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The stuff that makes machines tick: silicon, source code, sine waves, and the glorious 8-bit decade that started it all.

HIGH SCORE 3,333,360

> Computers

The 8-bit Classics

The Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 800, ZX Spectrum, and TRS-80 put a programmable computer in the living room. Power on, and you were one blinking cursor away from writing software.

CPUs That Shaped Everything

The MOS 6502 sold for about $25 when rivals cost hundreds, and it ended up in the Apple II, the NES, and, in variant form, the Commodore 64 and Atari 2600. The Zilog Z80 and Motorola 68000 filled out the family tree.

How It All Works

Transistors make gates, gates make adders and latches, latches make registers, and registers plus a clock make a CPU. Every layer is just a cleverer way of moving electrons around.

> Programming

10 REM THE PROGRAM EVERYONE TYPED IN
20 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD"
30 GOTO 20
RUN

HELLO, WORLD
HELLO, WORLD
HELLO, WORLD
BREAK IN 20
READY.
  • Make it work, make it right, make it fast, in that order.
  • Simple beats clever. Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
  • Learn one assembly language. Nothing else teaches you what the machine is really doing.
  • Every abstraction leaks. Know at least one layer below the one you work in.
  • Read other people's code. It's the fastest way to get better at writing your own.

> Mathematics

eiπ + 1 = 0

Euler's identity: five fundamental constants in a single line.

Fn = Fn−1 + Fn−2

Fibonacci: the sequence behind sunflowers and the go-to recursion example.

28 = 256

Why Pac-Man's level 256 splits in half: an 8-bit level counter overflows.

A ⊕ B ⊕ B = A

XOR undoes itself, which is the basis of parity, checksums, and plenty of sprite tricks.

> Electrical Engineering

Ohm's Law

V = I × R

The one equation every circuit obeys. Its sibling, P = V × I, tells you what's about to get hot.

The 555 Timer

f ≈ 1.44 / ((R1 + 2R2)C)

Introduced in 1972 and still made by the billions. Blinkers, tone generators, and debouncers all start here.

Resistor Color Code

  • 0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9

Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white. And yes, a flux capacitor needs 1.21 gigawatts.

> The '80s

Arcade & Console

  • Adventure (Atari 2600)
  • Pac-Man
  • Joust
  • Tempest
  • Black Tiger
  • Galaga

Text & Tabletop

  • Zork
  • Dungeons & Dragons
  • Tomb of Horrors
  • Interactive fiction on floppy

Silver Screen

  • WarGames
  • Blade Runner
  • Ladyhawke
  • Back to the Future
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Airwaves

  • Rush, 2112
  • Family Ties
  • Ultraman & giant robots
  • Saturday-morning cartoons

"Shall we play a game?"

WOPR, WarGames (1983)
> It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

You found the secret room. In 1979 Warren Robinett hid his name inside Adventure for the Atari 2600, and it became the first widely known video game Easter egg. Any good quest deserves a hidden key. GAME OVER? NOT YET.