What computer did you learn to program BASIC language on?

[deadmeow]

I learned on my old Intellivision ECS computer/module.

 

I had one program I wrote, which had Donkey Kong Jr (his 2 sprites pulled from the INTV cart) running along and he falls into a pit, and he is then eaten by the DK Jr trap jaws, and the pit fills with blood.

 

Most of the other programs were text adventure games me and my friend would take turns writing, letting the other person play. Basic language only had 2k of programable memory, you had no access to the RAM on the Intellivision unit, only the computer module.

 

When I got my Apple IIe a year later, I hit that running. I wrote some very interesting games with graphics on the Apple IIe. I will have to make disk images of them one day.

 

Kids today are spoiled. Anybody can stumble onto the internet and act like a moron today. In the old days (1980's), you had to have a brain to operate a computer, and get online. Today it is as simple as point and click.

 

If anyone can recommend a free programable basic languge for windows, (especially one similar to classic basic lang) I would be thrilled.

[JamesD]

I learned on a TRS-80 Model 1 my school had (and they only had 1). I did it by taking home the manuals from school and buying a couple other books. Then I programmed a Model 3 which is pretty close to the same. I actually wrote some account tracking software (not to be confused with accounting software) for my high school.

 

I finally bought my own computer shortly after that... a Tandy Color Computer 1.

 

The Extended Basic on the CoCo was almost identical to GWBasic if I remember right.

 

I also programmed on my friend's Apple II+ a lot.

Edited February 2, 2007 by JamesD

[Atari-Jess]

an 80286 running DOS

[Starhopper]

I first learned on a TI-99/4A (which was quite different from regualr basic in a few respects).

 

I honed the skill on an IBM XT 8086.

 

I'm going to go over there--->

and feel old, now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+5-11under]

Sinclair XZ-80 and XZ-81. They were owned by my brother.

5-11under

[Gregory DG]

I learned on an Atari 400. Boy, was it hard typing on that thing! It got much better when I got an 800XL. Atari BASIC was the best ever.

[gdement]

Apple IIc. I saw the II+'s at school and started asking for an Apple, and one day my dad come home with the IIc. It came with a couple programming manuals which were obviously written for older models. They had chapters about how to use the tape drives and such. I started out just copying any program I could find, but eventually started writing my own.

 

Unfortunately, my IIc isn't compatible with 3.5" drives and the keyboard is pretty beaten up. My old programming disks still haven't been backed up. Everything still works though - low density floppies are much more reliable than the modern ones.

 

Mine always had a silly way of occasionally responding "SYNTAX ERROR" when I'd type a perfectly good statement, then the next time I retype the exact same thing it would work. I think it's always been like that.

 

I always used to drool over the IIGS machines. I really wished I had one of those.

[deadmeow]

You must have one of the very early original Apple IIc's. When I get around to it, I want to get one of those fancy little Apple IIc Plus machines, which runs at 4 mhz, and has a built in 3.5 inch drive.

[Emehr]

Apple IIgs in high school. It was about the same time the SNES came out so I was fascinated with scaling and rotation. I would write little tech demos with 2D wireframe graphics that would rotate and scale. Then I would try to figure out ways to optimize it. The flicker was horrendous but I was happy to get something onscreen. I also wrote drawing programs. Mouse support was beyond my scope so everything was handled on the keyboard.

 

A couple years ago I picked up a Woz edition IIgs at a yard sale for $10. Fortunately I still have my (what is it 5 and a half inch?) floppy disk from high school so I fired it up and the thing still reads!

[+HatNJ]

Apple IIe in school and an Atari 800 at home

 

Ahh those were the days

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Learned initially on Apple //e systems at school in 6th & 7th grade. About the last 3 months of my 7th grade year the school was able to secure one //gs but I only remember a few of the teachers favorite students getting to mess around with it. I wasn't one of them.

 

Then in High School, they made all of us take basic again. Only this time it was on TRS-80 model 3 units. We didn't do much, only a few basic games and some text adventures. Sadly I don't have any of this old data any longer.

 

Eventually I got my own 80286 clone and did all the demos in my GWBasic book, but never got much further than that I'm afraid.

[Dauber]

I kinda learned on four different computers at first -- a TI 99/4A, which we had in school; an Apple II+/IIe/IIc, which we also had at school; and the Commodore Vic=20 and Commodore 64, which I would futz with at Montgomery Ward at the Lincoln Mall, where they had demo models.

 

I also learned a lot on the Atari 65XE, which my brother used to have (and that same computer is now in Inky's possession)...

 

And in 1988 I got a Commodore 64C as a present, and I learned a lot on that thing, especially PEEKs and POKEs. Unfortunately, I never learned enough to actually write anything decent.

[christianscott27]

TRS-80 of course since the Apples were for teachers and select 6th graders. I remember trying to write my own text adventure game in the brief after-school period they'd let me have. Ours had a little dot-matrix printer and a tape drive, it felt really cool when we'd get to use C-Load magazine. I never did get a home computer til 1999. I always tease my mother that if she had just given into my pleas for computer back in the day I could have become like the Google founders and bought her a mansion.

[+FujiSkunk]

My first BASIC programs were entered on Apple II+ machines during a summer computer camp. After that I mostly worked on Apple IIe's at school.

[Dan Iacovelli]

started out with TI-99/4a at home

did some basic work on the pc at high school

(later on I on the TI-side Iwent further into extented basic of which where most of my programs are done)

I did fool with basic on atari (when they had 1200 series at Kmart,

I typed a small program that will get stuck in loop until somebody hit the key to stop it and go to main menu)

[+remowilliams]

A Timex Sinclair 1000. Then quickly moved onto the TI994/A, and then the glorious 800XL

 

I didn't get 'computer programming' classes until my junior year in high school with the good 'old Apple IIs. But by that time, I was more qualified to teach the course then the teacher was.

[Christophero Sly]

The first computer I did any programming on was a ZX-81 that I checked out of the library, but that experience was mostly just typing in pre-written programs. Shortly after that, I got a TI-99/4A, which is the computer I really taught myself Basic on and the one I began to write my own programs for. I would love to still have the cassette tapes on which I saved the original programs I wrote for the TI-99/4A. Sadly, they're long gone. Later on, I got into Apple II computers and it was on those machines that I really honed my programming skills.

[Pixelboy]

I can't remember which was the first, but I wrote Basic programs on a variety of early home computers, including the VIC-20, the ZX-81, the TRS-80, the TI99/4A, the first generations of IBM PCs, the Commodore 64... and of course SmartBASIC on the Adam computer.

 

Once I started leaning Pascal and C in college I never went back to Basic.

[jaybird3rd]

My first BASIC interpreter was good old TI BASIC on the 99/4A (didn't get Extended BASIC until later). I learned by typing in programs from magazines like Enter (later 3-2-1 Contact) and Family Computing, and modifying program listings intended for other platforms to work on the 99/4A.

 

After that, I learned BASIC on a couple of other machines (let me see if I can remember them all): the Atari 400/800 series, the TRS-80, one of the CoCo machines, Cromemco C10, Sinclair ZX81 and TS1000, Commodore PET, Apple ][, Mattel Aquarius, Coleco ADAM, and finally GW-BASIC and QBasic on MS-DOS. After that I stopped programming for a while, then switched over to C/C++ and Java after I started college.

 

I've still got a bunch of old QBasic programs that I started, and I've often thought about porting them over to C++ or Java and finishing them. I just wish I had more time for this stuff ...

Edited February 1, 2007 by jaybird3rd

[bfutrel]

I initially learned on a C-64, then flip-flopping between a Coleco Adam (BASIC is very close to an Apple II), a C-128D (boy I miss it sometimes), a genuine IBM PC at school (not XT) and a Royal Alphatronic PC (used CPM if I remember). First PC I did programming on was a Tandy 1000EX.

 

Now I write code using VB 6, VB .NET 2003 and 2005 for Windows and am trying to learn PHP in my spare time.

[Lauren Tyler]

I learned with GW-BASIC on my 386, and then moved up to QBASIC.

 

I never figured out how to work with graphics, otherwise I could've made some games of my own. Anyone know where I could learn some stuff about designing games in QBASIC? (I know it's primitive, but I figure if I learn about graphics in a simple language, I'll be prepared for later languages.)

[Vic George 2K3]

The college mainframes that Southeastern Mass. University had in their library building in 1981-82, then the Timex-Sinclair 1000, then the Adam Family Computer System with its SmartBASIC (which was similar to the Apple IIc's version of BASIC).

 

I was a BASIC programming fanatic who basically wore out the bindings of various BASIC programming books because I would read them a lot.

[y-bot]

Apple IIe in 5th & 6th grade 1983-1985. I remember spending hours typing in programs from magazines but I don't really remember any of them working. Lots of time was spent playing Oregon Trail as well.

 

y-bot

[edweird13]

TI99-4a then C64 a few years later also had Apple IIe in high school

Edited February 1, 2007 by edweird13

[deadmeow]

In junior high me and my friend used to go to Radio Shack and we would type a program that had about a 2 minute delay, and then it would make a loud buzzing sound. We would turn the volume all the way up and run the program. We would exit the store a couple a minutes before it went off, and then watch the noisey destruction from across the way!

Edited February 1, 2007 by deadmeow