The Commodore 64 was my first computer.  My dad brought it home in 1982 if memory serves, and from there I was hooked.  It was clunky, slow and the disk drive was loud, but it was awesome.  It allowed me a gateway into what has become one of my favorite hobbies – computer gaming. 

There was a great story about the C64 over at CNN today which highlighted that many of us “30 somethings” are still caught up in the nostalgia for this loveable system.  And what a better time to wax nostalgic than the C64’s 25th Anniversary:

On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, will celebrate the C64’s 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will reflect on the C64’s achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.

“It was the right machine for the time,” said McCracken. “The Commodore 64 did a lot to popularize computers.” Sold in shopping malls and discount stores and not just small computer stores — the norm for the time — the C64 became many people’s gateway into the world of computers, said Brian Bagnall, author of “On the edge: The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore.”

If you ever owned a C64 and gamed on it, I’d encourage you to buy that book by Brian Bagnall.  I bought it last year and it’s a great read on the inside history of how Commodore rose to prominence and subsequently, how it went down in flames (Jack Tramiel ftw…).

At the end of the article I found the following statement pretty interesting (bold mine):

By 2007 computing standards, the Commodore 64 is a dinosaur. A relic of the past, long made obsolete by the march of time. But the C64 isn’t dead. It’s very much alive — on gaming Web sites, through music and in the memories of millions who owned and loved them.

“Computer nostalgia is something that runs pretty deep these days. The memories that people have of this machine are incredible,” McCracken said.

Twenty-five years ago computers were an individual experience; today they are just a commodity, he said.

“I don’t think there are many computers today that we use that people will be talking about fondly 25 years from now.”

And you know, I think he’s dead on right.  I will probably recall which computers I had when, but not with any of the nostalgia, love and just great memories I have of the C64.  There was just something special about that time in computing when everything was new and fresh.  We hadn’t been bombarded by computer and console gaming for over 20 years at that point.  It wasn’t old hat.  At times I wish I could go back to some of that unadulterated fun and simplicity that I enjoyed playing games like The Bard’s Tale, Defender of the Crown, Beachhead, and Might and Magic. 

Love the C64?  Count me in.  It will always hold a soft spot in my gaming heart. 

Woot!  Dallas wins again and is now sitting at 11-1.  Holy moly – good stuff!  Granted, Favre went out early in the 2nd with an injury, and that certainly could have made a huge difference in the outcome of the game (along with having Charles Woodson healthy I’m sure).  But, I’ll take the “W” anyhow, and let them settle things when they meet again in the playoffs.

Wow…two nice days of football for me. 

Texas A&M 38, t.u. 30  (gig em Ags!!)

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=273270245

Dallas continues to roll…

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=271122006

 Awesome.  That is all.  Hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving. 

Was sort of an odd day today.  Attended the funeral of a co-worker, pretty much busted my cell phone, and had my washer blow up on me this evening.  I spent about an hour cleaning up water, drying off items and putting a fan at full blast on part of my carpet.  Days like today are when life happens, and whatever you planned to do gets shoved to the side.

So not much time tonight to do much of anything, even blog (although I did read a lot of excellent posts out in the blogosphere today).  So a few things of interest before I hit the sack:

Are you a gaming history nut like I am?  Then you may want to check out Gamasutra’s “The History of Atari”.

In case you’ve been under a rock today, Cryptic sold City of Heroes/Villians to NCSoft.

Michael over at MMOG Nation has up an excellent interview with Scott Hartsman on the Rise of Kunark expansion.

That’s it for tonight.  I’ll be hitting EQII pretty hard the rest of the week and weekend I think.  More stories to come from there I’m sure.

Not much to post today, but here’s wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween.  Whether you are going trick-or-treating, going on a hayride, attending a costume party, carving a pumpkin, going to a haunted house, or just relaxing at home with popcorn and a scary movie, I hope you have a blast.  

Oh….and make sure that the candy bar you got from the eccentric neighbor doesn’t have razor blades in it!!

I was perusing one of Michael’s latest posts over at MMOG Nation today and noticed his hilarious post on the Guild Name Generator.  The Generator was put up courtesy of one of my favorite sites, The Daedalus Project.  Here’s what this wacky thing is all about:

Have a great group for a guild but can’t come up with a good name? At PARC’s PlayOn group, we found a basic grammar that was able to correctly parse about 90% of guild names we collected from a 3-month period in World of Warcraft over 5 servers (~22,000 guild names). You can find a detailed description of the grammar here.

This allowed us to create a guild name generator that used the grammar to create new guild names based on the weighted vocabulary of World of Warcraft guild names.

The title of this post is actually one of the names I saw earlier today when I tried it out.  Without further ado, here are a few more I found pretty funny:

Squirrel Ninjas

The Oprah Makers  (I couldn’t make this stuff up…)

Disciples of the Butterfly Front

Dawn of Murloc Humane Guild  (WoW players have been asking for more humane treatment of Murlocs forever)

The Rangers of Hot Druids  (I definitely want to be in this guild)

The Lazercannonpewpew

Warriors of Narrow Wit

Cult of Gimptard Heroicus

Pimps of Gnomish Liberation Covenant

The Cheese

Warriors of the Drama Wolves (I definitely don’t want to be in this guild)

Dragon Knockers  (!)

Lobster Issues  (let’s be honest, we all have issues…)

Order of Ultimate Losers

 And with that, I think I’ll sign off for the evening.  Go give the name generator a spin and see what gems YOU can find.  I look forward to reading them and having a good laugh.   

I love The Office, but have no interest in Second Life.  But The Office featuring Dwight exploring Second Life?  Should be funny – especially if Jim is involved.    It’s on tonight, so check it out if you’re a fan of The Office or just want to see another example of MMOs going “mainstream”.

As seen over at Joystiq.

Oh yeah….also EA is laying off people btw, just in case you’ve been a bit busy today.  You cand find plenty of  thoughts on this around the blogosphere, so I’ll spare you here.