical markers and lasting monuments at or near these historical sites so that they can forever be recognized.

Please use the list below to learn what locations have been included thus far, as well as a list of qualifications for future locations to be entered and how you can nominate future inductees.

The video game industry has provided the world with decades of entertainment and is growing bigger each and every year. I hope you will share this destination with your friends and family and help me in this labor of love.

Links to info on each location appears under the map.

- Patrick Scott Patterson


View Registry of Historic Gaming Locations in a larger map

Qualifications for Entry - Learn more about the criteria for entry and how you can nominate locations

20 Grand Palace (Woodland Hills, CA) - Popular 80s arcade featured in the original War Games film

Activision (original HQ) (Santa Clara, CA) - The first office location of the first third-party publisher

Alamogordo Landfill (Alamogordo, NM) - Infamous site where overstock Atari cartridges were destroyed in the 80s

Antioch Shopping Center (Kansas City, MO)- First location of the Showbiz Pizza Place chain in 1980.

Babbage's Software #1 - NorthPark Center (Dallas, TX) - First location of Babbage's Software and the earliest roots of GameStop.

Bally Midway Mfg. Co (Franklin Park, IL) - Grand Ave. location during heyday of Pac-Man & Space Invaders

Broderbund Software (former HQ) (San Rafael, CA) - NEW ENTRY - Former location of the publishers behind Lode Runner, Choplifter and Prince of Persia

Borregas Ave. (Sunnyvale, CA) - Site of Atari Headquarters during the company's peak

Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater #1 (San Jose, CA) - Original location of the famed family franchise.

Dave & Busters #1 (Dallas, TX) - The first Dave & Busters location ever, opened in 1982.

Dutch Goose (Menlo Park, CA) - The Stanford University hangout that served as the test location for Computer Space in 1971.

Fairchild (former HQ) (Santa Clara, CA) - Location which spawned the first-ever programmable video game cartridges

Funspot/ACAM (Laconia, NH) - The Largest Arcade In the World.

Golf N Stuff (Norwalk, CA) - Entertainment center and video arcade featured in the original Karate Kid film.

The Hull Building (Culver City, CA) - Historical landmark building featured as Flynn's Arcade in the Tron films.

KRON-TV (San Francisco, CA) - Television studios where the pilot of the Starcade game show was filmed in 1981.

Mother's Pinball (Mount Prospect, IL) - Testing location of Defender and numerous other vids.

Nintendo (former) Warehouse (Seattle, WA) - NEW ENTRY - Early Nintendo warehouse location owned by Mario Segale.

Ottumwa, IA (Ottumwa, IA) - Birthplace of Twin Galaxies and numerous notable video game moments past and present

Rio Cafe & Groceries (Santa Clarita, CA) - NEW ENTRY - Food store where the champion of The Last Starfighter film showed off

Rooster T. Feathers (Sunnyvale, CA) - Original test location for the original Pong in 1972.

The Spot Tavern (Renton, WA) - Original test location for Donkey Kong in 1981.

Town East Mall (Mesquite, TX) - Former site of Aladdin's Castle location which made national legal headlines.