NORTHWEST FIELD GUIDE · Homegrown fun
A Northwest Field Guide to Homegrown Fun
A small map of the Washington places behind this issue’s games and collectibles.
The objects in this issue may have shared a room, but their local histories do not all share an address. Follow them back and the map opens out: a warehouse south of Seattle, campus buildings on the Eastside, a home business north of the city, and a storefront in Everett. Each place belongs to a different stage in the work.
Tukwila / the early arcade operation
Nintendo’s early Washington warehouse and office on Southcenter Parkway belongs to its arcade chapter. By 1981, this was a place where incoming games, physical cabinets and local test routes met. It precedes the Redmond headquarters that became the more familiar American home.
Redmond / two kinds of gaming history
Nintendo dates its Redmond headquarters to 1982. Years later, Microsoft’s campus supplied the setting for the discussions that grew into Xbox. These stories overlap geographically while following different paths: an American base for a Japanese company, and a console proposal developing within an American software company.
North of Seattle / a collector begins
Mike Becker’s 1998 beginnings with Funko connect this issue to a smaller-scale home business north of Seattle. The map marks that regional beginning separately from Everett’s later public storefront. Following the company through time means keeping its home-business origins and its later headquarters in view as different stages.
Everett / a public-facing home
The headquarters store that opened at 2802 Wetmore Avenue in August 2017 gives Funko’s story an especially visible Northwest address. Its opening belongs to a later stage of the company, nearly two decades after its beginnings.
Bring the map back to the room
There is no need to imagine that every component, character or game was made inside these city limits. Nintendo’s roots are in Kyoto, Xbox depended on partners and production beyond Washington, and Funko’s characters draw on entertainment from around the world. The local story is about the work these places contributed.
A childhood shelf is a surprisingly wide map. A console, a cartridge and a bobblehead can connect a rainy Northwest afternoon to people and factories far away. This issue follows a few of those connections through the places near home—and leaves room for the next set of stories.