Childhood Computing - Susam Pal
Childhood Computing
By Susam Pal on 24 May 2026
I recently stumbled upon a nice blog post titled
Childhood
Computing. It made me think about my own childhood computing
experience. I am much older than the author of the aforementioned
post but like them, I love computers too. I have for most of my
life.
In the early 1990s, when I was about eight years old, my parents
decided to transfer me to a new school because of its curriculum.
They did not know it then, and it probably did not even matter to
them, but this new school had a computer lab. That was quite
remarkable for its time. I grew up in a very tiny industrial town.
The computers in the lab were hand-me-downs from the silica factory
around which the town was built. We got only about two hours of
time per month in the computer lab but the little time I got there
opened up a whole new world for me.
Before entering the lab, we had to leave our shoes at the door.
'These are expensive machines. We must keep them free of dust', our
teacher would say. It was a ritual. The computers were very old
IBM PC compatible machines, mostly with monochrome cathode-ray tube
(CRT) monitors. They had no hard disks at all. They had a few
hundred kilobytes of RAM. Every time, we performed the same ritual.
Insert a 5¼-inch floppy disk to load MS-DOS into memory.
Then insert another disk to load LOGO. Then write small LOGO
programs and watch the turtle move. I have written more about that
early LOGO programming experience here: FD
100. Further, since there were no hard disks and storage was at
a premium, nothing was ever saved. The moment you turned off the
computer, all your work vanished. So saving a program meant
literally writing the program down in a physical notebook.
Video capture of IBM Personal Computer Logo
[MP4]
Since I got so little time with an actual computer, most of my Logo
programming happened with pen and paper at home. I would 'test' my
programs by tracing the results on graph paper. Eventually, I would
get about thirty minutes of actual computer time in the lab to run
them for real. One particular Logo program I still remember very
well drew a house with animated dashed lines, where the dashes moved
around the outline of the house. Everyone around me loved it,
copied it and tweaked it to change the colours, alter the details
and add their own little touches. That must have been my first
'free and open source software'. The 'licence' was 'do whatever you
want but show me if you make any interesting modifications'. The
distribution system was entirely analogue: classmates copied the
code into their notebooks with pencils, then went back to their
machines in the lab and typed it back into the computer.
Occasionally, when we successfully completed the Logo programming
exercises our teacher set us as challenges, he would let us play
computer games too. The first computer game I ever played was Moon
Bugs. Space Invaders, Bricks, Dangerous Dave and others were some
of my other favourites. Space Invaders inspired me to write my own
game but the little GW-BASIC programming I knew back then and the
very limited access to computers I had then were insufficient to
write anything more sophisticated than simple text-based
input/output programs. But eventually, as an adult, I did manage to
write an invaders-like game, which you can find
here: Andromeda Invaders. Writing this
game fulfilled a childhood dream!
One of my buddies liked the game called Digger developed by Windmill
Software. It soon became my favourite as well. The game came in a
self-booting disk, so we did not have to go through the elaborate
ritual of first inserting a floppy disk to load DOS. We could
insert the Digger floppy disk directly and the computer would boot
and start the game immediately.
Video capture of Digger
[MP4]
Another computer game I remember fondly was Grand Prix Circuit by
Accolade. I really loved typing the command GPEGA to
launch the game, knowing that in a moment I will be greeted with its
excellent opening music. Grand Prix Circuit blew my mind. As a
child who only knew how to draw basic two-dimensional geometrical
shapes with Logo and GW-BASIC, I found it astounding that a computer
program could create a projection of a three-dimensional fictional
world that you could navigate with keyboard inputs. How was it even
possible, I wondered.
Video capture of Grand Prix Circuit
[MP4]
It has been over 30 years since then, but the memories and the
feelings still remain fresh in my mind. There are times when I can
close my eyes and recall the buzzing sound of the dozen or so
computers running in the lab, the beeps from the power-on self-tests
(POST) and the distinctive, strangely pleasant smell of the closed,
air-conditioned room. For some reason, that smell is one of the
strongest memories I have from those days. I have never been able
to describe it well, but once in a while I encounter it in very
unexpected places, like a corridor somewhere, or a store, and it
takes me right back to those early days of childhood computing.
Those childhood computing experiences form some of my strongest and
most vivid memories. They were such magical experiences, full of
wonder and exploration.
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Susam Pal recounts his cherished childhood computing experiences from the early 1990s, triggered by a blog post he found. Growing up in a small industrial town, he gained access to a computer lab in a new school, which provided him with limited but transformative exposure to technology. The machines in the lab were older IBM PC compatible systems equipped with monochrome cathode-ray tube monitors, and they lacked hard disks, possessing only a few hundred kilobytes of RAM. Access to the lab was governed by a ritual, requiring students to leave their shoes at the door, emphasizing the perceived value and fragility of these expensive machines.
The interaction with the computers was highly procedural. To begin work, students had to insert floppy disks to load operating systems like MS-DOS, followed by loading programs such as LOGO. Since there was no persistent storage, saving work required physically writing programs down in a notebook, as all digital work was lost upon powering down the machine. This necessity turned programming into a tactile exercise, where students often tested their programs by tracing results onto graph paper. Pal recalls a specific Logo program that involved animating dashed lines to trace a house outline, which was widely admired and modified by peers, suggesting an early realization of open source principles where modifications were encouraged. The distribution of software in this environment was analog; classmates would transcribe code from notebooks into their own machines.
Beyond Logo programming, the students also engaged with computer games. These games included titles such as Moon Bugs, Space Invaders, Bricks, and Dangerous Dave. While early programming knowledge, such as the limited GW-BASIC skills, proved insufficient for creating highly sophisticated games, Pal eventually managed to develop an invaders-like game, Andromeda Invaders, fulfilling a childhood aspiration. He also recalls playing games like Digger, which utilized a self-booting disk, omitting the loading rituals, and Grand Prix Circuit by Accolade. Pal found it astonishing that a computer program could render a navigable three-dimensional fictional world using keyboard inputs, contrasting this capability with his prior experience solely involving two-dimensional geometric shapes.
The memories of these early computing days persist vividly, characterized by sensory details such as the buzzing sounds of the multiple computers, the beeps from power-on self-tests, and the distinctive, pleasant smell of the air-conditioned room. These sensory elements have become inextricably linked to the experience, evoking feelings of wonder, exploration, and magical engagement. For Susam Pal, these childhood computing encounters represent some of his strongest and most vivid memories, imbued with a sense of deep fascination. |