Visiting the Bonami Games & Computers Museum in Zwolle, the Netherlands

While I love travelling (obviously), reading, writing, and art, computer games are another one of my favourite pastimes outside of work. If you’ve already read my guide to the best video games to inspire travel then you would already know this, but I have enjoyed playing video games or computer games ever since my family got our first computer in the 90s and I discovered the game Lemmings! Since then I worked my way through the Sims games, Age of Empires and Warcraft, before moving on to World of Warcraft, Assassin’s Creed and recent titles like Baldur’s Gate 3.

So when I found out that there’s a computer game museum in the Dutch city of Zwolle, I definitely had to check that out as well! Dennis is also very into gaming, so he came along too when I met up with some friends at the Bonami SpelComputer Museum (or the Bonami Games and Computers Museum) last year. If you’re looking for a hefty dose of nostalgia, the Bonami Spelcomputer Museum is for you! Read on to find out everything you need to know about this unique attraction.

About Bonami SpelComputer Museum

The Bonami SpelComputer Museum is located in the Dutch city of Zwolle, which can be reached from Amsterdam in just over an hour by train, or a little longer if you drive. Inside the 3,250 square metre space, you’ll find the largest collection of Dutch game consoles and computers, along with many that are set up to be played.

There are two main sections, a very large museum with lots of old computers (and other machines), games, figurines, books and other computer memorabilia, as well as an arcade area with more games to play. It’s very much a mixture of museum and gaming arcade, with plenty of nostalgic games to play as well as more recent ones. There’s also a small café and shop, although I’ll mention that later as it was the only downside to this attraction.

Things to See and Do at the Bonami Museum

The main things to do at Bonami include looking at and reading all about the many old computers and games, and playing computer games! I was quite impressed by how big the museum section is, with so many old computers, typewriters, gaming consoles and even telephones on display. It’s mostly set up in date order, from the oldest to the newest computers and gaming consoles, so you can walk through and see how computers evolved from massive (and partly wood!) machines to the ones we use today.

There were also old gaming consoles set up periodically throughout the museum where you could even play some old games, like Duck Hunt (which Dennis remembered playing as a child), Super Mario Bros and Space Invaders.

After the museum section, there’s then another large room, with a couple of smaller rooms branching off, filled with arcade games, pinball machines and other computer games where you can spend as long as you like playing on them all. It does cost money to visit, but your ticket allows you to spend as long as you want exploring the museum and then playing all the games.

It would definitely be a great place to bring kids on a rainy day, although it’s equally as fascinating for anyone interested in computer gaming history. The café serves a basic selection of snacks and drinks, plus there are board games to play while you eat.

One thing that did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth though was the gift shop. The website advertises having a 3D printer on the premises that you can see in action and they sell many 3D printed items in the gift shop. However, many of the items on sale aren’t actually allowed to be sold. Since we also have a couple of 3D printers and our own Etsy shop selling 3D printed items, we’re very familiar with the legality of selling designs made by other people – you need to make sure the design has been shared with a license allowing it to be sold! We recognised quite a few things in the Bonami shop that do NOT have a retail license, so they’re basically selling them illegally and assuming that they won’t get found out because they’re not selling them online. If you do happen to visit, please don’t buy any 3D-printed items from their gift shop, as they’re ripping off designers who haven’t made their designs available for commercial use. A lot of the items weren’t very good quality either.

Aside from that, I enjoyed visiting the museum and playing in the games room, so here are some more photos for you to check out before you decide if you want to visit for yourself.

How to Get to the Bonami Games & Computers Museum

While it’s quite easy to get to Zwolle from Amsterdam via train, the Bonami Museum is actually located in North Zwolle, a fair way away from the train station. They have a large free car park so the easiest way to visit would be by driving. If that’s not an option then you could catch a train to Zwolle and then catch a bus to Meppelerstraatweg station. Use the website 9292.nl to see which bus to take, usually it’s 3 or 301 but make sure you double-check! You can switch 9292 to English if you need to as well. The bus will take between 15 – 30 minutes to get to Meppelerstraatweg, which is about 300 meters away from the museum.

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