>we went from Hello World, to doing VGA graphics with the different SCREEN modes and FILL, LINE, etc, making programs that could play christmas carols using the

>we went from Hello World, to doing VGA graphics with the different SCREEN modes and FILL, LINE, etc, making programs that could play christmas carols using the built-in MIDI commands I miss these in the new generation of languages. You could do so much cool stuff with swithcing to graphics mode and using pixel, line and circle commands. I was able to write a (1) shooter where you shoot down a plane that moves horizontally across the screen and the projectile was subject to 'gravity'. (2) A program that 'morphs' one outline to another. (3) A wireframe/3d space shooter. I was able to build all this without the internet, with plain high school math and physics. And I wonder if I was a kid who grew up in todays environment, I would have been able to build the same. I have the internet, but I doubt I would be enticed into making stuff like that, like I was enticed by QBasic. I mean, one minute you are printing multiplication tables, the next minute you are turning individual pixels on/off on the screen. I remember it being a very empowering feeling.