Wait, wut? No one has mentioned the awesome Commodore 64 and VIC-20? (Commodore licensed BASIC from Microsoft)  When I was in high school, my parents gave me a computer, instead of a class ring, and it was - the - best - decision - ever!! (That beautiful flashing white cursor on a blue background was the incentive I needed to learn to CODE!!  POKE 53281,0)  Now, I'm C#, .NET, MVC, HTML5, CSS3, and adding Windows 8 apps. I love learning and my son is now a coder, too!