As you should already know, I can’t get enough ’80s nostalgia the whole year, but Christmas is an especially nostalgic time for me. In the past, I shared My Christmas Memories from 1980 , My Christmas Memories from 1982 and also My Christmas Memories from 1984, so this year I share another personal photo snapshot that this time takes me back to My Christmas Memories from 1987…
That’s me on the right. Check out that mullet that I had going on. That was just the early stages and I went on to add at least a few more inches of length to back of that bad boy before I cut it off. In the background, you can see our family room television with our original top-load VCR down below. Then below that you can see one of our prized possessions at that time, our Nintendo Entertainment System.
We did not receive our Nintendo Entertainment System as a Christmas gift; my brother and I received it as a shared birthday gift in early 1986. I have great memories of playing a variety of games on that NES, but two of my all-time favorites were gifts received for Christmas in 1987. I received Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! and my brother received The Legend of Zelda that year. Look at those smiles as we joyfully held up these games we hadn’t even played yet, but had wanted to so badly. Though both extremely challenging in their own ways, after hours and hours of entertainment (plus a little frustration) I am proud to say that I eventually completed both of them… and that definitely qualifies them to be on the list of some of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a kid.
The original Punch-Out!! arcade game has always been one of my favorites. One of the iconic sounds from an ’80s arcade would be the “body blow, body blow” and “knock him out!” exclamations ringing above the other memorable tones and music. When they introduced a version of Punch-Out!! that I could play at home, I was on board from the get go. Here was the Nintendo commercial introducing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!…
Yep, sign me up. This would be at the top of my Christmas list that year. And, thankfully, it was one of the gifts under the tree that Christmas morning in 1987. That day, I also started my quest to defeat the entire gambit of opponents in order to get a match against Mike Tyson himself. 
Like the arcade game, it started with Glass Joe, but then proceeded to take on Von Kaiser, Piston Honda, Don Flamenco, King Hippo, Great Tiger, Bald Bull, Piston Honda (again), Soda Popinski, Bald Bull (again), Don Flamenco (again), Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man. If you made it through that gauntlet, you faced off against the Baddest Man on the Planet. It was quite difficult to learn all of the patterns and have the hand-eye coordination to defeat the first 13 opponents, but Mike Tyson felt nearly impossible. This was before the internet and you mostly relied on talking to friends at school to get tips or tricks. I never used them at the time, but I found out later that there were cheat codes to help you get through the game with greater ease. I know now that the code for Tyson is 007-373-5963, but I am proud to stay that I battled through the game without the help of any cheat codes and eventually figured out how to beat the champ. I cannot remember exactly how long this took me to accomplish, but I seem to think it was probably at least 2-3 months of playing quite regularly. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is still one of my favorite NES games ever.
The Legend of Zelda had been released in the U.S. in August of 1987 and this one wasn’t such a sure thing for us. It was not based on an arcade game we were already familiar with or characters we already knew. I would even consider the early commercial for the game more strange than enticing…
See what I mean? I am not sure that commercial was selling the game to anyone, though you may find it interesting that the guy in the commercial is John Kassir who went on to do the voice for the Cryptkeeper in HBO’s Tales From the Crypt. 
I do believe there was some positive word-of-mouth going around regarding The Legend of Zelda and that was enough to get my brother to ask for it for Christmas. Or maybe it was the shiny gold cartridge case? Either way, we were both excited when he opened that present. Even though each game was given to one of us, when it came to video games, my brother and I pretty much shared everything in those earlier years.
In case you are not familiar, The Legend of Zelda is set in the fantasy land of Hyrule where you control an elf-like boy named Link, who needs to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon. 
It was really different than any game I had ever played before and I became obsessed with saving that Princess. One of the coolest features of the game is that it was the first home console game in the U.S. to include an internal battery for saving data. This allowed you to save your progress in the game and continue where you left off. At the time, this was revolutionary. There was no specific path to follow in The Legend of Zelda and that, combined with secrets and hidden aspects, made gameplay extra-challenging. Though Nintendo did offer some game tips in the Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter, I do not recall having those newsletters to help me solve the game. I may have received tips from friends at school along the way, but my recollection is that I ended up eventually beating the game with minimal outside help. A major accomplishment at least at the time.
I wish I would have held on to those original game cartridges like I have with some of my other meaningful childhood toys, but unfortunately we did not consider that as we upgraded to different video game systems down the line. Despite no longer having that physical copy, the memories of playing those favorite NES games (and occasionally blowing into the bottom to “clean the dust out”) will always remain. I believe it was around 1987 when my Christmas list stopped including any toys on it anymore. It might have some board games and obviously video games, but no longer included regular toys and action figures. But I do remember that even though we spent many hours sitting in front of the TV playing video games, we still spent many hours outside playing as well. I remember that Christmas break in 1987 specifically spending an hour or two trying to make some progress on Zelda or figuring out the pattern to beat King Hippo, but then going outside for a few hours to have a snowball fight or playing a game of tackle football in the snow before coming back in drying off and playing a few more games while warming up. We definitely kept a balance between our video game time and doing other stuff as well. Even though I was getting older, Christmas has always been such a special time of the year.
I can’t thank them enough because my parents gave my brother and me a wonderful Christmas each and every year. This included much of what we put in our letters to Santa as well as so many warm memories and traditions. This picture reflects just one more of so many cherished holiday moments from my childhood. Receiving that one gift that you really, really wanted that year. One that also gave us so many hours and hours of entertainment for months to come. Pure Christmas joy. All of that from this one snapshot from 1987. Looking back now, I was actually lucky every Christmas. But this was another year I was especially lucky. For a long time, I thought nothing could be better than being a kid opening presents on Christmas morning, but I have since learned that it is only exceeded by watching your own children open their presents on Christmas morning. But my own childhood memories are still pretty awesome, too. All the best to you this Christmas season. Hope you are all creating awesome holiday memories like I am so grateful to have from the ’80s and every other decade of my life.
Revisit Old School Tim’s previous Christmas Memories features for more ’80s nostalgia:
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