The point is it's a basic learning tool with real results, and it feels really cool to hold something you programmed, in the palms of your hands, on a portable system that you HAND BUILT YOURSELF.
Also, the 16k limitation (32k with expansion) is very important to young programmers who tend to build very inefficient code. Howard Scott Warshaw had very limited space making his slew of Atari 2600 games, with very mixed results (well, 5 weeks to make ET wasn't nice for one guy to do by himself).
Back in my day, we had to program games/apps in Q-basic in intro to programming. If someone had a laptop, it was really cool to have a "to go" version of your program sitting in your lap.
If I were a video game design teacher (which they teach right down the road from me), I'd find a way to get the whole class one of these each. Maybe even offer a contest with prizes. That'd get 'em motivated.
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The point is it's a basic learning tool with real results, and it feels really cool to hold something you programmed, in the palms of your hands, on a portable system that you HAND BUILT YOURSELF.
Also, the 16k limitation (32k with expansion) is very important to young programmers who tend to build very inefficient code.
Howard Scott Warshaw had very limited space making his slew of Atari 2600 games, with very mixed results (well, 5 weeks to make ET wasn't nice for one guy to do by himself).
Back in my day, we had to program games/apps in Q-basic in intro to programming. If someone had a laptop, it was really cool to have a "to go" version of your program sitting in your lap.
If I were a video game design teacher (which they teach right down the road from me), I'd find a way to get the whole class one of these each. Maybe even offer a contest with prizes. That'd get 'em motivated.