When the First Christmas Computer Demo was Created?
Christmas is indeed a wonderful time of the year. And it inspired not only artists and musicians but also software developers and engineers. When first Xmas programs were made, and what they were looking like? Let’s figure it out.
Before we begin, a small disclaimer: in this article, I will write only about personal computers, and the review will begin from the 80s. Some demos or programs, related to Christmas, were highly likely made before this date, for example for PDP or IBM mainframes, but I was not able to find anything related to that, and probably, these disks, tapes, or cards were lost or never published online. Computers from the 60s and 70s were large and expensive, they were used only by big companies and institutions — there was just no reason for anybody to keep these disks at home or garage. I only saw the photo from Ken Shirriff’s blog, where he printed a Christmas card using the IBM 1401 mainframe in 2017, so it was definitely possible:
Anyway, if someone has more information about that era, please write in the comments below.
And now, let’s go back in time and see, how Christmas graphics “evolved” from those mainframe’s punch cards to something like this:
