National Videogame Museum

08/25/2026

There are a lot of grails here at the National Videogame Museum, but this one may be among the most unsuspecting: Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire for the Nintendo Gamecube.

Released on July 11th 2004 in North America exclusively through the Pokemon Center website as well at the Pokémon Center location in New York (now the Nintendo NY Store), Pokémon Box was tough to find from the beginning. Not only was the title not widely available, but the value proposition for most gamers, even the most hardcore Pokémon fans, was slim to none.

The game allows users to greatly expand their storage of Pokémon in the Ruby and Sapphire games for Game Boy Advance, as well as allowing for the transfer of special Pokémon for hitting certain storage goals. Players could also connect through the game to play their Ruby and Sapphire titles on the big screen, which might have been a bigger draw had the GameBoy Player not released a year earlier.

With scarcity high and interest low, Pokémon Box flew under the radar until its value exploded upon collectors taking notice of just how limited that initial supply was. If you want your own Pokémon Box to be the crown jewel of your Pokémon or Gamecube collection, it can cost you thousands.

Did Pokémon Box ever make its way into your collection? And what are the Pokémon grails you're still searching for? Let us know!

08/12/2026

Summer may be drawing to a close but there’s still plenty of fun to be had at the National Videogame Museum! In our August NVM Newsletter, you can check out some of the games and exhibits that will help carry you into the autumn months!

Speaking of autumn, our Summer Hours have officially ended for the season, as typical hours resume starting August 13th, and the NVM will once again be closed on Mondays. Thanks for sharing your summer with us!

If you need a refresher on our regular hours, they are as follows: �Tuesdays-Fridays: 10AM-5PM�
Saturdays: 10AM-6PM�
Sundays: 12PM-5PM

Highlighting this month’s newsletter is our latest NVM Acquisition: A huge collection of Apogee Software and 3D Realms artifacts, generously donated by former Apogee employee Joe Siegler. This Apogee collection includes games and artifacts from popular franchises like Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein, as well as lesser known gems from across Joe’s two decades working at the company. We always appreciate those in the game industry that are willing to trust us with their collections and stories!

Also included in our newsletter as always are head-to-head and exhibit spotlights, as well as a look at an extremely vintage 1975 arcade machine tucked safely within the NVM Archives!

Be sure to check out the FULL edition of the NVM Newsletter here: https://tinyurl.com/5y83273x

07/27/2026

The Game Boy Advance wasn’t the only new handheld that Nintendo released in 2001…Meet the Pokémon Mini!

Released in late 2001 in the US, the Pokémon Mini is a small, low-power handheld gaming device that is mini enough to fit right in the palm of your hand. While the form factor matches that of “Tamagotchi”-like devices with a built in game, the Pokémon Mini is actually more closely related to the Game Boy in that it uses its own unique Game Cartridges for play.

With a monochromatic screen, two face buttons, a shoulder button, and a d-pad, most games released for the Pokémon Mini were simple in terms of both graphics as well as gameplay. One interesting hardware quirk of the Mini is its included sensor for when the console is shaken, meaning shaking the device could act as a separate button press allowing for it to be utilized within gameplay in coordination with the Mini’s rumble feature and other buttons.

Most of the ten games released for the Mini were, as you might guess, mini-game collections, with a number of games being built around the shake and rumble features. Different games featured games similar to those you might find on a Game & Watch, as well as card games and simple puzzle games.

Only four games for the Mini were released in the US, while ten total games were released across the world. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for US gamers was that an impressive Pokémon Tetris title with its own Pokémon capture mechanic was among those not brought to the states (though it did release in the EU).

Despite its relatively low price, the Pokémon Mini didn’t offer the depth most gamers were looking for at that time, especially after the release of the Game Boy Advance, and thus the Mini never caught on. While the full slate of games released in Japan where it fared somewhat better, the Pokémon Mini didn’t last long in the western market.

Did you own the bite-sized Pokémon Mini back in the day? And was yours “Wooper Blue”, “Chikorita Green”, or “Smoochum Purple”? Let us know, and don’t forget to come browse the dozens and dozens of handhelds from across gaming history right here at the National Videogame Museum!

07/10/2026

Let the National Videogame Museum be your air-conditioned escape from the heat this July! We’re sharing the latest about what you can find in our gaming history oasis in the latest edition of the NVM Newsletter.

Look forward to relaxing with some of history’s great multiplayer classics like Mario Kart 64, Power Stone, and plenty more in our head-to-head lineup of playable consoles all summer long…and don’t forget to keep an eye on our NEW SUMMER HOURS!

Our Summer Hours are as follows:
Monday-Friday: 10AM-5PM�
Saturday: 10AM-6PM
Sunday: 12PM-5PM

We’ve also got some BIG news to share: An all new Audacity Games/Activision Game Developers panel is coming to the NVM on Monday, July 27th at 6:30PM! Join legendary game developers David Crane (Pitfall), Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers), and Dan Kitchen (Crackpots) for an evening full of stories and insight into their incredible careers…as well as a sneak peak at what these legendary minds have in store for the future of Audacity Games.

Don’t wait to reserve your spot as availability is limited! Visit nvmusa.org/events for tickets!

Also included in this month’s edition of the NVM Newsletter is a special look at the weird and wild PS1 fighting game “Ehrgiez”, which you can play right now at the NVM! You’ll also find our tropical NVM Acquisition as well as our monthly exhibit spotlight, so be sure to check out the FULL edition of the July NVM Newsletter right here: https://tinyurl.com/3zwwb482

See you on the 27th!

Gaming in July!

07/07/2026

National Videogame Museum Hosts Activision Legends - Limited Attendance Event!

Meet Activision Legends David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen at a private after-hours event at the National Videogame Museum!

Monday, July 27, 2026
6:30 - 10:00 pm.

The event is free with regular paid admission: $12/adults, free to Annual Museum Pass Holders.

David, Garry, and Dan will talk about their early days at Activision as well as share stories about what it's like to make new Atari 2600 games 40+ years later with their new venture, Audacity Games. The event will include a panel presentation and meet & greet. They will also be signing autographs and will have a limited supply of their new titles available for sale! Guests will also be free to explore the museum floor at the event.

In order to keep this a very special intimate occasion, we are limiting this event to 40 people on a first-come, first-serve basis. You must register on our event page at www.nvmusa.org/events/ - you will receive an email confirmation afterwards. Payment is made on the night of the event at our ticket window. Members that register will only need to show their membership card for free admission.

06/26/2026

With the release of the brand new Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2, you could say it’s going to be first Star Fox Super Weekend in a long time!

The original Star Fox Super Weekend was a special competition by Nintendo that ran from April 30th-May 2nd 1993. The competition allowed entrants to rent a special Star Fox cartridge from Blockbuster – this special cartridge included a modified version of Star Fox for the Super Nintendo that included three different levels on a four minute timer. Players would return with their cartridges at the end of the weekend to report their scores. High-scoring players would receive a commemorative t-shirt, while the top player at each store would receive a special Star Fox bomber jacket. Each location’s winner was also entered into a random drawing to win either a free vacation for four, or $15,000 in cash…not bad for four minutes of work!

Just like the very similar Donkey Kong Country competition cartridge, Nintendo Power would go on to sell the cartridges that were rented as part of the competition. It didn’t take long for the Star Fox Super Weekend cartridge to sell out and become a highly sought after collector’s item, with cartridges selling regularly in the thousands of dollars on the secondary market.

Of course you can find the Star Fox Super Weekend cartridge on display with tons of other rare and limited edition cartridges right here at the National Videogame Museum!

06/14/2026

We here at the National Videogame Museum are getting in on the World Cup excitement!

For a limited time, we’ve set up a multi-monitor display to showcase the evolution of Soccer games, as well as a number of different playable Soccer games from throughout gaming history. You can go all the way back to Championship Soccer for Atari and Soccer on the NES, to the modern FIFA series that established Soccer sims as we know them today.

Also on display is the incredibly influential Pelés Soccer for Atari. This game is notable for being the first time EVER that a celebrity appeared on a video game and in the title. At the time of release, Pelé was playing for the New York Cosmos, which was owned by the same company that owned Atari (Warner Communications) making the licensing agreement easy and a perfect fit.

The first World Cup game here in Dallas between Japan and the Netherlands kicks off today, and if you’re making the trip, don’t forget to come explore video game history with us!

06/01/2026

Almost 15 years in darkness. Once the sun went down and the lights went out, you were out of luck.

We’re speaking of course about the trials and tribulations of Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance owners here in the west between the years of 1989 and 2003. Before the release of the Gameboy Advance SP, not a single Game Boy model offered a front or back light for the system’s screen. Despite many other handhelds featuring lit screens, Nintendo stubbornly refused, as lighting the screen would increase costs and reduce battery life. If you didn’t have an attachable worm-light, playing in the dark was almost impossible.

But that was just for gamers in the west, because gamers in Japan had the option of fully backlit screens since 1998 in the form of the Game Boy Light. Sharing the general design of the Game Boy Pocket, the Game Boy Light initially came in gold and silver colors, with numerous special editions released down the line. Other than the impressive backlit screen, the Game Boy Light featured the same capabilities and monochromatic screen as the Game Boy Pocket, albeit with a shorter battery life if the light was turned on. Despite its extremely close proximity (five months!) to the release of the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Light could not play GBC exclusive games, though it was able to give the large original Game Boy library a new lease on life…but sadly, only in Japan.

The Game Boy Light is just one of many different Game Boy iterations and designs that you can see on display at the National Videogame Museum right now, so we invite you to come check out the whole family!

05/23/2026

Celebrate National Scavenger Hunt Day with the National Videogame Museum! On Sunday, May 24th, head on over to Frisco Commons Park and search for one of our treasure chests filled with tickets to the museum, tokens, pins and more. In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we've upped the number of treasure chests to 10.

The treasure chests won't be hidden in plain sight but you won't have to climb trees, dig underground or do anything other than keep a keen eye out for them.

The scavenger hunt officially starts at 6am but folks were finding them as late as noon last year. Please don't show up any earlier than 6am (we do need some time to hide them). 🙂

05/17/2026

Feeling out of the loop? The NVM Newsletter is back to get you up to date with all of the latest and greatest going on here at the National Videogame Museum, including what you can find in our lineup of playable consoles!

Fans of the NVM should also keep their eyes peeled for information on the annual NVM Scavenger Hunt, coming May 24th to Frisco Commons Park. Six NVM Treasure Chests will be hidden throughout the park, so if you’re looking for free tickets, bonus arcade tokens, and more NVM goodies, you’ll want to get adventuring on the 24th!

Our latest NVM Newsletter also covers one of the earliest examples of 3D visuals in gaming as part of our NVM Acquisition highlight. Space Lazer War by Tomy, also known as Planet Zeon, was a 1983 handheld game with a binocular-like form factor that allowed for the use of multiple lenses to create a 3D visual effect during gameplay.

For our Exhibit Spotlight, the latest on our Pixel Dreams Arcade High Scores, and much much more, you’ll want to check out the FULL edition of the NVM May Newsletter right here:

Play this May!