Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/27/watch-adorable-80s-kid-overjo.html
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I’ve got a couple years on that kid, but I’m pretty sure that was my reaction when my Mom found me Big Trak at a Toys R Us on a last minute desperate run on Dec 23d. It was a toy that was a bit of a stretch of the budget, but not completely out of the realm of reason, but my Mom couldn’t find one to save her life – and with a birthday a few months later, she tried to warn the 9 year old me that it might have to wait for then. And — BOOM!
Go Mom!
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…and that little boy was Bill Gates who later co-founded Microsoft.
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I vividly remember a similar Christmas (with as much joy but fewer tears and no wad of cash to repay dad) where all I wanted in the entire world was a ColecoVision. Like Ralphie, I kept leaving Santa little reminders about what a great gift it might be. That morning, there was a notable lack of large, ColecoVision-shaped boxes under the tree, but my parents excitedly pointed me to one gift as “the best one” – it was a Coleco Donkey Kong cartridge, all by itself, no system. “There you go, have fun!” they said, and started cleaning the wrapping paper up. I just stared at it… they couldn’t be that clueless, could they? “What, isn’t that what you wanted?” I tried to figure out how to explain this horrible blunder to them when my dad grinned and pulled a ColecoVision out from behind the couch.
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best and worst dad ever.
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Yeah, I was 20 in 1988 so for me I would have to go back to getting the the Atari 2600.
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I’m almost positive this isn’t Christmas…
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Well, both the kids being fully dressed and dad literally wearing a tie argues against Christmas…
I dared read into the comments thread on the source vid on YouTube (quite non-toxic, especially for YouTube comment threads), and I haven’t yet found a date reference.
Birthday maybe?
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FTFY 
ETA:
Sad side note: Not yet ten year old smulz was so ashamed of his emotive outburst (big boys don’t cry!) that he uttered “Oh Rats!” when he realized his crime against masculinity was recorded.
Another sad side note: Dad feels obliged to mildly reject his son’s spontaneous gratitude by admonishing the boy “Don’t come and hug me, go and play with it!”
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That was me in the 80s. 
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Did they make Donkey Kong for Coleco? I thought DK was exclusive property of Nintendo.
I agree that Colecovision was far superior for its day. The graphics and controller were better than Atari. The baseball game was my favorite.
Edit: nevermind. found the story. Fascinating- I had no idea of the backstory.
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My parents pulled that with our PS2. We unwrapped gran turismo 3, tony hawk’s pro skater 4, and I think Jak &Daxter. They’d hidden the PS2 on the windowsill behind the curtains 
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That video is so 1980s. Also that kid looks like me back then. I had similar horrible glasses and the same haircut as kid.
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My Sister got my Mom a ClecoVision because they enjoyed Donkey Kong at some hotel during a trip to Disney.
Mom was coming down with Alzheimers, and learning the patterns and screens of the game really helped.
It was also fun at family reunions when she’d challenge a kid to a game of Donkey Kong and they’d fail at the first screen and then Mom would get her chance and basically rule the game for 30 mins.
“Aunt L is mean to me”.
And she’d laugh and laugh.
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I’d say “little boy” is technically still accurate, but by 1988 Microsoft already was, well, Microsoft.
THE 1988 BILLIONAIRES, RANKED BY ASSETS
FORTUNE Magazine, September 12, 1988
WILLIAM GATES III, 32
Seattle WASHINGTON $1.4 Bn
40% of Microsoft computer systems. In tenth grade he made $20,000 by developing a computer program that plotted traffic patterns in Seattle. He dropped out of Harvard to co-found Microsoft. The youngest billionaire, he’s over the hill at Microsoft, where the average age is 30. An eligible bachelor who drives too fast.
Source: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1988/09/12/70997/index.htm
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So He’s responsible! *Sharpens pitchfork, wraps oil soaked rags around sticks.*
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You can’t learn how to formulate terms of tender properly too soon.
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