MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Programming for a 9 year old, opinions please

Drawing from personal experience, when I was a kid, I had a c64... and reading the "manual" learned how to peek and poke, and eventually to make my own sprite (I made michael jackson), then how to move it with the joystick, then how to detect collisions, make sound effects, then sound effects with all three "voices" of the c64... and eventually made my own crappy shooter out of it. I did it out of curiosity, not from an assignemnt or whatever. I also had my best friend Terry who was showing off what he could do on his badass c64, so I was trying to hold my own in the 'hood. The streets were tough back then.

To me, that was a great way to start.

Find a c64 emulator... or some version of basic, he can play with. On top of that, throw in some motivational competition of some kind... like learn it along with him, see who can make the computer do something the other hasn't seen it do yet.

Sounds like some major father/son nerd bonding to me.

Progress reports please.