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.
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
147 points (95.1% liked)
Today I Learned
17733 readers
97 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Oh god, don't make any typos or you were going from screen to page, page to screen, over and over and over...
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.
You might be surprised, many MUDs were kept alive by usenet groups. Any chance you remember the name?
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.
Yes! Basic Training in 3-2-1 Contact.
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.
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.
Some people are built different.
Haven't watched the video, but isn't that what most small computer shops do to this day?
I was about to reply with https://pcpartpicker.com/
But actually they mean on the chip level - and interview a guy who made whole clone machines himself including his own motherboards
Wow, that's impressive! It's a shame such a cool skill is not really needed nowadays where everything is either standardized or there are a few models.
This was also in the US up until at least 2000. There were frequent Computer Show and Sales held at fairgrounds. Hundreds of vendors each selling different components you'd mix and match.
I was coming here to say this. Before NewEgg, the best way to buy computer parts was to show up at a conventions center or fairgrounds, firehall or community college for the next Computer Show. Buy some parts in cash from people who speak barely any English and then either take it all home and start assembling or hand it off to the ancient guy chain-smoking at the back door and pay him to zip-tie it together in 5 minutes for you.
Years and years of doing this and we only had one situation when we cracked the case later and found out the guy has swapped the parts we bought for used Dell components when we were at lunch. Always took them home after that.
God those were fun! And if you wanted to play with older tech, you got rock-bottom prices.
Lol no computer shopper was the way.
Now, if you want to build a fairly beefy PC, I have to pay super ridiculous prices. A lot of chips are no longer made here and most things like graphics cards are a niche product costing a ton (especially with how the yen is doing lately). When I built this PC in 2016ish, it was cheaper to eat the exchange rate and the import duties to import some things from the US (NewEgg at the time).
the parts are cheap, the prices are low
Linus tech tips and strange parts have done videos on having computers and custom electronics built in Akihabara.
Can do this today in India