Man, in a similar vein, I remember old ANTIC magazines that my father had, sitting down and typing endless reams of DATA statements printed up in that magazine, and getting glorious PLAYER/MISSILE graphic games out of the deal.
And then losing them entirely when the power went out while I was saving to tape. (booooooooooooooooop.)
Oh, yeah. I remember one day my dad typed in a long program from Color Computer Magazine, which did 3D images (very sparse wireframe). I played with it for a while, finished, pressed Reset...then, while I still had the button down, remembered that Dad had said he wasn't interested enough in it to save it to tape, so I should if I wanted to keep it.
I thought furiously for a moment, trying to figure out if there was any way to save it before I released the button; but the reset had already happened.
Yeah, my dad would challenge me to modify these or other listings to do different things or sometimes just to come up with something off the wall. After finishing a couple (or dozen) of those he would buy me a game. I remember getting Frogger on tape like that.
And then losing them entirely when the power went out while I was saving to tape. (booooooooooooooooop.)