There's zero chance I personally would have been capable of building that same software in Awk, even if I knew of it, and even if I knew how to get it onto that

There's zero chance I personally would have been capable of building that same software in Awk, even if I knew of it, and even if I knew how to get it onto that non-networked computer that didn't have any removable media in common with what I had at home.