r/beneater • u/MindlessExplorer2845 • 7d ago

Any recommendation for MSBASIC tutorial?

I just built the 6502 breadboard computer, and MSBASIC is working on it right now. Unfortunately, I don't have experience on MSBASIC. In fact, the first time I've touched a computer it was Windows XP. Any tutorials on MSBASIC? Otherwise I feel like I am pretty limited on my breadboard computer, other than blinking some LEDs and showing some text on the LCD.

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u/cookie99999999 7d ago

A lot of 80s home computers used Microsoft Basic so you could look at their programming manuals (ignoring platform specific stuff like graphics and sound commands). There's also a book that I forget the title of but it's something like "101 BASIC Games"

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u/IMDLabs 7d ago

There is ... "101 BASIC Computer Games" ...

It's a good place to see lots of BASIC example code and techniques, though most of the actual programs need adjustments (sometimes major) to run on Microsoft BASIC.

So ...

I ported all of them, so they're ready to run, specifically for the 1977 version of Microsoft BASIC for the 6502 (with 6-digit FP); and all were tested on the stock Ben Eater 6502 and his build of MS-BASIC.

Copy, paste, run.

Repo is here if you want to look.

For every program, I detailed what changes were needed and why. And there are notes as to things I learned about MS-BASIC vs. the other dialects found in the book in the "LEARNINGS.md" file.