Special Disk

When I was a kid, my family had a Commodore 64 computer.

Most of our games came from the store. Others we typed in from magazines. But for as long as I remember (we got the computer when I was two), we had this special hand-labeled disk.

When you ran the special disk, a menu of games appeared in yellow text:

Donkey Kong
Choplifter
Dig Dug
...

I can't remember the full list. I think number seven was Pacman. Or was it Defender?

At the bottom was a prompt. (Was it in French? The only French text on the disk.) You type a number, wait on a yellow loading screen, and then the game appears.

I loved that disk. We got rid of all our C64 disks years ago, but I wish I could see that full list again.

I do remember game number ten on my special disk: Robotron.

This game always stood out, because it never worked. Whenever I selected number ten, the disk would hang on that yellow loading screen for eternity. I tried many, many times.

And so Robotron gained a mythical status throughout my childhood. What was it like? I imagined so many different things.

With nothing concrete to attach to, the name grew more and more evocative over time: Robotron.

But eventually we got a PC, and I stopped using the special disk. The mystery of Robotron receded into my childhood memories and waited.

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