[bitwize]

I was 4 when computing entered my life. My father was exploring some engine design ideas and used a succession of devices, each more powerful than the last but all proving futile. First it was a scientific calculator, then a programmable scientific calculator. Then he got one of those devices originally made by Sharp but badge-engineered by Radio Shack which they called a "pocket computer"; very calculator-like, but had an alphanumeric keyboard and could store and run BASIC programs written on it with a one-line display.

Ultimately he bit the bullet and went back to Radio Shack to buy the most powerful computer they sold at the time: the TRS-80 Model 16. It was a variant of their TRS-80 Model II business-class computer but with a 68000 daughtercard with a quarter to half a meg of memory. He used this to finally write the engine simulations he'd been planning in his head all along, replete with graphical curve plots and an animation of the piston turning the crankshaft. It ran at about four seconds per frame, but it was still spectacular to behold. I was fascinated. I sat there and watched him type in the programs line by line. I so desperately wanted to poke at it myself, so to keep my grubby mitts off his very expensive machine, my dad went down to Crazy Eddie's and got me a Commodore VIC-20, cheap, for my fifth birthday.

My world had changed.

The VIC-20 came with an easy-to-read manual that introduced new users to the basics of programming with the machine's built-in BASIC, including POKE and PEEK commands that could be used to control its display and sound capabilities. One of the example programs displayed an animated "PETSCII bird" flying across the screen. Even though it was nowhere mentioned in the book, I knew what had to be done: I had to make that bird controllable with cursor keys.

And so I did it. It took me a couple days? few days? But I bent the machine to my will, and I've been chasing that high for 43 years now.