Warszawskie Muzeum Komputerów i Gier

What to expect

The collection sits in pavilion 28 of the Warszawska Giełda Elektroniczna, the electronics market, inside the underground passage beneath aleja Niepodległości - a setting that suits the subject better than it sounds. The museum collects the hardware people in Poland actually played on from the late 1970s onwards: Atari, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, console generations from the Atari 2600 through to PlayStation, and the CRT television sets without which none of those images look right.

The rule is the same as at Pinball Station: the machines are switched on and you play them. The ticket runs until the museum closes, so nobody is counting your minutes at a station. Beyond the consoles and home micros there is an offline multiplayer area done in the style of the old internet cafés, a board-game corner and a separate VR zone.

The collection is comprehensive in the sense of a cross-section rather than an encyclopedia: it walks you through the main generations of home hardware and shows what playing together looked like before multiplayer moved onto the network.

Tips

• 50 PLN full price (~€12) for ages 15 and up, 35 PLN reduced (under 15), 40 PLN student, 15 PLN one-hour student, 105 PLN family (2 adults and up to 2 children), 180 PLN team ticket from four people plus 45 PLN per further person. Under-6s free. Visitors with a disability pay 35 PLN and a carer goes free.
• Every ticket except the one-hour student pass is valid until closing - with a 15:00 weekday opening that is five hours of playing for one price.
• On weekdays the museum only opens at 15:00 (Tue-Fri, until 20:00); weekends from 11:00. Closed Mondays. Groups and school trips are taken any day from 9:00 by arrangement.
• Weekend mornings are the quietest. After 17:00 the popular stations start to queue, Fridays especially.
• Allow two hours minimum, or a whole evening if you are coming to play rather than to look.
• Finding it is the tricky part: the entrance is through the underground passage of the electronics market, not from the pavement on aleja Niepodległości. Look for pavilion 28.
• Accessibility: an underground-passage location means stairs and no lift - call ahead if you are coming with a pushchair or have limited mobility.
• Displays and staff handle English; most of the machines and games are English-language anyway.

Getting there

Address: al. Niepodległości 208B (pavilion 28), 00-609 Warszawa, Śródmieście district - by Pole Mokotowskie park, in the Warszawska Giełda Elektroniczna passage.

Metro: Pole Mokotowskie station (M1, the north-south line) - a few minutes on foot, and the easiest way in.

Tram and bus: stops along aleja Niepodległości and Batorego street, right by the passage entrance.

Bike: racks at the passage, and Pole Mokotowskie gives a traffic-free approach from the Ochota and Mokotów sides.

Car: paid parking zone, and aleja Niepodległości jams at rush hour - the metro is faster.

Nearby: the Andrzej Strug Museum in the next building, the Warsaw University of Technology Museum on Nowowiejska street and the Geological Museum (PIG) on Rakowiecka.