Todd asked: > Just out of curiosity, what was some of the first software you worked > on 20 years (or close to 20 years) ago?
Several years before I started my Computer Science studies in 1988 (which I changed halfway into Information Ergonomics) I tinkered with a Commodore. It was the C-16 model with 16K of memory, a tapedrive, and a toilet paper roll sized printer. The 16K shriveled to 1K when you turned on the graphics mode. Limited as it was, I still managed to earn money (no idea about fame) by writing games and tools from 1982 to 1986 (yes, I was 12 in 1982). My favorite game was one where you flew with a helicopter through a 2D maze of caves, rescuing people along the way. It was published in a magazine where interested players had to type the code, line by line, printed on the pages of the magazine. The most challenging game was one where I used the graphics mode to show a city being blasted to pieces by a canon that was controlled by the user. I had to change the line numbers from the usual 10, 20, 30, etc. range to 1, 2, 3, etc. to save the necessary bytes... The tools were mostly game-maker tools; I was my own test audience. To create any game that looked interesting, you had to change the character set. I got tired of creating these on paper, then calculate the required codes and enter them by hand, so I created a tool that allowed me to create them on the C-16. The screen featured the character Oh, and anything that allowed me to do my homework better. I think I learned French by typing and retyping and retyping the words I needed to learn into the code. The fact that the resulting program allowed me to train me was only part of the deal :-) Okay, now I feel like a nerd ;-) Peter P.S.: My "company" was called Social Software Services. I now wish I had patented that name ;-) -- Peter Boersma | Senior Interaction Designer | Info.nl http://www.peterboersma.com/blog | http://www.info.nl ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
