These are are some of the most common questions we receive at our events. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please contact us.
What is The Retro Roadshow?
The Retro Roadshow is a pop-up museum of vintage technology, created by Sarai & Huxley Dunsany. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Retro Roadshow’s events have given tens of thousands of people the opportunity to get hands-on while learning about the amazing technologies that helped create our modern world.
I have some cool old tech I don’t need anymore. Do you accept donations?
Many of the items we feature in our exhibitions have been given to us by folks all over the country, and we are immensely grateful for this type of support. Although we cannot accept everything we are offered, we will gladly take items that fill specific holes in our collection. Furthermore, anything we’re given that we cannot use will be passed along to other collectors or (if necessary) responsibly recycled.
That said, it’s important to note that The Retro Roadshow is not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so items donated to our collection are not eligible for tax deductions.
What’s the point in preserving all this old stuff when emulators exist?
Modern emulators are amazing and give many people their only access to classic games and vintage operating systems. However, even the best emulators cannot replicate the tactile sensory experience of literally putting your hands on a piece of rare, vintage hardware and experiencing these amazing creations exactly how their original creators intended.
Furthermore, there are numerous items in our collection for which emulators don’t exist at all - meaning that getting hands-on with the original hardware is the only way to experience these remarkable historical artifacts.
Do you use any modern technology in your exhibitions?
Although we put a high value on offering our attendees an authentic experience, we also have to be realistic - it’s critical for us to balance authenticity with practical concessions that let us keep these vintage systems running. For example, some of our gaming consoles are exhibited with rugged modern joysticks that are suited to being handled by thousands of people at a big event like the Maker Faire. Similarly, some of our computers are equipped with modern devices that take the place of delicate floppy disks and hard drives - a far more reliable option vs. vintage “spinning rust” devices that are decades past their expected lifespans.
How large is your organization?
The Retro Roadshow was created by spouses Sarai and Huxley Dunsany, along with their teenaged son Rhyal. We’re enormously grateful to have a number of friends and family who support us, but The Retro Roadshow will always be a truly “mom and pop” operation.
Why bother with big and heavy CRT monitors and “tube TV’s?” Aren’t modern flat screens better?
Although modern flatscreen displays offer vastly higher resolution than any vintage “tube style” TV or CRT monitor, it’s actually the increased resolution that makes them quite unsuitable for our purposes. Classic video games and software were designed specifically to take advantage of “Cathode Ray Tube” technology, flaws and limitations included. It might seem counter-intuitive, but viewing this content on modern displays actually has a significantly negative impact on the whole experience. In other words, the best way to experience classic games and apps is by viewing them using the same display technology they were designed for.
Does it take a lot of work to keep this old stuff working?
Yes! Most of the classic gaming systems and vintage computers we exhibit are literally decades beyond their expected lifespans. As a result, they’ve all needed at least some basic maintenance, and many have required significant repair and restoration work to become “Retro Roadshow ready.” In many cases we do this repair and maintenance work ourselves, and for more complex jobs that are beyond our abilities, we’re very fortunate to work with some incredibly skilled technicians all around the Bay Area.
Where did you get all these items you exhibit?
Building our collection has been a lifelong passion for Huxley, who began salvaging “obsolete” items around the Bay Area when he was a kid. In more recent years, we’ve been very fortunate to receive noteworthy items as donations from attendees, as well as continuing to hunt at local thrift shops, yard sales, and e-waste recyclers.
Can I have The Retro Roadshow at my kid’s birthday party?
As a pop-up museum and educational experience, we try to position ourselves a little differently in comparison to “party busses” and other businesses that offer party services.
That said, we’re always open to a conversation - if you have an upcoming event where The Retro Roadshow would be a great fit, please reach out!
I’d like to buy one of your exhibits, will you sell them?
In short, no - our exhibits and artifacts are not for sale. If there’s something specific you’re looking for, please let us know - we have a number of contacts and connections all around the Bay Area and we’re happy to provide tips and recommendations.
It’s crazy that you let random people play with these vintage and valuable artifacts! Aren’t you worried about them breaking?
The Retro Roadshow is a museum, and like any museum we’re very protective of the artifacts that we share with our visitors. That said, we’re firm believers in the value of hands-on learning, and this belief has become one of our core philosophies. We acknowledge and accept the risk that comes with letting people experience these amazing artifacts firsthand, and we’re also delighted to report that we’ve never had a catastrophic disaster - no jinx intended!
You’re exhibiting a bunch of antique electronics - how can you guarantee that everything will work perfectly during your events?
We put a tremendous amount of effort into ensuring that everything we bring to a Retro Roadshow event is fully functional and ready for hands-on learning. However, the vintage and fragile nature of the items we exhibit does add an element of unpredictability to our plans, and sometimes a planned exhibit simply isn’t functional enough to showcase. For that reason, we always try bring at least one or two alternate exhibits - sometimes a backup copy of a featured artifact, or (in the case of very rare items which we don’t own multiple copies of) something similar that still supports the overall theme of the event.
Your collection is pretty big. Are there items you’re still searching for?
Yes! We’re very proud of what we’ve built, but we’re also still hoping to fill some holes in our collection. If you’re curious to learn more about these “white whales,” please click here for more info.
Do you use AI to create your slides, artwork, informational graphics, museum tags, etc.?
The Retro Roadshow is proud to present a 100% human-generated experience, and we actively avoid leveraging modern AI tools for any aspect of our events. We take a lot of inspiration from the incredible human beings that created the groundbreaking artifacts that we exhibit. In that spirit, we don’t use AI when creating our promotional art, infographics, museum tags, multimedia presentations, or anything else you’ll see at one of our events.