Hiding inside the Frisco Discovery Center is a paradise for nostalgia lovers. The National Videogame Museum is packed with over 100,000 vintage consoles, rare arcade cabinets, and an incredible, fully interactive 1980s-themed living room where you can play classic games on tube TVs. It is a wildly immersive, neon-lit journey through gaming history that families and adults are completely obsessed with.
Unlike traditional museums where historical artifacts sit quietly behind glass, the NVM operates on a fundamental philosophy: video games are meant to be played.
The roots of the NVM trace back to 1999 when founders John Hardie, Sean Kelly, and Joe Santulli hosted the first Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. After years of displaying their massive collection as a traveling exhibition at conventions like E3 and GDC, they sought a permanent home, eventually settling in Frisco.
Their mission is crucial for the medium: to document the creation and evolution of the industry, preserve physical artifacts, and capture the stories of gaming pioneers for generations to come. Today, the museum houses one of the largest historical gaming archives in the world, serving as a safe haven for rare games, vintage hardware, and one-of-a-kind prototypes.
The 10,400-square-foot facility features 20 interactive exhibits that allow visitors to experience the evolution of gaming firsthand. Here is what you can expect when you step inside:
- One of the museum’s most acclaimed attractions is a colossal, 15-foot-high version of the iconic game Pong, allowing visitors to control the paddles and play the classic on an epic scale.
- Step back in time into a meticulously recreated 1980s bedroom. Complete with Star Wars sheets, vibrant retro decor, cassette tapes, and a Nintendo console hooked up to a classic tube television, it captures the exact essence of childhood gaming in that era.
- Navigate through a comprehensive database of gaming systems from the earliest pioneers to modern innovations, controlled by a giant Super Nintendo (SNES) controller.
- For hardcore collectors, the NVM displays the “Holy Grails” of gaming. This includes the elusive Nintendo World Championships NES cartridge, Stadium Events, and the only known prototype of the unreleased Sega Neptune console.
- Grab some tokens and step into a fully immersive, 1980s-style arcade room. The space glows with the light of original CRT monitors and features mainstays like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Punch-Out!!, and Centipede.
Whether you are an older gamer looking to revisit the pixels of your youth, or a younger player curious about the floppy-disk and cartridge eras that paved the way for modern tech, the National Videogame Museum offers an unparalleled hands-on experience.
The National Videogame Museum inside the Frisco Discovery Center located at 8004 Dallas Pkwy and is open from 10 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday; on Saturdays the museum is open from 10 am to 6 pm, on Sundays from noon to 5 pm.
