C64 Turns 25, Dave Turns 39
Posted on December 7, 2007 - Filed Under Games, Geek, Life
CNN is running an article about the Commodore 64 turning 25. Has it really been 25 years?
The C64 was my first computer (thanks mom!) and I loved that thing. I would have been 12 or 13 years old when I got mine and it was the most super awesome amazing thing I could have had at that age.
I had a tape drive, monitor and a bunch of games on cassette. My favorite games were Temple of Apshai, Archon, Bards Tale and games from Infocom like the Zork series. This was the machine that brought my visions from books to life, giving me the chance to “play” heroes I would read about.
Loading games from a cassette sucked. It could take anywhere from 10 minutes to a full hour just to load a game! If there was a problem during the load process, or the game froze after loading you had to repeat the process all over again. Really a lesson in frustration and patience.
I first learned to write my own programs on the C64 with it’s version of basic. My first program was a simple adventure game modeled after the Zork series. Later, I learned to write my own small utilities after playing with the expansion cartridges that doubled the C64 memory.
Lots of good memories from a fun, simple period of my life.
When I was older and running “modern” hardware and a BBS on my Amiga, I decided to gift my entire C64 collection to the son of a friend. He was around 10 years old at the time and I remember the joy and excitement in his eyes when he unpacked the boxes with the 1541 drives, the monitor and all of the games. I hope it made an impact on his life like it did with me.
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I hit the big 39 tomorrow and still feel like a kid inside. 39 just seems so old! I’m going to keep it pretty mellow and relax this weekend. I’ll probably break out a C64 emulator and enjoy some memories from my childhood, play with Alexander and just chill out.
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