I was born in Holland, my parents where British ex-patriots working overseas (mum for Shell, dad for STC). I certainly had some contact with computers before we left for England in 1979. The first computer I actually had contact with is believed to be the IMLAC which I remember because of the light pen that was used to control it.
My earliest contact with "home" computers was with the the Gimix my parents owned. This where 6809 based multi-user mainframes that ran a "unix-a-like" OS called UniFlex. Although I never actually wrote any programs for this system it was one of the first machines I "explored". The only applications I actually remember using where the editor program (ed) as well as playing the classic "Collosal Cave" and one of the early varients of Trek which used ASCII video output instead of the usual teletype output.
One of the advantages of having parents with an interest in technology (and running a computer buisness) is I did see a lot of the early computers before the beige cases of PC's started taking over the world.
As far as I can rememeber the first computer program I ever wrote was on the TI49/4A. My parents bought one back from the states after a visit to Houston, Texas in 1982. To start with it was just a platform for the cartidge based games which you could quite happily slam in and out even with the power on. I spent many a happy hour playing "Tombstone City" and some tank game called?. One thing that the TI did have however was a cartridge labeled BASIC.
It eventually came to pass that I would write my first program (or at least the first one I remember). Having grasped the finer points of the PRINT statement and controling flow with INPUT, IF and GOTO I wrote a simple text-based adevnture game. My hazy memory (I was only 9 or 10 at the time) was a game based around a space-ship and some sort of crash. Think Fighting Fantasy books gone digital.
It became apparent to me and my brother that the Dragon was not what all the games where being written for. At the time the main choices where Sir Clive's Sinclair and the Commodore Vic 20.
To DoAlthough I had contact with the BBC outside of secondry school (I certainly remember playing David Braben's classic "Elite" at a friends house) Sawston Village College had a fully equiped computer lab with networked BBC's. I originally didn't have access to the computer lab as I was not doing GCSE Computer Studies (my parents suggesting that I already did enough computing :-) I wangled it by signing up for the GCSE as an external candidate (no leasons, just the course work). I'm pleased to say despite reading up the DLVA's database scheme half an hour before the exam I walked away with an A!
I'll also admit to (pleading teenage exuberance as mitigation) I was involved in a couple of "grey hat" incidents during my time in that computer lab.
To doDespite my lack of actual personal musical skill I always had a keen interest in music. A large portion of thanks should go to my music teacher at Sawston who despite my poorly generic compositions and complete lack of rythum and dexterity on the piano still tollerated me playing with computers and keyboards to generate all sorts of noise.
One of my first compositions was to do ...