In 1985 I saved enough money to buy an IBM PC and the first thing that I did was buy the Macro-Assembler and learn 8088 assembly language. I loved assembly language. I had previously learned IBM 370 BAL, which was the mainframe macro assembler. I have since learned all kinds of advanced languages, but I always loved the simple efficiency of coding right down at the hardware level. I look at languages like Java and I cringe to think of how they are turning a powerful server into a slow moving dinosaur.
The link below is to a games development kit that allows you to create programs for a games console using assembly language. This is the only way to code. I hope that they have a kit like this available when I retire. I would like to spend time again, feeling like Tron and coding the deep parts of a CPU chip. I am not a gamester. Solitaire is my speed, but I could hack some nice code on one of these.