Sinclair ZX81. First using its built-in BASIC. Curiosity about what made it tick, combined with a 'need for speed' got me into Z80 assembly.
At one point used this puny machine to compute the digits of one of the largest Mersenne primes then-known to science (mid or late 80s). Not find that number of course, just produce a decimal representation of it.
On its successor, the ZX Spectrum, I got into cracking copy protections, POKEs for infinite lives etc.
MSX machines got me into hardware mods (RAM expansions, floppy drive replacements, repairs & much more).
Didn't turn coding into a profession though. But the hacker mindset never went away.
I started programming BASIC on the ZX Spectrum, and later moved to Z80 assembly for the same reason - wanting to have infinite lives/energy for games.
Removing protection started out being easy, but over time got pretty complex. I remember the various Speedlock protections quite fondly, with their various decryption routines layered upon top of each other.
At one point used this puny machine to compute the digits of one of the largest Mersenne primes then-known to science (mid or late 80s). Not find that number of course, just produce a decimal representation of it.
On its successor, the ZX Spectrum, I got into cracking copy protections, POKEs for infinite lives etc.
MSX machines got me into hardware mods (RAM expansions, floppy drive replacements, repairs & much more).
Didn't turn coding into a profession though. But the hacker mindset never went away.