Vintage BASIC - Games

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The classic book BASIC Computer Games, published by Creative Computing, inspired a generation of programmers. The games were written by many people, and compiled by David H. Ahl. The fabulous illustrations accompanying each game were done by George Beker.

I've included all the games here for your tinkering pleasure. I've tested and tweaked each one of them to make sure they'll run with Vintage BASIC, though you may see a few oddities. That's part of the fun of playing with BASIC: it never works quite the same on two machines. The games will play better if you keep CAPS LOCK on, as they were designed to be used with capital-letter input.

The table below includes both links to the pages of the book at atariarchives.org, and the source code for each game. I obtained most of the source code from classicbasicgames.org, with the exception of Civil War and Super Star Trek, which I entered myself. The descriptions mainly come from an earlier edition of the book, 101 BASIC Computer Games, via the scans at digibarn.com. All book content is provided with the express consent of David H. Ahl, editor.

You can download the entire set of games as a tarball (bcg.tar.gz) or a ZIP archive (bcg.zip).

Game	Source	Description

Acey Ducey	`aceyducey.bas`	Play acey-ducey with the computer
Amazing	`amazing.bas`	Computer constructs a maze
Animal	`animal.bas`	Computer guesses animals and learns new ones from you
Awari	`awari.bas`	Ancient game of rotating beans in pits
Bagels	`bagels.bas`	Guess a mystery 3-digit number by logic
Banner	`banner.bas`	Prints any message on a large banner
Basketball	`basketball.bas`	Basketball game
Batnum	`batnum.bas`	Match wits in a battle of numbers vs. the computer
Battle	`battle.bas`	Decode a matrix to locate enemy battleship
Blackjack	`blackjack.bas`	Blackjack (very comprehensive), Las Vegas rules
Bombardment	`bombardment.bas`	Destroy the computer's platoons with missles before it finds yours
Bombs Away	`bombsaway.bas`	Fly World War II bombing missions
Bounce	`bounce.bas`	Plot a bouncing ball
Bowling	`bowling.bas`	Bowling at the neighborhood lanes
Boxing	`boxing.bas`	3-round Olympic boxing match
Bug	`bug.bas`	Roll dice vs. the computer to draw a bug
Bullfight	`[bullfight.bas`]54	You're the matador in a championship bullfight
Bullseye	`[bullseye.bas`]56	Throw darts
Bunny	`[bunny.bas`]58	Computer drawing of the Playboy bunny
Buzzword	`[buzzword.bas`]60	Compose your speeches with the latest buzzwords
Calendar	`[calendar.bas`]62	Calendar for any year
Change	`[change.bas`]64	Computer imitates a cashier
Checkers	`[checkers.bas`]66	Game of checkers
Chemist	`[chemist.bas`]68	Dilute kryptocyanic acid to make it harmless
Chief	`[chief.bas`]70	Silly arithmetic drill
Chomp	`[chomp.bas`]72	Eat a cookie avoiding the poison piece (2 or more players)
Civil War	`[civilwar.bas`]74	Fight the Civil War
Combat	`[combat.bas`]76	Fight a small-scale war with the computer
Craps	`[craps.bas`]78	Play craps (dice), Las Vegas style
Cube	`[cube.bas`]80	Negotiate a 3-D cube avoiding hidden landmines
Depth Charge	`[depthcharge.bas`]82	Launch depth charges to destroy a submarine
Diamond	`[diamond.bas`]84	Prints 1-page diamond patterns
Dice	`[dice.bas`]86	Summarizes dice rolls
Digits	`[digits.bas`]88	Computer tries to guess digits you select at random
Even Wins	`[evenwins.bas`]90	Take objects from a pile—try to end with an even number
Game of Even Wins	`[gameofevenwins.bas`]92	Same as Even Wins—computer improves its play
Flip Flop	`[flipflop.bas`]94	Solitaire logic game—change a row of Xs to Os
Ftball	`[ftball.bas`]96	American football—you vs. the computer
Football	`[football.bas`]98	American football for two players
Fur Trader	`[furtrader.bas`]100	Trade furs with the white man
Golf	`[golf.bas`]102	Golf game—choose your clubs and swing
Gomoko	`[gomoko.bas`]104	Ancient board game of logic and strategy
Guess	`[guess.bas`]106	Guess a mystery number—computer gives you clues
Gunner	`[gunner.bas`]108	Fire a cannon at a stationary target
Hammurabi	`[hammurabi.bas`]110	Govern the ancient city-state of Sumeria
Hangman	`[hangman.bas`]112	Hangman word guessing game
Hello	`[hello.bas`]114	Computer becomes your friendly psychiatrist
Hexapawn	`[hexapawn.bas`]116	Hexapawn game
Hi-Lo	`[hi-lo.bas`]118	Try to hit the mystery jackpot
High I-Q	`[highiq.bas`]120	Try to remove all the pegs from a board
Hockey	`[hockey.bas`]122	Ice hockey, two players
Horserace	`[horserace.bas`]124	Off-track betting on a horse race
Hurkle	`[hurkle.bas`]126	Find the Hurkle hiding on a 10x10 grid
Kinema	`[kinema.bas`]128	Drill in simple kinematics
King	`[king.bas`]130	Govern a modern island kingdom wisely
Letter	`[letter.bas`]132	Guess a mystery letter—computer gives you clues
Life	`[life.bas`]134	John Conway's Game of Life
Life For Two	`[lifefortwo.bas`]136	Competitive game of Life (two or more players)
Literature Quiz	`[litquiz.bas`]138	Children's literature quiz
Love	`[love.bas`]140	Robert Indiana's artwork, your message
Lunar	`[lunar.bas`]142	Land an Apollo capsule on the moon
LEM	`[lem.bas`]144	Very comprehensive lunar landing
Rocket	`[rocket.bas`]146	Lunar landing from 500 feet (with plot)
Master Mind	`[mastermind.bas`]148	Guess the colors of pegs—then the computer guesses yours
Math Dice	`[mathdice.bas`]150	Children's arithmetic drill using pictures of dice
Mugwump	`[mugwump.bas`]152	Locate 4 mugwumps hiding on a 10x10 grid
Name	`[name.bas`]154	An ice-breaker with the computer
Nicomachus	`[nicomachus.bas`]156	Computer guesses number you think of
Nim	`[nim.bas`]158	Chinese game of Nim
Number	`[number.bas`]160	Silly number matching game
One Check	`[onecheck.bas`]162	Challenging game to remove checkers from a board
Orbit	`[orbit.bas`]164	Destroy an orbiting germ-laden enemy spaceship
Pizza	`[pizza.bas`]166	Deliver pizzas successfully
Poetry	`[poetry.bas`]168	Computer composes random poetry
Poker	`[poker.bas`]170	Poker game
Queen	`[queen.bas`]172	Move a single chess queen vs. the computer
Reverse	`[reverse.bas`]174	Order a series of numbers by reversing
Rock, Scissors, Paper	`[rockscissors.bas`]176	Game of rock, scissors, paper
Roulette	`[roulette.bas`]178	European roulette table
Russian Roulette	`[russianroulette.bas`]180	Russian roulette
Salvo	`[salvo.bas`]182	Destroy an enemy fleet of ships
Sine Wave	`[sinewave.bas`]184	Draw a sine wave on screen
Slalom	`[slalom.bas`]186	Simulates a slalom run
Slots	`[slots.bas`]188	Slot machine (one-armed bandit)
Splat	`[splat.bas`]190	Open a parachute at the last possible moment
Stars	`[stars.bas`]192	Guess a mystery number—stars give you clues
Stock Market	`[stockmarket.bas`]194	Stock market simulation
Super Star Trek	`[superstartrek.bas`]196	Comprehensive game of Star Trek
Super Star Trek: Instructions	`[superstartrekins.bas`]198	Instructions for Super Star Trek
Synonym	`[synonym.bas`]200	Word synonym drill
Target	`[target.bas`]202	Destroy a target in 3-D space—very tricky
3-D Plot	`[3dplot.bas`]204	Plot families of curves—looks 3-dimensional
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe	`[qubit.bas`]206	Game of tic-tac-toe in a 4x4x4 cube
Tic-Tac-Toe 1	`[tictactoe1.bas`]208	Simple version
Tic-Tac-Toe 2	`[tictactoe2.bas`]210	This version prints out the board
Tower	`[tower.bas`]212	Towers of Hanoi puzzle
Train	`[train.bas`]214	Time-speed-distance quiz
Trap	`[trap.bas`]216	Trap a mystery number—computer gives you clues
23 Matches	`[23matches.bas`]218	Game of 23 matches—try not to take the last one
War	`[war.bas`]220	Card game of war
Weekday	`[weekday.bas`]222	Facts about your birthday
Word	`[word.bas`]224	Word guessing game

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Vintage BASIC - Games

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