The new owner of the world’s rarest and most expensive console will be putting it on public display next year.
It might not have gone for the millions some were predicting, but the Nintendo PlayStation prototype console is still the most expensive video game item ever sold and the rarest ever console.
It sold on Friday for the equivalent of £276,900 (including auction fees) but at the time there was no indication of who had bought it, other than it probably wasn’t Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey (who’d previously bragged about being a bidder).
Instead, it’s turned out to be one Greg McLemore, founder of American website Pets.com – which Amazon ended up buying a 50% stake in. Although gamers might know him better as the founder of The International Arcade Museum and Killer List of Videogames.
He’s been collecting video game memorabilia for the last 20 year, including everything from 1880s strength test machines to Computer Space from 1971 – the first ever arcade game.
McLemore has over 800 coin-operated machines and other games in his collection and thankfully it seems he’s going to set up a museum to store it in, so everyone can see.
His first step towards that is an exhibition on the influence of Asia on the video games industry, which will run at the University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum starting next spring and will become the first opportunity to see the Nintendo PlayStation via its new owner.
‘I’m looking to not have this machine just buried in a closet somewhere,’ McLemore told Forbes. ‘I’m interested in sharing my passion for gaming’.
‘One of my areas of focus is the evolution of gaming, including how earlier arcade games inspired video games and how early video games influenced later innovation. I believe the Nintendo PlayStation fits in well with this focus’, he added.
The Nintendo PlayStation was one of around 200 prototypes built in the mid-90s, when Sony was helping Nintendo to create a CD-ROM drive for the SNES.
The two had a falling out just before it was supposed to be released and while the concept went on to form the basis for the Sony PlayStation this is the only prototype known to be in private hands and still working.
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