[Random_Person]

I still have my 800. It was given to me sometime in the 80s when my cousin passed. It came with the BASIC cart, a tape drive, and a book called something like 101 BASIC GAMES that were just copies of source code. That machine started me on an obsessive path of learning languages and programming at ~10 years old that was all-consuming until I graduated high school. I hated the stupid membrane keyboard, but the lessons learned on that machine were invaluable to my curiosity.

[billygoat]

Pretty much same story here -- few things affected the path of my life as much as that one device did. I cannot overstate its impact on my ability to get creative with limited resources, seek out and solve tough problems, and have pride in creating things for others.

[Random_Person]

I remember really struggling to get the tape drive to work. Sans internet, it was quite a challenge to figure out how to get it going. That was quite likely the spark that made me want to learn anything and everything about hardware.

[rbanffy]

I had a copy of that book. I loved the illustrations between the listings.

Creative Computing and David H. Ahl were huge influences for me.

[Random_Person]

I'll have to dig it out. I don't remember the illustrations. I remember working on a blackjack program forever. Debugging line by line. Finding my typos and getting it to work. That was one of my proudest moments.

[UncleSlacky]

There's an online version here: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/

[Random_Person]

Oh, I forgot all about those little drawings! Seeing this now brings back a flood of memories. Thanks!

[criddell]

Didn't the 800 have a regular keyboard and the 400 had the membrane keyboard?

[Random_Person]

Ah, you are right. My memory sucks. It's been in storage for many many years.