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If I had a kid (I'm too old for that now), I would absolutely buy a working Commodore 64 for the kid as their first computer, complete with the fantastic manual that came with it. When they understand how it works, then they can have a tablet and a modern computer. The C64 manual has instructions for BASIC programming, as well as how to program the peripheral chips to make sounds and graphics. And then in the back it goes into assembly language including documentation for all the opcodes, and then in the very back of the manual were the full schematics for the computer.

I think it's still an amazing resource for anyone wanting to learn how computers work. It literally changed my life. Before I got the C64 when I was 15 years old, I had an Atari 400 and then Atari 600. There was very little available to me in the way of documentation for the Atari for anything beyond BASIC programming, and I found that very limiting. The C64 and its manual opened up a whole other world to me. I taught myself assembly programming in about a week. I got into BBSs, and eventually into the "demoscene" where I got to use all the assembly programming I learned. This built the foundation for the rest of my computing life and I wouldn't trade it for anything.



I've thought about teaching a beginning programming course at the local community college. If I do, I'll start with just a bit of BASIC 2.0 to introduce some simple concepts like input, output, variables, and loops, before moving on to current "real languages."


I have kids and new computers absolutely suck for introducing them to computing. A C64 would be perfect.




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