Note that I was like 9, and neither myself nor my parents were aware of the (il)legality of this. I also never got further than making my prototype, which objectively sucked, so I never pursued it.
In perhaps (absolutely) my most commanding leadership role ever, I rallied anyone in earshot to spec out SNES (physical dimensions and inputs, we had no idea what the actual electronics did) and dream bigger.
Obviously I wasn’t creating anything new at the time, but it’s wild how much I look back to that as the moment I started finding my footing.
Moving forward it's important to remember that mainstream films effectively doomed almost two decades of smart people to either closet nerd behavior or condemnation and ostracization.
Not dismissing your experience at all, but I want to make sure mine is represented accurately.
Most of the harmful attitudes I experienced towards nerds were very socially insular, in my family and among friends.
Yes exactly this. I can also say it’s weird that the things I most focused on in those ideas have somewhat become a reality! I was obsessed with multi-screen possibilities, and the idea of games that could be portable and played on a TV. I think my younger vision of multi-screen looked less like the DS style game and more like choose your own angle in adult media. But it’s weird how much physical world shaped how I think about technology so early on.