Like many games from that era, especially RPGs, you couldn't just save any time or place you wanted. After killing a bunch of monsters and gathering a backpack full of loot, players were required to backtrack through the dungeon so they could save their progress and loot in the tavern.

It was a Saturday, about lunchtime.  My wife had been playing Apshai all morning and she was on an epic run.  I've never seen so much loot and I told her (nay, begged her) to leave the dungeon and save her progress. She kept telling me, "No, I'm good. I can do this."

I couldn't watch anymore, so I ran down to the store to pick up some lunch. When I got back 30 or so minutes later she was STILL in the dungeon.

"Look what I got in the last room!!!"  (I don't remember the item, but I do remember that it was incredible.)  Then she uttered the now infamous, "I'm going to do just ONE more room, and then I'm going to save."

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  Giant spiders... and a dragon.  She begged the game gods, she pleaded with them, tears running down her cheeks as she tried to run away.  "No, don't kill me!!  Please!  No!  You can't.  NOOOOooooooo!"

She still plays RPGs, but I think that was her last visit to the "Temple of Apshai".

Many years ago I learned how to write VBA code for Excel and other Microsoft programs.  I can't begin to tell you how valuable this knowledge has been over the years.  Almost every project I work on as a designer involves some sort of mind numbing data entry that can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days... or even weeks.  Now, I just pull out Excel, write a bit of code and voila!  I push a button and the work is done.  It's like inventing a robot to do my work for me!  And not only is it faster, it's more accurate, as well... because computers don't make typos. 

I used to get pretty frustrated when I was learning how to program.  I'd change something in one part of my code and something would break in a completely unrelated part.  I once told my wife that programming a computer is like changing the windshield wiper in the car... and suddenly the engine won't start.

I have to say, though, that while I'm a pretty awful coder I absolutely LOVE it.  Programming is like solving little puzzles, and I love being able to play and tweak the stuff I write.

When I got started in the business over 30 years ago, I taught myself how to program a Commodore 64 in 6502 assembly language. At first, I only learned a few basic commands, but my limited vocabulary really put a damper on what I could do -- then I started to learn other commands and each one was like discovering I had a new superpower.

I remember how excited I was to show off my first assembly language game to an actual programmer. (An "Asteroids" style shooter, as I recall.) He said, "Not bad for a first effort. What Assembler did you use?"

I said, "Sorry... Assembler?  What's that?"

With a strange look on his face he replied, "It's a utility program that allows you to write machine language code with labels, line numbers, etc.  If you didn't use an Assembler how on earth did you write this?"

Feeling kind of stupid now I said, "I, um, used a machine language monitor". (This is a tool programmers use to change memory locations in the computer to either code or graphics.)