The first piece of "real" software I ever wrote was called "DISC" because it's initial feature was printing out the discriminant of a parabola. But I added to t

The first piece of "real" software I ever wrote was called "DISC" because it's initial feature was printing out the discriminant of a parabola. But I added to that program as the high school algebra class continued so that by the end of the class, it could spit out answers to all sorts of problems. Everybody loved it. A fellow student assumed the name stood for "DISCovery", so I retroactively made it so. After that came a little text-based adventure game that made the rounds. And then what was to be my magnum opus: a graphical adventure with locations you could select with a "mouse" cursor controlled by the arrow keys. Everything was first plotted out on graph paper and hand written because it was actually FASTER TO WRITE TI-BASIC ON PAPER than entering the program using the calculator keys. I had overcome the biggest technical hurdles and it was looking great when, for some reason, I decided to change the AA batteries AND the coin cell battery at the same time. Everything else was backed up to friend's calculators. But not that graphical adventure game. It was gone as soon as that coin cell came out. I did not have the heart to re-enter the program and the school year was ending anyway. I still remember that sinking feeling when I realized my work was lost.