Linda Guillory, 51, is an electrical engineer from Richardson, Texas (USA). She is known for her vintage game collection that has earned her two record titles, according to the Guinness World Records. She holds the record for the “largest Collection of LCD Gaming Systems” and “largest collection of playable gaming systems.”
Linda started her game collection when she was only eight years old. Now her collections span several brands and decades. Some of her favorite collections include Coleco Pacman, Tandy Cosmic 200 Fire Away, Actronics Grandprix Turbo, Epoch Galaxy II, Soopa Doopa by Toytronic.
Linda has been at her enterprise for over 20 years now and she does not look like stopping anytime soon. She is still eager to find more gaming systems, traveling across the world in furtherance of her aim.
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Linda’s game collections may appear fun but it has not been all smooth sailing for her. She lost some of her earlier collections when fire gutted her family home. She temporarily lost interest in her game collection venture but her passion was reignited in 2003 after having a chat with her brother who was visiting her on vacation.
“I wanted to see if I still could beat my high score,” she said. “As I searched, I saw dozens of games I always wanted as a child but never had. I thought I would be satisfied buying two or three. Then it seemed silly not to have the whole series.”
Linda needed a new curio cabinet to start her collections again. She had lost the previous one to the fire that gutted her house. She purchased a new curio cabinet and began filling it with more game collections.
“Initially I only purchased broken games to see if I could fix them. Taking them apart and working on them was just a fun pastime.”
The 51-year-old credits her husband as her biggest supporter in starting and expanding her collection. Before her husband died in May, Linda had shared her new record with him.
Having achieved this historical feat, Linda now wants to venture into design electronic gaming kits for kids and also teach them how to build a gaming system from scratch in an electronics workshop or at home. Linda also wants to use vintage gaming systems as a means to grab the attention of children so as to develop their interest in electronics.
She also plans to work in the museum to preserve her collections.
