[jops]

I learnt to program on the ZXSpectrum with "Write Your Own Adventure Programs for Your Microcomputer" [0]

The RPi400 with Pico-8 seems to tick the same boxes, so I got one for my 10yr old. He's loving it. Perfect use case.

[0] https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Books/Write%...

[abraxas]

I wish there was a bare metal option that boots RPI 400 into a BASIC or Python interpreter the way the 8 bit machines used to

[UncleSlacky]

RISC OS Pico boots straight into BBC Basic:

https://web.archive.org/web/20181109020203/https://www.risco...

(IA link as it's been removed from the site, but the installer is still available via IA).

[bencollier49]

This is the correct answer. I've copied BBC BASIC games directly to a Pi running RISC OS Pico:

https://www.bencollier.info/projects/electronics/emulation/f...

To reiterate, the Pi can be made directly backwards-compatible with 8-bit games from 40 years ago. It's wonderful.

[notpygame]

There's a python/pygame/pygame_gui OS that does exactly this called snakeware. https://github.com/joshiemoore/snakeware Grab the rpi4 image and go.

[simonh]

The Pi OS comes with Python installed, the pygame libraries, a bunch of games written in Python and of course the source code so you can modify them and create your own.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/python/READM...

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/python-games...

[0-_-0]

Check out this thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18228740

[drcode]

Pick up a pocket chip for $40 on eBay- you have to click a single button after boot and then can start coding a game with pico-8 in lua.

[mlyle]

It's not bare metal, but Python on Pi400 is great for kids.

Especially with side-by-side with a Minecraft window and the Minecraft Pi Edition python integration.

Also, there's a whole lot of little boards that support Micropython, and boot straight to it, including ESP32 etc. I use them in the classes I teach.

[boogies]

Wasn’t Minecraft Pi Edition discontinued years ago? Minetest on the other hand might be a great intro to programming with its Lua script mods, and also has always been designed for modest hardware.

[cyberbanjo]

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/edition/pi

Appears to still be available

[boogies]

But not updated in ~7 years since v0.1.1

https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Pi_Edition

[mlyle]

Yah, it's discontinued, but it works fine and is still distributed. It's a fine path to write some code and interact with a working game world.

[lixtra]

What do you mean by bare metal? Booting into python (or basic) would probably take less than 1h for someone who knows what they are doing.

[zozbot234]

RISC OS for RPi can do this. Not sure if RPi400 is supported just yet.

[antod]

I got my start with a Spectrum and that book too. Far less luck interesting my kids in computers though.

[fmakunbound]

These Usborne (and other) books were fantastic!

[butlersean]

one of my colleagues uses that as an assignment for his students, they have to port one of the listings to c++