The NES wasn't just a game console — it was a living-room gadget, and my collection includes the stuff that made it a family machine.

The Zapper shelf. The orange light gun powered Duck Hunt (and its smug, laughing dog), Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, Gumshoe, To the Earth, and Barker Bill's Trick Shooting. Pointing a plastic gun at a CRT was peak 1988.

Game-show night. The whole family could play Jeopardy! (I have three editions), Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares, Double Dare, Remote Control, Win, Lose or Draw, and Classic Concentration.

Edutainment & the weird hardware. Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? and the Sesame Street games taught while you played; the Miracle Piano Teaching System literally shipped with a keyboard. And then there's the Power Glove — gloriously impractical, gloriously '90s, with Super Glove Ball made just for it. "It's so bad." It really was. I wouldn't trade it.