Support Supercade: Preserve Gaming History

I’m the founder of Supercade, former games evangelist for Wired, and steward of the Supercade Collection.

My first book, “Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984” was originally published in 2001 by the MIT Press. It was critically acclaimed, named Editor’s Choice on Amazon.com, and nominated for an IPPY Award for independent books. A second volume chronicling the era from 1985-2001 was launched on Kickstarter and self-published to incredible success… the response was overwhelming, which was both blessing and curse as I’ve shipped over 3X the number of books estimated. Still fulfilling the last of the Collector’s Editions containing both volumes and preparing to publish a deluxe remastered reissue of the original book in hardcover.

The Supercade Collection was founded in 1998 with a goal of preserving all of the games featured in the pages of Supercade, and is now considered one of the most significant private collections of video and computer games in the world, with a mission to keep games playable in their original form for future generations to experience and enjoy. It has since grown far beyond that scope to include games and artifacts up through the modern era, as well as contemporary art inspired by video and computer games and related technology.

Supercade has since contributed to exhibitions with Ayzenberg’s Space Gallery, And/Or, Soho House, Beyond the Streets, the Strong Museum of Play, Museum of the Moving Image, Nucleus Gallery, and the Flynn’s Arcade installation at Disney’s California Adventure, among others.

The collection had been sustainable over the years thanks to generous volunteers and patrons who gifted time and space, but the death of my landlord during the pandemic and subsequent sale of the building that Supercade called home for fifteen years has caused some strain to operations as the collection had to be moved to interim storage at significant cost. I had asked for a moving allowance and was refused, so I had to absorb that. It took three months to move over 100 tons of games and history to safety.

The silver lining of all this drama is that I’m now in the process of fulfilling my dream of launching a public-facing interactive museum to permanently hold the collection and celebrate the history and future of games. It is long overdue for the industry to have a world-class base for preservation and advocacy that is dedicated exclusively to the medium of games.

I’ve never paid myself a salary and always put the bulk of Supercade’s earnings back into the collection — funding maintenance, storage, acquisitions, and projects — only reimbursing myself for expenses when absolutely needed, and plan to transition to a non-profit entity once the museum is established.

But the facility where the games are being stored have proven a bad partner, charging fees well in excess of the originally agreed rates, and the stress is negatively impacting other projects.

Van in the former Supercade warehouse

I’m launching this gofundme in the interim as a way for friends and game fans to support the preservation work I do with Supercade and help cover storage expenses while I spin up the future museum. Once core sponsors are committed and a location is secured I hope to move the collection to safety in its new home.

The fundraising goal will cover storage through the end of the year… I have several industry sponsors committing support, but not until 2025. Anything raised beyond that will go to storage costs until corporate sponsorships are confirmed. Everyone who donates will get their name on a hero wall in the gallery and on the Supercade website.

The collection is in peril. Please help.

shop.supercade.com

linktr.ee/supercade

@supercade71