Remember when —
Come for the retro Will Wright photo, stay for the game with a pack-in harmonica.
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Only the most dedicated “Carmen” fans—or North Dakotan educators of a certain age—are likely to have this one in their collections.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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These “pretty cool stickers” came from a “Carmen Day” kit the producer Broderbund sent to school to encourage themed edutainment activities that went beyond the screen.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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As a nearby placard laments: “When female human characters were depicted in early video games, they often fell into stereotypical roles”—nature-loving girls or sexualized adults being chief among them.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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Despite the lack of diverse female representation in early games, early game ads were often equal-opportunity affairs.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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Don’t be fooled by the wide variety of headshots on these boxes—you needed to invest in “Alter Ego: Female Version” to get the full suite of personas.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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Kyle Orland / VGHF
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We’re struggling to think of any other video games that came packaged with a harmonica.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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A standard Game Boy Camera hooked up to USB-C output via a customized board. VGHF used the setup to trade customized postcards for donations (see some examples in the background).
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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“EXTREME CLOSE-UP IS EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT.”
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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Be the coolest beachgoer in all of Zebes with these promotional sunglasses.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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A ’90s photo of the Maxis team, including a downright baby-faced Will Wright (back row, second from left).
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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VGHF’s Phil Salvador told me that this cow was one of the top results when you searched for “’90s mousepad” on eBay.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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The brief heyday of music-based CD-ROM “multimedia” experiences is rightly forgotten by most consumers, and rightly remembered by organizations like VGHF.
Kyle Orland / VGHF
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Ever wonder what specific pantone swatch to use for that perfect “Joker jacket purple”? Wonder no longer!
Kyle Orland / VGHF
SAN FRANCISCO—Trade shows like the Game Developers Conference and the (dearly departed) E3 are a great chance to see what’s coming down the pike for the game industry. But they can also be a great place to celebrate gaming’s history, as we’ve shown you with any number of on-site photo galleries in years past.
The history display tucked away in a corner of this year’s Game Developers Conference—the first one arranged by the Video Game History Foundation—was a little different. Rather than simply laying out a parcel of random collectibles, as past history-focused booths have, VGHF took a more curated approach, with mini-exhibits focused on specific topics like women in gaming, oddities of gaming music, and an entire case devoted to a little-known entry in a famous edutainment series.
Then there was the central case, devoted to the idea that all sorts of ephemera—from design docs to photos to pre-release prototypes to newsletters to promotional items—were all an integral part of video game history. The organization is practically begging developers, journalists, and fan hoarders of all stripes not to throw out even items that seem like they have no value. After all, today’s trash might be tomorrow’s important historic relic.
As we wrap up GDC (and get to work assembling what we’ve seen into future coverage), please enjoy this gallery of some of the more interesting historical specimens that the VGHF had at this year’s show.
Listing image by Kyle Orland / VGHF