I wanted a Nintendo 64, but mom talked me into accepting a computer, on the grounds that you can do more than play games with it. Games used to have uncompress

I wanted a Nintendo 64, but mom talked me into accepting a computer, on the grounds that you can do more than play games with it. Games used to have uncompressed assets and plain text configuration, so I learned a little about how computers work through modding and hacking. I dabbled in simple programming environments like ZZT or Game Maker, but things only really clicked when I started making websites with PHP, right around the time CSS came out. Then languages begun evolving in usability beyond C/C++ and Java, I picked up D and wrote my first console program. It was still game related, renaming my Moonbase Commander replay files collection to appear chronologically in the in-game browser. I realized programming didn't have to be painful anymore. Then the scripting language revolution happened, first I wrote an AI for OpenTTD in Squirrel, then the similar but even better Lua appeared and now I'm developing a game. I'd always kept studying across the Internet though. Reading tutorials, SIGRAPH papers, forums, hobby collaborations, etc. while trying to figure out not just how computers work, but how I could make them work for me. Oh and I took two years of electrical engineering where we designed and programmed microcontrollers. And I've played every Zachtronics game. Toyed with esoteric stuff like Brainfuck and Corewar, just for the sport. One of my favorite activities is watching people play games while trying to figure out how they were programmed. Speedrunners discovering glitches and exploits reveals a great deal of the inner workings.