Jones became interested in programming in high school, and learned [[Applesoft BASIC]] and [[Assembly language|6502 Assembly]] on an [[Apple II series]] computer. When Apple released its [[Macintosh]] line, Jones's family purchased a [[Macintosh 128K]], but Jones never programmed much for it. After high school Jones got a job programming for a [[computer-aided design]] company on PCs, before going to college the next year. In his off time Jones said that all he ever did on the Apple II was write games, "and it seemed logical to continue that on the Mac," he said. "The first thing I did on the Mac was to port a modem game I'd written called ''Minotaur'' from 6502 Assembly on the Apple II into MPW C on the Mac. I was still finishing that when I came to college. By that time, I knew I wanted to write games."<ref name="img-93 interview">{{cite magazine |last=Rouse |first=Richard III |date=October 1993 |title=IMG Interview: Bungie's Jason Jones |url=http://pid.bungie.org/IMGjasoninterviewOct93.html |magazine=[[Inside Mac Games]] |access-date=February 22, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224172644/http://pid.bungie.org/IMGjasoninterviewOct93.html |archive-date=February 24, 2016}}</ref>
