Postcard From the Future!

Ah, videogames. Videogames have been my source of entertainment for over a decade and have been quite an influence on my personality. Naturally, I have been collecting retro videogame consoles for a few years, starting with the Gameboy to the Sega Genesis and the Atari 2600.

But my collection pales in comparison to what I found in Frisco, Texas, home of the National Videogame Museum.


Joe Santulli loved collecting. He collected baseball cards, comic books, etc. But when videogames started to come out in the form of cartridges, he realized he had a new thing to collect.

When discussing collecting videogames, Santulli said in an interview, “It doesn’t take long before, all of a sudden, you’re trying to figure out how many of these things are there. What don’t I have? Where’s the list? And in the days of pre-internet, we kinda had to do it ourselves.”

Image Courtesy of the National Videogame Museum

So in 1991 Santulli and his friend Kevin Oleniacz created an organization called the Digital Press to develop collection lists to see what they were missing in their collection. After the press grew an audience, John Hardie and Sean Kelly joined the team.

In 1999, the team decided to make a show called the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada where people displayed their videogame collections. People enjoyed seeing these collections. So much, in fact, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) invited the team in 2003 to a celebration of E3’s 10th anniversary. From then on, they became a “traveling museum.” They showed up in other popular gaming conventions such as PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) and GDC (Game Developer’s Conference).

In 2005, after quitting his job in the pharmacy business, Santulli opened a videogame store named Digital Press Videogames in Clifton, New Jersey. After many travels to conventions with their collection, the team decided to find a home for their museum. In 2011, the team made a Kickstarter for the videogame museum. Then during DICE (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) in Las Vegas, Randy Pitchford, president and CEO of Gearbox Software, recommended a place in Frisco, Texas for them to place their museum.

On Sept. 18, 2014, the Frisco Community Development Corporation board unanimously voted for the museum to be built in Frisco. In April 2016, the National Videogame Museum was opened to the public in the Frisco Discovery Center and is America’s first museum dedicated to videogames.

When you enter the museum, visitors see multiple TV’s showcasing commercials of videogames along with golden versions of beloved videogame consoles. The museum is then divided into 16 “Stages.” Of course, I won’t detail all of these stages. But I will talk about my favorite parts of the museum.

Image Courtesy of the National Videogame Museum

Stage 2 is a timeline of videogames where a Mario statue is displayed while being surrounded by multiple videogame consoles over the years. There are also displays that tell you more details on each console. You have to use a giant Super Nintendo controller to navigate which console you want to read more about. Details on each console include fun facts, how much it costs, and what games were popular, were rare, and what were notorious (like “Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon” for the Philips CD-i). I really like this one since it displays many consoles I have never heard of but gives a nice explanation of the console’s history.

Stage 6 (Crash) demonstrates what a game store was like during the infamous Videogame Crash of 1983. It shows a store counter that is displaying many infamous Atari games at the time such as “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (which is called one of the worst games of all time) along with a clearance dump, a cash register, a sign that says “STORE CLOSING EVERYTHING MUST GO!” and so many other fun details. There is also a display where you can play Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. I really like this one because you can interact with the register and look at what’s in the store. It’s nice to be in the shoes of what game stores had to deal with in this rough time during videogame history.

A favorite in the museum is Stage 13, where you are in a family room that is set in the 1980s. There is a couch where you can watch some Atari footage on the TV. It has some Time magazines, a LaserDisc player, and a retro console (I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it is but I’m assuming Atari).

Right across from that is Stage 14, where you are in a boy’s room during that same era. There are a ton of posters, a bed, an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) on which you can play “Duck Hunt,” a closet filled with baseball cards, Star Trek books, and Star Wars movies. I just love the detail that’s put into these two stages.

Image Courtesy of the National Videogame Museum

One final section of the museum I’d love to see someday is the arcade they have. They have a ton of arcade machines that you can play with, including Pac-Man, Punch-Out!!!, Rampage, Moonwalker, and Donkey Kong. There is also ’80s music playing and the room is filled with neon colors. As a guy who doesn’t have much experience with arcade machines, I absolutely would love to go to this part of the museum and try out these classics.

This museum, however, is just the 1.0 version. “If things go well here,” Santulli said … , “we do plan on expanding even further and being able to someday have that library and archival facility.”

If the opportunity ever arrives when I can go to Texas, you can be sure I will be checking this place out. Because, as Retro Tony puts it, the museum “pretty much covered everything, and I mean everything, videogame-related. Awesome, awesome museum.”




At a Glance:

National Videogame Museum

Where: Frisco, Texas

What: Learn about the history of videogames and experience it first-hand.

Status: Closed for Now

Official Website: nvmusa.org/

Admission: $12 (General Admission), $10 (Ages 10 or under), $10 (Senior Citizens, Educators, and active Military), ages 3 and under are free.

Tour Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bkSpHS9Tto