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Comment by TheBlight | Hacker News Reader

Having flashbacks to being 7 years old and asking my dad for a Nintendo and instead getting a 286 with Lotus 123 and Indiana Jones text adventure.

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I asked for a LISP Machine. I didn't know what it was, but it looked really cool at the Computer Museum in Boston (this must have been late 80s).

Instead I got a Commodore 64, and thus my first language was BASIC, instead of LISP.

I will happily pin any and all failures in my life on this tragedy and accept no comments.

Same. Begged my dad for a NES. Got C64 instead "because its better, you will see..." Changed my life.

Changed your life for the better I hope? My kids asked for a Nintendo Switch, but instead got a Steam Deck, along with my 12-year old desktop that is on it's second GPU, second pair of RAM, and third disk drive but still chugging along well. Those systems aren't anywhere near hackable like when we were kids, but I'm hoping just the possibility being there is enough.

It did. Although him buying my little brother a NES 2 years later stung a bit.

Newer systems offer dramatically more opportunity for hacking. The problem is that you just don’t have to.

If you want to introduce hacking for necessity, try introducing an SBC into the mix. For $40, you can get a system younger you could be never dream of. Actually there is a Milk-V is $5 right now.

Yeah in retrospect it was very much the right call. Thanks Dad!

I begged for a BBC Micro and got a ZX Spectrum. Turned out to be much better at getting me interested in programming, even if the Spectrum was on the way out.

The simpler hardware of the Spectrum was much more approachable. And the basic was so slow that you really had to learn some Z80 assembly!

> The simpler hardware of the Spectrum was much more approachable.

I'd contest that assertion. I was 15 when when my folks bought my BBC Model B. It was a far more interesting machine to hack around on than the Spectrum. The BBC was set up my future as a software developer.

Are you contesting that it was more approachable? I didn’t say the Spectrum was more interesting - it definitely wasn’t!

Apologies. I also meant to say that the BBC was just as approachable as the Spectrum then lost my train of thought after the phone rang :) I found the Spectrum super frustrating to use, especially with that dead-flesh membrane keyboard.

I got an apple 2gs with leisure suit larry that neither me nor my much older brother could reliably figure out the answers to the "age verification questions" at start-up

Interesting, apparently these are the questions http://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.htm...

next step: figure out the jokes for the punchlines. :)

Sounds like you made out much better

Asked for a computer and didn't get one so had to code friends ones or use parents ones / school computers.

I wasn't permitted to have a computer until I'd passed my 'O' levels, so instead typed out my code on a clonky 1960's office typewriter in the evenings and weekends. I did have rudimentary syntax highlighting because it used a black/red ribbon :)

Hah I wanted a Megadrive and got an old (even for the time) BBC B.

At least you got a computer. :-D

You have obviously never used a Timex/Sinclair 1000.

LOL. I loved my ZX81.

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