Here's an example showing all topstories and updating in realtime. Obviously, in JS, but the other Firebase SDKs are similar: http://jsfiddle.net/firebase/96voj1xh/
Here's a simple example that displays the top story and votes using the Firebase JS SDK (and updates in realtime): http://jsfiddle.net/firebase/cm8ne9nh/
Scary, but this isn't surprising at all. What the hardware does in these cases is more important than the software that runs it. Couple that with devices that sell in relatively small quantities for high cost, and you get undertested, unstressed software.
To this day I credit Nibbles and QBASIC in MSDOS for getting me started in programming. This was a little later than the 80s (QBASIC was introduced in 1991). As a bored computer savvy kid discovering a game installed on my computer and realizing that I could change the game was all it took to eat up hours of fun.