Peek & Poke Computer Museum

Peek & Poke Computer Museum in Rijeka is a compact but densely packed museum devoted to the history of home computing and consumer electronics. It's a place where older visitors rediscover the machines of their youth, and younger ones come face to face for the first time with devices they've only ever seen in photos online.

Where did the museum come from?

The story began around 2002–2003, when three enthusiasts from Rijeka — Josip, Tomislav Ribičić and Dario Djimbeg — met through their shared hobby of collecting vintage computers. Their first joint exhibition, "Retrobit" (2003), was a surprise hit and convinced the trio to turn it into something permanent. The museum opened its doors in 2007 as a non-profit, education-focused project, born out of genuine enthusiasm rather than commercial ambition.

The name itself, Peek & Poke, is a nod to the BASIC programming commands used to read and write data in memory cells — a wink to anyone who learned to code on an 8-bit machine.

What will you see inside?

The exhibition space covers around 300 square metres and displays more than a thousand items, drawn from a full collection of over two thousand objects — calculators, game consoles, and rare, long-obsolete computers from the 20th century. Peek & Poke is often mentioned among the world's top five museums of its kind.

Among the oldest and most notable exhibits are the Minivac from 1961, the Apple II — widely regarded as the first mass-produced personal computer — the affordable Sinclair ZX80, the first-ever palmtop device, the Newton, and an Amiga 1000, the very model on which Andy Warhol created digital artwork. There's also an original IBM PC, the machine that set the template for every personal computer that followed.

A particular point of pride is a piece of Croatian tech history: the first European calculator, manufactured in 1971 at the Digitron factory in Buje. It's proof that this part of Europe had a real stake in the development of consumer electronics long before the internet age.

The museum also holds a substantial library of vintage computer magazines and manuals — a striking reminder for anyone who remembers a time before the internet, when printed magazines were the main source of computing knowledge.

Can you actually touch anything?

What sets Peek & Poke apart from a typical museum behind glass is its hands-on nature. Many of the machines are fully functional and open for visitors to use — you can sit down at a legendary Commodore 64 and load up the games that captivated millions of players in the 1980s, or try your hand at programming in an old version of BASIC. This interactivity makes a visit rewarding not just for nostalgic retro-tech fans, but also for children and teenagers, for whom typing on a four-decade-old keyboard can be a genuine discovery.

How to plan your visit

The museum sits in an easily accessible part of Rijeka, making it a convenient stop while exploring Croatia's main port city on the Adriatic. Budget at least an hour for a visit, though retro-computing enthusiasts will easily lose track of time examining individual machines in detail. Given its compact size, the museum works best as part of a broader day of sightseeing in Rijeka rather than as a single standalone destination.

Frequently asked questions

Is Peek & Poke the only museum of its kind in the region? Yes — it's one of the few places in this part of Europe fully dedicated to the history of home and personal computing, and its collection is extensive enough to be compared with the best specialist museums worldwide.

Can you actually use the exhibits, or is everything behind glass? A large part of the collection is functional and open for interaction — visitors can play on consoles and computers from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and even try programming in BASIC.

Who is this museum for? Anyone curious about the history of technology: a nostalgic trip for older visitors, and an eye-opening lesson for younger ones on what computers looked like before smartphones existed.

How much time should I set aside? A standard visit takes about an hour, though retro-computing enthusiasts can easily spend much longer poring over the details of individual machines.