Texas Woman Linda Guillory Wins Two World Records and Goes Viral for the Wrong Reason

Linda GuilloryGuinness Records

Meet Linda Guillory of Richardson, Texas. She began collecting handheld LCD and playable gaming systems when she was eight years old and has just been awarded two Guinness Book World Records. What's unusual is that Ms. Guillory is an African American, and a woman, two groups not historically associated with old-school gaming.

Linda‘s two world records come from her collection of 1,599 LCD gaming systems and 2,430 playable gaming systems. 

These gaming systems shouldn't be confused with modern Xbox, Playstation, or Wii consoles. They’re more like the Tiger Electronic handhelds of a bygone era. Guillory's collection also includes traditional video games. 

In the Guinness’ profile video below, Guillory shows off her collection of old video games, saying that she owns every game Nintendo released in North America, no mean feat. The video will give you a much clearer idea of just how complete and impressive her collection is.

What has really stirred up controversy though isn't Guillory's achievement, but the title of the feature article Kotaku ran on her, written by a fellow African American female gamer who expresses her admiration for Guillory. The article is entitled Black Woman Gets Two World Records For Her Vast Vintage Gaming Collection and it’s infuriated the woke element of social media.

You can see the response on Twitter below, and while many have been critical of the use of Guillory’s color in the article’s title, many have supported the author's use of color, in context to the article and its content.

Aside though from the woke outrage, that shouldn't detract from this Texan woman's achievement. Today's gamers are a totally diverse cultural mix of men and women where cell phones and gaming stations have brought the pleasure of gaming within reach of everyone, but things were very different 30 years ago.

Guillory's collection harkens from a much earlier era, where buying and playing these games was seen as a predominantly male pursuit and yes, a white one. All of which makes her passion for the collection she's built all the more impressive and unusual.

According to the article, Guillory started collecting games when she was eight years old, finding a broken 1979 Red Conic basketball game. She took apart the handheld game and fixed it herself so she could play again. She amassed a small collection of games until a house fire claimed some of them. Years later she decided to look up some of the old games she once owned to see if any were still around.

She found and purchased her beloved Pac-Man tabletop machine, and from there, her collection began to grow. She told Guinness;

“I wanted to see if I still could beat my high score. As I searched, I saw dozens of games I always wanted as a child but never had.”

Guillory, an electrical engineer, wants to share her enthusiasm for gaming with children and teach them how to create gaming systems of their own. She also hopes to preserve her collection in a museum. Irrelevant of her gender or color, she now holds two world records, and it's that achievement she should be celebrated for.

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