Heh, I managed to get the thing bouncing fairly easily, even figured out how to make it bounce like the ball in breakout (never figured out gravity, though). What I got hung up on was polling for input. I couldn't even put together the words "poll for input", so I didn't even know what to ask! My first game wound up being a "guess that sound" game. After I hacked the animal guessing game a bit, I learned how to write text adventures, and then I wrote a dozen of those. Well, maybe not a dozen, but when 90% of your code is data statements, you can write a lot of games.
Dave Visit my website! http://www.davefancella.com Also, I'm currently looking for a job. So while you're at my website, look at my resume! http://www.davefancella.com/resume/dave.html On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 1:54 PM, Keith Aric Hall <[email protected]> wrote: > I started with the C64 and BASIC like Dave. I remember spending hours trying > to get that little black dot to bounce across the screen...and I was typing > straight from the manual! Ah, the good ol' days. In fact, I still have my > C64 and the colossal 5/14" floppy drive. > > As for starting off, I agree with Chris (and Dave) regarding Python or Ruby. > Ruby in particular would allow kids to see quick results to their efforts > and hopefully encourage them to dig deeper into the foundations of good > programming. > > Keith > > On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Dave Fancella <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Eek, I don't really have a good answer, because I started on the >> Commodore 64, where you had to know a little BASIC to do anything. I >> was probably 9 or 10 when I wrote my first actual game, but I'd done a >> fair amount of keyboard graphics animations by then (and also hacked >> on a few games we already had. I got kicked out of the school library >> for fixing a bug in Oregon Trail by a luddite librarian). Moved on to >> AmigaBasic, later BlitzBasic, taught myself C in high school (C++ was >> still a rising force at the time, considered too big for PCs), and >> formally studied Pascal. (If it's not obvious, I've moved on quite a >> bit since then, but you can look at my resume to see what's happened >> since then) >> >> I think that nowadays I'd try to direct a kid to python. It has the >> same qualities that made commodore basic relatively easy to pick up as >> a kid and also enforces a certain amount of "good coding strategies". >> It's on my list to provide my own kids with a computer that has easy >> access to python to see if they take to it. ;) >> >> In any case, there is an open source version of the old turtle game >> that I never played (Logo?) that I'd be willing to spring on my kids. >> There's also a tank battle game that lets you use any language that >> I'd also be happy to spring on my kids (it runs your program as a >> separate process and connects pipes to stdin/stdout, it's called >> realtimebattles or something like that. I'd be interested in someone >> to play that with myself whenever I have time for such gratuitous >> programming :) ). >> >> Visit my website! >> http://www.davefancella.com >> >> Also, I'm currently looking for a job. So while you're at my website, >> look at my resume! >> http://www.davefancella.com/resume/dave.html >> >> >> >> On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Ryan Joy <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > I posed the following question to Twitter earlier and thought I'd >> > probably get some great responses from here as well: >> > >> > "Did you start tinkering w/ programming as a child? If so, how? >> > Which programs? What are the best options for aspiring children >> > today?" >> > http://twitter.com/atxryan/status/1389232099 >> > >> > Personally, I first tinkered with BASIC programs in MS DOS when I was >> > in middle school and then got into C++ in junior high. >> > >> > You? >> > >> > - RYAN JOY >> > http://twitter.com/atxryan >> > >> > > >> > >> >> > > > > -- > Keith Aric Hall > > http://www.keitharichall.com/ > twitter: keitharichall > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
