What home micro had the best version of Basic?

GarryG · Post by **GarryG** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:45 am

I think the Spectrum had a decent basic, unfortunately it was buried under the horrible single key command system, so I never used basic much on my specie.

I first learned to program using CBM basic on the VIC 20. The implementation on the VIC was ok, but lacked any machine specific or powerful keywords. You had to PEEK and POKE a lot on the VIC!

The CBM basic in the C64 was pretty much the same as the VIC with the addition of some ok but sometimes confusing sprite handling commands.

Atari 8Bit basic, was pretty much just that, â€˜basicâ€™. The standard commands were ther but again you had to PEEK and POKE around toget some things done. There could have been some better commands for handling the PM (sprite) system, especially for vertical movement of sprites!

Dragon basic was also pretty basic, basic. It did the job but nothing special.

My winner would have to be the good old BBC. Good range of commands, goo graphics commands, and you could integrate Assembly right into youre basic code, fantastic!

funkym00se · Post by **funkym00se** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:00 am

Without a doubt, the amstrad cpc range. I used most 8 bits for basic coding and nothing could touch it. Even the BBC.

Antiriad2097 · Post by **Antiriad2097** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:03 am

Oric BASIC.

Its a pretty good version of Microsoft BASIC.

I first learned TI-99 BASIC, that was horrible and really slow. Migrating to the Oric really made things simpler.

GarryG · Post by **GarryG** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:12 am

Antiriad2097 wrote:Oric BASIC.

Its a pretty good version of Microsoft BASIC.

And I had Oric in the list as well, but it wouldn't let me post because I had too many options

yethboth · Post by **yethboth** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:15 am

BBC Micro and Spectrum.

SirClive · Post by **SirClive** » Thu May 31, 2007 9:00 am

Beeb for me. Apart from the C16 its the only one I ever managed to program. Was really proud of the American Football themed quiz game I made for my GCSE Computer Studies exam.

Celebaglar · Post by **Celebaglar** » Thu May 31, 2007 9:36 am

Having had a fair amount of experience of it, I can tell you it's NOT the C64 one!

Although I never used it personally, the Beeb one looked a lot better.

Kaptain_Von · Post by **Kaptain_Von** » Thu May 31, 2007 9:52 am

Even though I started out programming on the ZX81 and then Spectrum I have to vote for the BBC. One of my earliest jobs meant that I had to learn to program on the BBC (I should have learned at school but we wated most of our lessons playing Arcadians) and it was an absolute dream to work with. The only other machine/BASIC combination that came close was the Atari ST and GFA BASIC.

Bub&Bob · Post by **Bub&Bob** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:02 am

SirClive wrote:Beeb for me. Apart from the C16 its the only one I ever managed to program. Was really proud of the American Football themed quiz game I made for my GCSE Computer Studies exam.

and me, did hangman on the Beeb for my GCSE's.....Although I did get a D so on second thoughts.............

GarryG · Post by **GarryG** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:26 pm

Looks like this is going to be a one horse race!

station · Post by **station** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:30 pm

It is because most schools had BBC's.
I learnt on the Spectrum, which was horrible, but Amstrad CPC 'Locomotive' basic was superb. I used to put things like "poke $aaaaaa" just to crash it!

The ultimate was AMOS and STOS.

quangdx · Post by **quangdx** » Thu May 31, 2007 12:43 pm

Kaptain_Von wrote:The only other machine/BASIC combination that came close was the Atari ST and GFA BASIC.

never could get the hang of GFA basic when i was a kid,
much prefered using STOS for the Atari ST.
Maybe I should dig it out and give it another go.
Only ever programmed on spectrum 128k BASIC so i would vote for that, but can't really as I've never tested any of the other versions of BASIC.

necronom · Post by **necronom** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:26 pm

I voted for the BBC, but my favourite ever is AMOS Pro on the Amiga.

SirClive · Post by **SirClive** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:30 pm

Bub&Bob wrote:
SirClive wrote:Beeb for me. Apart from the C16 its the only one I ever managed to program. Was really proud of the American Football themed quiz game I made for my GCSE Computer Studies exam.
and me, did hangman on the Beeb for my GCSE's.....Although I did get a D so on second thoughts.............

Just beat you with a C. Maybe we need a high scores thread for GCSE Computer Studies

quangdx · Post by **quangdx** » Thu May 31, 2007 2:13 pm

SirClive wrote:
Bub&Bob wrote:
SirClive wrote:Beeb for me. Apart from the C16 its the only one I ever managed to program. Was really proud of the American Football themed quiz game I made for my GCSE Computer Studies exam.
and me, did hangman on the Beeb for my GCSE's.....Although I did get a D so on second thoughts.............
Just beat you with a C. Maybe we need a high scores thread for GCSE Computer Studies

i did my GCSE computer studies a year early,
wrote a simple puzzle game, sorta like columns meets puzzle bobble,
using RM Nimbus BASIC,
Managed to get me an A for it.

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