Commodore Christmas

What was the best Christmas gift you could get as a kid back in the 80s? Was it Lego? Was it Playmobil? Was it a Game & Watch handheld? Sure, these are superb toys, but the best gift under the tree was that big box that you knew had a C64 inside, but still had to wait till Christmas eve (or the morning) to open it and enter the world of computers.

It seems kind of strange today, with kids having smartphones, buying the latest games for the PS4, that a beige box with 64K of RAM, blocky graphics and an eternal loading time with games delivered on a cassette tape was the dream toy of a generation. I guess it’s nostalgia (which always gets a little more outspoken this time of year), that makes us look back and remember the great times we had with our good old Commodore 64.

Christmas, 30 years ago…

…well not really, more like 30 minutes ago, my two daughters getting into the Commodore Christmas theme :)

And when nostalgia gets the better of you, then why not totally give in by watching some Christmas themed programs on TV (well, I’ll be going through my yearly ritual with the obligatory watching of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), or booting up those classic Commodore Christmas demo’s and programs, like Commodore’s own 1982 demo that they used to showcase the potential of the C64. And why not give the 1985 Jingle Disk a go (I purchased a copy on eBay some time ago and it’ll be “jingling all the way” here on Christmas day) for a story and a tune. For something different, try the Twisted Christmas (1988) which features some interesting chiptunes and top it off with John Henry Software’s Christmas carols.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!