KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Vintage Geek Museums is home to a collection of vintage computers.

Aaron Ishmael, the owner of Vintage Geek at 100 W Fifth Ave in Knoxville, thought of the idea to open the museum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ishmael was helping his parents move when he stumbled on an old Apple 2 computer.

“I remembered using it as a kid,” Ishmael said. “We got it out of the boxes and fired it for the first time in so many years and it brought back this wave of nostalgia for me.”

The old computer inspired Ishmael to start collecting vintage computers and open a museum. Some of those machines needed a bit more work than others.

“Sometimes we get lucky and we will find a machine that’s in really good working condition, but most of time these machines need some of work,” Ishamel said.

Ishmael has worked on some of the machines, but he also hired an expert technician to help restore the others. Now, more people can see computers from different time periods.

“A lot of people now may not have ever had that experience to be able to use older technology, so that became the idea to create this museum that people can actually come and use these vintage machines and see kind of the timeline on how computer progressed over the course of history,” Ishmael said.

Reserve a spot to visit the museum by going on the Vintage Geek website. When people go to the museum they are able to play with the old computers and plug in some old games.