Xerp's Journal: Wow. Flashback time following a /. article!

Ah yes, those were the days!

For me it all started with the Texas Instruments TI99/4a. Ok, actually it all started with a computer shop, some computer magazines and then an "informed" decision on the computer to get. As I was only 8 at the time I had to do _a lot_ of nagging to get my parents to get me the TI, but thankfully my birthday is so close to Christmas that I managed to forgoe all other presents to get the item of my dreams...

Obviously I needed some games to go with is as well, so I got the bundle with some Scott Adams adventures and Tunnels of Doom. Boy did Tunnels of Doom ROCK. I still have that tune going round in my head! 10 whole levels (count 'em!) of RPG heaven. Little did I know this would lead me on to Nethack only a few short years later...

Of course the Scott Adams adventures lead to a whole new world of learning. I'm in a hermetically sealed room with the air being slowly sucked out. I've got 4 chances to type the correct action or I die. And all because I said "Yo ho ho" to a pirate... And polly never did say why she liked crackers. And never put 'Old Paint' on your walls... See? This stuff sticks in your memory. Ask me about something else that happened to me when I was 8 and I wouldn't be able to remember!

Of course then I had all those great Computer Weekly magazines as well so I could spend HOURS typing in a 500 line program, saving it to tape, and then finding the errors :) Must have been my very first introduction to Open Source! Without this I would never have become the Linux zealot I am today.. hehe