This poster presents the outcomes of the research project Atari Demoscene (2023-...), a study situated at the intersection of platform studies, media archaeology, and ethnographic inquiry. While most histories of the Atari 8-bit computer focus on its commercial life, our research examines its second life beyond the Iron Curtain, where the platform was re-invented and locally appropriated by users deprived of stable access to hardware, software, and official technical knowledge. We argue that Atari’s unprecedented domestication in Poland and neighbouring countries resulted in the emergence of a unique technocultural ecosystem that challenges dominant narratives of planned obsolescence and standardized platform development. This process also contributed to the growth of the Polish game development scene and the emergence of the Atari 8-bit demoscene. The aim of this poster is to investigate how the 8-bit Atari platform was domesticated, negotiated, and modified by local users, focusing on grassroots hardware innovation, non-corporate peripheral design, and the creative reinterpretation of technological limitations. Drawing from media archaeology, we treat the platform not as a fixed technological object but as a historically contingent, culturally embedded assemblage shaped by local constraints and user creativity. Our research emphasizes the role of “warm experts” – informal technicians and hobbyist engineers who facilitated access to digital technology and served as mediators between users and machines.

Central to this investigation is the UBU lab at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, equipped with original Atari (and other platforms) hardware, peripherals, DIY expansions, and contemporary homebrew devices. The lab also serves as a space for the production of creative works, particularly during workshops and collaborative events. Drawing on its collections, the researchers who founded the lab have already conducted a research project on the ZX Spectrum demoscene, while the collections themselves are regularly used for teaching and educational purposes. The laboratory functions as an operative space, enabling the reproduction and analysis of past technological practices in real time. We invited hardware extension creators from various locations in Poland, working independently on extensions that offer numerous, sometimes incompatible solutions, as well as advanced users of these extensions, who are often connected to the creators as testers, early reviewers, or devoted fans. The laboratory showcased original memory expansions such as SRAM800XL and SRAM512, the Multiclock computer clock generator, a device SAVOnara (SAYOnara) and UGV2, that improves the image quality, systems AVG Cart and SUB Cart for fast loading of files, turbo-tape interfaces Turbo 2000 and for disk drives Multi Drive and Warp, stereo sound extensions and Covox, Rapidus – processor accelerators, and an interface-adapter for the 65816 processor, Videoboard XE and Sophia2 – graphics cards used for presenting and demonstrating their devices on operational Atari systems, as well as devices like the IntAri microcontroller interface, TasmAri – integrating the Atari with a smart home assistant, the Atari XCF12 case for constructing a multifunctional device, and a non-standard printer interface VIAtronics or a device for playing MIDI files named MIDIcar. Graphics. These sessions were recorded, photographed, and analyzed to document the material practices of invention, improvisation, and repair.

In parallel to lab-based reenactments, the research team conducted ethnographic visits to the domestic “caves” of long-time Atari users – home workshops where decades of accumulated equipment, modified units, peripherals, and in-progress inventions remain in active use. These spaces function as living archives of local digital culture. Field photography and interviews reveal recurring practices of tinkering, maintenance, and recycling, as well as the ways in which users co-evolved with their machines. The documentation demonstrates that Atari domestication extends far beyond the life of the original commercial platform and persists as an active, materially grounded culture.

In keeping with the project’s emphasis on platform materiality, the poster itself will be designed on an Atari 16-bit computer, using contemporary homebrew software. Photographs from the UBU lab sessions and from users’ home workshops will illustrate the diversity of devices, practices, and local innovations documented in this research.