A Christian Rock Band Hid a Commodore 64 Program on Their 1984 Album

In 1984, the Christian rock band Prodigal encoded a hidden Commodore 64 program into the runout groove of their Electric Eye album. In the above video, Commodore 64 aficionado Robin Harbron walks through the steps of recording and capturing the program and actually running it. The program itself is pretty small, just displaying two quotes from Albert Einstein and Jesus Christ. (You can also download the Commodore 64 track from Prodigal’s website for free, but where’s the fun in that?)

It’s literally impossible for me to not be fascinated by this story, as it exists at the (unlikely) intersection of Christian music history and Commodore 64 nostalgia.

I love discovering little weird nuggets like this about Christian bands, especially bands from yesteryear; it further reveals that Christian music is stranger and more interesting than many might give it credit for. As for the Commodore 64 nostalgia, the first computer my family ever owned was a “portable” SX-64, and I spent many hours in junior high playing Bard’s Tale video games with my friend Jason on his Commodore 64.

I realize this is a very specific form of nerdery, but I am totally here for it. Via