Pitfall II was the first video game I ever owned. Good times.
The impact games had on my generation should not be underestimated. I am sure for many if not most people who got interested in computer programming, games were the entry way. For me, it's certainly true. Ever since my dad brought home a used Commodore 64, I wanted to learn how to program it. The C64 User Manual got read over and over again until it almost fell apart.
And in a way, the simple times back then made this not only possible but also almost a necessity. Pre-internet, you didn't have access to millions of games. So if you wanted to do something with that great machine, learning how to write your own game (which, coincidentally, I never mastered) seemed like the only logical thing. And it was entirely possible: flip the on/off switch and two seconds later, you're greated by a BASIC prompt. Have fun!
(Of course, later on people started to figure out how to circumvent copy protection and it was very common for some kids to share floppy disks with cracked games on the school yard. Copying a disk, however, required special tools and would take quite long because you'd only have one disk drive but the computer did not have enough memory to fit all the contents into memory. So you would have to go back and forth between the source and the target disk a few times. This took up 10, 15 minutes if memory serves right. And you could never be sure if the copy would actually work, for some reason. You'd have to try different copying tools to find one that did the job right.)
The closest to that feeling today is probably coding JavaScript, but the experience is entirely different. It's actually much better today, in that the chances are much lower for you to get stuck - there's infinity free programming resources, plus platforms like StackOverflow where you can find answers to common questions, or even try to ask some questions of your own (good luck, newbie).
But I still look back fondly to the endless hours that I spend in my room in front of a bulky but tiny monitor, staring at these 16 colors, having big dreams of fantastic games and learning by just figuring things out.
And every now and then, when things got too frustrating, you could always put in the old cassette tape and load up Pitfall II again to give yourself a break.
The impact games had on my generation should not be underestimated. I am sure for many if not most people who got interested in computer programming, games were the entry way. For me, it's certainly true. Ever since my dad brought home a used Commodore 64, I wanted to learn how to program it. The C64 User Manual got read over and over again until it almost fell apart.
And in a way, the simple times back then made this not only possible but also almost a necessity. Pre-internet, you didn't have access to millions of games. So if you wanted to do something with that great machine, learning how to write your own game (which, coincidentally, I never mastered) seemed like the only logical thing. And it was entirely possible: flip the on/off switch and two seconds later, you're greated by a BASIC prompt. Have fun!
(Of course, later on people started to figure out how to circumvent copy protection and it was very common for some kids to share floppy disks with cracked games on the school yard. Copying a disk, however, required special tools and would take quite long because you'd only have one disk drive but the computer did not have enough memory to fit all the contents into memory. So you would have to go back and forth between the source and the target disk a few times. This took up 10, 15 minutes if memory serves right. And you could never be sure if the copy would actually work, for some reason. You'd have to try different copying tools to find one that did the job right.)
The closest to that feeling today is probably coding JavaScript, but the experience is entirely different. It's actually much better today, in that the chances are much lower for you to get stuck - there's infinity free programming resources, plus platforms like StackOverflow where you can find answers to common questions, or even try to ask some questions of your own (good luck, newbie).
But I still look back fondly to the endless hours that I spend in my room in front of a bulky but tiny monitor, staring at these 16 colors, having big dreams of fantastic games and learning by just figuring things out.
And every now and then, when things got too frustrating, you could always put in the old cassette tape and load up Pitfall II again to give yourself a break.
SHIFT + RUN/STOP