[deoetdoctrinae]

My first was also a VIC-20. I remember copying the programming for my first game from a computer magazine and saving on the cassette deck. The game was called “Webster” and featured a spider (doing what I don’t recall).

Copying all that stuff was laborious as heck, and if you screwed up one little digit it didn’t run, and you had to study where you went wrong until your eyes bled! But when ya got it right, it was time to play all night. God, I was easily amused in those days.

[whd23]

This Webster ?

The magazines became more user friendly later on. First you entered the "automatic proofreader" for BASIC programs (this is the one you had to carefully scrutinize, no safety net). Then you used the auto-proofreader to enter the BASIC "Machine Language Editor" loader. Finally you used the MLX to enter pages and pages of numbers as listed in the back of the magazine.

Not too long ago I used a scanner + OCR + some quick & dirty 'C' programs to convert paper MLX-I listings to MLX-II listings so I could enter them on my C64. My little boy really digs "daddy's old computer" LOL!

[Rodamala]

I figure that coding your own games back when we were growing up was the equivalent to carving a slingshot from a tree branch or maybe setting the points on your dirtbike or something like that.

What do kids have these days?

Downloadable applications for an I-phone?

Fail.

Every new generation of Americans becomes more and more ignorant in regards to taking care of themselves. It's no wonder we have the government we do right now.