Annual ShowcasePublic ExhibitionGeneral PublicHome computersConsolesProgrammingGaming historyHands-onComputing history
Follow on from the success of our Creating the Everything Device exhibition, our 2025 show turned the spotlight onto the home microcomputers of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The idea of a PC, the Personal Computer is something we don't even think about today, but these were the first machines that were truly personal. These were the boxes that dragged computing out of the laboratory and plonked it on the kitchen table and in kids' bedrooms, quietly laying the foundations for the world we live in now.
And because a computer sitting there on a table or, worse, behind glass is no fun at all, this time out every last one of them was powered up and up for grabs! Visitors got hands-on, played classic games and had a crack at a bit of retro-programming.
It wasn't all keyboards, either. We wheeled out the great games consoles, the Segas, Nintendos and Ataris that kicked off living-room rivalries still rumbling on today. We let people play the seminal classics on the proper hardware, the way they were meant to be: a bit fuzzy, a bit loud, and absolutely brilliant.
