Father and son convert school bus into gaming museum

Jason, left, and Luke Stoner have started a computer and gaming museum in a converted school bus

When 19-year-old Luke Stoner visited a museum on the history of computers, it sparked an idea inside him - to start his own museum. On wheels.

Luke and his dad Jason have spent the last year converting an old school bus into a computer and gaming history museum.

They have started a charity, Retro Reset, and have been running workshops at local schools and colleges with the aim of inspiring young people to join the industry.

Luke, from Heathfield in East Sussex, told BBC Radio Sussex: "It really inspired me to have a museum that wasn't in one place, we can take it anywhere to schools and youth clubs."

Luke playing Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sega Dreamcast

Jason, 52, said: "Luke just said a lot of his friends can't go there [the museum], they can't afford it and he'd really like to build a bus and take it round to people to inspire them.

"We're mad enough to have built it and here we are."

They started the process in September last year after visiting the Centre for Computing History, which has provided some of the equipment to help them.

They bought the bus in January, refurbished it, and held their first workshops in July.

The bus has an old computer previously used to edit Hollywood films, which students can take apart and study.

It also has 10 different computers and consoles from the 1990s such as a Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and an Atari 2600 from 1978.

Luke coded "BBC Radio Sussex" into a BBC Microcomputer from 1991

"The purpose is to inspire people into retro computing," said Luke.

"When children study computer science at school, it's all theory based. They don't see inside a computer and get to take it apart," Jason added.

"Hopefully it will inspire them to see the history, where it's come from and where it might go in the future.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of Luke. Luke is on the autistic spectrum and he has gone to every meeting, spent hours painting the bus.

"I think it's every father's dream to be able to do that with one of their children and look what we have achieved. Everywhere we go, the children like it."