• tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I remember magazines from the 80s where you could find code in BASIC for some little game. It’s how I learned how to program as a kid.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Oh god, don’t make any typos or you were going from screen to page, page to screen, over and over and over…

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I started learning by editing gorillas.bas. Eventually created an copy of my elementary school’s IBM system at a very basic level, from memory! Another kid my same age and I knew all the admin passwords and we would have hacker wars to lock each other out. We were 11. We also played a lot of a game called Chopper that was on the server. It was fucking awesome and i just tried to find it to link and I can’t seem to.

      Went on to build areas and program mobs/rooms/items with whatever the hell that language was for a low population MUD. I put in thousands of hours. As far as I know all that work is lost.

      Anyway I could have been smart! Instead I discovered that girls are pretty and now I do labor for work.

      Oh what could have been. Just kidding, no regrets.

      • Cypher@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        You might be surprised, many MUDs were kept alive by usenet groups. Any chance you remember the name?

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Lost Prophecy. Then the name changed and I can’t remember it. I have a terrible memory. Admin was Aurora and then Eos. When I left I asked if all my areas could be made available for free download and was told no.

    • whome
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      3 months ago

      I remember typing a whole afternoon with a friend just so the screen did alternate colors, it was so underwhelming I think that killed any spark that I might have had for programming.

      • tunetardis@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        I didn’t even have a color monitor :'( I would’ve been jealous of yours.

        I almost quit programming too when my brother walked in one day as I was feverishly typing. “What? You’re programming basic? That’s for losers.” Then he whips up a ski slalom game in a single incomprehensible line of apl and I was like wtaf?

        Today I’m a professional dev and my bro is a perl hacker. I still can’t understand a line of his code.