Really? Many of us discovered around the age or 13 or 14 that POKE #B8000 plus a little arithmetic was significantly faster than using OS calls to write text t

Really? Many of us discovered around the age or 13 or 14 that POKE #B8000 plus a little arithmetic was significantly faster than using OS calls to write text to the screen. We were wrapping those in functions, inlining ASM, and building text-mode UIs as teenagers - not as long-time professionals, not college grads, and without all the information available on the modern internet. Over the next few years, as graphical stuff became more common, we were trying different algorithms to optimize polygon fills, mouse drivers, custom fonts, etc. That was a part-time hobby for teenagers. Did not require greybeard gurus with lifetime achievement awards and college degrees and the entire internet of information always available. It was just the basics, the fundamentals, a few decades ago.