Living Computer Museum

Pretty cool. We won’t be back anytime soon, but it was nice to see all of the old technology. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend to any tech junkies.

In town for work and decided to check this place out. It’s a smaller museum but it’s alot of fun. I think the displays could have better described, but I loved that I could touch the older computers. A great little place.

I’m a techie, I have a degree in computer science. This is what Disney land for my kind is like. Tech going back to the beginning, words cannot describe how awesome this place is. And it’s only $ 6. Highly recommend it!

This place is a blast! Excellent exhibits with informative displays/​videos. The hardware is in great condition, and you can interact with a bunch of the machines! Highly recommended.

Nice collection to see the evolution of computers and see them functional, with doing hands on them. Even getting a feel of functional super computer which I have only heard of until now.
Guided tour which happens at 1.15pm helps a lot as the guide explains the evolution and functionality of each parts of old computers.
Certainly recommended for folks interested in knowing from where we came and how far we came.

This place is awesome! I loved it here and enjoyed my time very much during my visit.
Parking lot is not a huge one but there seemed to be enough spaces. When you get inside, you are greeted by a worker on the 1^st floor and that’s where you pay ($ 6/​adult). It is also a small gift shop as well. When you’re done, you head upstairs via elevator to the 2^nd floor where another worker is ready to greet you, give you a brief run down on the place, and then is always somewhere nearby to answer your questions. Bathrooms are very clean as well.
There is a wealth of information and so many things to look at, and I enjoyed reading everything! Albeit, a good chunk of the products that were showcased was before my time, but I definitely have a great appreciation for the past and love learning about technology old and new. Hubby remembered a few products though, which was really cool because it became very nostalgic for him.
Overall, I had an amazing time here and would definitely go back!!! Btw, there are other discounts for kids, military, etc but I can’t quite remember prices, so definitely check their website to clarify.

This museum is a hidden gem! As a student, tickets are only $ 4 with your student ID, if not regular adult admissions is only $ 6. You also get a $ 5 discount if you go to the EMP or Flight museum up in Everett with your receipt up to 7 days after your visit.
The museum itself is currently located on the second floor, the first floor is going to be built out as a future expansion come March 2016. Upon reaching the second floor via elevator there is usually a museum tour guide that is available to answer any questions that you may have. They also have official museum tour guides at various points of the day. I also saw a couple pamphlets advertising a couple of the after hours events and movies that they would be screening at the museum as well.
The exhibit begins with a brief history of the PDP computers and wraps around the floor with memory, computing languages, GUI, sprinkled with some computers from various manufacturers and an area where you can play interactive games (Oregon Trail, Space Invaders, Xbox kinect, etc). You also get to experience the machines working as well which is really cool!
The way the museum is laid out shows advancement in computing technology in the past few decades. It was very eye opening to me to learn how our smartphones nowadays can process more information than the super computer from the 1970s could.
This museum well worth the time to swing by and get lost in computer history for a couple hours.

This place is WELL WORTH the visit if you’re visiting Seattle. The array of computers is excellent and the fact that most of them are in good working order is marvelous! I adored the selection of items from computer history and totally got a kick out of playing old games from my childhood (some are hard! Others are relatively simple) and the hardware available exhibited the diversity in systems available. Some machines (eg. punch card ones) were out of order but even so, the guide there was able to explain how one would use them which was really great! They had items on display such as handwoven computer memory which is incredible, as well as a new XBoxOne console and so much more from videos to books and games. I loved the interactivity of it all and could have spent longer here just playing Oregon Trail!
With the admission price being really quite affordable and there being hosted events and programming here for children and families, I can’t help but recommend this place. I’ve already talked about it to many folks because there’s so much to see and do (and even if you’re not a huge geek there’s stuff to learn or play with!).
There’s ample parking here for the museum and there’s even a selection of merch for sale at the front desk.

Man, I had high hopes for this place, but I was kinda let down.
YES, you get to play around with old, old computers. There’s the Apple IIe and its brethren beckoning you with Oregon Trail and a few other old games. But once the novelty of that wears off (quickly), you’re just walking around looking at light bulbs and circuit boards.
Sure, it might be worth taking your kids to show them the barbaric tools we used in our youth, but I think they’d get bored quickly.
I think you can knock this place out in like two hours, tops. If you’re a computer geek, maybe you’ll be here longer.
If you visit here, your receipt gets you $ 5 off admission to the EMP, which is a nice perk.

I’m a member at the Experience Music Project (EMP) and a member perk includes visit to the Living Computer Museum. I decided to check this out after an engineer coworker raved about how cool it was. I definitely enjoyed the exhibits, vintage computers and playing games. This is a must see for any EECS or other geeks out there.
Street parking is fairly easy as well.

Look I am the kind of person who likes computers and the history of them so I had an awesome time here today for the Free Play Event. It was my second visit and I became a member on my first trip. I guess you could say I am a fan and would highly recommend it. I’ve only been to 1 other museum similar but the collect here is fantastic and the fact the computers are still operational is amazing. Paul Allen has done a great job here. I think it’s better than the EMP. For Apple fans, this place could be lacking but Apple just takes ideas that have been around an make them pretty for the masses and not design Supercomputers. This is about the evolution of the computer age and you get to play with the history. Everyone should check it out. Thank you Paul Allen and the staff. Please keep expanding.

The LCM is a pretty cool place to go check out and play with many vintage computers. My partner is into vintage computers (and has a collection of his own), so we headed down to Seattle for the day to check this place out.
Front desk staff is friendly and entrance fee is inexpensive. Private parking right outside the front door.
The currators are friendly and welcome you as soon as you get off the elevator, offer to take you on a tour or explain anything that you’re curious about.
Computers are pretty well-​maintained, although some of them could use a little bit more attention (the keyboard on the Apple Lisa was not working properly and all of its word processing tools were not installed or otherwise not working).
If you’re not into the geek factor of vintage computers, you can still tag along with friends and entertain yourself by playing vintage video games like Atari, Oregon Trail, Space Invaders, Pac Man, and more!
Plan to spend 2 – 3 hours here.

Great place worth visiting. Quite impressive inventory of historic samples of hardware with well designed info panels showing the progress of computer science on a second floor.
Also plenty of entertainment with 1^st floor full of old large video consoles and retro room where you can play a game from your memory lane (if you’ve been around for a bit).

Why doesn’t this museum get more publicity? We found the museum at the bottom of a long list of things to do in Seattle and had a great time. The space itself isn’t huge but we spent almost 2.5 hours wandering around and playing all the old school games. This is a great afternoon for anyone who likes old computer hardware, operating systems, or vintage computer games. It’s basically a hybrid museum/​computer game arcade. Admission also includes a tour, which we skipped. The staff were friendly and asked if we needed help with anything several times.
The parking lot is free but make sure you lock your car… there were a few shady characters hanging around.

Exceeded my expectations. Lived in Seattle 15 years before finally visiting. When my wife suggested we check it out, my initial reaction was that the first two words in the name are an oxymoron and that I’d have trouble staying awake during the visit.
I was wrong. This museum is engaging. Most of the computers are working models visitors can play with. A visit can take one to three hours.
Despite the expansive name, the museum only covers a slice of computer history: the evolution of electronic computers from mainframes to minicomputers to desktop computers (including Apple), covering the technology, the business models, and the players, from the 50s to almost-​the-​present. There is also a display on charitable contributions by Microsoft alumni.
Computer history not covered includes supercomputers and non-​electronic computers.
Located in a nondescript re-​configured squarish industrial building, one rides a small elevator up from the small ticket shop to the museum. We were greeted by one of the knowledgeable nerd/​geeks who explained the museum.

Impressive museum on the general history of computers and some Microsoft history! The rates are 6 bucks per person which was very reasonable from my standpoint because we wound up staying three hours here! They have very old equipment that dates way back and then demonstrates the evolving of computers. What really was fascinating was how data had a physical forms for and from these old computers and how it has become an intangible abstraction in the literal sense. We went with a tour guide for a while and that was informative but I got more out of it just going at my own pace.
They have lots of computers from the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s with some games from those time periods ready to play. For those who are graphic snobs then these games may not hold interest for very long but just think… these games were state of the art at one point.
That leads me to my next point. This museum may not be great for kids unless it is a school outing. Much of the information is technical and dry and it may bore them. Despite the games being hands on, pretty much everything else is something you shouldn’t touch and they tell you that very same thing.

I really enjoyed this place! Understanding the history of computers is so interesting! I like the speaker and how they present each computers on tables! Thank you!

If you are a computer geek, you will love this place. If you have used computers since being a child, you will like this place. If you only use your iPhone to check Instagram and stream Spotify, you probably will not like this place. The museum is located in south Seattle among the industrial warehouses and port. It is relatively new and growing.
The museum is about ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ mainframe and personal computers. The displays are still under development, so I highly recommend taking a tour with a guide so you can get better information. The selection of personal computers is rather extensive and unique that visitors can interact with them. Who wants to play The Oregon Trail on an authentic Apple II with green screen? Or set up a NTFS file share on a classic NT workstation?
Currently, they are also offering a discounted admission to the EMP or a free admission to the Flight Heritage Museum with your paid LCM admission.

10 PRINT «AWESOME MUSEUM!»
20 GOTO 10
RUN
(Oh, I got ya there, didn’t I?)
This gem in Sodo is kind of hidden away; not everybody knows its there (not even locals who have been here for a while) — but once you step foot inside, you’ll be magically teleported back to the 1980s.
The two main areas of the museum (in my opinion, anyway) are the banks of personal computers with home-​brew software loaded on to them (for those of you dying to play Oregon Trail on an actual Apple IIe) and the mainframe room, which features mainframe computers that, well, take up the size of a room. And yet — the smartphone you’re reading this review on — has at least 10x the computing power of any of the computers on display.
The main thing I love about this museum is that it is a truly interactive space — as in – they encourage visitors to hop on to a C64 or Microsoft Paint version 1 and play around with it. The ridiculously small admission fee ($ 5) doesn’t hurt either — and — the expert guides are indeed experts who know these machines by heart.
This place is truly an asset to the community, even if the general public doesn’t quite know everything about it yet. But they will.

Never have I been so happy to be proven wrong!
Let me back up and explain, I honestly had low, low, low, expectations for this museum. I did not really have much of an interest in the evolution of computers, I just needed them to connect me to the internet and do things my iPhone can’t do.
It also didn’t help that the area the museum is in, is in a pretty rundown looking area. We were fine walking around but in think that was because it was in broad daylight. I stepped off the bus looked around and wondered if this was the right place.
So lack of an interest in computers + fear of getting mugged because it is in a less than desirable area = Low expectations.
The museum is located next to the Starbucks headquarters, this is important to remember because the museum is super small and you might miss it. Starbucks headquarters is super large and you will not miss it.
The guy that greeted us at the receptionist desk on the bottom floor was super nice. Admission is relatively inexpensive, $ 5 adult general and $ 2 with student id. You go up the elevator to the first floor, that’s where the museum is.
It is one floor full of old antique computers, and super computers. Our tour guide offered us the chance of either doing the tour that starts 15 mins after each hour or just wandering around aimlessly. My advice: do the tour. Wandering around aimlessly is ridiculously boring especially if you do not have an interest in computers.
Our tour guide was awesome, she took us through most of the room and we even got to go see the super computer up close. She was great at explaining everything and really made it easy for non — computer experts to understand. She was engaging and definitely made what would have otherwise been a boring subject very interesting.
They let you play around and touch some of the computers there and some of the computers are the only working ones in existence. Some are not functioning while others are up and running, my friends and I enjoyed some games on a few of them.
If you love computers, this is a must see. You’ll be in heaven. If you’re like me and only need computers to connect to the internet and do things your smart phone can’t do, still come by but do the tour. It makes things easier and plus the museum is relatively inexpensive and it is pretty cool.