I remember Byte magazine too. When I discovered it and was able to subscribe, every issue was full of exciting new ideas, amazing incredible list of endless companies selling pc stuff. My grandfather signed up for it, and then I later got my own subscription. I was in high school, and I loved the tech world. I don't know why I didn't try to get a job in some computer repair shop. I was lucky enough to have an atari 400, the casette drive, the chiclet keyboard. I learned basic, then I hand assembled 6502 assembly to do stuff. I had that great book, De Rei Atari, and I did some crazy stuff like a little assembly on the vertical blank interval to do some wacky visual effect.

This was a foundational time for and probably millions of future engineers. I wish I could go back to that time ;-)