Sitting in the back of my brother’s car clutching my new Atari STE, I happily declared that I would soon be writing my first game. The Atari STE came with a selection of games that I really wanted to play, but the image of STOS the Game Creator, a programming package that came with STE, was the center of my dreams. The idea of ​​being able to create any game you want, limited only by my imagination. Nothing in the world mattered to me at that very moment, as I dreamed of hiding with my copy of STOS Basic and creating my own games. Years later, I have programmed countless pieces of code, a collection of popular games that are still displayed on various websites, and wrote many articles on programming that I proudly display on my website to this day.

Programming can be very addictive, as I soon discovered. I’d come home from work and aspire to be locked in with my computers ASAP. My mother would call me up the stairs to tell me family members had arrived and I would reluctantly leave my babies just to walk to the top of the stairs to greet them. If they were lucky, they would get my attention a little more if I went downstairs for coffee. In the moments when I was attempting a social life, my conversation was eager to get to the computers.

I ventured to the outside world in a desperate attempt to find an interest other than computers. I joined a karate class and actually started enjoying the first year or so there, until the visions of my babies started to occupy my mind and I started skipping the lessons. Then one night at the club, my sensei read a list of the people who had the least attendance that month and mine was the lowest with just one visit. My sensei looked at me with anger in his eyes and said “If I want to go to my computer then knot” or words about it.

I must confess that I am addicted to computers. The point came that I decided to quit karate class and spend more time at home hidden from the world, just me, my computers, and endless cups of coffee that I would make just to have a reason to go downstairs and see if my family still they are there.

I found out I had the programming error at school when we learned to write simple programs on the BBC micro. Using drawing commands to draw simple shapes, but it was enough to whet my appetite for programming. I bought myself a Spectrum 48K and was soon learning basic commands, enough to write a simple little adventure game.

Years later, I was programming in STOS on the Atari STE and Amos on the Amiga 1200 and this became a huge part of my life. My social life was at a minimum; I often had to strain. He hated the idea of ​​dealing with situations outside of the bedroom. I was in danger of becoming a true loner who would happily avoid society and live in my own private world where people are pixels.

CONCLUSION

Fortunately I have improved over the years and have a better social life. However, I found that I am still happier to be home with my wife and my PC. I have no regrets that I did not spend more time in the outside world. But I’d still like to remind others that programming is a very addictive hobby and it can lead you to become a sad idiot like me.