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I think the single device which got most people into programming in my generation was the Nintendo Entertainment System, and I do not remember it as being a playground of hackability. It just showed six year olds that if you ate your carrots and studied math you would eventually be able to do magic.

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In my opinion the Commodore/Amiga and later the PC computers created a lot more programmers than the Nintendo Entertainment System did. The North European game industry (DICE, Starbreeze, Remedy, etc.) was more or less based on the demoscene i.e. hacking for fun, not math education. Sure, the NES inspired a lot of people. But the real questions is: What if the NES would have been hackable?

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