This is definitely true, and we definitely need something similar again. I've been using a game ("The Farmer Was Replaced") as a jumping-off point for teaching the kids Python, but the more I think about it, the more I think that they need some sort of hardware package similar to an old Apple //e that gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. It was easy, back in the day, to learn a ton (even assembler) on a system like that, and I feel like there's some value in rewinding the clock back to that point, forking the experience from there, and seeing what a new generation of kids will cook up.

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mdavidn 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Zach Barth and his former studio Zachtronics released several entertaining puzzle games based on idealized fake assembly languages. These are a lot of fun and useful for introducing registers and multiprocessing.

	▲	Folcon 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I keep coming back to the idea of taking that concept and just running with it, IE building up a toolchain alongside some concrete tasks to solve with it and just adding more detail until we reach a reasonably sophisticated level I've been staring at 0x10c, carwars and battletech and there's a sense that I could build a sort of programming / engineering Zach like

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mghackerlady 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If you want to go the old computer route, find an old vic-20. It has the best manual for any computer ever made imo