I learned programming in 1977, age 12, on an RCA VIP (CDP1802 cpu) with 2K RAM, a hex keypad, composite video out (thru an RF modulator) and cassettes. None of that fancy ASCII stuff, and floppy drives were an unimaginable luxury.<p>CHIP-8 was a fun, approachable language. "Hacking" was hand-disassembling the CHIP-8 programs in the user manual.<p>It was easy to understand how computers were simply more complex TTL and CMOS projects like my father and I built each month from Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics. Dad worked at RCA, programmed in IBM 360 Assembler, FORTRAN, and at that time was helping write the ATLAS language (IEEE 416). Together we learned Tiny BASIC, and this launched my computer business for forty years.<p>Kudos to all the folks keeping CHIP-8 alive as a vital link from Boole and Shannon thru machine code to the "modern" world.