Before Copilot, before Windows, few people know that Microsoft BASIC, created by Bill Gates, was the software that launched Microsoft. Microsoft BASIC source code has been released for 6502 Version 1.1, the 1978 variant for computers with the 6502 MOS processor, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore PET, and VIC-20.
Microsoft BASIC for 6502 was the first software that millions of people used to programsince computers like the Apple II or the Commodore 64 were very popular in the late 70s and early 80s of the last century.
With two simple commands, 10 PRINT ‘HELLO» and 20 GOTO 10, the word HELLO was written in a loop on the screen. Today it seems basic to us, but in the 70s it was magic: the first time that anyone, without being a programmer, could program a computer.
Microsoft Basic, the language created by Bill Gates
Unlike Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, who was a visionary salesman but did not know how to program, Bill Gates founded Microsoft as a programmer. And he has some little-known milestones on his resume. For example, he created the first PC game in history, and also the first high-level programming language for a home computer, this Microsoft BASIC.
Precisely thanks to BASIC, Microsoft consolidated itself as a companyand learned many lessons that he applied to Windows.
The first software from the company newly founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates was Altair BASIC, published in 1975 for the professional computer PDP-10.
He BASIC language is very easy to learnbecause it uses commands in English, and its flow is very logical. By simply reading the code, you know what it does. For example, if we analyze this classic program, the first one learned in academies:
- 10 PRINT ‘HELLO’
- 20 GOTO 10
If we translate to Spanish:
- 10 PRINT ‘HELLO’
- 20 AND A 10
Just by reading it, we know what it does. Order 10 (numbered 10 by 10) prints the word «HELLO» on the screenand order 20 returns to order 10. It is a classic loop that repeats indefinitely.
The problem with BASIC is that it is slow, because software called an interpreter has to convert these commands to the machine code of each specific processor. That is why there is a specific version of BASIC for each computer.
In 1978, he himself Bill Gates was in charge of bringing BASIC to the MOS 6502 processorand they called it Microsoft BASIC for 6502. «I invented the WAIT command,» says Gates in this blog.
It was a great success, but economically a disaster for the company. They sold the software to Commodore for $25,000, with no royalties or copy revenue. Millions of Commodore 64s and Pets were sold, and Microsoft didn’t make a cent from it.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen applied this life lesson to Windows, with one license per computer and maintenance of rights. When Windows established itself as the PC standard, Microsoft became the richest software company on the planet.
Can download Microsoft BASIC source code for 6502 Microsoft BASIC on GitHub, and modify or use it as you wish. A very valuable piece of computer history for scholars and emulator developers.