{"id":21323,"date":"2025-12-24T10:37:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/24\/i-plugged-in-zelda-and-everything-changed-developers-share-their-fondest-christmas-gaming-memories\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T10:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:37:58","slug":"i-plugged-in-zelda-and-everything-changed-developers-share-their-fondest-christmas-gaming-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/24\/i-plugged-in-zelda-and-everything-changed-developers-share-their-fondest-christmas-gaming-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I plugged in Zelda and everything changed\u2019: developers share their fondest Christmas gaming memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a family showdown on Guitar Hero III to the winter levels in Diddy Kong Racing, the designers of some of today\u2019s top titles recall the gifts and moments that lit up their childhoods<\/p>\n

There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It\u2019s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console \u2013 the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It\u2019s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.<\/p>\n

Veteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. \u201cZelda was completely unknown to me at the time,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I\u2019d played before. It didn\u2019t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nFrom a family showdown on Guitar Hero III to the winter levels in Diddy Kong Racing, the designers of some of today\u2019s top titles recall the gifts and moments that lit up their childhoods
\nThere is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It\u2019s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console \u2013 the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It\u2019s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.
\nVeteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. \u201cZelda was completely unknown to me at the time,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I\u2019d played before. It didn\u2019t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday \u2026\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a family showdown on Guitar Hero III to the winter levels in Diddy Kong Racing, the designers of some of today\u2019s top titles recall the gifts and moments that lit up their childhoods There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It\u2019s an old home movie …<\/p>\n

\u2018I plugged in Zelda and everything changed\u2019: developers share their fondest Christmas gaming memories<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21323"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}