Tucked away at the Troon Way Business Centre in Thurmaston, on the northern edge of Leicester, the Retro Computer Museum preserves decades of computing and gaming history for the public to experience first-hand. Unlike a traditional glass-case museum, visitors are actively encouraged to sit down and play on the machines — from early home consoles through to more recent systems from the early 2000s.
What You Will Find Inside
The museum holds around 300 unique systems in total, with over 40 on open display and available to use freely. The collection spans a remarkable stretch of history, from the Atari 2600 to the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, the NES, the GameCube, the PlayStation 2, and the Xbox, alongside a number of rarer items. A public software library of around 40,000 titles accompanies the hardware, and the museum also holds a large collection of magazines and manuals available for visitors to browse. Those with programming knowledge are welcome to use the machines for that purpose too, not just gaming.
A Volunteer-Run Charity
The Retro Computer Museum is a registered charity, run entirely by volunteers and overseen by a board of trustees. The founder, Andy Spencer, chairs that board. The collection grew out of Spencer’s personal collection, which eventually outgrew his garage and became the basis for what the museum is today. It first opened to the public on 16 November 2008 with an open day in Swannington, Leicestershire. In 2011 it moved into its first permanent building in Heather, Leicestershire, before relocating to larger premises at Troon Way in Thurmaston in 2013. A further move within Troon Way to a bigger building took place in January 2016, completed in under two weeks. Much of the collection has been built through public donations.
Visiting and Events
The museum is open on most Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 3:30pm. Private events, including parties and school visits, can also be arranged at the main Leicester building or at other premises. The museum regularly attends retro gaming and computing events around the country, often bringing systems along for attendees to use.