" but I suggest you get an 8 bitter, or an atmel or a pic chip and learn how to program on that, as close to the hardware as possible. So, yes, that means assembly."

This is a great idea!

If for some reason you don't want to work with actual hardware, I reccomend this book(http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/) . Dr Schocken uses Java to build a variety of emulators all the way from flip flops to a small computer you can write Tetris for, using a compiler you build.

A google tech talk based on the book is here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507

"Almost every high level language will make a lot more sense if you come from the basement up."

Exactly right.