Gw Basic Games
GW-BASIC has excellent backward compatibility with the early Microsoft Basic versions. It behaves as an extended version of those early Basics. Best of all, it is freely available, and still runs in a DOS box on the most advanced Windows (XP, Vista) that are available. GW-BASIC 3.20 (1986) adds EGA graphics support (no version of BASICA or GW-BASIC had VGA support) and is the last major new version released before it was superseded by QBasic. Buyers of Hercules Graphics Cards received a special version of GW-BASIC on the card's utility disk that is called HBASIC, which adds support for its 720×348 monochrome. GW-BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft from IBM BASICA in the 1980's. It was bundled with MS-DOS operating systems on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft. The language is suitable for simple games, business programs and the like. The classic book BASIC Computer Games, published by Creative Computing, inspired a generation of programmers. The games were written by many people, and compiled by David H. The fabulous illustrations accompanying each game were done by George Beker. I've included all the games here for your tinkering pleasure. The GW-BASIC User's Guide is divided into six chapters, nine appendixes, and a glossary: Chapter 1, 'Welcome to GW-BASIC,' describes this manual. Chapter 2, 'Getting Started with GW-BASIC,' is an elementary guideline on how to begin programming. Chapter 3, 'Reviewing and Practicing GW-BASIC,' lets you use the principles of GW-BASIC explained in.
Gw Basic Games Download
| Author | David H. Ahl |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bob Barner |
| Subject | Computer programming |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Preceded by | 101 BASIC Computer Games |
BASIC Computer Games is a compilation of type-in computer games in the BASIC programming language collected by David H. Ahl. Some of the games were written or modified by Ahl as well. Among its better-known games are Hamurabi and Super Star Trek.
Originally published in 1973 as 101 BASIC Computer Games, early versions used the BASIC found on Digital's minicomputers. Ahl purchased the rights to the book and republished it under the new name, later porting them to Microsoft BASIC for the emerging microcomputer market. By the early 1980s, with tens of millions of home computers in the market, it had become the first computer book to sell a million copies.[1]
History[edit]
Around 1971, Ahl ported two popular early mainframe games from DEC's FOCAL language to BASIC: Hamurabi and Lunar Lander. He published the BASIC versions in DEC's educational newsletter, EDU, which he edited. Their popularity was such that he called for more submissions for future editions of the newsletter, and quickly gathered many, with a considerable group of them coming from high school students.[2] The wide availability of BASIC on various platforms, notably the Data General Nova and HP 2100 series, led to considerable porting effort to and from the DEC platform.
In 1974 Ahl left DEC to start Creative Computing magazine. He re-acquired the rights to the book from DEC and re-published under the name BASIC Computer Games. It was around this time that the first hobbyist microcomputers started appearing in 1975, and it became quite popular with these owners. The release of the '1977 Trinity' machines (Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80) was soon followed by a great many new competing microcomputer platforms featuring BASIC, along with the userbase to go with them, and demand for the book led to a second edition in 1978. Sales remained strong for years, and spawned similar collections in More Basic Computer Games (1979), and Big Computer Games (1984) and Basic Computer Adventures (1984), with translations into six languages.[2]
Games[edit]
- Hamurabi (based on The Sumer Game by Doug Dyment)
Reception[edit]
The first version, 101 went into a second printing and eventually sold 10,000 copies. Ahl later noted that “was far more books than there were computers around, so people were buying three, four, five of them for each computer.”[2]
The second version, BASIC, was re-printed many times and was the first computer book to sell a million copies. Harry McCracken called it 'The single most influential book of the BASIC era'.[2]
Legacy[edit]
The games can be compiled and run on a modern Microsoft Windows machine (32-bit only) with the GW-BASIC interpreter.[3]
The games are also compilable and playable with the Microsoft Small Basic development environment for children.[4] Computer Science for Kids has released a 2010 Small Basic Edition of the classic Basic Computer Games book called Basic Computer Games: Small Basic Edition.[5]
References[edit]
- ^Anderson, J. J. 'Dave tells Ahl—the history of Creative computing', Creative Computing, Volume 10 (November 1984), p. 66-8+
- ^ abcdHarry McCracken, 'Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal', Time, 29 April 2014
- ^Archived version of GW-BASIC
- ^Microsoft Small Basic website
- ^Small Basic Computer Games website on computerscienceforkids.com
External links[edit]
- LCCN78-50028
