This moment which turned the fortunes of coin-operated games in America was portrayed (and lightly lampooned) in the film Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. Would you believe that Chicago was the last major city to legalize pinball? That's a story for next month.

After Sharpe demonstrated the D. Gottlieb & Co. game Bank Shot, the legislators of the meeting voted in favor of repeal 6-0. On May 13th, the NYC City Council voted 30-6 (with one abstention) to formally legalize pinball in the city. The bill was signed into effect June 2, 1976.

Fifty years ago today, a historic game was played for the New York City council. After years of lobbying, the Music and Amusement Association challenged NYC's ban on the operation of pinball. Pinball expert Robert Sharpe volunteered to play a game as evidence.

Unlocked! I play the original dot-eater, Sega/Gremlin's Head On by going to some lengths to play Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 23. And I learn that there's a pioneer of video games that we don't talk about enough: Lane Hauck.

Before Xbox Game Pass, we had Sega Channel: a visionary service sending games into homes via cable TV lines. For the VGHH podcast, host Phil Salvador is joined by key Sega Channel staffers: Michael Shorrock, Ray McFadden, and Willard Stanback: https://gamehistory.org/episode-153-sega-channel/

In the list of things that should be April Fool's but aren't, the FIVE HOUR VOD of our last arcade dating video with @quarterpast.bsky.social is up. youtu.be/CL4QJrWU7fw

Our archaeological expeditions into forgotten lands of gaming's past have turned up HUNDREDS of lost games you can play NOW! Learn all about it in our latest post: www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2026/04/e...

They Create Worlds is probably one of the most slept-on game history podcasts out there; it's meticulously researched but breezily presented. This episode (along with the preceding one) are an ideal gateway into it for anyone who wants to know more about the making of the Elder Scrolls series.

New April 1st "byte" post! Lock-on technology on the Master System? That's right! nicole.express/2026/april-f...

A gamer in his natural habitat. Photo scan by @benjedwards.com

To celebrate Jedi Outcast's 24th anniversary, I've updated my oral history. 🫡 You'll learn the full story behind the creation of this SW adventure, including how the same actor played both Gremlins and Luke Skywalker, and how LucasArts reacted when stormtroopers were cut down in pools of blood.

The dream of hot food vending in North America lived for a brief moment in the 1950s and 60s - the era of food kitsch. These images from the latest scans by @thestacks.ca provided by @cpi.pinball.horse archive.org/details/Cana...

Join us for another "fun" (in airquotes) livestream about dating video games! www.twitch.tv/play_history Was the game out this month? Next month? Was it out twice? OR AT ALL? These are the questions @quarterpast.bsky.social and I endeavor to answer.

A treat for Friday: We've added new items to some development material collections in our library! See our latest additions to the Mark Flitman and Andrew Nelson papers

We're all set up for #PAXEast! Swing by our booth to learn about video game preservation, play some unavailable retro games like Duck Hunt or modern titles from our indie partners, get a #GameBoyCamera selfie photo, or fresh new Hit Save merchandise! This year we've got magnets, pins, and lanyards!

From the Gaming Alexandria moderators, our statement about the recent Researcher Tool project - www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2026/03/s...

Things you love? Things we love. It's me and @quarterpast.bsky.social back again - tomorrow at 7PM CST to date arcade games. www.twitch.tv/play_history If you miss out, then we may be a bit sad.

In which I give the history of the founding of Enix, the (in)famous contest which they used to solicit their first round of games, and the utterly bizarre Seiko's Adventure, which comes close to being the most surreal game I've ever played for the blog. bluerenga.blog/2026/03/25/s...

Sworcery turns 15 today, and we've got a big new feature looking back for the anniversary.

For last few years, an Italian production studio has been conducting hundreds of interviews with video game people. vgpplay.com/home You need to sign up to view it - and it's in Italian - but it's well worth it. I'll highlight some of their amazing gets on occasion.

The Atari Archive website has been updated once more! This time I have for you a piece delving into the history of Mike Mayfield's seminal 1971 Star Trek computer game, and its version written for the Atari 2600 by Rob Zdybel: www.atariarchive.org/blog/stellar...

Built on the success of Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force is still considered a true Genesis classic to this day, and it spawned a series of its own that still has fans. Join us as we examine how this beloved game was conceived, developed and released. www.sega-16.com/2026/03/behi...

While it's difficult to pinpoint the exact origins of 'power-up' as a term, it's almost certainly a word Japan gave English, and not the other way around. www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/power-u...

Photos from inside Bally Manufacturing. These come from a 1937 profile on pinball, about a year after the game's operation was banned in Chicago. That doesn't stop business!

After a bit of a break, Atari Archive returns with September 1982's Infiltrate and Megamania. A classic Activision shooter and a genuinely solid Apollo platform game, the pair are a real high point going into the cavalcade of fall releases:

New collection announcement: We're live at GDC... 1989! We've digitized 21 hours of talks from the third ever Computer Game Developers' Conference, now available for free in our digital library 🔊 gamehistory.org/cgdc-1989-ta...

The Video Game History Foundation's newly digitized GDC 1989 tapes are rad. Talks with Dani Bunten! Trip Hawkins blasting Nintendo's licensing policies! A *retrospective* panel for gaming in 1980! Absolute gold that this stuff survived and is accessible for everyone now.

This is, by my reckoning, the first "official" translation of an adventure game, possibly of any computer game. The French version of Mystery House, original by Roberta Williams, translation by Tom Nalevanko. I give a full history of how the translation happened. bluerenga.blog/2026/03/17/m...

Yesterday, @jdyer.bsky.social asked about the validity of the "Pong coin box" myth - that being when Atari put the prototype of Pong in Andy Capp's Tavern, the machine stopped working because the coin box was so full. I examined this when I did my video series, but never broke it down properly 🧵

From sports sims to Elder Scrolls Arena: how Bethesda's Julian LeFay and Vijay Lakshman built the gladiator-to-RPG pivot, then LeFay's massive Daggerfall vision met Ted Peterson's intricate design and gray moral plots. youtu.be/vK5oo4mU-Xc #ElderScrolls #Daggerfall #Bethesda #Arena

Yesterday, @jdyer.bsky.social asked about the validity of the "Pong coin box" myth - that being when Atari put the prototype of Pong in Andy Capp's Tavern, the machine stopped working because the coin box was so full. I examined this when I did my video series, but never broke it down properly 🧵

New video is up! It talks about rhe various experiences Sierra and LucasArts had with porting games to Japan, as well as edge cases like Fujitsu Habitat and Sierra importing Thexder. youtu.be/MGswiIXCXXE

I opened the latest episode of the @presidencies.bsky.social with a quote reading! I really love the show - thanks for having me on Jerry!

Apology and statement on the recent Patreon post about the Researcher app I announced yesterday to patrons. www.patreon.com/posts/apolog...

Putting this out broadly as well. We have a big contingent of folks through @gamingalexandria.bsky.social going to MGC in April and we'd love to meet up with as many people as we can! It's been my convention for the past few years so I'm stoked to meet a ton of people in person for the first time!

At the famous 1939 New York World's Fair, Bally set up an exhibit of their bumper-powered pinball games at the penny arcade on the premises. Of course, a little over two years later, pinball would be officially expelled from New York.

a new contender appears on All the Adventures! This is by a new-for-us author, Michael Wile, who published for many different companies and formats, including the ultra-obscure JR-200 computer includes a brief history of the PC-SIG public domain distribution group bluerenga.blog/2026/03/12/i...

My favorite quote from this podcast: "Part of the story that I want people to realize is that, in the early history of computing, it's actually insane that people used computers to play games."

It’s #mar10 day, so I’m obligated to plug my video about the true origin of Mario, which is completely different from the way it’s usually told. youtu.be/gsCWPserdrs

All the Adventures reaches Misadventure 6 for TRS-80, and you think the "TOTALLY NEW CONCEPT" might be sarcastic but it appears to be the first text adventure superhero game bluerenga.blog/2026/03/09/m...

To say Game Player's was a confusing magazine to sort would be an understatement. https://youtu.be/Thw5X1AQ4ac

In an industry absolutely dominated by men, to a degree north of 99%, Babe Kaufman consistently prospered, expanded, and leveraged her personality.

Cap off International Women’s Day with this thread and tribute to an early pinball legend. Meet Babe Kaufman — America’s Only Woman Jobber!

New blog post! A what-if scenario where we try to see how a home computer designer might've dealt with the field-sequential color television, had the Korean War not stopped that standards' rollout. Enjoy! nicole.express/2026/the-app...

Revel in Nintendo nostalgia as I attempt to track down the first instance of Nintendo crossing over one franchise with another.

Some of this is a little mutable but I think says a good deal about me.

This week on the Video Game History Hour: We're joined by @flori-p.bsky.social, Associate Curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum! Dr. Pierri trained as a natural history curator. So how did they end up working in game preservation? At MIT? The story of their career will surprise you!

They say it's the season for scary games. What better time to play Spook Gun by Bally? A Dale Gun-style game advertised for its "junior" quality, the novelty of sniping the undead has never really gotten old.

This interview comes from Gamer Handbook which I scanned last year! Be sure to check it out, I was quite chuffed to come across it archive.org/details/Game...

New story up on what happened to Ocean Software's Lobo fighting game, with a bunch of never-before-seen renders made for the game.