Exploring the Past: A Unique Journey Through UW-Milwaukee’s Retrocomputing Lab
Hidden away in the historic Holton Hall of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a treasure trove of technological history awaits. On the fourth floor, vintage computers from the late 1970s rest alongside machines from the early 2000s, all still operational and ready to transport students back in time.
This is the Retrocomputing Laboratory, affectionately known as the Retrolab, where students immerse themselves in the evolution of computers. The lab is home to over two dozen fully-functional systems and video game consoles, offering a hands-on historical experience. It’s a rare gem, one of only four such labs in the United States.
Thomas Haigh, a professor and chair of UW-Milwaukee’s history department, is the visionary behind this unique space. Over the years, he meticulously assembled the collection through eBay finds, faculty contributions, donations from the community, and his private collection.
In an interview with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today,” Haigh explained his motivation: “I realized that if I put together a lab with — initially, I had maybe eight computers — as a cross-section of the development from the Apple II through to the early 2000s, that they’d be able to experience what it was like to use the computers in a way that they’d never be able to have if they were just reading about them.”
The rapid evolution of computing technology is a key theme in Haigh’s narrative. He notes that while many aspects of modern life, like kitchen appliances and housing, have seen only incremental changes over the decades, computing technology has transformed at a remarkable pace.
“There hasn’t been an enormous amount of change in, say, the kitchen equipment that you use. The houses we live in have not changed very much at all in the last 50 years … streets, airplanes. It’s very incremental,” Haigh shared. “But because the tech stuff has changed so fast, it’s extremely easy to go through your life without coming across an old IBM PC or an Apple II, because that stuff just gets pushed into closets and attics and then usually gets discarded.”
The 1990s, Haigh argues, were a particularly transformative decade, marked by the widespread adoption of email, the internet, and advanced computing hardware capable of running pioneering 3D video games.
“I think tech was moving a lot quicker back then,” he remarked. “Computers would be obsolete in a year or two. Everyone would want to upgrade to the latest thing and find somebody else to take their old computer. Now, most of the stuff we do have is going to work just fine on a phone that’s three years old or a laptop that’s 5 years old.”
For students like Wyatt Thies, an undergraduate history major at UW-Milwaukee, the Retrolab offers more than just a glimpse into the past; it provides a tangible connection to history. Thies, who dedicates time to maintaining the lab’s equipment, finds that working with these machines evokes memories of his uncle’s passion for computers in their early days.
“When he was in high school, computers first became accessible, and he did a lot of programming,” Thies recalled. “When I…walk in this lab, I kind of feel like I can see him messing around with the old Apple II or like some of the stuff that I’m doing now — trying to learn about the past — he did in the present in his time.”
Thies emphasizes that engaging with these vintage systems offers a depth of understanding that reading alone cannot provide. “Being able to experience it in a moment — being able to play like the original Tetris on the Atari, things like that — it’s very, very satisfying,” he said. “And a lab like this is probably the only easy way to live those moments.”
