Video game museum ?

[lkermel]

Last year I decided that it was maybe time to do something with my video game collection. I've been recently going through personal problems that have prevented me to realistically evaluate the idea. But I'll most certainly get back to it soon. I live in California and was thinking to contact computer museums here, to discuss something like a relationship. But I thought that it may also be a great idea to discuss this with all of you here - is anyone living in California had this idea before ? Is there already such video game museum ?

[portnoyd]

http://www.icheg.org/

The International Center For The History Of Electronic Games is located in Rochester, NY. They are quietly amassing games, consoles and arcade cabs. Pretty legit collection of stuff. Nothing like DreamTR or DP's collection, but still expansive. I've never been there but the NWC cart they mention on the site is mine as I sold it to them over a year ago.

[Bojay1997]

Last year I decided that it was maybe time to do something with my video game collection. I've been recently going through personal problems that have prevented me to realistically evaluate the idea. But I'll most certainly get back to it soon. I live in California and was thinking to contact computer museums here, to discuss something like a relationship. But I thought that it may also be a great idea to discuss this with all of you here - is anyone living in California had this idea before ? Is there already such video game museum ?

I live in Southern California and I will say that about ten years ago, I looked into donating a bunch of computer and video games items I had collected over the years including a lot of one-of-a-kind corporate documents, design stuff, etc...and unfortunately, I reached the conclusion that there really isn't any legitimate "museum" out here other than the Computer History Museum in Mountain View which actually has a really nice facility. The problem is, they focus mainly on displays of corporate computing devices and some home stuff, but there really isn't any room for games or even software as they just don't have much room to display it.

There have been a few attempts to launch computer and video game museums that I am aware of and each time, after some fanfare, they close and who knows where the donated items end up. A good example of this would be Videotopia which occasionally pops up somewhere, only to disappear for years at a time. There was a also a computer museum in San Diego that had part of a trade college campus and later a storefront, but it too disappeared maybe 6-7 years ago. I know there was a large computer game collector whose family donated something like 20K pieces of new and complete game software and some consoles and computers to Stanford which became the Cabrinety Collection, but sadly, the stuff really isn't on display and is only available by appointment to researchers. There is also an attempt going on now to do a storefront in San Francisco, but it has fail written all over it given that the plan is to raise $20K for rent and hope for the best.

Ultimately, the best model I know of for a successful project of this type was the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum in Las Vegas which owns its own building and is self-sustaining. Unfortunately, it's hard to do that without a means of generating revenue or on-going donations. I think the biggest problem is that nobody has really put together a proper board of directors, hired fund raisers, a professional director, etc...to raise the millions of dollars buying a building, outfitting it for displays and covering on-going expenses would take here in California. Heck, it took the Computer History Museum something like 20 years to get to the point they are now and they had a lot of lean times storing stuff at a former military base, etc...and they are literally steps away from the largest computer and tech companies in the world.

[lkermel]

Thanks for your replies

@portnoyd
That'd be exactly what I was looking for. shame that they're located in NY.

@Bojay1997
I also live in Southern California and the computer museum in Mountain View was the first place I wanted to investigate. And you're right, we live in the Silicon Valley and I'm amazed that there isn't any video game museum here (birthplace of so many pioneering companies)... I also heard about the Cabrinety Collection, but it looks like the greatest issue is space and (not surprisingly) money. I wonder if it'd be possible to set something up with a large and strong corporation, such as Google (which is also around the corner). As you said, I'd be worried to donate my collection to an organization that disappears after a few years...

[DreamTR]

These types of things are popping up more often these days, the University of Michigan has something similar as well, but I believe you are able to play the items in some capacity there.

The IPHOF in Vegas is a great way to have people enjoy games, but I wouldn't call that a "museum" even though it is non-profit. Museums won't even let you touch the artifacts for the most part. The Vegas place is great because you can enjoy all sorts of stuff you would not see otherwise.

I've been thinking about what to do with all of this stuff in general, I think at this point with the way I aggressively pursued various items, it would be a shame to break up some of them, and now with me full blown arcade collecting for a "museum" like purpose but with the ability to play the games like FunSpot, Ground Kontrol, IPHOF, etc, I would want people to enjoy the games like they do at my own arcade already...

I do wonder sometimes why museums looking for collections don't just contact some of the big named collectors though. Even the Twin Galaxies gig going on; some people already have everything they are looking for, saves a lot of time and work in my opinion. Personally I wish I could just do the non profit route and get a spot and put all the arcade/pins and console stuff in it. It would be one heck of a place for people to visit but this stuff is just not at that point yet. (History speaking; users are the ones responsible for setting up stuff like this for future generations)