My parents bought a C64 when I was about 8. After getting bored of Flimbo's Quest and Klax, I started looking at the manual and discovered a world of creativity.

I remember slavishly copying dozens of lines of Basic code. After what seemed like hours I was rewarded with a tiny sprite of a balloon floating across the screen.

My sister thought I was crazy; I thought it was the best thing ever.

We never had a tape or floppy drive, so I copied the same code out at least half a dozen times!