National Videogame Museum

10/10/2026

Happy to share some of our 2600 archives with Atari for their booth at Portland Retro Gaming Expo!

10/01/2026

Always enjoy getting visits from industry legends. A few weeks ago, Steve DeFrisco stopped by to donate some of his archives and also sit down for a game of Tropical Trouble, the hit smash Intellivision game he programmed while at Imagic. Steve has quite the storied history in the industry working at Imagic, Axlon, Digital Pictures, THQ, Sony, Volition and others.

09/17/2026

If you love the National Videogame Museum, please consider supporting us on North Texas Giving Day! Any amount donated helps support our STEM Scholarship programs. Each year we give away over $15,000 in scholarships to students pursuing careers in the tech industry. You can read more about us and donate here:

Each year, the National Videogame Museum awards four scholarships including a Women in Tech category to help enable tomorrow's future leaders to achieve their dreams.Our NeedsTo raise money for outreach programs and our scholarship fund that will benefit children who are...

09/13/2026

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time may be on everyone’s mind, but we’re time traveling back even further with the Legend of Zelda for Game & Watch!

Released in 1989, well after the first and second Legend of Zelda games hit the NES, Nintendo offered fans the chance to take Link on his very first portable adventure with Game & Watch: Zelda. Using a 2D side-scrolling perspective ala The Adventure of Link, Game & Watch Zelda includes gameplay staples like fighting enemies, exploring dungeons, boss battles, the triforce, and everything you love about classic Zelda. There’s even a wrinkle in the gameplay that involves switching screens during boss battles.

If you’re looking to stump the crowd at your next gaming trivia night, go ahead and ask what the third Legend of Zelda video game is…not many will know it’s this Game & Watch title and not A Link to the Past!

It wouldn’t be until 2021 when The Legend of Zelda would return to the Game & Watch again, this time with a 35th anniversary model. Sadly, this modern Game & Watch wouldn’t include the original Game & Watch: Zelda, and instead includes the first two Legend of Zelda NES games as well as Link’s Awakening.

While Game & Watch Zelda may be forgotten by most, it remains on display right here at the 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!