Overview
The Atari BASIC was my first programming language. I was, in a way, exposed to the language since I was 5 years old. However, I managed to write some meaningful programs much later, when I was 11-12 years old. One simply has to be mature enough. These programs survived to these days. Retrospectively, the programs are small, simple, and naive. For me, they represented a peak in my first „Atari era“ (and its end too).
I have to admit that my memories on this era are foggy. I know the programs were created between 1995 (after I was admitted to a grammar school) and 1997 (when a PC arrived at home), but I do not know exactly. Unlike good developers, I didn’t put the date in the source code.
What was my equipment? In this era, my equipment was simple. The Atari 130XE, data recorder with T2000 upgrade, Universal Turbo Cartridge and, most importantly, newly acquired book named „Programming the Atari“ by Ivan Feist. No floppy disk drive, no printer. At the time, my parents made a rational decision not to invest in the old tech, and keep the money for buying a PC.
On two of the games (BALL 1 and BALL 2), I was working with a fellow classmate who was into computers too (let us call him G.). He didn’t code (he was already into coding on PCs), but did some designing. We used the „STAR SOFT“ brand.
How the games survived? Originally, the games were stored on tape using the standard tape records. When I was about to switch to PC (1997), I’ve loaded these games to a special version of Turbo BASIC XL and stored them on a separate tape in the Turbo 2000 format. There, the games stayed until 2005, when I digitized the tape and extracted the .BAS files. Since then, the .BAS files were moved from one backup media to another (CDs, DVDs, cloud storage).
Multiple versions. For most of the games, I offer multiple versions: 1. The original version from 1995-1997, 2. Version with minor updates from 2005, 3. Version with code heavily reorganized from 2026, 4. Conversion to FastBasic from 2026. Versions from 2026 include bug fixes, logical, and visual enhancements.
Download
All games are available in a single package: atari_basic_games.zip
Vegas II Jackpot
This is a primitive and slow simulator of a slot machine. My first use of PMG objects (static, though). Inspired by the Vegas Jackpot published by Mastertronic. Press SELECT to insert coin, press START to spin.
Mr. Gaxx
A simple game where you have to jump over boxes. Use joystick to move Mr. Gaxx to the left and right, push up to jump. The main character is a PMG object.
Ball 1
A simple ‚avoid them‘ game, implemented fully in text mode. with keyboard controls. Avoid falling balls and maximize your score.
Ball 2
A simple ‚avoid them‘ game, implemented using text mode, modified character set, and PMG. Joystick control. Avoid all attackers and finish the game.
