An angle-corrected close-up view of Prodigy’s front page on Christmas 1992.

Twenty years ago today, I awoke with anticipation and ran downstairs. It was Christmas morning, and I could hardly wait to open my presents.

One of those presents turned out to be a connection kit to Prodigy online service, which I had been begging my father to buy for most of the year. 1992 was the year I jumped head-first into computer telecommunications by calling local BBSes. I became fascinated with modems and wanted to explore their every possible application.

That Christmas morning, my dad was on hand to document my first experiences with Prodigy using the family Sony Camcorder. I have captured various stills from that video, and I am posting them here to share a small slice of the Prodigy experience in 1992.

Unfortunately, my computer at the time, the IBM PS/2 Model 25 (which my dad purchased new circa 1987 and later became a hand-me-down to me), came equipped with a monochrome monitor. So the glory of Prodigy Christmas 1992 in color is sadly now lost to history (well, unless someone else out there can find some color screenshots of Prodigy on Christmas 1992).

The author, 11 years-old, trying Prodigy for the first time on 12/25/1992.

A close-up view of Prodigy’s “Highlights” front page on Christmas 1992.

Another shot of a Prodigy holiday screen, Christmas 1992.

Navigating a Prodigy path list on December 27, 1992.

Benj playing MadMaze on Prodigy for the first time — Christmas 1992.

Another shot of MadMaze.

Note my black Zoom modem on the desk to the right of the PC.

I have more screenshots from the video that I may be posting later by updating this page. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas.

P.S. Looking for Ex-Prodigy Employees

By the way, if you worked for Prodigy at some point, please let me know. I’d love to talk to you for a future project.

It would be amazing if we could figure out if the Prodigy Classic archives still exist somewhere. I haven’t dug into it much, but when I do, I suspect I’ll find an answer. Any tips or comments or memories about Prodigy in the comments will be greatly appreciated.