Ampersand Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 After a discussion at work on programming exercises, I wondered if the one we were talking about could be done on the BASIC Programming cartridge. I got close, but I'm pretty sure the answer is no. I tweeted while I was giving it a go, and made a Storify about it if you're curious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr SQL Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Very cool! Awesome you learned programming from the BASIC cartridge, enjoyed the article! Some more great examples from Sorrig Bowman: And Dave Britten: http://www2.gvsu.edu/brittedg/BasicProgramming.txt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Basic Programming cartridge was THE BEST. It fired off my imagination. I envisioned all sorts of cool things. And even scaring my parents into thinking I was going to disrupt the electric grid or shut the gas off, among other things. We were like 6 year old kids and didn't know better. Or we'd try and crash Basic Programming to make it drop into a real assembly language monitor and get at the "real stuff". You know.. Search around in the console's memory area for the Superman guy or the cars from Indy 500. Hey! We were kids! And it was even more fun trying to program in "mission control" for my mock Lunar Lander cockpit made from cardboard and my bed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHoboInYourRoom Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Some more great examples from Sorrig Bowman: Ha! I didn't think anyone still cared about that old video of mine. (And no, Sorrig's not my real name.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr SQL Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Ha! I didn't think anyone still cared about that old video of mine. (And no, Sorrig's not my real name.) That song generated from the algorithm is fantastic! I liked the games too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 I have wondered if there are any hacked or rewritten versions of the basic programming cartridge to extend its capabilities. I imagine a version that use the 32 character text kernel, and had The Interpreter running in ARM memory could be quite impressive. What would be the practical purpose of this? None whatsoever. :-) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampersand Posted August 11, 2017 Author Share Posted August 11, 2017 (edited) First off, as I said in the thread, hats off to Warren Robinett, the author of BASIC Programming. It really is a remarkable accomplishment to create anything that even resembles a BASIC interpreter given the technical limitations of the 2600. That being said, now that we know so much more of what the stock 2600 hardware can do, I'd love to see someone take a crack at a modern version. But I'd want to see it respect the limits of the hardware — nothing over 8K or uses more than the 128 bytes a stock 2600 gives you. (Yes, I know that by the end programs were sticking RAM on the cart and going crazy with bank-switching to get programs to 32K. I'd like to see something like the 4K and 8K Pac-Man challenges that were done a while back.) What's the practical purpose? Who cares? The challenge is there, that's all anyone should need, right? Edited August 11, 2017 by Ampersand 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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