The Computer Games Museum has vintage computers, arcade machines, and gaming consoles. You can also play some of the games on their original devices
Computer games have been part of our culture since the Generation X era. At first, there were arcade games that required coins. Today, we carry the games around in our pockets on our smartphones.
The Computer Games Museum in Berlin is a journey through time featuring historical games you can try out. There’s even a version of Atari’s Pong that you can play.
World’s first computer games museum
The Computer Games Museum is the first of its kind in the world, and its mission is to collect and preserve interactive culture.
The museum has a big collection of devices that we have played on over the years, including vintage arcade machines, Commodore computers, and game consoles.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
My kids were especially puzzled by the cassette deck, the floppy disk drive, and the joystick for the Commodore 64, which we were able to try out for ourselves.
The museum is educational for young people who have grown up with streaming, game controllers, and iPads. And it’s nostalgic for us older folks who used to have a PC with a monochrome screen displaying glowing green letters.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
You can take a guided tour of the Computer Games Museum. You can also explore the museum on your own, checking out historic Atari machines, the first Macintosh, and life-size game characters.
Try it for yourself at the arcades
In addition to being able to play on some of the historic computers in the exhibition, the main attraction for gaming enthusiasts is the two arcades. Rows upon rows of arcade games, the ones some of us once spent all our pocket money on, are available to play for free.
The entrance to one of the arcades is, of course, adorned with a neon sign, which completes the trip back in time.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@flickr. CC BY-SA.
Admission is by time slot, so it’s a good idea to buy tickets in advance. They can be booked on the Computer Games Museum’s website.
Location:
Karl-Marx-Allee 93A
10243 Berlin
Family friendly: Yes
Price: Average
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