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Comment by xahrepap | Hacker News Reader

Zelda Classic holds a special place in my heart.

My older brother downloaded it thinking it was just a Zelda 1 clone. I discovered it had a quest editor. And it was a very magical moment for me.

I spent hundreds of hours never completing any of my projects. It was the first online community I ever joined and actively participated in.

Eventually I yearned for for power and discovered Dark Basic. Now I’m a software dev.

Zelda Classic was a major spark in my life. And it’s a really cool piece of software. 100% original code, (obviously the default assets are lifted… from another project). It’s got to be a 20 year old project at this point.

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Haha, cool!

My developer career also started with gaming.

The StarCraft map/script editor was my entry drug.

I already knew a few languages, but I credit quake C for teaching me to code at scale and work in large code bases, as well as tipping me towards a software/firmware career vs biochem.

Back then I spent a hell lot of time trying to figure out how Blizzard managed to order corsairs to cast spells on certain area. Years later figured out there was an internal functionality not exposed to outsiders.

I didn't do actual scripting there, but through the gui you could set up events to happen on various triggers. That really sparked something in me.

yes, same for me.

Ditto. my most popular map was probably Toads turret defense

Similar story, just a, ahem, few years earlier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Construction_Set commodore64 ftw.

Good times.

I followed a very similar path: never getting very far in many many different projects I started with it as a kid, but having it serve as a motivator to work with other tools like Dark Basic, GameMaker, RPG Maker, etc.

Almost as instrumental as my dad's Ti 83 Plus in my eventual career path

GameMaker and RPG Maker just never quite stuck with me the way Zelda Classic did. But my kids are getting to that age where they want to "make games". So I'm hoping something like that would be fun for them.

I remember getting the Ti83+ in High School and trying to make a Snake game. I followed a tutorial, and I barely knew what I was doing. But man, was it fun!

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