Beyond simple nostalgia: Transforming visitors' experience of retro-gaming and vintage computing in the museum

Abstract

Retro culture is often criticised for its ahistorical and aestheticized assembling of the past. Nostalgia is considered a prevalent attitude in the domains of retro-gaming and vintage computing in terms of a romanticising view of the past. Thus, the phenomena of retro-gaming and vintage computing can seem unfit for museums as arbiters of History. However, what if the affective appeal of nostalgia could be harnessed and the romanticised approach to the past simultaneously tempered with more reflection? This article focuses on the possible transformation, via participatory exhibition design, of museum visitors’ simple nostalgia into reflective nostalgia. The article accounts for two exhibitions of retro-gaming culture at the Media Museum that deployed two participatory approaches: 1) Enabling the visitors to participate by using the technology on display and playing games. 2) Including retrogaming fans in a co-creative exhibition design process. We argue that there is a considerable potential for affective engagement of museum visitors in retro-gaming culture, which can serve as a platform of interest for scaffolding further reflection on gaming past and present. Interviews with visitors show that the interactivity of playing games and the tactile handling of original gaming artefacts are effective in fostering visitors’ reflection