Why is the year 2000 the cut off date for exhibits in the museum?

Our exhibits are from up to the year 2000, with the vast majority being from the mid/late 70s, 80s and 90s.

The "cut off" year for exhibits is the year 2000 so as a rule we don't have exhibits from after the year 2000.

Why is the cut off year the year 2000?

Reason 1 - History

Our primary mission, which is part of our objects with the Charities Commission as a registered charity is to "preserve and maintain computing history". With "history" being the key word in this, we're concious to make sure that whilst the museum is very much "hands on" and full of computer games our visitors can play that we remember we are a museum, not an arcade.

So we have the year 2000 cut off date to remind us of the "history" part of our mission.

Reason 2 - Space

There's only so much space in our museum, and our store rooms are brimming full. By having a cut off date we're able to focus the collection and make sure that it's well curated.

In addition for every exhibit on display in the museum we like to make sure we have a spare (for when that exhibit decides to break down and needs to be replaced). Of course these spares also take up room, which we simply don't have. So having the year 2000 cut off period allows us to sensibly limit our collection.

Will the year 2000 cut off date ever be reviewed at some point?

Yes of course. If we're lucky enough to still exist in 100 years time then the computer or mobile device you're reading this on would probably belong in a museum!

We'll review the year 2000 policy every few years or so, but make sure that everything is at least 25 years old. It's the year 2025 at the time of writing this article, but in 2030 we may review the year 2000 policy and amend it to 2005 accordingly, then in 2035 make it 2010, and so on and so forth. That's of course if we can find the space to put the extra exhibits!

Exceptions to the year 2000 rule

There are some exceptions to this rule, such as:-

• If there is a particularly rare or special exhibit from close to the year 2000 that is relevant to the museum, or relevant to a particular collection. An example would be our dev kits; we have a GameCube dev kit from 2002 and a PS3 dev tool from 2007 but these are relevant as they're part of our dev kits display which aims to show the history of gaming and software development.
   
• New or "newer" accessories necessary to running a pre year 2000 exhibit, such as controllers
   
• Parts, and replacement components etc

The exceptions to the rule are not hard and fast; and are the discretion of our senior volunteers and trustees