Boast: after writing a character scroll (trivial, just a block memory move - one Z80 instruction, LDIR), I worked out how to do one using the quarter-character

Boast: after writing a character scroll (trivial, just a block memory move - one Z80 instruction, LDIR), I worked out how to do one using the quarter-character "pixels", the heart of which was three bitwise boolean instructions. I was delighted to later see in the source code for the ZX81 basic (by Steve Vickers), that the line drawing routines using those pixels used identical instructions. Boast: at 15, I wrote a game for the ZX81 (in machine code), that had many simultaneous sprites, all animated at once; a tiled scrolled background; a massive ship explosion; and even different keyboard control selections. I showed it to a game retailer, and they agreed to stock it! All I needed to do was supply them with cassettes + covers... Shame: I didn't do this. A good effect was then when I next was running a business, I resolved to not cop out on the difficult things (read: boring). It's important to recognize mistakes as choices (and not things beyond your control, such as intrinsic inability, "I can't"), because then you have the power to choose otherwise.