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Gaming’s rarest systems, carts, and collectibles can be found at this huge museum

We geeked the heck out at the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Texas.

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  • This console-filled structure greets National Videogame Museum visitors in the opening lobby. Old promotional videos play on a loop on the screens facing both directions.
  • Happy retro-gaming Halloween!
  • This Super Mario statue was specially commissioned for the NVM. Meaning, it wasn't lifted from a Nintendo promotional event of any kind.
    Sam Machkovech
  • Browse through dozens of game systems, both home and portable, by using a giant Super Nintendo controller.
  • National Videogame Museum co-founder John Hardie shows off the console-browsing interface.
  • Ralph Baer assembled this replica version of his famed Brown Box, which he originally built in the '60s.
  • See? He signed it. This Brown Box replica sits in front of a giant wall of Pong clone devices, by the way.
  • Can you tell what's so cool about this framed Ralph Baer image?
  • Here's a tighter zoom. It's made entirely of full Rubik's Cubes.
  • A back room is used occasionally for birthday parties. On other days, it hosts the museum's dedicated Smash Bros. free-play station.
  • Retro '70s room with playable games.
  • Retro '80s room, also with playable games.
  • Hardie encouraged me to go through every drawer, nook, and cranny in the '80s room. Yes, he hid a Playboy under the bed, but it's just the cover; the inside is a computer gaming magazine from the '80s.
  • More stuff in the nooks and crannies (note that the NES is loaded with the rare Zapper game Chiller; it was unlicensed, presumably because Nintendo would have never approved its violent content).
  • A gaming kiosk for nearly every age group. Splatterhouse on LaserActive? Holy cow, man.
  • Hardie would like to hack this copy of the arcade trivia game FAX and load its database with games-trivia questions.
  • This giant wall's free-play selection of various consoles is seen here with a Halloween rotation of games. Hardie says this mural, like all the murals on site, was done by a local artist.
  • Just like the real thing! Only, not at all!
  • Pretty nicely preserved Pac-Man board game here.
  • Lots of old gaming-related merch and giveaway stuff, including this Activision Jungle Adventure set (based on the game Pitfall).
  • If you lost any of your Atari-era patches, the NVM has you covered.
  • The "sounds and music in games" exhibit.
  • Yes, this is the hubcap that was banged and pounded on to make a ton of the early Diablo games' sword and clanging effects.
  • The museum is filled to the brim with interactive exhibits. In the sound section, you can listen to classic games' songs redone with different consoles' sound chips. (The Streets of Rage one is pretty swell.)
  • A giant tube hanging over this online gaming exhibit includes a wheel crank to let you adjust bandwidth speed for various eras, then see the bits travel from one end of a tube to another between two computers.
  • Hardie described this as being just like the old commercials that compared different systems' performance. Here, a crap-ton of various Pac-Man versions.
  • Hardie says this is the world's biggest playable Pong installation. Its graphics have been modified for Halloween, so the paddles are dismembered arms.
  • Every exhibit at the NVM has one easter egg tucked away. This arcade machine lets you answer trivia questions to prove that you've found them. The prize is, well, glory and personal satisfaction.
  • This hacked ROM of Adventure lets you find its easter egg almost instantly with step-by-step instructions. Pretty cool way to show off the first known easter egg in a video game.
  • Instead of waves of Galaga foes, the NVM arranges waves of console controllers.
  • More attacking pads.
  • Pippin sighting.
  • I was fascinated by this Track & Field custom controller.
  • Some of the Wii's motion-controlling forebears.
  • An exhibit about the early '80s game industry crash includes this cheeky "going out of business" storefront. Hardie says that people will dig through that "bargain bin" of games and try to buy them, thinking they've actually found a crazy deal on rare games. (They're not for sale.)
  • Go ahead, try before you (don't) buy.
  • Want to play any of these old computers? Go right ahead.
  • Read some old advertising while you do so, in fact.
  • If this cassette tape doesn't suit you...
  • ...you can pick from a few others!
  • "Nin-ten-do, it's a cereal now."
  • Lots of old promotional T-shirts.
  • Would it be trademark infringement to start a band with this name?
  • The tastiest of the Super Mario cross-promotional blitz.
  • I wonder who gave up their PlayStation Launch Team t-shirt.
  • Pippin! Again!
  • More custom-made murals.
  • The build-and-mod exhibit has this lovely statement.
  • Some examples of Construction Set games that preceded the Minecraft revolution.
  • The whole bathroom area is Dragon's Lair-themed. (Apologies for the "Dragon's Quest" typo I originally entered; no slimes in these bathrooms, thank goodness.)
  • It's dangerous to go alone. Take this. (As in, only one program.)
  • Text-adventure prompts can be found at nearly every exhibit.
  • The final exhibit is a fully playable arcade. Every machine costs 25 cents.
  • The arcade has 40 games from various eras.
  • The signage outside is incredibly modest. Don't be fooled; what awaits inside is delightful.

FRISCO, Texas—Finally, there's a museum made for people like me.

The National Videogame Museum (yes, they spell it as one word) has been open since April of this year in the Dallas-area suburb of Frisco, and it houses an incredible collection of gaming memorabilia. The rarest cartridges, systems, and prototypes are all here, protected as if they were the Mona Lisa (and for some game collectors, they may as well be). Come here to marvel at one-of-a-kind finds like a Nintendo World Championship cartridge, a mint-condition Ultra Hand toy, or the only known white-molded Atari 2600 in the world.

  • This gallery is a dive down game-collector wonk, with a mix of super-rare items and collections of various gaming "eras." Here is arguably the most famous of the NES's rare carts.
    Sam Machkovech
  • But the Nintendo World Championship wasn't the only competition game in town. Blockbuster had its own.
    Sam Machkovech
  • Another Blockbuster competition cart.
  • Before Mike Tyson, and before the edited Mr. Dream edition, there was this limited-edition Famicom gold cart.
  • No, this wasn't Twilight Princess as a playable game. This DS cart had a preview video of the GameCube and Wii game. Pretty odd way to promote the game, if you ask us.
  • Not seen in this photo: The drool that dribbled out of my mouth when I laid eyes on that incredibly rare Stadium Events cartridge.
  • A slew of rarities.
  • The game is real, but it was never legitimately published, seeing as how it was canceled at roughly 95 percent completion. This was a fan-printed box and cartridge with its leaked ROM loaded onto it. Still, it's a cool Nintendo relic.
  • Yep. Star Voyager's ship, made by the original designers before drawing that box art.
  • Nothing worse than being the only kid in the neighborhood who doesn't have the sewing machine kit for his or her Game Boy.
  • Collect enough tokens, get a Dreamcast-branded portable CD-player. Unsure on whether it loads GD-ROMs...
  • This photo of a race-promotional PS2 doesn't do the paint job justice. Click one more...
  • ...and gaze upon this beauty. The paint job on these is insanely pretty.
  • Company-branded portables have been part of the NVM's touring show for years. This is not quite as cool as the Marlboro-branded Lynx (which the NVM also had).
  • A Gunpei Yokoi toy to the left; a signed Pikmin 2 display to the right.
  • More Gunpei. (Remember, he's the engineer who essentially steered Nintendo away from cards and toward becoming a full-on gaming company.)
  • Keep the Gunpei goodness coming.
  • Ultra-Hand, Yokoi-san's breakout toy.
  • Ultra-zoom on Ultra-Hand.
  • It's the TurboExpress that you wish you could've gotten in the USA.
    Sam Machkovech
  • That's pretty much every Madden video game ever released right there. Weirdly, the series' very first PC release is missing from that pile.
  • Nintendo 64DD!
  • Some of what's inside the 64DD box.
  • The RandNet online adapter for the 64DD.
  • A microphone for one of the Mario Artist software packages. Also, a cute doodle from the 64DD exclusive Doshin the Giant.
  • A $2,500 price tag and only two retail games? No wonder the RDI Halcyon didn't quite take off.
  • Still, I'll always drool over laserdisc consoles for some reason.
  • So simple to operate.
  • You couldn't throw a copy of Zork around without hitting a prototype cartridge or game system at the NVM.
  • For example, here's an early version of the Sega Channel adapter.
  • How about a customized Sega Genesis that only worked with a single cartridge—and one that only interfaces with exercise bikes, at that?
  • Nights into Dreams onto VHS.
  • Some Pong clones.
  • The note explains that only 50 of this version of Elemental Gearbolt were produced. The case includes a note warning users that sweat will wear the gold coloring off of the GunCon accessory.
  • Putting the "collector" into this collector's edition of Maximum Carnage for the Super Nintendo.
  • Completed boxes for games that were canceled well before completion. Parker Bros. + licensed fare = perhaps we dodged a few bullets?
  • No, not the Dreamcast, silly. The Treamcast!
  • You have no idea how close I was to shattering this kiosk and stealing this working copy of Thrill Kill. That thing is rare as hell.
  • How about a limited-edition, extra-tiny keyboard for the sake of playing Typing of the Dead?
  • The complete version of Earthbound, with its box and strategy guide, is rare enough. But a prize related to its scratch-and-sniff promotion? That there's super raresville.
  • Only the world classiest of service for your Super Nintendo.
  • Everything that came before and after the Game Genie hack- and cheat-code device.
  • Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!
  • You know it's rare when even the museum card begs visitors to help them figure something out. A white-molded Atari 2600. Anybody else ever see one of these?
  • Debug and prototype cartridges.
  • More rarities.
  • Propeller Arena was completed just weeks before September 11, 2001, and it let players very easily crash planes into giant skyscrapers. Sega permanently shelved the online dogfighting sim as a result.
  • No, that is not Jet Grind Radio for the N64, though man, I wish Sega had done that.
  • Just an old microprocessor development system from the early '80s. No, really, how many of these things have been so nicely preserved from the personal computing era's wildest days?
  • I snapped this image solely to look up this rip-off copy of Sega's Chu Chu Rocket. Turns out this was a homebrew clone of CCR for the Mega CD in Europe. I really wish Sega would port the original to other consoles.
  • Pervy classics.
  • Games that circumvented the NES's lockout chip. (Yes, there were some Tengen gems on display, as well.)
  • Tetris clones.
  • Back when third parties would sell adapters that only worked with their own games.
  • All you need is an Atari VCS and a Supercharger and these games, and you're good to go.
  • Beating Nintendo to the "call everything Super" trend.
  • More Starpath info.
  • Coleco's Atari system clone that played Atari games. Huh.
  • Everything you need to clone the Atari 2600 hardware. CommaVid didn't last after the '80s game crash.
  • PlayStation dev kit.
  • Genesis/Sega CD dev kit.
  • Sketches for an unreleased game from Fox Interactive.
  • These labels and CD cases may look like shady rip-offs, but these are from a legitimate N64 dev kit.
  • More Playstation dev kit stuff.
  • Game Boy dev kit devices.
  • But before the Game Boy, there were these portable games.
  • And these.
  • These too.
  • So many portables.
  • Only requires 50 zillion D batteries, give or take.
  • A few of the older-styled portable games were available to play. This Pac-Man was in pretty good shape.
  • Honestly, as a grown-up, I kind of want this sort of dorky, shiny Game Boy.
  • Double that for this see-through, Famitsu-branded Game Boy Light (a model that never reached the United States).
  • So many Boys of Game.
  • Many of the post-Game Boy flops.
  • Nintendo's older Game and Watch era set off next to the modern portable systems.
  • Climber sure looks like Kid Icarus, doesn't it?
  • More Game and Watch.
  • Donkey Kong 3? Or.... a super-early prototype of the Nintendo Switch?

But fear not; the giant museum houses a ton of playable games from every era imaginable, along with a lot of interactive exhibits. "We hate museums," NVM co-founder John Hardie told me while he gave me a tour of the space, and he emphasized that he wanted his creation to feel different than any other museum in the world.

Hardie, along with two other collaborators, began as avid retro-gaming collectors, before taking their collection to conventions and expos for years. Three years ago, plans for a brick-and-mortar museum started taking shape, and Gearbox Software founder Randy Pitchford became instrumental in getting Hardie, whose New York accent is unmistakable, to move the trio's museum operations down the road from Gearbox's Frisco headquarters. (Pitchford's touch on the joint isn't subtle; he erected an entire shrine to himself in the center of museum, which replicates his own office.)

  • One exhibit had tons of old computer-game cases, particularly those from Electronic Arts. These were not quite as big as vinyl sleeves, but big enough to hold 5.25" floppies.
  • This one folds out to reveal a Sherlock Holmes-looking guy who is staring at a series of murderous weapons. I tried to photograph the full three-panel spread but couldn't unfold the full package without damaging its folding points.
  • Doesn't look good, Jim.
  • The people who made Activision tick... next to a wicked case for the game Borrowed Time.
  • Why can't game box art look like this again?
  • Classics.
  • Hard Hat Mack for the win.
  • Archon is the only chess I want to play.
  • More cool sleeves for your favorite floppies.
  • The Infocom shrine at the NVM is pretty swell.
  • You'll never run out of text adventures at this rate.
  • Zork party.
  • I snapped samples of the various computer rigs at the NVM.
  • Hardie pointed out that this one in particular was a rare find for the museum.
  • Who needs a mate when you can have a CompuMate?
  • FamiCom, of course, stands for "Family Computer." Nintendo backed off of this approach for its United States launch after the Atari crash.
  • Shame. I would've loved to have gotten a bunch of cassettes all tangled up in one of these as a kid.
  • With just one uncomfortable keyboard and one giant module attachment, you too can transform your Intellivision into a computer! Complete with barely any compatible software!
  • Edutainment time with the Tomy Tutor.
  • Ugh, Cave Crawlers?! No thanks, mom.
  • Mattel's Aquarius.
  • 1978's Umtech Videobrain. The first programmable home computer to use cartridges.
  • Clearly, someone at the NVM took advantage of Commodore's insane trade-in offer as described on this Timex Sinclair information card.

Most of the collection was gathered years ago when various systems and prototype cartridges were valued at zilch, Hardie insists, though in more recent years, the museum's best finds have come as explicit donations from people who want their rarest gaming treasures preserved for future generations.

Though Hardie let me go camera-crazy, I left more than a few tidbits undocumented. You really gotta see this collection up close. I have seen this NVM collection in bits and pieces at conferences like GDC and E3 over the years, but those glimpses at retro goodness pale in comparison to what the full NVM feels like to walk through.

Listing image by Sam Machkovech

Channel Ars Technica

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