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Our 2025 exhibition

Following on the success of Creating the Everything Device, our 2025 exhibition focused on the home microcomputers of the 70s, 80s and 90s. These were the first truly personal computers; they took computers out of laboratories and into people's homes. These early pioneers made computers accessible to ordinary people for the first time, laying the foundations for the future we now live in. Visitors were able to go hands on, try classic games and also retroprogramming on these machines.

We also showcased vintage games consoles of the era from companies such as Sega, Nintendo and Atari, and visitors got to play the seminal classics that shaped today's major games titles on the original hardware.

Someone coding on a Spectrum Plus

ARC@KU TV

Our YouTube channel showcases what we're up to, our exhibits, and legendary people, companies and computers from history, but you'll always be able to watch our latest video below.

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Atari 2600

Past events

This is a small visual showcase some of ARC@KU's past events including pop-up session for outreach at schools, open days at KU and our previous public-facing exhibitions.

Timeless classic

The computer is five times their age and so is the game, but for these two young exhibition visitors, Matthew Smith's Manic Miner on the Spectrum is just as addictive today as it was in 1985!

Crossing the generational gap

The 2025 event saw around two thousand visitors over the course of the week, drawing in people from all ages.

Retro Hackathon

One of our favourite events is when students try their hands at programming - old school! One of our pedaogic themes at KU is thinking like a programmer and working with vintage languages like BASIC often gives them new insight into this mindset and process which they bring to their work with modern languages.

Always listen to mum

The wisdom of your elders is always worth listening to - especially when you're playing Golden Axe for the first time!

Clive Sinclair's youngest recruit

One of the things that always amazes me is how the youngsters take to coding on the vintage machines...!

Ready for action

Putting our best retro feet forward to make a KU open day memorable!

Coding like it's 1979

An open day visitor gets their coding hands dirty on an Atari 800.

The first microcomputer

The little known Q1 was the first true microcomputer, with its first model released in 1972. Q1 Corporation sold very few machines and mainly to governments and organisations like NASA. Here we see a Q1 Lite and Microlite loaned to us by Just Clear at last year's Creating the Everything Device event.

Ready for action

Putting our best retro feet forward to make a KU open day memorable!

R-Type addicts

This pair were repeat visitors to ARC@KU 2025 - they couldn't leave until they'd cracked R-Type level 3!

(Out)reaching across generations

The retro hordes ready for an outreach session with a local school, where the kids get to try their hand at retro-programming. And, who knows, maybe the odd game might sneak on the screens too!

Sonic boom!

And it's not all hard work and coding! Our visitors get to play the classic games, like Sonic, on the original hardware.

Mario's lost son

Or if you're a Nintendo fan instead of Sega, you could always do what this open day visitor did, and play Super Mario from start to finish! Perhaps if he does enrol at KU, maybe we should consider this achievement as contributing to course credit :)

Causing a Pong

Who needs sports games real-world physics and graphics that are barely distinguishable from reality, when you've got the original sports game, Pong? Still a big draw at every event we ever do!

Uncle Clive's finest

Clive Sinclair's finest - the original Sinclair Spectrum and its siblings - always go over well with parents and prospective students alike at KU open days!

6502, represent!

And in the interests of impartiality, naturally we have to have the 6502 CPU represented at open days too, courtesy of a BBC, an Atari and an Apple IIe. The 6502 inspired Sophie Wilson and her colleagues at Acorn when they designed the ARM processor - and today, ARM powers pretty much every mobile device there is.

80's classroom coder

One of our retro hackthon students tries his hand at BBC BASIC. The BBC Micro was the pre-eminent machine for education throughout the early 80s, and virtually every British school had one.

The future codes the past

KU students from our BSc Computer Science and Computer Science and AI courses try out Sinclair BASIC on a Spectrum +3 at last year's exhibition. Perhaps they'll get a Large Language Model running on it... :)

KU's Town House

KU's iconic Town House building was the setting for our 2025 exhibition. Winner of the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture and the RIBA Sterling Prize for the UK's best new building in 2021, it provides a state-of-the art facility for learning and teaching - and for retrocomputing exhibitions!

Our exhibits

This is just a selection of our exhibits. Our collection spans the late 70s through to the mid-90s. We focus on the home micros that really made the computer personal and took them out of the laboratories and into people's homes. In terms of games consoles, we start with the dawn of home gaming and go up to the end of the 16-bit era.

1977
Atari 2600

Atari 2600

Released in 1977, the Atari 2600 is the machine that dragged video games out of the arcade and into the…

1978
Binatone Pong

Binatone Pong

Before cartridges, before microprocessors, before anything we'd recognise as a games console, there was Pong…

Philips Videopac G7000

Philips Videopac G7000

The original Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial video game console, released in 1972. Internally, it…

1979
Acetronic MPU-1000

Acetronic MPU-1000

The MPU-1000 was one face of a console that wore many. The hardware itself was designed by Radofin, a Hong…

Atari 400

Atari 400

The Atari 400 was the friendly, affordable face of Atari's first home-computer range, launched in 1979. Aimed…

Atari 800

Atari 800

If the 400 was the entry ticket, the Atari 800 was the full experience: the flagship of Atari's 8-bit line…

Mattel Intellivision

Mattel Intellivision

Before there was Xbox v PlayStation, even before there was Sega v Nintendo, there was Intellivision v Atari…

Texas Instruments TI99/4A

Texas Instruments TI99/4A

Texas Instruments was a chip-making giant, so when it moved into the home with the 99/4 in 1979 and the…

1980
Acorn Atom

Acorn Atom

Acorn had little interest in home computing, building machines for labs and engineers, and had no plans to…

Commodore VIC-20

Commodore VIC-20

The Vic-20 followed Commodore’s first personal computer, the PET, and was the first computer of any kind to…

Sinclair ZX80

Sinclair ZX80

Science of Cambridge had been set up by Clive Sinclair as a “lifeboat” when his previous company…

1981
BBC Micro

BBC Micro

In the early 80s, the British government started the Computer Literacy Project, intended to introduce…

Sinclair ZX81

Sinclair ZX81

If the ZX80 cracked the door open for British home computing, the ZX81 of 1981 kicked it off its hinges…

1982
ColecoVision

ColecoVision

The president of Coleco – originally the Connecticut Leather Company! – had long aspired to create a…

Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is, by most counts, the best-selling single computer model in history. Launched in 1982 at a…

Commodore MAX

Commodore MAX

The Commodore MAX is, in many respects, the proto-Commodore 64. The original vision for had been to create…

Sord M5

Sord M5

Sord was a small Japanese company with big aspirations, but while their M5 was a solid machine, it failed to…

Vectrex

Vectrex

The Vectrex, released in 1982, was like nothing before it and nothing since. Instead of plugging into your…

ZX Spectrum 48K

ZX Spectrum 48K

The ZX80 opened the door for British home computing. The ZX81 blew the door off its hinges. The Spectrum…

1983
Acorn Electron

Acorn Electron

The Acorn Electron was the BBC Micro for the rest of us: a cost-reduced version launched in 1983 to take on…

Apple IIe

Apple IIe

The Apple II was the first production computer from Apple. As a kit, the Apple 1 was very much something for…

Atari 800XL

Atari 800XL

By 1983 Atari's 8-bit range needed a fresh face, and the 800XL provided it: a sleeker, more modern case at a…

Memotech MTX 512

Memotech MTX 512

Memotech had made its name selling well-regarded add-ons for the Sinclair ZX81 before deciding to build a…

Nintendo Family Computer

Nintendo Family Computer

The Family Computer, universally known as the Famicom, was the Japanese original that would later conquer the…

Oric-1

Oric-1

The Oric-1 was a plucky British challenger to the all-conquering Sinclair Spectrum. Launched in 1983, it…

Sony Hit-Bit MSX

Sony Hit-Bit MSX

MSX was a bold attempt to do for home computers what a common standard had done for hi-fi: let many…

Timex Sinclair 2068

Timex Sinclair 2068

The Timex Sinclair 2068 was an American reimagining of the ZX Spectrum, built by Timex, who had been…

1984
Amstrad CPC 464

Amstrad CPC 464

Amstrad arrived in the computer market in 1984 with a shrewd, customer-friendly insight: sell people…

Commodore 16

Commodore 16

The Commodore 16, launched in 1984, was an attempt to build a budget machine to slot in below the mighty C64…

Commodore Plus/4

Commodore Plus/4

The Plus/4, launched in 1984, was Commodore's pitch to the "serious" home user. Its headline feature was a…

Oric Atmos

Oric Atmos

The Oric Atmos was a 1984 makeover of the Oric-1, and it tackled its predecessor's single biggest weakness…

Sinclair QL

Sinclair QL

The QL, short for Quantum Leap, was Sinclair's bold attempt to vault beyond games and into serious computing…

Tatung Einstein

Tatung Einstein

The Tatung Einstein was a British-built machine launched in 1984 with its sights set a little higher than the…

ZX Spectrum +

ZX Spectrum +

By 1984 the original Spectrum's rubbery keyboard, for all its charm, was starting to feel its age. The…

1985
Amstrad CPC6128

Amstrad CPC6128

The CPC6128 of 1985 moved Amstrad's all-in-one family upmarket. It paired a generous 128K of memory with a…

Atari 520STFM

Atari 520STFM

The Atari ST line brought 16-bit power into the home from 1985, built around a fast, capable processor and a…

Atari 65XE

Atari 65XE

The Atari 65XE, launched in 1985, gave the long-running 8-bit range a fashionable new look, restyled to echo…

Commodore 128

Commodore 128

The Commodore 128 of 1985 was an unusually ambitious follow-up to the C64, and a rare example of three…

Commodore Amiga 500

Commodore Amiga 500

The Amiga was a machine years ahead of its time. Arriving in 1985 with the high-end A1000, it stunned…

Enterprise 64

Enterprise 64

The Enterprise was one of British computing's great might-have-beens. Announced back in 1983 with genuinely…

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

After the 1983 crash left Western retailers deeply wary of video games, the NES, the international version of…

ZX Spectrum 128

ZX Spectrum 128

The ZX Spectrum 128 gave Sinclair's best-seller a serious upgrade, and finally fixed its most-mocked…

1986
Atari 2600 Jr.

Atari 2600 Jr.

By the mid-1980s the Atari 2600 was a veteran many times over, yet it stubbornly refused to retire. The 2600…

Atari 7800

Atari 7800

The Atari 7800 was built to win back the console crown from a resurgent Nintendo. It offered markedly sharper…

BBC Master

BBC Master

The BBC Master of 1986 was the natural next step for the classic BBC Micro: more memory, more built-in…

Commodore 64C

Commodore 64C

The Commodore 64C of 1986 wasn't a new computer at all; it was a sharp new suit for an old champion. It…

Sega Master System

Sega Master System

While Nintendo's NES ruled Japan and North America, the story in Britain, much of Europe and famously Brazil…

ZX Spectrum +2

ZX Spectrum +2

When Amstrad bought Sinclair's computer business, the ZX Spectrum +2 of 1986 was the first new machine to…

1987
Acorn Archimedes

Acorn Archimedes

The Acorn Archimedes of 1987 was a genuinely historic machine: the first home computer built around the ARM…

Atari XEGS

Atari XEGS

The Atari XEGS, launched for Christmas 1987, was an inventive piece of repackaging: an Atari 8-bit computer…

NEC PC Engine

NEC PC Engine

The PC Engine, launched in Japan in 1987, was a little marvel: a tiny console that punched far above its…

ZX Spectrum +2A

ZX Spectrum +2A

The ZX Spectrum +2A of 1987 was a subtle but telling reshuffle of Amstrad's Spectrum range. It shared its…

ZX Spectrum +3

ZX Spectrum +3

The ZX Spectrum +3 of 1987 was the final and most advanced model in the long Spectrum story, and the only one…

1988
Sega Mega Drive

Sega Mega Drive

The Sega Mega Drive brought true 16-bit, arcade-quality gaming into the home from 1988, powered by the same…

1989
SAM Coupe

SAM Coupe

The SAM Coupé was a British attempt to build a "super Spectrum": a more powerful machine, from the small…

1990
Amstrad CPC6128+

Amstrad CPC6128+

The CPC6128+ was the flagship of Amstrad's "Plus" range, a 1990 revamp of the much-loved CPC line. It added…

Amstrad GX4000

Amstrad GX4000

The GX4000 was Amstrad's attempt to crash the console party in 1990. Built from the bones of its CPC Plus…

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

Released in Japan in 1990 as the Super Famicom, the SNES was Nintendo's 16-bit masterpiece. Its custom…

1993
Atari Jaguar

Atari Jaguar

The Atari Jaguar of 1993 launched with a bold and much-trumpeted claim: that it was the world's first 64-bit…

Pop-up events

We love sharing these important pieces of history with other people. Whether that's taking exhibits on the road, or having people come in and get hands-on at KU - we're happy either way. Here are some of the events and activities we can do with you:

Outreach events

We can bring a selection of machines to your school, college, or youth club - or you can bring your classroom or group to our campus for a retro-programming and computing history session.

Talks and Lectures

You can come to us or our academic can visit you for talks about this fascinating period of computing history. Of course, we wouldn't come empty handed - there'd always be the chance for a bit of hands-on afterwards!

Venue Retrograming

Fancy a session of retrogaming action in your venue? We can bring the classic gaming platforms - you bring the catlike reflexes and friends.

Get in touch

In the first instance, the primary contact for ARC@KU is Paul Neve. Get in touch with Paul by emailing paul@kingston.ac.uk. Either he or one of his colleagues will be back in touch as soon as possible.