I played games on the C64, but never programmed it. I started with GW-BASIC. I guess it depends on the kind of programmer you are. I consider myself a top-down

I played games on the C64, but never programmed it. I started with GW-BASIC. I guess it depends on the kind of programmer you are. I consider myself a top-down programmer, where I try to get functionality as easy as possible. If there is a lib, I will use it, and don't need to know what's inside. So for me, these times are way better where you can get crazy amount of functionality in a few lines of code. But I know plenty of programmers that I label as bottom-up programmers. They love the technology first, and functionality comes second. So for these people, they were able to fully understand a system back then. I worked with plenty of such people in the embedded world. So if you are into that stuff, I wouldn't waste my time with old systems, but get your hands on something new, but still simple enough to fully comprehend. Such as an Arduino. But maybe better ask a "bottom-up" developer what they enjoy nowadays.