John Hardie, Sean Kelly, and Joe Santulli, organizers of the annual Classic Gaming Expo, have launched the Videogame History Museum – a 501©(3) non-profit charity dedicated to preserving and archiving the history of the Videogame industry. Currently the group is seeking initial working capital using the unique crowdfunding business plan offered through their project on the kickstarter web-site (www.kickstarter.com) The initial goal is to raise $30,000 to help finance additional fundraising activities and also to better mobilize the museum’s collections for exhibit at various industry trade shows.
The enormous success of their display at the recent E3 trade show was evident as they garnered several “Best of Show” nominations from the gaming press along with positive testimonials from show-goers. “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, all-inclusive videogame museum”, said Joe Santulli. “We’re taking the necessary steps toward creating a physical museum, research facility, and reference library to honor and archive the history, hardware, software, events and people of this industry.”
The Museum has the support of many of the legends that helped create the industry and their Board of Advisors is comprised of some of the most recognizable names in the history of gaming. 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 [the Classic Gaming Expo guys] success in finding a permanent home for [their] collection, which I consider to be the most comprehensive repository of videogame collectibles and memorabilia in the world.”
The Videogame History Museum’s collections are based on the popular Classic Gaming Expo museum which is comprised of over 20,000 artifacts ranging from games, hardware, memorabilia and prototypes to a vast digital archive containing magazines, design and developer notes, company press kits, back-ups of unreleased games and much more. Founder Sean Kelly states,”The Videogame History Museum is the natural extension of the work we started over 20 years ago. The museum we envision promises to be all-inclusive, comprehensive and interactive. Unlike some of the other efforts in recent years 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, and so on.”
To get more information, watch their video, or to donate and become part of the movement to make this all happen, please visit the Videogame History Museum website:
Videogame History Museum
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