Last year, I turned 50, and one of my friends suggested we visit the Bonami Computer and Video Game Museum in Zwolle, the Netherlands. Upon arrival, we found ourselves in a vast hall filled with an impressive array of computers and game consoles. The collection featured everything from 1940s computers to the latest PlayStation 5, all displayed in chronological order. Many of the exhibits were even hooked up and ready to be used.
It was a nostalgic feast, as we constantly exclaimed, “Oh yeah, do you remember this one?” or “Look, we used to have this at home!” We marveled at the old Apple computers, Atari game consoles, Sega Mega Drive, Commodore Amiga, Philips MSX, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the first Nintendo Entertainment System.
Photo: Commodore 64 section at the Bonami museum.
What excited me the most was seeing the Commodore 64 and all its peripherals: the 1702 monitor, the 1541 disk drive, the Arcade Joystick, and the KCS Power Cartridge, complete with its original packaging and booklets. These were all familiar from my youth. I couldn’t resist typing in a simple BASIC program:
10 PRINT "THIS MUSEUM KICKS ASS"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
A small seed of nostalgia was planted in me. After 40 years, isn’t it time to buy a Commodore 64 again and relive those memories? This idea grew even stronger a few weeks later during a visit to another computer and video game museum.
To be continued.