[jkoschei]

I loved ZZT! I can't remember which was first for me, that or QBasic, but I have many fond memories of being 8 years old and hacking away on little games. I think I started with both at about the same time, and they instilled a love of code. The idea that you could just type in a few words and make the computer do what you wanted was pure magic to my young brain.

In hindsight, the limitations of ZZT were very freeing — with such a limited palette of options, you couldn't bite off too much more than you could chew, and you had to get creative to make anything work as intended.

My palette has increased since then, but the principles are still the same. I haven't touched ZZT in years, but in a way my career has been built on it.