Nintendo campus revamp claims one of our favorite tourist stops |
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As a tourist destination, the modest historical display inside Nintendo of America's customer-service center in Redmond wasn't as well-known as the Space Needle or as elaborate as EMP.
That's one reason we liked it so much, and included it in the Geek's Guide to Seattle that we published last year. It was basically a single glass case, maybe five or six feet wide, but it was rich with history, filled with vintage Nintendo hardware and other memorabilia dating back to company's early days.
In short, the mini-museum was a hidden gem, a place where people in the know could take their Nintendo-loving relatives or friends for a quick, fun and free stop on a larger tour of the region.
Which is why we're sorry to report that it's gone.
The customer-service center in Redmond was closed and moved to Kirkland in conjunction with a broader revamp of the Nintendo campus. I stopped by the new location this week and was disappointed to learn that the tiny museum didn't make the move, effectively disappearing.
A company representative assures us that everything was preserved. There will be historical displays inside the redeveloped headquarters, to help employees understand and appreciate Nintendo's heritage, but they aren't expected to be open to or accessible by the public.
[Previously: Details from inside Nintendo's high-tech Redmond HQ]
In communicating with the company about this, it doesn't sound like it was a purposeful thing. Nintendo is a very private company by its nature, but this is probably just a matter of its local executives not fully understanding or taking into account the cult status of the mini-museum on the local technology scene as they were making plans for the campus overhaul.
We've asked the company to keep us posted if anything changes, but it doesn't sound promising. In the meantime, I've uploaded more of the photos I took on my last visit.
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