You were spoilt my first machine had commodore basic (commodore 16) and I did work with BBC basic also 30 years ago first PC had WFW 3.11 ) cost a fortune then.
I had a working version of Windows 2.0 for Virtual PC, but it stopped functioning when Microsoft bought the program. Wow, Dude you must be old... I took my Commodore 16 back to the shop in disgust. Its 'Commodore Basic' wasn't compatable with the 'Commodore Basic' of my Vic20. I'd spent months and months learning to 'Peek and Poke' that thing. I also have a JVC MSX, if I remember right that uses Microsoft Basic.
55 on my next birthday yeah I remember Peek and Poke, also magazines at that time spent months entering hexadecimal codes that you got every week to make a game that lasted only a few minutes
I just found in my storage two dozen or more Compute! magazines of mine with SpeedCalc, etc. I didn't remember I kept those.
I had a Commodore 64 with the CP/M cartridge and the 5 1/4 " floppy drive that would chug and grind whenever you'd load a program. I really loved playing Shamus.
OK, this one I have to reply to: Man, Compute! magazine was great!! The magazine was so expensive in the Netherlands! Bought my first issue in 1985, only a few pages for the computer I owned (guess which one from my username). Speedscript and Speedcalc were amazing!!!