The Strong Museum of Play announced today that its International Center for the History of Games (ICHEG) has accepted a donation of artifacts documenting work done by Nutting Associates, the first company to sell coin-operated video games.
This is a big deal for game industry history buffs, since in 1971 Nutting put out what's basically the world's first commercial arcade game: Computer Space, designed and pitched to Nutting by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney.
Famously, the pair went on to cofound Atari a year later. Nutting continued to make electronic games until it closed in 1977, and now game industry historian Alex Smith has donated photographs, marketing materials, circuit board schematics, and other artifacts documenting Nutting's work making games.
The donated materials are expected to make appearances in future exhibits at The Strong, which is located in Rochester, New York and already counts a number of Nutting game machines among its collection.