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Looking at the demo without running it yet, that looks amazing. It reminds me a lot of the QBasic game Outer Space Wars that I wrote when I was 14, having taugh

by rietta 11y ago

Looking at the demo without running it yet, that looks amazing. It reminds me a lot of the QBasic game Outer Space Wars that I wrote when I was 14, having taught myself QBasic from reading a book checked out from the local library. I too made a font editor using some crazy string manipulation to make up for not yet understanding the modulus operator at the time. I so need to try to find those disks and take a look back at some of the first code I ever wrote as a fledgling self-taught teenage programmer. OP, thank you for bringing back the memories. To younger programmers, Internet access was not quite a thing that I had access to then. Before my dad got AOL, I was only allowed to log into the county library BBS and not any public system. One actually used a modem to dial directly in at that time and no one else could use it simultaneously. Once my family had AOL, I later was able to participate in a programmer chat room on AOL, which was the entry into a whole new world.

pjmlp 11y ago
To further enlighten our younger programmers, I only had BBS access for the first time on a summer job internship just before going to the university. No way my parents would pay for a modem on those days nor for the regional phone rates. That BBS was the only one in a probably 80 KM radius and with a maximum of 4 connections. So yeah, learning to code meant demoscene parties, magazine listenings, get programming books as gift or being able to find something at the local library (usually from the 70's and early 80's). As for development software, we would either type the compiler/interpreter ourselves from those magazines and books, or use one of those bundled tapes/disks if lucky to find them. Also during those days, the local street markets where a common source of software.
reidrac 11y ago
In my case, before the Internet there was "the programming & shareware magazines". They usually included a CD with lots of freeware, shareware and some open source too (that's how I got DJGPP or POV, for example). And you needed friends, because it was impossible to buy all the interesting magazines every month, so CD-ROM trading was a thing back then.

by rietta 11y ago

pjmlp 11y ago

To further enlighten our younger programmers, I only had BBS access for the first time on a summer job internship just before going to the university. No way my parents would pay for a modem on those days nor for the regional phone rates. That BBS was the only one in a probably 80 KM radius and with a maximum of 4 connections. So yeah, learning to code meant demoscene parties, magazine listenings, get programming books as gift or being able to find something at the local library (usually from the 70's and early 80's). As for development software, we would either type the compiler/interpreter ourselves from those magazines and books, or use one of those bundled tapes/disks if lucky to find them. Also during those days, the local street markets where a common source of software.

reidrac 11y ago

In my case, before the Internet there was "the programming & shareware magazines". They usually included a CD with lots of freeware, shareware and some open source too (that's how I got DJGPP or POV, for example). And you needed friends, because it was impossible to buy all the interesting magazines every month, so CD-ROM trading was a thing back then.