Why did you start programming or what got you into programming?

**lightatdawn** · 09-03-2001

I got my first computer when i was about 12. 286 monochrome Zenith laptop. It was pretty cutting edge at the time. I used to just mess around on it without a purpose or goal. One day i discovered these weird Gorilla.BAS (and some other .BAS files) that i discovered could be opened and run in QBASIC. Thats about all it took for me. I just started reading the QBasic help files and looking at the Gorilla.BAS file. I was writing my own text games within a week. Didnt take long to start making an RPG with actual graphics. After completing that i had to move up.

By this point i had met a few other programmers and someone pointed me to Turbo Pascal. It was fun while it lasted and i believe i finished two games using it (and started about 50,000).

I was starting to discover the limitations of Turbo Pascal and while messing with a friends computer i found Borlands Turbo C++. I went out and bought it a few weeks later. Since finding C++ about three or four years ago (its so hard to remember) i'm (not so?) proud to state that i've never completed a single game using pure C++ code.

New things to learn just keep coming up and i run off in hot pursuit. Just over a year ago i got the internet and its been a whole lot easier since. I had always just used the help files as my source of information but with the entire net at my fingertips...

This messageboard was helpful when i found it as well.

-KEN- said:
Then I typed in a few random URLS and found this site

*lol* Its funny. Thats how i found this site too.

**doubleanti** · 09-03-2001

ooh!! and nibbles.bas too!!! yeah!

i don't remember how i found this site! weird.... did one of you refer it to me? i don't think so, i don't remember at all... weird.......

**Aran** · 09-03-2001

i'm an evil search engine user...

i carry a pitchfork.

**no-one** · 09-03-2001

Final Fantasy... i started playing these games and realized making games was what i wanted to do... so i did, on paper first of course, and was told from ever player(sept one) my "Paper Game"(got the idea from my bother about 2 years previous) kicked the **** out of D&D so i continued it for a few years and it surprisingly developed into a really deap story based on a book i once wrote. I made a few other "Paper Games" during the same period but none as popular... since then ive been working towards making this game a reality...

**VirtualAce** · 09-03-2001

Don't forget gorillas.bas!!

I started programming on an IBM PCjr. It was not even a true 8086 processor because it had an 8088 that ran at 4.77 MHz. What fascinated me at the time was when Microsoft released DOS 2.10. DOS 2.10 came with the computer as well as all of the documentation for it such as commands, syntax, switches, etc. I started using DEBUG and did not understand a bit of it. But I did manage to crash my system about a million times. Of course, with a PCjr, crashing the system was commonplace. GW-BASIC also came with the system as well as a starter's kit for programming. The language was ugly with line numbers and all. The whole thing fit into this neat little cartride that you plugged into the PCjr. I'm so glad those days are gone.

Anyways, when the first Flight Simulator (SubLogic/Microsoft)came out, I was hooked. Bruce Artwick was my hero then. From that time on I tried to program my own kind of sim in BASIC. Yeah, I know- *impossible*, but I learned a lot trying. So, then I started learning about arrays and how you could make games from them and then moved on to graphics, sprites, etc. I don't know how many games I've started since that time but it is a whole lot more than I've finished.

I moved on to C simply because it was rumored that this new language with a funny little name was probably the most powerful language next to assembly. So, I taught myself C and C++ through help files and books. I tried to learn as much about the language as was available. I remember staying up late at night trying to read that ridiculous help file. It was so hard just understanding the syntax of the functions, but with more late nights it became a whole lot easier. I must have hard-locked the computer at least a trillion times writing my first C/C++ programs.
Now almost every night I'm on the Internet researching something about C/C++. There are a couple of huge three-ring binders at my computer desk full of print-outs about the language from various websites.

Programming is my hobby at present, but perhaps some day I will be able to work with a team on some new great game and see it all the way to the shelves.

The Internet has allowed access to more programming information than I ever could have dreamed of having before. I found this board while browsing topics about C programming on Excite. It has never left my bookmarks since.

**gamegod3001** · 09-03-2001

>Then I typed in a few random URLS and found this site, and immediately asked my first board question, under the name "Chillin" - "How do I save things to disk?". Wasn't I a good little newbie and read the FAQ oh-so-well? <

>*lol* Its funny. Thats how i found this site too.<

Me to ,but I only I did not go to the boards right away. But I did read the FAQ.

**-KEN-** · 09-03-2001

I don't like FAQ's...too preachy

**Aran** · 09-03-2001

ummm..... i actually read the faq too....

it helped me with the random numbers quetion i had that i wuld've posted if i didn't find it there...

anyhow...............

**Witch_King** · 09-03-2001

I never read the FAQ. Not yet anyway.

**rick barclay** · 09-04-2001

>Don't forget gorillas.bas!!<

One of my all-time favorites and precursor to the Worms genre.
I never liked Worms, though--too complicated.

rick barclay

**Govtcheez** · 09-04-2001

I loved Worms - don't need to think about anything - just knocking invertabrates off the screen

Anywho - my dad was a programmer, so he had a few QBasic books lying around. One just listed the source code for like 50 games. I started to copy the code into there from the books, and thought I was "programming". I never did actually finish a program, and usually lost interest after about 20 lines or so (some things will never change).

After that, I didn't do anything until 10th grade, when I took a beginning class in Pascal, and that was when I got hooked. I took advanced programming in 11th grade, but my school had upgraded computers in between the times I took the classes. So, instead of programming beginning Pascal on 286's, I was doing "advanced" VB5 on Pentiums. No problem tho, I picked that up easily. Then, I got a job here and was forced to learn ObjectPAL and Cyrano. I took a JAVA class at school, and will take another in about a month. In January, I was told I needed to learn C to re-write a program that I had done in Cyrano. So, what will someone with one book on C (at least I had K&R) and internet access do? I typed in www.cprogramming.com, and poof!, all my free time disappeared!

**Flikm** · 09-04-2001

I discovered this site by typing in random URL's :P. I tried about 35 but this one and www.cplusplus.com were the only ones that worked

.

**Pendragon** · 09-04-2001

I like worms!

There is something rather sweet about miniscule, heavily-armed invertibrates.
There is something even more fun about having them blow each other to dust. ::evil cackle::

It's similar to letting the ever popular Lemmings walk off of a high platform and then disintegrate with that horrible squelching sound.

It's brilliant!

**Peeglepuff** · 09-04-2001

In answer to question...

I was given a hell of a lot of literature on the subject by my sister who is a programmer.

I really will have to fix that signature. It seems that Netscape=Peeglepuff and
MSIE=Pendragon. Hmm.... that shall have to be remedied.

Chucky Egg is the best game *ever*. *I* think so anyway.