Comment by tromp

Yes, we had Pascal and C in the 80s. But what kid growing up in the 80s would go out of their way to purchase a Pascal compiler and learn an academically oriented language when their home computer comes with a very accessible built in programming language, providing direct access to sound and graphics and all the things they need to program their very own game? That most of their friends also had access to and for which the computer magazines at the time provided program listings with detailed explanations? The rare kid that wanted to wring out more performance than BASIC could provide was happy to explore the depths of programming in assembly. I know I had my share of fun making a connect-4 player in Z80 assembly that used the color attribute memory on the ZX Spectrum to search all variations. Learning Pascal a few years later in my CS studies was early enough for me.