How to use BASIC Programming online
The cartridge was sold with two Atari keyboard controllers (keypads), plugged in side by side and fitted with overlays to form one 24-key keyboard. The emulator on this site does not emulate these keypads, so you cannot type in programs here. You can start the cartridge with F12 and look at the screen, but the page is mainly of historical interest. To really use it, you need an emulator with keypad support or the original hardware.
What the cartridge does
The screen is split into six regions: Program (where you type your instructions), Stack (temporary results), Variables, Output, Status (free memory and running speed) and Graphics, which holds two coloured squares your program can move around. A shift key switches the keypad between colour-coded modes for commands, variables and operators. The left difficulty switch shows or hides the labels on the regions.
The language is tiny. It has Print, Goto, If–Then–Else, a Note command for sound, Key to read the keypad and Hit to detect when the two squares collide, plus basic arithmetic including remainders. There are 26 variables, A to Z, each holding a whole number from 0 to 99. A program can be at most eleven lines and 64 symbols long, and assignment uses an arrow instead of an equals sign. You can slow a program right down to watch it run one step at a time. The manual includes example programs, among them a simple Pong-style game.
History
Robinett finished BASIC Programming in June 1979, while also completing Adventure, and the cartridge was released in April 1980. With so little memory to work with, it could only ever be a small introduction to programming ideas such as variables, loops and conditions. Today it is mostly remembered as a curiosity, and as a lesser-known companion to Robinett’s far more famous Adventure.
Similar games to play next
- Adventure – Warren Robinett’s famous adventure game, fully playable here
- Basic Math – one of Atari’s early educational cartridges, played with the joystick
- Video Life – CommaVid’s version of Conway’s Game of Life, another non-game experiment