DEV Community

Discussion on: How old have you been when you started programming and what was your first project?

Collapse
 
ghost profile image
Ghost

I had a ZX-81 in the 80's, with BASIC and 1K RAM. My neighbor Simon and I used to type programs into it from magazines, one character at a time into that membrane keyboard. Then we'd save them to cassette tapes.

Later we added a 16k RAM extension. By that time, Simon was programming in hex, which he'd dictate and I'd type. I became the typist at that stage, awestruck how he'd come up with all these codes that were drawing lines, sprites etc.

While typing, you had to be careful not to bump the RAM extension pack, which plugged into the back of the ZX-81. If you bump it, you could break the plug's electrical contact, which would clear the RAM. Then you'd be back to square one, and have to start typing your program again. So we used lots of blu-tac around the RAM pack to lock it in place.