Every in store demo kiosk from Atari to the Xbox Series X. Launch dates, the stores that ran them, and a rarity rating for each North American unit. Tap any kiosk for the full story.
Before demos lived on a hard drive, you had to go find them. They waited at the back of Toys R Us, in the electronics corner at Sears, right inside the door at Babbage's. A controller on a steel cable. A CRT with a little burn in. A line of kids waiting their turn.
For a lot of us, that was the first time we ever held a new console. Five minutes of Sonic or Mario 64 while our parents shopped, then the whole ride home spent planning the Christmas list.
Most of these kiosks went in the dumpster when the next generation showed up. The ones that survived are some of the most prized pieces in any collection. This site keeps track of them.
From the Atari computer center in 1979 to the Series X in 2021. Scroll the line and tap any kiosk.
Each kiosk gets one of five tiers based on how often complete, working units turn up today. Most kiosks land in Rare because stores scrapped them when the next generation arrived. The small score on each tag is the ConsoleVariations collector database rating, shown for reference.
The stores that ran these kiosks. A lot of them are gone now, which is part of why the kiosks are so hard to find.
Answer three questions and we'll match you with the kiosk you most likely played while your parents shopped. Then save your card and share it.
Pick a year, then walk up to a kiosk to see what it is. Use the arrow keys, tap a spot on the floor, or use the pad on your phone.
Kiosks were never just plastic shells. This is the history behind them: the hardware nobody could buy, the software only stores got, and the places Nintendo put playable systems outside of retail. Every entry links to its sources.
Retail demos are older than most of the consoles on this site.
The first known in-store video game display came with the first home console. Magnavox shipped the Mini-Theater to stores for the Odyssey, with a five minute 8mm film that showed families how to hook the system up to a TV and play.
The Strong National Museum of Play holds one and has digitized the film. It is the ancestor of every kiosk on this site.
Frank Mayer and Associates started in 1931 as a printing business making point of purchase displays. According to the company, it built its first interactive kiosk in the late 1970s, for Atari's game consoles and home computers.
That places a professional fixture maker at the very start of the kiosk era. We have not confirmed whether Frank Mayer built the Computer Demonstration Center on this site.
Kiosk hardware was often modified, locked down or not what it looked like.
The NES M82 held up to 12 standard cartridges behind numbered windows. A red button cycled through them, and a knob on the back set the play limit to 30 seconds, 3, 6 or 128 minutes.
It ran ordinary retail games rather than special demo carts. Its IRQ line is not connected, so some later games, mostly ones with MMC3 chips, glitch or will not run in it.
Several kiosks show off a hollow shell while the working console hides inside the cabinet. The Wii kiosk displayed an empty dummy unit, model RIS 901. The Xbox One kiosk put a dummy on display and locked the real console in a drawer below.
The Wii U kiosk ran a CAT I unit with development keys and a disc drive that only reads kiosk discs. Its GamePad was wired, running a thick cable to special ports on the back.
The Xbox 360 kiosk sat on a kiosk box. Plug the console into it and it switched into kiosk mode, running demos instead of acting like a normal 360.
Starting in November 1999, Blockbuster stores in North America ran Snap Stations. You brought in your own Pokémon Snap cartridge and, for about $3, printed 16 of your in game photos as stickers.
The printer talks to the N64 through the fourth controller port, posing as a controller accessory. When you print, the game saves your picks, resets, and boots into a special mode that shows the 16 photos while the printer captures the video signal. The print code was on every retail copy of the game all along.
Kiosk discs and carts were their own product line, versioned and refreshed.
Nintendo kept GameCube kiosks fresh with numbered demo discs full of playable demos and trailers for GameCube, Game Boy Advance and later DS games. At least 34 North American versions exist.
Version 7 carried a playable Metroid Prime demo built around the opening frigate level. Some kiosk demos differ from the final games, with slower scanning and cut story scenes.
Surviving PlayStation kiosk discs are labeled like software releases. PS2 kiosk discs turn up as versions 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7, and a PS1 kiosk disc from 2002 is marked Version 1.19. Each one is stamped Not For Resale.
N64 kiosks ran Not For Resale copies of retail games, including Star Fox 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Pokémon Stadium. The game inside matches the retail release; the label and packaging are what set them apart.
Nintendo put playable systems in hotels, hospitals, arcades and airplanes.
An arcade cabinet that played Super Nintendo games. Eleven games were ported to it, with Super Mario World the best known. The games are nearly identical to the home versions, except for a fixed time limit.
It followed the NES based PlayChoice 10 and was never released in Japan.
Starting August 10, 1993, hotel guests could rent Nintendo games through the room TV. Games were streamed from a central server over phone lines, and an hour cost $6.95 plus tax.
The service grew to SNES, N64, GameCube and Game Boy games, reaching about 955,000 hotel rooms and 40,000 airline seats. Most games were changed to single player.
Nintendo and the Starlight Children's Foundation have put game stations in children's hospitals since 1992. The SNES and N64 versions were hospital tables that could roll over a patient's bed, with an aluminum shell, locking cartridge storage and a VCR.
Later GameCube, Wii and Switch units got smaller. The program has delivered more than 8,000 stations and served over 15 million play sessions.
Japan never got the M82. Instead, Nintendo and JTB Traveland distributed the FamicomBox starting in 1986, mostly to hotels. It had slots for 15 games, though most shipped with 10, and some models took 100 yen coins.
Sharp sold a near twin, the FamicomStation, which stood on four metal legs and used gray cartridges.
Some of the most important kiosks only stood for a few days.
The Nintendo 64 made its public debut at Shoshinkai, November 22 to 24, 1995, at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo. Super Mario 64 was playable even though it was reportedly only about half finished.
Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi pulled ten of the twelve playable demos just days before the show.
The kiosks at E3 1996 took so long to assemble that they ended up running an older build of Super Mario 64 than the demo on the main show floor.
That kiosk build is missing Toads and the castle cannon, and a clock sits where Peach's stained glass window would later go.
The fixture makers are almost never credited. Here is who we can confirm.
Rapid Displays built the North American PS2 kiosk. Its model number, RD97202, is printed on the back. The company also built the PS3 kiosk.
The US firm Design Phase designed the Xbox 360 kiosk, which was built in the USA, the UK and Australia with 17 or 23 inch Samsung screens.
Kidzpace built play kiosks for waiting rooms, hospitals, car dealerships and McDonald's. Its GameCube units in McDonald's came in bright reds, blues, yellows and greens.
Today, companies like ActionLink handle in-store installs, demos and break fix repairs for consumer tech brands at retailers like Best Buy. It is the modern version of the store visits that kept kiosks running.
Stories collectors tell that we have not been able to prove yet. If you have a document, a photo or a first hand account, send it in and help close the case.
Setup binders that told store managers where to place a kiosk, how to run the wires and how to angle the lights. We have not seen one scanned.
Were employees told to break or return old demo discs and NFR carts? We have not found written proof.
Who drove from store to store in the 90s swapping discs and fixing controllers, and who employed them?
How stores fed one console to a wall of TVs or external speakers.
Giant single game kiosks, like the ones people remember for Donkey Kong 64 or Star Fox 64.
Kiosks that were designed but never built, like a display for the N64's 64DD.
European and Australian store setups, and how they differed from US units.
Restoration guides, setup help, buying advice and retail history for kiosk collectors and retro fans.
The words collectors, restorers and retail people use when they talk about demo kiosks.
Known model and part numbers for retail demo kiosks and their hardware. Every row links to a source. Know one we're missing? Tell us.
Store exclusives, trade show and event units, regional versions, and the oddball displays that barely survived. Tap through to each parent kiosk for the full story.
Everything you want to know before a kiosk ends up in your game room.
A demo kiosk is a store fixture built to let shoppers play a console before buying it. The console maker usually designed and shipped them, and stores got them for free or bought them through a display program. Some big chains, like Target and Kmart, also built their own.
They were never sold to the public. When a new generation came out, most were thrown away, sent back or sold off at closing sales. That is why so few survive.
Selling a kiosk, have a photo we should use, or spotted something we got wrong? This is the preview copy of the site. The form sends messages from videogamekiosks.com.Fill this out and hit Send. It comes straight to us.