ahh, the joy of Z80 assembly. Such fond memories I had of hacking at my Laser 200[1], bought with my own money (I didn't have enough to buy a Thompson MO5[2], I

ahh, the joy of Z80 assembly. Such fond memories I had of hacking at my Laser 200[1], bought with my own money (I didn't have enough to buy a Thompson MO5[2], I was only 13 at the time). You had to plug it into the TV, there was no way to record your programs although I got a tape recorder later. I later completely mapped the circuit board to understand how it was working and built a 16K static memory expansion (the original was too expensive). I started bypassing basic and hacking away using PEEK and POKE commands, then hand-compiled small assembly programs (had to find out the OP-codes to directly store them in memory). I later got an Amstrad 6128 that I bought from a friend. It had CP/M and a proper assembler, and a floppy drive, and a lot more fun was to be had with this one. I still got my Laser 200. It probably still works, I hope. These early computer were great: with a bit of perseverance, you could understand everything about them. The electronics, how the ROM was working, it was such fun to discover all these undocumented capabilities, to try to lift the hood and make sense of it all. I don't know if this is a lost art today. The success of the Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms give me hope that there is still an interest in low-level hacking. As a young boy, it was so extremely formative to live during that era. Even though we didn't have the Internet, I still feel very fortunate for having access to these eminently hackable early personal computers. [1]:http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=155&st=1 http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=155&s... [2]:http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=12 http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=...