From Atari to AI, Part 2: Programming the Machine

In Part 1 of From Atari to AI, we talked about Atari, arcades, joysticks, cartridges, and the magic of playing the game.
But in Part 2, something changes.

This episode is about the moment technology stopped being something we only played with and became something we could create with.

Mr. Fred shares memories of learning to program on the Timex Sinclair 1000, receiving a BASIC programming book from one of his mother’s coworkers, building a text adventure game with a friend, saving code on cassette tapes, and later experiencing the Apple IIe in a high school computer science…