This reminds me of a beloved tool from my youth, Maxis' (of SimCity fame) Klik n' Play. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klik_&_Play http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kl

This reminds me of a beloved tool from my youth, Maxis' (of SimCity fame) Klik n' Play. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klik_&_Play http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klik_&_Play There was something very empowering about being handed a tool for instructing the computer to do what I was most interested in it doing: creating new games. My friends and I created dozens of half-baked ideas, and I even went so far as prototyping a real time strategy game. There's something about the immediate reward for completing a task -- "hey, I made this character move!" -- that kept me coming back, and led eventually to programming games in C, C++, and the continuation of my lifelong infatuation with computer programming. Now that I have children of my own, I seriously consider setting up an emulator so they can learn from the systems that I used, like the C64, DOS, and others -- back when computers were hard, but not insurmountable, and we cut our eyeteeth on the command line. In the modern world of immersive 3D simulations and slick GUIs, I wonder what children are learning about computers, and what will draw aspiring programmers to further explore.