thing was, in the old days you had to know binary and hex just to make graphics (redefining characters and using them for example). And you Peeked and Poked stuff to get it to work and you used DATA statements. You knew how variables and loops worked so it was just doing the same with funny little commands (that you had to remember or look up) instead. Also there were only 3 variables on the C64 and 16 on the Amiga, you could make more in the memory of course but those variables were the fastest.