The Videogame History Museum: How You Can Help

[digitalpress]

 

The Videogame History Museum is a 501 ©(3) non-profit charity dedicated to preserving, archiving, and documenting the history of the videogame industry. Our Board of Advisors is comprised of some of the biggest names in the history of gaming! More information on our goals and vision can be found at the Videogame History Museum website. All contributions are tax-deductible and an acknowledgement letter of your donation will be provided upon request.

 

Game ON!

 

The Videogame History Museum is the natural extension of the work started by John Hardie, Sean Kelly and Joe Santulli almost 25 years ago. Individually, each has always seen the importance of the videogame industry and took it upon himself to gather as much information and as many artifacts as possible. Collectively, they have amassed the most comprehensive collection of hardware, software, design documentation and memorabilia ever assembled.

 

Twenty years ago, the first issue of Digital Press was published at a time when desktop publishing was still something only an elite few could master. It was 1991 when Nintendo was firmly entrenched as king of the consoles and the word Atari was still a 4-letter word to many retailers and nothing more than a reminder of antiquated technology to the current generation of games. The mission of Digital Press was to bring GAMERS together. Editor Joe Santulli didn’t care what your favorite game console was or whether it was old or new. If you were a gamer who enjoyed reading about games or connecting with other game players or collectors, Digital Press was the place to be.

 

That same year, Sean Kelly launched the first BBS (which stands for Bulletin Board System for you young whipper snappers) dedicated to classic videogame enthusiasts on his Amiga computer. Long before there was an internet as we know it today, people would dial out on their computer modems into specific computers, often times with specific themes.

 

Jump ahead eight years to the summer of 1999 and John Hardie and Sean Kelly are in Las Vegas busy putting together the first trade show of its kind – Classic Gaming Expo. Videogame collecting isn’t quite mainstream, but collectors are starting to come together and Classic Gaming Expo '99 is set to be the largest gathering to date. Having absolutely zero experience organizing an event like this, the team managed to bring together over 1000 collectors, dozens of vendors and scores of present and former industry people to celebrate the roots of the electronic entertainment industry. A year later, Joe Santulli would come on board and together the trio would continue hosting Classic Gaming Expo for the next fourteen years – to this very day. To learn more about our work with Classic Gaming Expo, please visit the Classic Gaming Expo website.

 

The videogame industry is double the size of the music industry and while there are several music “halls of fame” and museums, there isn’t a single dedicated videogame museum. It’s time! The time has come to take steps towards creating a physical museum to honor and archive the history of the videogame industry and John Hardie, Sean Kelly and Joe Santulli are the right people to do it.

 

David Crane, one of the founders of the first third-party software publishing company (Activision), and the sole programmer of the original Pitfall and many others says:

“I have always wished you success in finding a permanent home for your collection, which I consider to be the most comprehensive repository of videogame collectibles and memorabilia in the world.”

 

Over the past twenty years we have:

- Located hundreds of former programmers, developers and publishers and archived their stories and development materials.

- Amassed the largest and most comprehensive collection of videogame hardware, software, documentation, information and memorabilia in the world. There are dozens of one-of-a-kind items in our collection and terabytes of archived data for which we own the only copies.

- Published the Digital Press Collector’s Guide which contains complete listings and descriptions of every game ever made for every console. The DP Guide has become the “blue book” of videogame collecting.

- Gathered together tens of thousands of collectors over the past fourteen years at Classic Gaming Expo.

- Honored dozens of former and present videogame industry people with our CGE Alumni Awards.

- Exhibited "The History of Videogames" at E3 for four years as well as presented gaming history and Game Developer Conference (GDC) and Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

 

The museum we envision will be all-inclusive, comprehensive and interactive. Unlike some of the other efforts we’ve seen put forth which have a limited focus, our intention is to cover it all! Every game made for every system, every piece of promotional material made for each game, every revision of every console with specific notes as to the differences, the design progression, etc.. As it stands today, our collection is well on its way to achieving this goal, but there are holes that can only be filled by making more and more people aware of our archive.

 

With your help we can accomplish our goal of a physical museum location open to the public within the next eight years. Initially the funds raised through this Kickstarter project will be used to make our collection more mobile and give it a permanent home. Currently the bulk of our collection is in storage in Las Vegas where we have ready access to it as it goes on display each year at Classic Gaming Expo. A large portion of it is also stored in our homes in the Midwest and east coast. With a more suitable location in the Silicon Valley area, we would like to finally bring everything together under one roof.

 

Once we have everything in one location, the plan is to make it more mobile by purchasing trade show containers that will allow us to quickly, efficiently, and safely move our collection to the various events we have exhibited at. Our displays at E3 and GDC are somewhat limited by the fact that transporting our collection can be very difficult. Once we are more mobile, exhibits at these large industry events will be much easier to manage and will also allow us to setup displays at additional events such as PAX, DICE and even CES. In addition to these established events, we would like to host smaller weekend events of our own in various cities across the country to make our efforts known to an even larger audience.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this pitch and watch our video. Everything you have read about above or watched in our video was done without any donations of any kind – ever. None of us has ever made a dime profit on any of these ventures…our wives will be only too happy to vouch for this. Only with your help will we be able to further our efforts to the next level!

[high voltage]

Wow, that sounds excellent I can't wait

[fiddlepaddle]

Agree that Silicon Valley would be a great place for this museum. I sincerely wish you Good luck on reaching the milestones you've set, and look forward to walking through those museum doors in a few years.

[atarian1]

Um. You guys know there is another group of people doing the exact same thing already, right? Check out the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE)

 

They were on several newscasts and newspapers a couple months ago trying to raise funds to open up the museum. I donated a few $$ to MADE, but I would really hate to see competing museums trying to exhibit the same thing in the same metropolitan area. It seems like both of your visions and goals are the same, so combining the two collections and visions would be pretty awesome. The only obstacle I see are...egos.

 

One thing that I agree more with MADE than the Videogame History Museum (VHM) is the location. If you want maximum visibility, it should be in a place that can easily be reached by public transportation, such as Downtown San Francisco. Another plus would be near other attractions. This will attract more tourists since they don't have to rent a car which can be expensive in the Bay Area. I know space will be more expensive, but it may be offset by higher local visibility and attendance. An example of bad location is the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View. Not many people know about it, yet it seems like everyone knows about the Tech Museum, Children's Discovery Museum, Museum of Modern Art, etc. because they can be reached by public transit. The CHM is in the middle of nowhere, but they did get a free building and land so I guess they can't complain.

[bojay1997]

Um. You guys know there is another group of people doing the exact same thing already, right? Check out the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE)

 

They were on several newscasts and newspapers a couple months ago trying to raise funds to open up the museum. I donated a few $$ to MADE, but I would really hate to see competing museums trying to exhibit the same thing in the same metropolitan area. It seems like both of your visions and goals are the same, so combining the two collections and visions would be pretty awesome. The only obstacle I see are...egos.

 

One thing that I agree more with MADE than the Videogame History Museum (VHM) is the location. If you want maximum visibility, it should be in a place that can easily be reached by public transportation, such as Downtown San Francisco. Another plus would be near other attractions. This will attract more tourists since they don't have to rent a car which can be expensive in the Bay Area. I know space will be more expensive, but it may be offset by higher local visibility and attendance. An example of bad location is the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View. Not many people know about it, yet it seems like everyone knows about the Tech Museum, Children's Discovery Museum, Museum of Modern Art, etc. because they can be reached by public transit. The CHM is in the middle of nowhere, but they did get a free building and land so I guess they can't complain.

 

I'm sorry, but the whole MADE thing is a tremendously bad idea. They are creating a more generically themed interactive entertainment "museum" by raising one time money for rent on a small retail size location in some of the priciest real estate in the United States. I looked at their board composition and it was a bunch of people I had never heard of and a few advisory board members who have zero ability to raise money. While I don't know the full extent of the Digital Press crew's plans, I do know they have a decade of organizing CGE, appearing with their museum at E3 and other events and more critically, being leaders in the classic gaming community in all aspects of research and preservation. In short, if anyone can make this a reality, it is this particular group. They have my support and I will be making a financial pledge in the next few weeks and I hope everyone else here will as well.

[+Random Terrain]

With a more suitable location in the Silicon Valley area, we would like to finally bring everything together under one roof.

It won't be long before most of California is way down below the ocean, so you might want to find a spot that's a little closer to Uncle Sam's belly button.

[Catsmasher]

The obvious best location for any vg museum is - Fort Wayne, IN. Home of the Odyssey, the first home video game. Put it in with the Philo Farnsworth museum of television, also in Ft Wayne.

 

Edited July 6, 2011 by Catsmasher

[VectorGamer]

 

The videogame industry is double the size of the music industry and while there are several music “halls of fame” and museums, there isn’t a single dedicated videogame museum. It’s time!

 

 

Arcade games are considered video games, so therefore the above statement is incorrect.

 

Every classic arcade gamer knows the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in NH.

[ATARI7800fan]

The obvious best location for any vg museum is - Fort Wayne, IN. Home of the Odyssey, the first home video game. Put it in with the Philo Farnsworth museum of television, also in Ft Wayne.

 

not to mention Fort Wayne is the second biggest city in Indiana.

[98PaceCar]

http://www.icheg.org/

 

There's also these guys, though I guess the argument can be that they are not dedicated, but that's just semantics.

 

My more immediate concern is the amount of money they are trying to raise seems to be too small to do anything meaningful. I know that between the 3 of them, they have a vast history of gaming covered with a lot of really nice items, but to do a project like this will take much more than $30,000 even if they are just looking for logistical support. I'd hate to think that they raise an initial amount of cash and then find that they can't raise the rest of what they really need to get things done.

[SRGilbert]

http://www.icheg.org/

 

There's also these guys, though I guess the argument can be that they are not dedicated, but that's just semantics.

 

My more immediate concern is the amount of money they are trying to raise seems to be too small to do anything meaningful. I know that between the 3 of them, they have a vast history of gaming covered with a lot of really nice items, but to do a project like this will take much more than $30,000 even if they are just looking for logistical support. I'd hate to think that they raise an initial amount of cash and then find that they can't raise the rest of what they really need to get things done.

 

Oh yeah, they are part of the Stong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY and it's pretty amazing. True, it's not JUST video games, but considering a lot of gamers are into other kinds of toys and stuff, it's worth looking around beyond the arcade.

[Greg2600]

http://www.icheg.org/

 

There's also these guys, though I guess the argument can be that they are not dedicated, but that's just semantics.

 

My more immediate concern is the amount of money they are trying to raise seems to be too small to do anything meaningful. I know that between the 3 of them, they have a vast history of gaming covered with a lot of really nice items, but to do a project like this will take much more than $30,000 even if they are just looking for logistical support. I'd hate to think that they raise an initial amount of cash and then find that they can't raise the rest of what they really need to get things done.

 

I believe the goal is to raise that money, in hopes of convincing "larger investors" to join in.

[Dan Iacovelli]

If I knew about this sooner I would have offered portions of my posters and cart sales at VGS, but I've already got donations going toward the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Iowa. maybe next time

[raindog]

Every classic arcade gamer knows the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in NH.

 

They also have a pretty good 8-bit computer/console collection. None of it is turned on and the last time I was there it was a bit condensed to make way for about 30 more arcade cabinets, which is what I go there for anyway. But they do make a token effort to be a general video game museum (slash bowling alley, slash sports bar, slash ticket-game-capital-of-the-world).

[carmel_andrews]

Any particular reason why you are focusing this museum in the US only, remembering that the industry is now very international, perhaps you should have local museums in say Japan and the UK (second and 3rd largest VG market in the world)

 

Perhaps a better idea would be to form an association with say a leading science themed musuem in the various leading VG markets, like the US/UK/Japan etc and get them to offer you space within that museum, which will cut down your costs some (so long as you give them a cut from any vendor fees, if there is any selling going on, and also a cut of any admnission fee)

[Andre81]

perhaps you should have local museums in say Japan and the UK (second and 3rd largest VG market in the world)

 

I assume you are from the UK? The UK is far from being the 3rd largest VG market in the world. Maybe in the 80s, but has long surpassed from Germany and other countries.

Edited September 4, 2011 by Andre81

[raindog]

We're talking about a not-for-profit organization soliciting donations here, not a multinational corporation. There wasn't even enough of a market for two Computer Museums in the US, 3000 miles apart, as my partner and I discovered when we went to the Boston Computer Museum 11 years ago only to discover it had been merged into the science museum, and then into the other Computer Museum in California.

 

A video game museum sounds appealing, but even the American Classic Arcade Museum gets pretty quiet from October to May -- most of its customers are people at the lake on vacation and looking for an arcade/pinball experience, not people like me who choose Weirs Beach for vacation just because we like old games. We went the week after Columbus Day in 2009, and it was a little depressing being the only one playing games in there all week (my GF's class schedule had changed and I ended up on my own a lot while she holed up in the cabin writing). Even the smaller, ramshackle arcades in the village were closed for the season. But last year we went the week before Columbus Day and I frequently had to wait in line to play the more popular games; the summer crowd hadn't completely left yet. I can only imagine what it must be like this weekend.

 

Regardless, beyond our being the biggest market for video games, the US was where video games were invented and commercialized, whether you consider the invention to be Higinbotham's tennis game, Baer's Odyssey or Bushnell's Computer Space. Japan got control of the industry 26 years ago, but between Apple, Google and Microsoft, that may not be the case for much longer, if indeed it still is.

 

Edit: I just happened to visit the ACAM's page on Facebook and saw a reference to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games in Rochester, NY ( web site is http://www.icheg.org/ ) so maybe there are a number of video game museums already out there.

[Andre81]

There is also a large VG museum in Berlin, Germany: http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/index.php?lg=en

[carmel_andrews]

perhaps you should have local museums in say Japan and the UK (second and 3rd largest VG market in the world)

 

I assume you are from the UK? The UK is far from being the 3rd largest VG market in the world. Maybe in the 80s, but has long surpassed from Germany and other countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me suggests you read this

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game

 

(here's the relevant text to save you bothering)

 

 

The three largest producers of and markets for computer and video games (in order) are North America (US and Canada), Japan and the United Kingdom. Other significant markets include Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, France and Italy.[56] Both India and China are considered emerging markets in the video game industry and sales are expected to rise significantly in the coming years. Irish are the largest per capita consumers of video games.[57]

[Andre81]

Me suggests you read this

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game

 

(here's the relevant text to save you bothering)

 

 

The three largest producers of and markets for computer and video games (in order) are North America (US and Canada), Japan and the United Kingdom. Other significant markets include Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Mexico, France and Italy.[56] Both India and China are considered emerging markets in the video game industry and sales are expected to rise significantly in the coming years. Irish are the largest per capita consumers of video games.[57]

 

And I suggest you read this and don't use 10 year old statistics:

 

http://videogamesrepublic.com/?p=8283

 

(Here's the relevant text to save you bothering)

 

Germany has now overtaken the UK as Europe’s biggest games market in 2009.

[Metal Ghost]

I wish you nothing but the best, but please check out this link: http://www.icheg.org/

 

I have been to this museum before and it is GREAT! I would say that its existence would lead me to believe that we are a LONG way off from not having any VG museums around. I have brought this place up several times in threads around here, and created a thread about it last year as well. In my opinion, it would be better and more useful to rally resources around the ICHEG then creating a new museum. I honestly wish nothing but the best though. After all, it's not as if we only have one art museum in the world.