How long have you been programming?
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/How long have you been programming?
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| Just curious how long everyones been at it. Feel free to talk about what got you started and/or any interesting milestones or turning points in your programming history. Me? My dad bought me a copy of Klik & Play when I was about 14 (10 years ago.) I made a few games with it and it's successors (The Games Factory and Click And Create.) My most notable achievement there was a "Mario Kart" clone called "Pedro's Day Out" (okay, it was *far* from Mario kart...but it was the first pseudo-3D engine made w/ CnC as far as I know. It's hard to make a 3D engine when you don't have Sin/Cos/Tan and don't have floating point numbers, either!!!) I gave it all up when I was 16 or 17, and just picked it back up in June. So as far as programming in a real language goes (those other utilities were drag & drop game makers) I've been with Blitz for about 6 months. |
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| I started on the C64 with Basic 24 years ago. And did not stop programming from then on. |
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| When I was like 13 or 14 on the Amiga in AMOS never finished any games but did alot more than I've done lately. |
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| Vic20 about 27-28 years ago (oucha I'm old enough to be your dad!). Gave up programming and computers at 17 (1987) and then started again about 3 years ago. |
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| C64 around 1983. |
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| Vic 20 when I was nine (1984). |
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| I wrote my first programme which used punched cards and had to be sent to the Liverpool University computer to be tested! That was around 1975. IPete2 |
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| Electron around 22 years ago and ever since! |
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| Vic20 around 1984 and still going strong. |
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| Sinclair Zx80 was my first touch..since then Im living from programming, but not games, but microcontrollers and hardware programming,what I'm doing now in Japan... |
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| Started on an Amstrad CPC464 in 1986. |
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I started in GWBasic in 1988, when I was 13, on one of these:  (That's 18 years ago. Geez, I feel old now. ;-) I guess those 18 years haven't been terribly productive (other than a handful of small games, demos, and utilities for personal use) but for the most part programming and such is something I've been doing just for fun. |
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| I started with C64 BASIC in 1987. |
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| I started with Basic when I was about 10, made some lame dice game and called it quits till about 2004. I then got a copy of Blitz3D and played with that for around 1 - 1.5 years. In the midst of that I was off and on playing around with DarkBasic Pro, and C++. I ditched DBP after a few days (didnt like its psudo code style) and continued to play with my Tiger demo, which was actually just the final Microsoft Direct3D tutorial, but I commented on every line. I started playing with BMax around the beginning of this year got a good foundation into the language then called it quits. Ever since then I've been off and on BlitzMax and C++. My excuse for not programming is that I'm still waiting for the 3D module. Its almost impossible to find a free 3D engine out there that isnt just every feature under the sun but rather it supported the most common of everything. |
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| Just barely started to dabble with Basic on the C128D, and GW Basic on my dads 8088 XT.. and I'm guessing that was around 1988 or something.. |
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| I'm glad I'm 18 and didn't have to wear my shirt tucked in, with short-shorts and long hair. |
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| Started on an Acorn Electron in 1983 using BBC BASIC and 6502 assembler. About 1990 moved up to an Atari ST with GFA BASIC and 68000 assembler. Had a break from programming during the late 90's and bought my first PC in 2000 where I soon discovered Blitz Basic on PC Format's cover disk. |
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| Vic20 when I was 10, 23 years ago *gulp* |
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| Since age 10 orso, that was: fooling around since the MSX booted up in BASIC anyway. QBasic (and more structured programming) started @ 16, Blitz @ ~20. |
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| I started with C64 BASIC, a long time ago... 8) |
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| What I presume to be an Apple II+ in 1982. On and off (mostly off, sadly) since. |
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| I must have been 8 or so. I went to my local library and they had a workshop on how to make webpages. After that, I never looked at it again until a few years later, when I tried doing HTML again. I was hooked. I tried improving, using echoecho.com's trusty Javascript tutorial, and I got myself a Javascript book. I made an RPG game composed entirely of alert boxes! It was great! Whenever I went to the book store, I'd always head straight to the measly little computer section, and dream of - get this - actually understanding what the heck the books were talking about! One day, at the book store, I spotted Game Programming for Teens. I've been at it ever since! |
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| Locomotive Basic on the CPC464 about 20 yrs ago. Shit I'm getting too old.... |
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| 23 years ago on the Spectrum when I was 8. It came with decent BASIC manual! |
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| @Gfk - big up CPC crew - the king of the 8 bits IMO |
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| Spectrum BASIC for me too, then a bit of AMOS on the Amiga, then nothing until Dark Basic and now Blitz3d... |
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| Oric-1 then Commodore64 through Amiga and upwards to PC. Nowdays I just write music since I realised I don't have enough time nor graphical talent to make the kind of game I want to. |
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| This thread might be a nice indication for beginners on the forum: yes it takes that long to be where some of us are now! :P |
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| My Uncle had an AmstradCPC464 that we occasionally played games on and maybe looked at BASIC in a very small way. My first computer was a Spectrum16 that had been installed with extra memory to make it a 48k model. Dabbled vaguely with BASIC on there - it had a really complicated keyboard with rubbery buttons. Then following a `work experience` program from secondary school in 1989 I got my first Amiga 500. First programming on there was trying to write CLI/Shell scripts to do some basic stuff. Then I saw AMOS Basic and got that (1.3). Then got the Amos Compiler and Amos3D. Did absolutely nothing with Amos3D since it was so slow. Then went up to Amos Pro and the compiler. Wrote lots of experimental programs just getting used to programming. At that time I was in college on a computing course so was learning Pascal and later 68k Assembler plus a bit of C. Made a paint program "Splodge" (yes, yet another AMOS paint program) and sold 1 copy for 5 pounds then gave it away to a demo group I was vaguely part of. Summer of 94 I wrote a compression/decompression thing mainly for images which I then converted to A68k assembler as I was starting to dabble with that (Devpac 3). Made a fruitmachine game Superfruits (and will make a Blitz version sometime soon). Didn't release it. Switched to BlitzBasic 2 around that time. Didn't write much at all in Blitz itself but joined up with an internet-based game developer who had an RPG game in development that was running too slow. So I coded Mildred, the chunky graphics library for BlitzBasic which used the CPU and `Fast Ram` to render graphics, so their engine got to be about 3-4 times faster. That whole thing was written in assemsbler, really, not much Blitz except the header stuff since it was a library/module thing. Seemed pretty popular, made a website, did some updates. Sort of was working toward including features I would use in a game eventually. Never quite got to the game. Met my wife, went off programming, sold all my Amiga stuff and immigrated to USA in 2000. Never programmed again for about 4-5 years since we only had Mac's and I didn't want to learn the o/s API's or C. Along came BlitzMax on the Mac. Boom. Perfect. Had to have it that Christmas. I was right back at home with a familiar language. Working on various and sundry since. Currently working on a full 2D engine for various future games mainly aiming toward a shootemup initially. So overall programming for maybe 15 years. |
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| It was even before I went to Kindergarten, and that was more than, let's see, was that 1985 or 1986? It was on my TI-99/4A, I remember that I always loved doing all sorts of color graphic/sound tone experiments. Those were the days. |
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| big up CPC crew - the king of the 8 bits IMO I know it had some advanced graphics chip but the C64 pallette and sound was better and thus I declare the C64 the kinf of the 8-bits. |
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| Programming off and on for ~24 years. Started with Speccy BASIC back in '83. |
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| I know it had some advanced graphics chip but the C64 pallette and sound was better and thus I declare the C64 the kinf of the 8-bits. ..and meanwhile the MSX observed the 8-bit riots and relaxed a bit.. :P http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=MICROCABIN http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=compile+msx http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=falcom+msx http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=konami+msx (make sure you watch both SD-Snatcher intros) |
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| TRS-80 Model 1 level I. I think I was 11 or 12 (I forget the exact year it came out). I didn't own one so I had to hang out at the local Radio Shack, later I bought a VIC20, and then of course the C64. |
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| VIC20... didn't that have, like, 3k or summat? XD |
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| Acorn Electron, too. About twenty year ago when I was eight. I really liked that logo: VDU 23, 223, 48, 60, 126, 126, 126, 0, 126, 60. After that, C64 basic/asm, Schneider, then GWBasic, QBasic, Turbo Pascal, Delphi, even C++.net for one project and now Blitz3D. I had an Amiga, but I was only using Protracker. Maybe after this, I'll try C#/XNA. |
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| Amstrad 464 CPC (The tape one), using Locomotive BASIC, so maybe about 20 years or something. Though when the 8-bit computer era closed, I kept on going, ran a PD library, made little utilities and stuff and sold them for a penny/k Learned a little Amstrad Machine code from Amstrad Action tutorials, god knows about it now! :) Glory years Then I discovered cider! :D Dabz |
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| How long have you been programming? Since about 6:30pm. |
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| 10 years off and on for fun and 2 years professionally. |
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| Same as a few others - Vic20 at around 13-14. Currently reading the Spectacular rise and fall of Commodore at the moment - really bringing back some great memories!! Started buying some mags with listing such as C&VG, Compute! (anyone remember typing 20 pages of hex in the MLX compiler) and a few others. Being in Australia, we had a good mix a mags from the US and UK. Learnt on a Vic20, C16 (thankfully we replaced it with the King: C64), Amiga 500, then PC. |
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| VDU 23, 223, 48, 60, 126, 126, 126, 0, 126, 60 Ah yes learning binary and how to make graphics that I planned out on squared paper was great fun at the age of 9. I had a Spec48K and my friend the Electron and we programmed all the time. Then I got a C64 and he got a Spec+3. Then Amiga of course, used Assembly on all those machines too in my teenage years and then got into Blitz Basic 2 when I was 18 I think, after reading about it in Amiga Format, great times, but never really finished anything. |
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| 20 years ago, at the age of 12, on the superb asmstrad cpc 464. But, man, I am impressed about the number of people with a 20 year experience in programmation. Finally I was not alone 20 years ago!!! |
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| RepeatUntil: A little while ago when I started the how old are you thread I found out that there were quite a lot of 30+ year olds who used to code on home 8-bit computers and later the Amiga, some of who used Blitz. I theorised that these people (like me) wanted to recapture those old days of fun programming in the 80s/early 90's and so they stumbled across blitz on the PC and got into it (I know I did)...Another group of people on the forum seem to be a younger generation just getting into it, which is great. |
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One day, dad brought home one of these i think i was about 8: 16K i seem to remember?!? to this speccy 48  and this a BBC micro model B (Still used in some archaic industrial robots!! and a more complex verion supplied ceefax/telitext)  only 32k but bbc basic rocked over speccybasic :) to this olivetti pc1 with TWO diskdrives and 512K;  woohoo 4 colors :) but then i got an EGA 16 color addon :> to this amstrad 1640:  But mine had a 3.5 inch disk drive, and a 20 MB HARDDISK!!! 640K DOS and a cool gui called GEM had this amiga at same time  Lovely machine, needed a harddisk for less than 100s of quid though! Then back to PC and have stayed there since 3/486 Now have 3, -P4 3gGhz 2Gb Ram Linux/Gnome -Centrino laptop 1.7Ghz 1Gb Windows -Duron 800mhz laptop Its incredible how its changed in such a short space of time. |
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| Started way back in 1972/73 using HP 2000 mini computer. I still remember the good old ASR-33 teletype that I was constantly fighting with. :) And then... one day I was introduced to KIM-1 single board computer and no matter what Intel, AMD or someone else do in the future MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor will always be the No.1 in my heart. Barney |
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| "I know it had some advanced graphics chip but the C64 pallette and sound was better and thus I declare the C64 the kinf of the 8-bits." Why you little..... nah seriously the C64 was a very decent machine... I just slightly preferred my CPC for whatever reason. Did you have higher res modes on the Crummodore (as we affectionately knew it)? The CPC had lores 16 colours or a higher res 4 colour mode, which was handy for different kinds of games. |
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| To get decent colours on C64 you had to half the horiz res. Actually tehre were some cool higher res modes but there were rarely used for games, just on a few demos. The C64 pallete was cool you see it was more natural than the spec or Amstrad which was all "primary". |
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| I wrote my first programme which used punched cards and had to be sent to the Liverpool University computer to be tested! Pete - you never mentionied this! Talk about coming out of the closet. Texas Ti994a - Basic (1979?) MSX - Basic Amstrad 464 - Basic Atari - Gfa, Assembler PC - C, Assembler, Blitz3D |
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| 25 years, in a dozen different languages, on half a dozen platforms, and I still don't know what the hell I'm doing! |
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| 26 now started when I was 8 with basic used several languages wrote allot of unfinished games and completed a few applications. as said above by someone else I still dont know wtf i'm doing. |
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| Yep, I'm still basically doing what I did during the younger years, basically. Still love doing points and clicks, sound/graphics experiments, and testing the computer's smarts. |
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| Had my first programming experience at 9, but didn't start properly until I was 13 on the Amstrad CPC 464 11 years ago. Since then, I've programmed on the Spectrum, Amiga, PC and web. |
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| John, I don't like to bore people with that sort of stuff. My Computer Teacher told me I would never do anything with computers... he didn't have much faith in me. IPete2. |
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| started with speccy basic in '88 when i was 10. I couldnt understand the manual though so I didnt really know what I was doing. Then found blitz in 2002 |
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| I started with the good old ZX-81 when I was 12 (22.5 years ago). For me, it all started with those magazines you used to be able to buy that contained source code for games (was it ZX-81 User?). Great days... |
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| You mean the POS system I wrote (am still upgrading) I started 1,000,000 years ago on an Atari 800XL and moved to a 286, 386 and P1,2,3, Athlon64 now... I used BASIC and ASM (A+) on the Atari and then Pascal, C, and back to basic with VB3.0 on to 6.0 and out to Blitz 3D... I figure going in to either B+ or BMax for the next iteration if the remote DB access can be jandled well... |
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| > To get decent colours on C64 you had to half the horiz res. I think you are confusing the C64 with the Amiga, or my memory is really starting to go. |
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| wow, everyone's so old and experienced! I've done it about 9 months |
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| Around 1987 when I was 19 years old, if my memory does not play games with me, I was writing listings from magazines in C64, AmstradCPC and other micros. I started with my own PC Amstard 1512 in the year 1989 with GWBasic, then with TurboPascal, a few months with the Assembly of 8086 (much faster from 8088), and I stop to the wonderful world of C and later C++. Phew! SculptureOfSoul: Your thread was great! |
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| SculptureOfSoul: Your thread was great! Thanks. It's really interesting to hear how everyone got started. I am, like thelizardking, amazed at how long so many of us Blitz'ers have been at it. It's good to know there is such a huge knowledge base around for when I inevitably run into 'yet another unexplainable bug' :). |
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| My Computer Teacher told me I would never do anything with computers... he didn't have much faith in me. You had a computer teacher? When I was at school computers were things the size of a room looked after by men in white coats. |
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| LOL John hahahha :)) |
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| I think you are confusing the C64 with the Amiga, or my memory is really starting to go. No this is correct, trust me ;-) or better still go wiki. Amiga had HAM mode, perhaps you are thinking of that. |
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| > No this is correct, trust me ;-) or better still go wiki. I just looked it up, Darn - my memory REALLy is go (what was I writing about again?) |
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| Started eons ago on a ZX81 with 1K of ram :), went on to a Vic20 then a Speccy48 from there I went to the 128+2 then an Amiga500, Amiga 1200, PC IBMXT (eek the limitations), then a PC286 with VGA 8). Finally on to what you people call PC's these days ROFL ;) Been at it ~26 years. |
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| BBC in about 1988- i was 4. VDU 23, 223, 48, 60, 126, 126, 126, 0, 126, 60 You SAD GIT! :)) Did you know this one? VDU 23, 7¦ Oh and: MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor will always be the No.1 in my heart very true. nice chip and perfectly combined with the hardware of a BBC Master 128k! |
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| 25 Years here, and i'm still a beginner. There's no helping some... |
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| Well, as far as Blitz is concerned, since I was brought up on traditional BASIC from the old TI-99/4A, to QBasic, to Visual Basic, and such, Blitz is a bit different from anything I've ever used in the past. I've tinkered with Borland C++ a lot during the old days, because they really put emphasis on graphics back during those days. Borland makes the only version of C++, or made one, that had its own exclusive library of graphics commands in them. Loved that to death. |
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| You had a computer teacher? My IT teacher hated me... Don't know why, it may have something to do with the fact that we only spent two lessons actually programming an archimedes, then after that, spent 5 weeks learning about barcode readers, I only pointed out to him that I wasnt into barcodes, and neither were people that actually use them.. like check out people. He seemed a bit knarked that me and another mate could understand binary, bit-shifting etc, one day he got all moist from showing us the 'internet' on a BBC Micro... I just sat back down I also said I'd rather do programming more instead of learning other rubbish... lol, he told there was no jobs for programmers and I should learn about the 'real world'... what a berk! Now I'm a plasterer, with contact dermititus on my hands! Cheers John Dabz |
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| Started eons ago on a ZX81 with 1K of ram Correct me if I am wrong but I think that there was a great chess program for ZX81 within this 1K of ram... |
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First program written in Fortran on a VAX VMS when I was around 12, so 27 years. |
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| amstrad cpc 464 locomotive basic. Nothing complicated though. Then AMOS on the amiga, then blitz on the PC, so here we are. |
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| Wow. . . looks like i'm about the newest noob there can be around here. Started programming games (like snake etc) on a graphical calculator when I was 16 or 17 about 10 years ago. Before then I'd hardly ever had any experience with computers at all. From 17-23 I became expert at QB, then VBA and VB6. Was exposed to a variety of languages at university doing a BSc in comp sci. Someone (very kindly!) introduced me to blitz2d about 5 years ago. The past 5 years I've been doing mostly web programming with ASP, VB6, VB.NET, Java, Javascript etc, but I have remained a loyal hobbyist with Blitz3d ever since and dream of one day completing an actual *finished* computer game! LOL :O) |
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| When I was 13, my parents bought a C64 and a VIC 1541 in 1982 for $500. I was not a geek at that time but was hooked with dreams of developing a game that everyone wanted. 26 years and 11 programming languages later, tons of programming (very few were games..and they were unfinished). My main problem is I get distracted too easy...maybe I should be drunk while programming. How do you guys do it? (This only happens when writing games.) I'm not giving up!! I have many ideas that have not been done yet, so who knows. Jason |
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| I get distracted by several things: 1) Sleep (40-50 hrs per week) Damn why do I need to sleep? 2) actual money making work (50-60 hrs per week [including transportation etc] ). Eats up way too much time. Got to get me a work from home contracter type job! 3) Family, wife, housework etc. (50+hrs per week) Can't really complain about this one i spose. This leaves me with what could be 10-20 hrs of Blitz3d programming per week. however 90-95% of this invariable gets used up: -playing games -obsessivly exploring the 3d worlds I created previously -watching TV -twiddling thumbs. Life is not easy. |
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| 23 years ago - gulp - made a battleships game on ZX Speccy, took a break whilst discovering girls,work,beer,woman,children then discovered BBasic on my Miggy 1200 - managed to hang together some electronic hardware and software to record speed on my push bike via magnetic tape. Done a bit of PIC programming in assembly, this proved off putting for a bit. Got my first PC about 6 years ago, re discovered VB6, then Blitz 3D, then BMax. My kids occupy most of my none work/sleep/drink time these days. |
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| BBasic on my Miggy 1200 Yeah me too, it was RAD. Also cool was the A1200 was twice as fast as A500 so you could make most games run at 50FPS :-)Jason: Yeah man don't give up! It took me 22 years to achieve my dream of releasing a computer game (started on Spec48K, released Xmas Bonus last year). I used to get terribly distracted too until I cultivated "Burning Desire" ;-) |
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| TRS 80 Model 1 1977 -> 29 years non stop atari 400 vic 200 amiga 500 |
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| I started on QBasic when i was 10 (2001), and then i moved to Blitz3D when i was 12 (2003), and then i went to C++ and C# when i was 14(2005), and now i am working on a Direct3D9/10 engine for Blitz3D, BlitzPlus, BlitzMAX, and C++/C#. |
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| This thread is over a year old. How do you even manage these things? |
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| *WOOT!* |
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| I started... in 7th grade. And i guess i have been at it for.. Wow, only 2 years.. Seemed like a long two years. |
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| Wrote my first Tetris Clone on an Abacus back in the dawn of time... Nearly got burnt for practising witchcraft though so laid off programming until the mid-late 70's :D Cheers Garion |
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| I really started programming with Dark Basic about 8-10 years ago. Before that I toyed around with QBasic since DOS and touched VB6 where I did a text adventure but wouldn't really call that damned hacking "programming" |
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| Update: 24 years hobbyist non-stop. 11 years professional. |
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| I believe it was 1981 when I got my Vic-20, desperate to type in "Killer Comet"! - David |
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| Update: Since about 5pm this afternoon. |
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| Started somewhere around 1986 with an Amstrad CPC 464, onto BBC whatever it was, C64 then various Amigas, gave up in the mid 90's and started again about 2-3 years ago on PC. LOL, Just noticed how old this thread is! *DOH* |
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| Update: Since about 5pm this afternoon. This answer is the best answer. |
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| What is programming? |
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| Been programming since I was 8 on a ZX81 so thats 26 years I been at it and still not made me first million. |
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| 26 years I been at it and still not made me first million. Move to a country with worthless currency. Like Denmark. Then you'll only need about 100K in real money. |
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| Yeah but the tax on earnings in Denmark - ouch! Mind you this can be offset against the beautiful young ladies cycling round everywhere... |
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| Hmm.... almost as long as this thread... |
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| I started when I was 11, with an amazing MSX, around 1984, almost 22 years ago... too bad it never made into USA, it is a great machine, and I still have one and make games for it! :) I know, I'm crazy - but this was the machine that showed me I could finally create my own games :) |
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| Thread necromancy is the best thing since sliced bread! |
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| Yeah but the tax on earnings in Denmark - ouch! Sure. But on the other hand they occasionally give out financial support to videogame developers. (Link is in Danish). Personally that's something I'd gladly pay tax for. Thread necromancy is the best thing since sliced bread! It's like you can't win with you guys. If you bump an old thread you whine about "thread necromancy" (which is stupid because threads cannot die, since they don't have life). If you start a new thread you get told to search the forum. |
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| I started with Visual Basic 6.0 at 1999 then C++ then Blitz3d and now using B3D/BMax. |
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| I got started by copying screensaver code from some magazine I found at the library. 100 REM BEGIN LOOP 200 DO SOMETHING 300 GOTO 100 Oh this reminds me of my ASCII gui I made in QuickBasic. QuickBasic 7.1 + Libs was the bomb by the way. Yikes! |
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| Vic-20 when I was 6. I think. It's all a bit hazy. Could have been 9. Man, I need some sleep. |
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| about 20 years - can't believe how fast time goes by. |
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| Scarier thought: What do you have to show for those 20 years of programming? :-) |
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| When I was in late primary school, early high school - so about 18-20 years ago I began progamming. Language was various basic variants but mainly GW Basic on an old PC XT. Have done some work in fortran at university, a little pascal, some visual basic as well. Read a little about C, helped some friends with their assignments in various languages, including COBOL. 99.9% of my programming is done simply as a hobby - I occasionally get to write VBA Macros in Excel to make our jobs easier at work. So what I have to show for it - a few incomplete game demos, some reports at work, oh.. and a beer gut. |