Comment by StudyAnimal

To be fair my background is similar but the system isn’t really more opaque. I remember having the same books for the PC as (in this case my slightly older mentors) had for the C64. Undocumented PC and Undocumented DOS stand out. However you mentioned games , I too was distracted with such things (like the ABCs, alcohol, babes and cars). And had a nerd break until the web era. With maybe a little play around with VGA graphics and DJCPP or whatever it was called along the way.