Catching the Computer Coding Bug

The Atari 400/800 gaming system computers were first released in 1979. I do not remember for sure if this story happened in 1979 or 1980. But it involves the Atari gaming system computers.

As a kid, we usually celebrated Christmas at our home in Thayne. However, during the holiday break, we usually traveled to Ogden Utah to visit our extended family on my mother's side. Grandma and Grandpa Livingston (Lavina and Leon) lived in a house at 1046 Darling Street in Ogden. Aunt Shirley (Mom's sister) and Uncle Carlos Bergeson lived at 1582 Oakcrest Drive in Ogden. Aunt Colleen (Mom's sister) and Uncle Ray Knowles lived at 5201 Fillmore Ave in Ogden. 

In this particular year, we went to Ogden a day or two after Christmas. My cousin Bruce Bergeson had received a new Atari gaming system computer as a Christmas gift that year. My memory is that Bruce received the Atari 800 version; however, it may have been the Atari 400. I do not know for sure. I remember he had the computer console, a few Atari game cartridges, a cassette tape drive device, two Atari joystick game controllers, and a modem (at least I recall a modem). Bruce connected the gaming system to the large console TV in the basement of his home.

Atari 800 computer gaming system console

When we visited the Bergeson's house, Bruce was excited to show off his new computer system. We took turns playing some of the games. Then, Bruce announced he had programmed a game that we could play. He had learned how to program the computer in the days since he received the gift. I remember thinking how "cool" Bruce was that he could make his own computer game. 

Atari joystick controllers

Atari cassette tape drive for external storage

The game Bruce created as a guess the number game. The computer screen displayed, "I am thinking of a number between 1 and 500. Guess the number." After I entered a number, the computer responded with a "Too High" or "Too Low" prompt and asked me to enter a new guess. When I finally guessed the right answer, the computer screen displayed, "Congratulations! You guessed the number in 10 tries. Bruce could have guessed the number in 9 tries."

All of the cousins were impressed at how good the game was and congratulated Bruce for writing such a cool guessing game.

example TV console

For me, the coolest part of the number guessing game was the statement that Bruce could have guessed the number in one fewer try than me. That really stayed in my mind. 

Four or five years later (1984), I was a sophomore in high school. As we neared the end of the school year, we received news that the school was going to have a computer lab room (with Apple IIe computers). This meant that juniors and seniors the next year would be able to take a computer programming class for either the fall or winter semester. I was so excited. I added computer programming to my list of requested courses for the next year. 

When I started school for my junior year, I was excited for the computer programming course. Our first programming task was to get "Hello World" to display on the screen. After the first few days of learning some of the most elemental features of the Apple Basic programming language, our teacher (Mr. Kunz) finally allowed us time to write a program.

Apple IIe computer
(similar to the one I used but I had no external disk drives)

The first program that I wanted to make was the number guessing game that my cousin Bruce had created. I asked Mr. Kunz to tell me how to get the computer to make a random number. Then, I made a number guessing game. In my game, after the player guessed the number, I copied Bruce's strategy. The game would display, "Congratulations, you guessed the correct number in 10 tries. `Jon would have guessed the number in 9 tries."