One of the best kept secrets of the ancient university town, Cambridge, is the Centre for Computing History (www.computinghistory.org.uk), which is dedicated to present the history of home computers and consoles. Through these machines visitors can get acquainted with the different eras in IT history. The museum is located on an old industrial area a few miles from the historic city centre.

Unlike many other exhibitions, where visitors can only look and cannot touch or try museum pieces, in this museum visitors can gain hands on experience with computers and consoles. Visitors can try their hands at using, for instance, a ZX Spectrum, an Amstrad, a Commodore 64 or an Acorn Electron machine to experience or re-live the great breakthrough of home computers in the 1980s.

Of course, visitors can take a longer trip back in time. The industrial computers along with pocket calculators and various other devices evoke the 1960s and 1970s, the period before the devastating “explosion”.

Visitors seem to be the most interested in consoles, the 8-bit and 16-bit classics such as NES, Master System, Turbografx-16, Mega Drive, SNES, or PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast and GameCube.

Nintendolife interviewed Edward Fox, one of the helpers at the centre and an enthusiastic fan of retro games. Click the link below to read the full interview.