C-64, I'm so sorry. We were meant to be together, we truly were. In Jr High you were at my friend Carl's house in all your glory. He showed me some of your games. Wonderful they were. Us three were supposed to stay up all hours of the night, making maps and trying to beat your games.

You must remember the night of our introduction. It was a weekend night and I was allowed to sleep over at Carl's, as the plan was to play with you all night long. That's right, we were committing to no sleep. Sitting down to your warm glow, Berzerk appeared! A real arcade game at home? Oh, this is too good to be true.

But we were to be denied our time together. The phone rang - a girl from school. Learning I was at Carl's she had tracked me down. What's this? Julie and her friends were having a sleep-over as well? And they wanted boy visitors? Was she mad?

How could this be fun?

An hour late-night bike ride later, we approached her house. Spotting the old man's ladder by the back garage, in no time we were in the second floor bedroom. Needless to say, C-64 you were long forgotten.

Until a few years later, High school this would be now, I'm a delivery guy for a local company during the summer. After making the rounds I would stop off at my girlfriend's house while both her parents were at work. Now I remember this one fine particular summer day - birds were out, a breeze was blowing and everything felt fine in the world, you know the sort of day. I had one more stop in West Chester at a place called Commodore. It was around the back, at the dock unloading packaging products, when a colorful fellow greets me and asks, "Hey man, wanna buy a computer, cheap?"

To this day, I can hear his words exactly, I look down and see you lying in his arms, obviously a little warm. Ok maybe a bit hot. Slightly worn around the edges perhaps, but still beautiful, I knew that your gaming heart was still beating strongly within your chassis. Being the upstanding kid I was, however, I politely declined - thinking of course that I need to quickly get out of there so that I could have time to stop by the girlfiends's house.

In our world, all ladies would be like this…

And then there was this year! There you are again, in plug-in controller form this time! Ok you're not half of what you used to be. Lost a bit of weight I see, and you’ve lost that wedge style – you’re looking good though, the new look suits you. Your memory may be a bit lacking, but aren’t we all showing signs of our age?

Can I not love you all the same, you ask? It’s not too late is it?

Well, I’ll try, but where’s Carl? Where are the late night map making and gaming sessions - trying to code our own twisted games. The pizza, the Coke, the tender, slightly awkward, teenage moments? Where did they go?

February 2006

Comments