''BASIC Computer Games'' is a compilation of type-in computer games in the

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

programming language collected by

David H. Ahl David H. Ahl (born May 17, 1939) is an American author who is the founder of ''Creative Computing (magazine), Creative Computing'' magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including ''BASIC Computer Games'', the first computer book t ...

. Some of the games were written or modified by Ahl as well. Among its better-known games are '' Hamurabi'' and ''

Super Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is a text-based strategy video game based on the ''Star Trek'' television series and originally released in 1971. In the game, the player commands the USS ''Enterprise'' on a mission to hunt down and destroy an invading fleet of K ...

''. Originally published in 1973 as ''101 BASIC Computer Games'', the book was so popular that it had two more printing runs, the last in March 1975. The programs in these books were written in the BASIC dialect found on Digital's

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller general purpose computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold at a much lower price than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM and its direct competitors. In a 1970 survey, ...

s. In 1974, Ahl left DEC. He purchased the rights to the book and republished it under the new name. With the release of the first

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...

s, and Microsoft BASIC soon after, the games were ported to this dialect. 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.

History

Around 1971, Ahl ported two popular

early mainframe games Mainframe computers are computers used primarily by businesses and academic institutions for large-scale processes. Before personal computers, first termed microcomputers, became widely available to the general public in the 1970s, the computi ...

from DEC's FOCAL language to BASIC: '' Hamurabi'' and ''

Lunar Lander A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2021, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 19 ...

''. 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. 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 ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...

'' 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 The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

, 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.

Games

*''

Chomp Chomp is a two-player strategy game played on a rectangular grid made up of smaller square cells, which can be thought of as the blocks of a chocolate bar. The players take it in turns to choose one block and "eat it" (remove from the board), tog ...

'' *'' Civil War'' *''

Hexapawn Hexapawn is a deterministic two-player game invented by Martin Gardner. It is played on a rectangular board of variable size, for example on a 3×3 board or on a regular chessboard. On a board of size ''n''×''m'', each player begins with ''m'' p ...

'' *'' Hamurabi'' (based on ''The Sumer Game'' by Doug Dyment) *''

Nim Nim is a mathematical two player game. Nim or NIM may also refer to: * Nim (programming language) * Nim Chimpsky, a signing chimpanzee Acronyms * Network Installation Manager, an IBM framework * Nuclear Instrumentation Module * Negative index met ...

'' *''

Reception

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.” 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".

Legacy

Using

Vintage Basic Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...

, the games can be run on any

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

(32-bit or 64-bit), macOS (64-bit only), or Linux (64-bit only) system. The source code for the book is provided (with permission of David H Ahl) o
Vintage Basic's Basic Computer Games
page. A

machine with the GW-BASIC interpreter (32-bit only) can also run the games. The games are also compilable and playable with the Microsoft Small Basic development environment for children. 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''.Small Basic Computer Games website
on computerscienceforkids.com
project
started on GitHub in 2021 to port the games in these books to modern languages. Program listings from the second ("microcomputer") edition, and from ''More Basic Computer Games'', can be run by the open-source Brassica interpreter i
R
o
Python

References

External links

*
''Basic Computer Games: Small Basic 2010 Edition''George Beker's BEKERBOTS Site. Beker illustrated the Basic Computer Games books''Basic Computer Games'' archived on AtariArchives.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basic Computer Games BASIC programming language family Source code Books about video games Video games with available source code