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Type-in Mania: An Interactive Archive of Early BASIC Programs

With much help from the Giant List of Classic Programmers. Click the filenames to run the programs listed below (WORK IN PROGRESS).

An International Selection of Some Type-in Programs

ADVENT1Adventureland by Scott Adams (USA 1978)
ASTRONAVAstronave Farmer by Mario Pettenghi (Italy 1985)
BATALABatala no Mar by Gustavo José Ferreira Grubba (Brazil 1985)
CORPSESExquisite Corpses by Philippe Henri (France 1984)
CROSWORDCrossword Maker Ontario Ministry of Ed. (Canada 1981)
CSSChess Game by Dieter Steinwender (Germany 1980)
TIMEMACHDer Tdjmachine by Gerton A Lunter (Netherlands 1988)
DOGSTARDogstar Adventure by Lance Micklus (USA 1979)
ELIZAEliza Jeff Shrager (USA 1973)
ENGINEEREngineer by David J. Bohlke (USA 1979)
FARGOALGammaquest II by Jeff McCord (USA 1981)
HEIANKYOHeiankyo Alien by T.S.G. (Japan 1979)
HOSLOVAGA Hös Lovag (Hero Knight) by Miklós Tihor (Hungary 1985)
JOUSTJoust by Clive Gifford (Melbourne House 1984)
LEMONLemonade Stand by MECC (USA 1973)
LITTLEBRLittle Brick Out by Steve Wozniak (USA 1977)
MICROBESMicrogouilles by Dominique Laroche (France 1983)
MOUNTAINThe High Mountains by Paul Braithwaite (UK 1984)
NOSTRONostromo by Masakuni Mitsuhashi (Japan 1981)
OREGONThe Oregon Trail by MECC (USA 1974)
OURANOSWeather War by Kathy Higby (USA 1980)
PARAVIASanta Paravia and Fiumaccio by George Blank (USA 1978)
PITMANPitman by Yutaka Isokawa (Japan 1985)
PRESTAVBP.R.E.S.T.A.V.B.A. by Miroslav Fídler (Czech 1988)
RATRUN 1st-person maze by C. T. Nadovich (USA 1979)
ROBOTR29Robot R29 by Tomasz Rogacewicz (Poland 1991)
ROCKETRocket aka LEM by Eric Peters (USA 1978)
ROMPA Romp in the Garden by Ventzislav Tzvetkov (Bulgaria 2005)
SHOPSTUShop Steward by S. N. Goodwin (UK 1980)
STARTRADStar Trader by Dave Kaufman (USA 1974)
STTR1"Star Trek" by Mike Mayfield (USA 1972)
SYLLOGYSyllogy AI demo by Tim Hartnell (Australia 1986)
TELENGRDTelengard by Daniel Lawrence (USA 1978)
WIZCASTLWizard's Castle by Joseph Power (USA 1980)
WOODSIn the Woods by Ken Fujisawa (Japan 1982)

BASIC Recodings of Classic Programs

CAVERNCavern 2160 Takaya Arita (1980)
COLOSSALWill Crowther's Colossal Cave Adventure (1977)
EMPIREEmpire by Walter Bright (1971)
LIFEJohn Conway's Famous Life Simulation (1970)
SHOPLIFTShoplifting Boy by Hiroshi Suzuki (1979)
SOKOBANSokoban by Hiroyuki Imabayashi (1981)

Academic Societies

Software Preservation NetworkOrganization to advance software preservation
Software History CentrePreserves historical software and oral histories
Australasian Digital HeritageResearchers concerned with the heritage of the born digital

Archive Sites with Playable Games

archive.orgInternet Archive: Vintage BASIC Games Collection
8-bitworkshop.comOnline BASIC (includes runnable Star Traders I helped with)
bbcmicro.co.ukComplete BBC Micro Games Archive
www.zx81stuff.org.uk ZX81 Tapes, Hardware and Books Collection

Articles About Type-in Programming

Garrett, Chris
(2021)
BASIC BASICS: The BASIC Programming Language
List, Jenny
(2019)
The BASIC Issue with Retro Computers Hackaday
Anderson, Nate (2018)First encounter: COMPUTE! magazine and its glorious,
tedious type-in code Ars Technica
Vintage Computing Forums (2017)Testimonies of Using BASIC Back in the Day
Cass, Stephen (2014)The Golden Age of BASIC IEEE Spectrum
Godwin, Simon N (2014)Writing for the early UK Home Computing mags
Simon N Goodwin reminiscences
McCracken, Harry (2014)Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language
That Made Computers Personal Time Magazine
Schofield, Jack (2014)50 years after BASIC, most users still can't
or won't program anything ZDNet
Szczepaniak, John (2013)Steve Wozniak discusses early Apple years and BASIC
owlapps
(2012)
BASIC interpreter
Bangeman, Eric (2012)First encounter: Ohio Challenger 2P (and its 4KB of RAM)
Ars Technica
The Digital Antiquarian (2011)In Defense of BASIC The Digital Antiquarian BLOG
Latest Games

Screenshots of Games and Applications
Go to the Text Adventures Page
Go to the Early BASIC AI Programs Page



Play these and other Classic BASIC Type-in Games
Play Other 8-bit BASIC Game Ports
Play BASIC Text Adventures
Play Recodings of Classic 8-bit Games
Try BASIC Educational Software
Play Our Original BASIC Games
Games from our Star Trek Collection
Games from our Australasian Collection

Australasian Collection

Visit my 8-bit BASIC Programming Blog
Visit my YouTube Coding Projects Channel


Dr. James Gerrie's Faculty Page
© 2019 James B. Gerrie Last updated 27-11-2021

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