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With magnetic core memory of course .;P
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Applesoft Basic, 6502/65816 Assembly (Orca/M Assembler), and, eventually when compilers became available, Pascal and C...
...thankfully, my paychecks today more than make up for the dorkiness of a 9 year old in 1984 
Kevin Grossnicklaus
SSE
kvgros@SSEinc.com
www.SSEinc.com
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I just could not buy that many games. I remember getting Omega Race with my vic-20
then mail-order a star trek clone on a tape cassette.
Other game existed, but not that many. I ended up having to type most
of the programs (games) from compute! and compute gazette magazines.
Then they would fail to work and I would have to "debug" them. Most of the time,
it was a typing mistake but I felt in control.
This carried on to the era of the commodore 64, of course. Most game came with
article that were the era's equivalent to The Code Project so I
learned a lot from that.
In the process, I have learned english and I have learned how to program.
Ah the memories of the good old days...
All this to say that when I officially started my 1st assembly language
computer science course, on the Apple ][, Our teacher wanted to have us
print "hello world" during a 60 minute lab class. After 30 seconds, I asked my
teacher how I could trap the raster blank interrupt. He told me "Interupts?" then
opened up the cover of the Apple ][ and pointed to some trace on the board, explaining
how the Apple ][ did not deal with interrupts for any of the on board periferials but
I could short this pin and that pin to start an interrupt.
I remember feeling that the commodore 64 architecture was way ahead of the apple ][
and it was.
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I've only coded in PC/Windows 
But I look forward to some development on Linux/Apache/J2EE/Oracle sometime.
Norman Fung
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I don't recall the actual first computer I used - it was some beast made by CDC that occupied a large, sealed room on campus, and was fed with Hollerith cards by monks in white lab coats. The first real, hands-on computer for me was an Altair 8800, and my first real program was its operating system.
Heard in Bullhead City - "You haven't lost your girl -
you've just lost your turn..." [sigh] So true...
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My first "commericial" programming feat was programming tool path for CNC machine (Computer Numeric Controlled... milling machine) - churning out metal parts 
Norman Fung
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I wish I'd had the chance to do some of that. I'd probably have a job today...
Heard in Bullhead City - "You haven't lost your girl -
you've just lost your turn..." [sigh] So true...
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Or better: Get to design JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) * wishful thinking *
Norman Fung
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I already did a lot of that sort of design...
Heard in Bullhead City - "You haven't lost your girl -
you've just lost your turn..." [sigh] So true...
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No, but I did have one at one time; the "real" (self-contained) version, not the one that plugged into the ColecoVision. Damn printer died rather quickly and since it housed the power supply, no more Adam! 
IIRC, it had a Applesoft-like BASIC. Would not read Apple disc's though (right?).
Peace!
-=- James (Sonork:100.21837)
[Tip for SUV winter driving survival: "Professional Driver on Closed Course" does not mean "your Dumb Ass on a Public Road"!]
[Get Delete FXP Files Now!]
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My Coleco Adam would only read tapes. The hi-res graphics would be clunky now, but they were very sharp back in the day.
My dad wouldn't buy any games, so I had to learn to program -- I'm thankful now, but wasn't at the time.
Glenn
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Yes, I had 2 Coleco Adam's!
I got it for Christmas when I was about 13.
I had a few games, but really got into SmartBASIC. I thought it was really cool to tell the computer what to do.
My Dad and I wrote a BASIC program that would draw charts/graphs - stuff Excel does in its sleep. The program was huge because I had to code to draw letters on the screen. I looked back at the code a few years later and was embarrased by how simplistic my techniques were. I can be thankful that I got the exposure at such a young age. (Of course 3-year-olds get computer exposure these days!)
Chuck
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Cool! I was 19 when I got mine (back in '84). My first "application" was a football game that randomized each play based on what type of offensive/defensive play you chose from a menu. I would really love to be able to see my code from back then
Cheers,
Tom Archer
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
* Inside C# -Second Edition
* Visual C++.NET Bible
* Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework
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Heh, my first one that I did anything on was a VIC-20 (age 8). I later got in a local newspaper (the New York Tribune) for a program that I wrote with two other students in 5th grade (age 10), but that was on a TRS-80 (model III).
Damn... I'm a geek!
Peace!
-=- James (Sonork:100.21837)
[Tip for SUV winter driving survival: "Professional Driver on Closed Course" does not mean "your Dumb Ass on a Public Road"!]
[Get Delete FXP Files Now!]
[Edit: added ages]
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Damn. I think I should be classified as a geek too.
I started when I was 7 on my neighbours Pet 2000 ( a very old commodore desktop thing). I almost lived behind the thing.
When I got my own vic-20 it was heaven......
During the course of being a teenager I went through all commodore home computers, from the c-64 the c-16 and plus-4 to the amiga.
And what a dreadfull thing. I bought my first PC. Now there was something.
During my college life a hacked every peice of software I could get my hands on. Almost weekly I had to visit the principle on account of some threat by the system administrator. 
Today I am still a programmer to the bone. But as career advances, I spent less and less time behind a computer. (sigh.....)
I guess I qualify as a geek too. But I am not sorry for this.;P
Marco van den Bulk
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I started at around 12-13, when I got a ZX-Spectrum,
and took the GSCE/O Level Computer Science cource in school. Oh what a blinder my program was "Whizzy-Q" a very simple mulitple-choice question game. The loading of the "Splash-Screen" took longer than the loading of the program. Screech.... one line of graphics, Screech... another....
Then after years of doing "other things" I got the chance of training as a Software developer and have not looked back since.
But the time I spent using a computer in the early days certainly helped during the training.
bum... and I thought I´d got rid of all the bugs
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My slippery slope started with a ZX80, which you had to put together yourself! I'll never forget the thermal paper printer and the .5k of RAM!
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Me too! My dad got me a 2nd hand 48KB rubber keyboard Speccy. This was 1983. I started with ZX-Basic and was onto Z80 machine code a few years later. I remember writing some basic Z80 windowing code (to allow text "panels" to be displayed, saving the contents of the screen underneath) ON PAPER before laboriously typing in the machine code. I even had a C compiler (by a company called Zortech). It couldn't compile anything much better than printf("Hello, world!") but knowing some C gave me the edge at college and when I started work.
I had a little thermal printer for mine too (the official Sinclair one for which obtaining paper was a nightmare - it usually involved a visit to a computer show!). In fact, I got special permission to do my 'O' level computer project on my Speccy instead of on one of the school BBC 'B's! I printed out said program and pasted the thermal paper onto A4 sheets with glue! he he.
I also had a 3.5" disk drive - I knew of no-one else that had one - made by a company called Miles Gordon Technology. This thing was great - you plugged in the interface and, mid-way during a game you'd loaded from tape, you could hit a button and a menu popped up allowing you to save the game to disk! WOW! I was a true hobbyist (said disk drive regularly needed repairing too!). Having games on disk made me the envy of my other Speccy owning chums.
Other things spring to mind - the intense rivalry between Spectrum and Commodore 64 owners (they had better graphics and sound. Bastards.). The proliferation of computing mags with programs you'd stay up all night typing in before you realised there was a spelling mistake. Some mags even printed blocks of machine-code hexadecimal that you typed in - and a single mistake could lead to tears. The amount of independent shops that appeared in towns all over the UK was phenomenal - Newbury had 3 or 4 - I even managed to get a replacement rubber keyboard from one (all Spectrum owners took their machines apart right? And we all knackered our keyboards - always the bloody LOAD or PRINT keys!).
Eventually I upgraded to a 128KB Spectrum (the Sinclair one with the plastic keyboard, not the Amstrad abomination). Wow. I even wrote a commercially available program (a database called "File Master") that was marketed and earnt me some pocket money in royalties! I finally finished my love affair with the ZX Spectrum in 1989 when I was first introduced to the PC.
I has loads of kit (even some original Microdrives!) which I stupidly lent to someone in 1989 and have never seen since. Sigh.
Happy days. Being a computer nut was a massive advantage. It also meant I knew I wanted a career in computers within minutes of owning my first Spectrum and at 12/13, this is quite rare. I left school still feeling the same, so went and did a computer course instead of a couple of useless A levels and have never looked back. I just wish I'd thought of bloody eBay first.
The Rob Blog
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Yes, I did my 'O' Level on the spectrum as well. The print out was awfull, one and a half rolls of "astronaut toilet paper"
bum... and I thought I´d got rid of all the bugs
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Robert Edward Caldecott wrote:
Other things spring to mind - the intense rivalry between Spectrum and Commodore 64 owners (they had better graphics and sound. Bastards.).
Maybe, but we had better Basic and better CPU (Z80A).
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My second computer was the Spectrum too (after the ZX81 )
A great experience!
Please have a look to this site about SINCLAIR:
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/contents.htm
Manfred Becker (ManiB)
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I loved programming my aunt and uncle's C64. They had to drag me away from it to go outside and play in the summer.
If they hadn't done that, I'm sure I'd be making jillions now.
---
"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
-Wolfgang Pauli (1900 - 1958), on a paper submitted by a physicist colleague
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I also started with a Commodore 64C doing some basic programming for my math class. I remember making animated sprites too. I was fourteen years old.
It was really cool.
cheers!!
Daniel Cespedes
"There are 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who do not"
"Santa Cruz de la Sierra Paraiso Terrenal!"
daniel.cespedes@ieee.org
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