The Videogame History Museum collects and occasionally presents vintage gaming gear, from classic home game consoles to full-size arcade machines, to advertising and merchandising material.
The museum doesn't have a permanent home, and currently travels to US games shows such as PAX and GDC. The collection on display at E3 2014 in Los Angeles was impressively broad, and a fun break from the hyper-modern games being pushed at the rest of the show.
Coleco made a series of tabletop arcade games in the early 80s. While the simple LED light gameplay wasn't really all that close to the original arcade versions, these were still highly sought after by Generation-X kids (like myself).
Magnavox released the first-ever home console with 1972's Odyssey. This is the Odyssey 300, from 1976, which played three built-in games, all variants on Pong.
This is the original 1977 Atari 2600, the machine that essentially launched the home console business. Note that before it was known as the 2600 (its part number), it had the ambitious moniker "video computer system."
This 1982 early 8-bit console, called the Arcadia 2001, was made by Emerson, and featured a few knock-offs of popular games ("Breakaway" instead of Breakout, for example).
This keyboard add-on promised to turn the Intellivision into a state-of-the-art early 80s PC, and give it a leg up over other home consoles. Long delays meant only a few thousand were ever released to the public.
The Atari Cosmos was a never-released handheld that was supposed to overlay two layers of holographic film for a 3D effect. Only a handful of mockup units and prototypes exist.
Revolution X is one of the all-time classic oddball arcade games, letting you gun down armies of anti-music soldiers while rocking out to mid-90s Aerosmith.
Once upon a time, high-score achievers could take a photograph of their on-screen score and send it in to game publishers for a patch. There's still a robust market for 80s game patches on eBay.
These Mattel handheld sports games date back as far as the late 1970s, and featured very simple red lights as graphics. Very common, old models go for under $20 today.
This 1979 oddity, called the Mattel Horoscope Computer, purported to reveal the level of compatibility between two people. The included documentation bizarrely claimed its predictions were only accurate up until the year 1987.
One of a series of Fire Away games from Tandy (parent company to Radio Shack), this was essentially a Space Invaders clone. Behind it is a rare Tomy game based on Japanese manga character Lupin.
