You were unlucky, I went the other way. I did start on basic on my Z80 machine, but since you could only really write adventure games with basic, I moved onto Z80 assembly language. Then, I moved onto x86 assembly language.
Every from that point has been easier, in most ways.
I was lucky, everyone of my friends had a C64, and they were swapping games. We couldn't afford a C64 at AU$399 at the time, so they got me the VZ300 for $99. I had to write my own games. This is how I got into development.
I was one of the few that could program, before I went to Uni. It was around the time that CS was becoming very popular, but hadn't start to differentiate between different sorts of IT, so they offered everything. The classes I found best were hardware, OS, and the half year class were we had to write the same program in 4 different languages.
I think I'm considerably younger than you. The only reason I ever needed assembly was to patch executables without source in my GUI OS; the days of insane resource constraints were already gone.
Hah, that makes two of us! Except iI didn't have the luxury of a Z80, I started on an 8080 that didn't even run CP/M... Ahhh the Compulcolor II, what a fine machine you were. At least you made me learn how a computer works.
I still remember how good it felt when my brother started loading up the games that I wrote rather than the few 'commercial' games that we had for the system.
PS: VZ300??? I thought I knew everything about the Australian 8-bit computer scene, but I managed to miss that one.
The VZ300 was made by Dick Smith, a successor to the VZ200. It had a huge hacker user community, their were program listings and hardware mods in APC magazine. After the VZ line, Dick smith bought out there CAT computer line, which were much more powerful, and more expensive.
Great little machine for $100. Funny thing, the VZ200 had a chiklet keyboard, which are becomming popular again. One of the big selling points of the VZ300 was that it had a proper keyboard.
Comments
You were unlucky, I went the other way. I did start on basic on my Z80 machine, but since you could only really write adventure games with basic, I moved onto Z80 assembly language. Then, I moved onto x86 assembly language.
Every from that point has been easier, in most ways.
I was lucky, everyone of my friends had a C64, and they were swapping games. We couldn't afford a C64 at AU$399 at the time, so they got me the VZ300 for $99. I had to write my own games. This is how I got into development.
I was one of the few that could program, before I went to Uni. It was around the time that CS was becoming very popular, but hadn't start to differentiate between different sorts of IT, so they offered everything. The classes I found best were hardware, OS, and the half year class were we had to write the same program in 4 different languages.
I think I'm considerably younger than you. The only reason I ever needed assembly was to patch executables without source in my GUI OS; the days of insane resource constraints were already gone.
Hah, that makes two of us! Except iI didn't have the luxury of a Z80, I started on an 8080 that didn't even run CP/M... Ahhh the Compulcolor II, what a fine machine you were. At least you made me learn how a computer works.
I still remember how good it felt when my brother started loading up the games that I wrote rather than the few 'commercial' games that we had for the system.
PS: VZ300??? I thought I knew everything about the Australian 8-bit computer scene, but I managed to miss that one.
The VZ300 was made by Dick Smith, a successor to the VZ200. It had a huge hacker user community, their were program listings and hardware mods in APC magazine. After the VZ line, Dick smith bought out there CAT computer line, which were much more powerful, and more expensive.
Great little machine for $100. Funny thing, the VZ200 had a chiklet keyboard, which are becomming popular again. One of the big selling points of the VZ300 was that it had a proper keyboard.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=...
To do Assembly language programming I had to get the 16KB upgrade kit, which was this huge piece of hardware that stuck in the back.