I'm writing from my hotel in Paris, visiting friends and making new ones... it's a fitting scene to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Supercade. Wherever I look in this incredible city there are 8-bit game icons scattered throughout the streetscape. Pac-Man Ghosts and Space Invaders are everywhere thanks to the annonymous street artist Invader who has filled the city with his pixelated mosaics. It's arcade paradise.
Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 was first published in September 2001 and it has been an incredible journey for me.
In 2008, I founded the Supercade Collection in hopes of preserving all of the games featured in the pages of Supercade and now steward one of the most important private collections of classic games with a mission of keeping them playable in their original form for future generations to experience and enjoy.
The collection has since contributed to arcade exhibitions at the Strong Museum of Play and the recreation of "Flynn's Arcade" at Disney's California Adventure, and the games have been featured in Time magazine and on The Big Bang Theory.
Over the years I've made so many awesome things for myself and my friends – t-shirts, restoration art, reproduction arcade parts, etc. – it was time to finally make these things available to everyone and help make my preservation work sustainable. The online shop will be stocked with Supercade items and other cool products, and a portion of all sales go to support the collection.
There are some exciting projects in the works, including the first limited edition print from Supercade Editions and myriad collaborations with leading artists and designers. Will be launching the site soon... so please check back or sign up for the Newsletter to stay informed. You can also follow @supercade71 on Instagram for shop updates and exclusive promotions.
More exciting, I'm planning a series of Supercade pop-ups to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the collection so stay tuned.
Many exciting new features are on deck for Supercade.com and I look forward to rolling them out in the coming year. My hope is that the site will become an extension of the book and resource for collectors, where new information can be shared about the history and future of games. Please be patient as we work out the details... in the meantime, really hope you enjoy the shop.
xoxo van