Tanrunomad Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 I stumbled on a really old Christmas game called "Santa's Sleigh Ride" from 1981. According to Moby Games, the oldest game of this genre is 1984's "Special Delivery: Santa's Christmas Chaos". I did a review of this old title if you want to see it, but I was wondering if there are other obscure Christmas titles missing from the list. 1985's Ho! Ho! Ho! is also missing from there. 2 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 There are 3 (I believe) Commodore 64 games that are Christmas themed... I cannot recall the names off the top of my head, but there were 3. Also, check out St. Nick for the TI-99/4A. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3381934 Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 The C64 however wasn't launched until the summer/fall of 1982, so if the hunt is to find anything available 1981 or earlier, it limits the number of possible platforms. Obviously in the time span 1982-1984 there should be more to list. I had a brief look at the listings for Atari 400/800 on Atarimania, but didn't find anything in particular. Then again I don't know how complete that database is, in particular if type-ins and public domain are taken into account. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3381954 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Are you limiting this to commercial releases? If not, I suggest checking those computer magazines that existed prior to 1981 (and prior) for published listings of Christmas-themed games. TRS-80 Microcomputer Newsletter was launched in 1977: http://www.os9projects.com/MAGAZINES/MicroNews/MicroNews.html Creative Computing was launched in 1978: https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing Compute was launched in 1979: http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines/compute/compute.htm There are probably some other system-specific magazines that I am unaware of, but this should provide a reasonable starting point. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3382772 Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Not a game, but Creative Computing had a listing about computer generated season's greetings already in November 1978. In December 1980, Stephen Berggren writes a program for the Apple to simulate a Christmas tree so you can decorate it to your liking and even have the "lights" flashing. It still isn't a game in the meaning it has a score or unwanted ending. When it comes to COMPUTE!, they didn't have much in terms of entertainment and games until at least 1982. The magazine by the way started off as PET Gazette and once it became COMPUTE!, they added subsections called Apple Gazette, Atari Gazette and SBC Gazette (SYM-1, OSI etc). Eventually they added sections for TRS-80 CoCo and VIC-20 as they became available, and in October 1982 they added C64 and ZX-81. Not until January 1983 they seem to have covered the TI-99/4A, which I believe was remarkably late. On the other hand, the IBM PC wasn't featured until February 1984. The magazine ran a small feature on the TI until October 1986, and had a miniscule VIC support until September the same year, then both formats finally were cut off. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3383079 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Not a game and not very old, this is a demo I did in '81: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/134623-christmasnew-years-2009-demospics/?do=findComment&comment=1626037 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3384304 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomberpunk Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 ^ 34 years ago and not very old? lol that makes me not very old! thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3384324 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 How about the first dirty Christmas game? 2 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3384423 Share on other sites More sharing options...
82-T/A Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 I don't know if you'd call it a game, but I have an old "game" that came on some floppy disk subscription, kind of like the "Big Blue Disk," but during the late 70s and early 80s. Anyway, all it did is play Christmas songs using the PC speaker. It was all in ASCII (no ANSI even). On anything faster than a 4.77Mhz 8088, and it's almost unlistenable. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3385540 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 The Commodore SX-64 shipped with a Christmas Demo on the Disk included with the Computer... I should see if I can capture it... MarkO Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3386915 Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 This one? 2 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3386971 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 That is freakin awesome... 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3386973 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkO Posted December 8, 2015 Share Posted December 8, 2015 This one? Yep.. All That SX-64 Goodness, available to Everyone... MarkO Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3387178 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Not the oldest, but does anyone remember an old PD/Shareware game called something like "A Christmas Eve Nightmare"? I remember reading about it in an old catalog, and sooooooooooooooo wanted to play this game. Probably 1989, and likely for the Atari 8-bit if I remember right. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3462491 Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 This one? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-christmas-eve-nightmare-a_1053.html 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3462619 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonyvdb Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Still my favorite to play: Christmas Lemmings But its not as old as some mentioned. It came out in around 1991 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3463092 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 This one? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-christmas-eve-nightmare-a_1053.html Yeah, that's it. Always wanted that game. I wonder what type of catalog could have had a PD game in it. I probably still have it in the archives under my bed. I think it begins with a B. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3463577 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Still my favorite to play: Christmas Lemmings But its not as old as some mentioned. It came out in around 1991 That has to be the most commercially successful Christmas videogame of all-time. Before that, it was probably 1985's Jingle Disk. I had that for my Atari 8-bit and loved it. Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-3463596 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted December 17, 2019 Share Posted December 17, 2019 Time for a holiday bump! Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-4412306 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted December 24, 2020 Share Posted December 24, 2020 Merry Christmas! Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-4707588 Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted December 24, 2020 Share Posted December 24, 2020 The ti99/4a has St. Nick, which came out in 1983. https://www.videogamehouse.net/stnick.html 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-4707664 Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunner Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 No year for this game Merry Christmas a pinball game http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-merry-christmas_6671.html 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-4707877 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap! Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 Merry Christmas On 12/24/2020 at 9:48 PM, roadrunner said: No year for this game Merry Christmas a pinball game http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-merry-christmas_6671.html Never heard of that one, I'll have to download it. Thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment https://forums.atariage.com/topic/246275-oldest-christmas-themed-game/#findComment-5373653 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.