First videogame exhibition

Mounted in 1989 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York, Hot Circuits: A Video Arcade was the first museum exhibition devoted to videogames. Visitors were encouraged to interact with many of the exhibits, most of which were arcade cabinets, in their original physical format.

Museum of the Moving Image was established in 1988 as a museum that advanced the "understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media." The institution's founding director, Rochelle Slovin, curated the Hot Cuircuits exhibition as a retrospective on the early years of the videogame medium.

The success and popularity of Hot Circuits, prompted the museum to collect and exhibit videogame consoles, handheld games, and computer games "of exceptional design quality and historical significance".

Highlights from the collection include several early “TV game” prototypes created between 1966 and 1969, donated by videogame console pioneer Ralph Baer, as well as original Pong and Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinets.