It was a sort of way to learn code. What does this asm opcode do or this basic function do. As you typed it in. In a way it was like long form watching gif images stream in during the early internet.
Modems we expensive and compuserve or the source charged an hourly rate. If you lived in a city with a node it wasn’t horrible but with long distance it was obscene.
I remember when analog computing came up with a checksum program to check the listing. Game changer. You could be assured your work wasn’t in vein. Pretty soon all the magazines had one and typing in the code was a way to get a cheap game compared to $30-40 for a rom game or disk. All it cost was some time at night playing with your computer. Typing in code to see your machine do something you’d never seen before. A technique or trick. A magical time.
Modems we expensive and compuserve or the source charged an hourly rate. If you lived in a city with a node it wasn’t horrible but with long distance it was obscene.
I remember when analog computing came up with a checksum program to check the listing. Game changer. You could be assured your work wasn’t in vein. Pretty soon all the magazines had one and typing in the code was a way to get a cheap game compared to $30-40 for a rom game or disk. All it cost was some time at night playing with your computer. Typing in code to see your machine do something you’d never seen before. A technique or trick. A magical time.