The following example of a Pong game was provided in the manual: 1 Hor2←2+Key The graphics were as primitive as you could get and still describe as graphics: the programmer could manipulate two pixels.

Math would wrap, so 99+1 would become 0, 99+2 would become 1, etc.Įven the worst calculator BASIC was far more powerful than this. Atari BASIC only supported positive integers from 0 to 99. The language supported 26 unsigned integer variables A to Z.

Ver1, Ver2 – the vertical coordinate of one of two squares.

Hor1, Hor2 – the horizontal coordinate of one of two squares.

Note would sound a musical note, assigned numbers from 0 to 6.

If statements could take an Else clause.

An If statement could be used as a function, returning a value: Ver1←Ver1+IfVer1Mod2Then8Else92.

Statements could be strung together on a line without a delimiter e.g., Note←APrintA.

Atari BASIC used ← instead of = for assignment e.g., A←A+1.

Unlike most BASIC implementations of the time: Language featuresĪtari BASIC supported the following keywords: I recently updated the Wikipedia article (sparing it my invective) to document the few features of the language.

Nice to know that if I escaped Moonbase Alpha, I’d be able to program in BASIC.

I do love the above illustration from the manual, which gives BASIC programming the most science-fiction appeal it ever had. Anyone who bought this cartridge, expecting to be able to type in the BASIC programs from 101 BASIC Computer Games or the computer magazines of the day, would have been profoundly disappointed. The limited available RAM meant that programs could be at most 11 lines long and no more than 64 bytes total. The BASIC Programming cartridge for the Atari Video Computer System has the distinction of being the worst commercial BASIC interpreter of all time.

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