LAST EDITED ON Mar-14-14 AT 11:11 PM (EDT)
 
>Well, there was another series of kids' books in print at around that
>same time, I don't remember what they were called, but they were like
>CYOA books, except that instead of decision gates, they had short
>BASIC programs at various points. The idea was that you would read to
>that point, key the program into your BASIC interpreter of choice, and
>based on the output you got, proceed to the next section of the
>narrative. There were even little tips about how you could optimize
>the programs for the idiosyncrasies of some of the most common/popular
>BASIC interpreters (I seem to recall the one for the Tandy Color
>Computer 3 usually required the most modification from the vanilla
>example in order for the programs to run properly).

Ah, yes...if memory serves me correctly those would be the Micro Adventure series of books. You were a kid who was so good at computers, you were a part-time secret agent. How did you receive your orders? They were (according to the story) hidden in the latest issue of X-Men, which your character had the handy decoding sheet for.

My brother and I used to love going to the library to play with the Apple II computers there. Since he was the first one to take a typing class, he volunteered to enter the programs from said books. Ah, memories...

Of course, when I took Basic I in high school, I still had some of those old programs. One of the games from Micro Adventure (where you had to control an "O" which was your sphere and fire "spears" at sharks) ran rampant in the computer lab. Sadly, the text in those things was easily mangled...from "Congratulations, you have defeated the sharks" to something a bit more in line with what high school kids would say.

I just remembered...back in elementary school, the Apple II's were wheeled in and out of a vault. Internet? We didn't have any stinking internet!

Ye gads. How far we've come.

I'm going to stop now.

--Doc