The first digital Christmas

Some time ago, Christian from Spielstil.net drew my attention to the #BG2GETHER campaign and asked if I would like to take part. With #BG2GETHER, various bloggers, podcasters, vloggers etc. create a post once a month on a topic from the world of board games and link to each other. For me, this is a great opportunity from which all participants benefit through networking. The reader gets a varied approach to a particular topic. This time, of course, it's about Christmas, and specifically the Christmas that we experienced with shining eyes in our childhood. So we're jumping back a few decades - to 1989 to be precise:

It was an eventful year for Germany, as the wall that had divided the country for decades came down that year in a peaceful revolution - which, to be honest, I didn't care about at all. On the one hand, at the age of 12, I hadn't yet grasped the significance of such an event anyway, and on the other, I longed for an Amiga so much that I forgot everything around me anyway.

What did you really want as a child?

The first ones will have already guessed it, it's not a board game. We are of course talking about the Commodore Amiga 500, which revolutionized the world of home computers at the time and could be found in almost every child's bedroom as a gaming computer.

Why did you want it so badly and did you get it as a present?

I wanted it, of course, because everyone else had one. The previous model, which many of my friends used to get into the world of home computers, didn't appeal to me because of the poor graphics and strange operation. That changed radically with the Amiga 500. Insert a floppy disk and off we went. The sound and graphics were incomparable back then and the choice of software was huge. On Christmas Eve I disappeared in front of the screen, just like the rest of the holidays. Food suddenly became unimportant because there was so much to discover.

Did the joy last when you could finally call it your own?

Yes, the joy lasted, much to the chagrin of my parents. I spent countless nights in front of the Amiga playing through classics like Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and Zak McKracken. The beauty of the Amiga was the creative game concepts. There were no graphics-heavy 3D shooters - so the player had to be kept glued to the screen through innovation. Many of the games back then laid the foundations for genres and some series are still very popular today on the PC or on game consoles. Despite all the time spent in front of the screen back then, you could still spend the day with friends, as there was also a huge selection of multiplayer games for up to four players.

The enthusiasm for the Amiga has lasted to this day and so I was delighted to receive the Amiga 500 Mini under the Christmas tree this year. I'm afraid I'll soon be spending a few nights in front of the little retro console again to start some adventures on Mêlée Island with Guybrush Threepwood. There will definitely be more about the Amiga 500 Mini here on the blog soon.

As already mentioned, #BG2GETHER is a format to strengthen networking, so read more interesting articles about Christmas in childhood here:

• Brettspielministerium: instagram.com/reel/C1RLpDTqAtk
• Brett & Pad: brettundpad.de/2023/12/25/kindheitswuensche