alt Hacker NewsOMG that manual. VIC-20 was my first code experience. I look back and cannot understand how 7 year-old me was patient enough to make a jumping jack guy appear on screen. Joy of Coding? Hell, no. I wanted to see if I could make it work. (I did, and I had no clue how to save to tape)
Sounds like you had one at home? If so, I'm a bit jealous. But also, hello, brother/sister!
Yep, my origin story is more fun, I actually got left at my dad's boss' office and was bored so I found a computer book and started reading it and rebooted the computer and followed the instructions. When they came back I had a very simple program going and after getting into a bit of trouble my dad's boss' laughed it off and told my dad to get me a computer. He did (the vic-20). Several days later my parents turned it off and deleted my program and it took me a while to explain that I needed more gear to save my programs. Been stuck on the hardware acquisition loop since :P