This is how I got started programming, 20 years ago, 1988:

Actually I started a few years earlier, but this is probably where I really got into writing code, and writing games.  That’s a Sinclair ZX-Spectrum in a dK’tronics keyboard.  Microdrive on the left.  TV as a monitor.  Sound sampler plugged in the back, plotter on the right.  Cassette player (from before I got the microdrive).  I still have that pink folder under the calculator.  This is all on my desk in my room at Needham Hall, from when I was at UMIST (now Manchester University).