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points by throw98226 2 days ago | 0 comments

Took a course on programming the brand new ZX81 back in 1982. Bought one, fell in love with it. Just 15 years old at the time. Wrote lots of programs, stored on cassette using my Grundig cassette recorder. Hardly slept. Just kept learning. Retired early in 2020 after a fulfilling career in IT. Zx81 still is one of my favourite machines!

[–] stephbu 2 days ago

Yes, my dad bought me a ZX81 when I was nine, and got bitten by the thrill of creation. At 18 I dropped out of college, my then lecturer told me I’d never get paid to play games. I bullied my way into the industry, and ended up in the US working for the two of the Mag7, many AAA titles, and a couple of game console platforms.

I’m only a few months away from retiring. I still remember Z80 mnemonics and machine code equivalents even today.

[–] Scubabear68 1 day ago

I was able to talk my dad into getting the U.S. equivalent, the Timex-Sinclair 1000, which had double the RAM - 2K! It was only possible because it was only about $100, compared to every other computer at the time which was way out of our lower-middle class reach.

I spent a lot of time doing stupid animations using the character set and it set me on my path of software for life.

[–] neilwilson 1 day ago

Oh to C9 to those days...