It has been a long time since I wrote for the blog, there was a virus called Covid-19 in the middle, and if we want little desire. A blog is like a hobby that you have to keep alive over time, and sometimes it happens that unfortunately you can’t do it.
This wants to be a reflection on how the little one of the Commodore house has changed the lives of many people, of how he has “revolutionized” the way of making games, of living the videogame world.
This image brings back to us the memory of what the C64 was, and what it is today: an electronic artifact that still has life, but a past life. The dust remains, the phosphors have not faded, as does our memory of a battle, gaming and entertainment machine.
In the 60s and 70s the game was represented by more or less animated puppets, based on the cartoons that went on TV. Hasbro and Mattel, American toy companies, were the most popular. Their games were what we wanted to have at all costs, because they came out of that magic box, because they were beautiful, and because once the game was played at home, with friends.
Suddenly in the mid-70s it began to change everything, radically, forever. The first videogames appeared, the “cabinets”, and the arcades that previously were a meeting place for families became the realm of electronic devices full of light and sound effects. The sign of time was coming. If previously pinball was the best fun for a kid, from now on, colored buttons, toggles and screens would be.
Pong, for the uninitiated, was the forerunner of all electronic games, room, handheld, table, computer and console (and today unfortunately also tablets and cell phones).
But the real revolution came when it was realized that all those games could also be done at home, comfortably seated on the sofa, on the bed, and it is then that the market changed its shape forever and became what today is one of the businesses. most profitable on the globe.
The C64 was the swan, the eagle in the gaming sky. His singing lasted through the 1980s and raised one if not two generations of kids (including of course me).
Searching with google “Commodore 64 games” this is one of the screens that appears. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, as are the games of the little Commodore.
I would like to make a comparison between life in those years and what we live today. We are full of technology beyond belief, and every electronic device is now a transmitter of everything: images, sounds, videos, music and even games. Now you can do everything on your smartphone, even emulate the C64 and play nostalgically on a screen not even comparable to our 14-inch tube.
Staying at home in the 80s meant playing monopoly, risk, cards, watching a videotape all together, relatives and friends. It was a fantastic moment of aggregation that is now only a memory.
Then the Commodore entered and everything changed. The way of playing at home became a kind of circus where everyone expressed their skills in this or that game, where challenges were the order of the day. The boring afternoons became something exciting, and even mom and dad attended.
The sociality of the past was sharing. Who had the Commodore took it to friends’ houses, or organized the afternoons or evenings until the biscuit transformer melted (how many have you changed?). Cassette or disco there was no party or Sunday or afternoon without playing at least half an hour. Most of them brought their own joystick (paid good money) and then off to the challenges.
Speaking of Covid, I realize that today sociality has turned into something negative. Speaking of Covid, I realize that today sociality has turned into something negative. Just look in bars, restaurants, pubs, social gathering places, where people are attached to the phone, or tablet, and often not even look at each other.
Instead, before we were “gathered” at home to play, to share emotions, challenges, friendship. And the Commodore contributed to all of this, changing the way we teenagers play, and giving life to the gaming world as we know it today.
I would like to go back 30 years and relive those days, when I was waiting for the moment to take the biscuit out of the box to connect it to the TV, to let the imagination travel, or close my eyes listening to the tunes that still make me dream in my MP3 player. and excite.
