OMG, I went down the same path. In the racket even today. I found out I was a lousy programmer, but a great trouble-shooter of other people's problems. It taught me patience and low cunning.
Thanks to whoever provided that link to the "adventure" games. One of my favorite time sinks, along with the ascii-graphic "rogue" games. I even have versions on my Palm Pilot.
I'd like to try my hand at some massive online game like Warcraft, but I can't bring myself to play all night, and then put in a day's work in the mundane world.
Working for IBM in the latter days of the Kennedy Administration, we had clients all over downtown who were gradually weaning themselves from the old unit-record equipment (sorters, interpreters, and accounting machines) by leasing 1401s programmed to do the exact same things.
Of course our larger customers, such as the leading banks, already had 1410s and 7070’s. But there was still some tube equipment around, including a 709, a couple of 650s, and a few 604s.