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Comment by coroxout | Hacker News Reader

I loved BASIC games listing books as a kid. I was so excited whenever a new one came into the local public library.

From a few years later (mid-80s) and probably aimed at a younger audience, but this was my favourite series: http://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getcompany=usborne-hayes

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Some of the early computer magazines often contained listings of games. I remember one where you were required to type in about 1000 lines of Basic data statements, liberally sprinkled with checksums. Finally, after a couple of days typing, I typed 'Run' and hit the enter key expectantly. The screen cleared, and two big red words appeared: "April Fool".

Was that the Spectrum magazine article that claimed the Spectrum was actually a Spectrum Plus under the hood, and all that was required was to poke in the printed page of machine code - in hex, mind you - to unleash it's glorious abilities.

A couple of hours of typing later, and the big red 'April Fools' message appears...

I had a couple of those!

The one I most used though I can't recall the title. Small book, green cover, probably geared specifically towards "IBM" BASIC (i.e. BASICA/GW-BASIC). Same idea, as far as learning BASIC for kids by typing in short programs and games. Maybe I'll find it buried at my parents' house somewhere sometime.

Sometimes when I get depressed about kids these days learning Javascript as their first language, I remember that I started with GW-BASIC and I turned out ok. :)

Yes! I had several of those books, the Fantasy Games one being my favourite. I frequently credit them with getting me into programming/CS. Though I don't think I ever quite understood the "Machine Code for Beginners" one, and I certainly never got all the way through typing in the others, it was the sheer "behind the curtain"-ness of it all that was amazing as a kid.

Thanks! Some of these were the only programming books that our local library had (in the mid 90s). I remember the Adventure Programs book quite fondly.

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