This page (revision-15) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Maury Markowitz 

This page was created on 23-Dec-2010 08:44 by Carsten Strotmann

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Page revision history

Version Date Modified Size Author Changes ... Change note
15 03-Feb-2023 15:21 3 KB Maury Markowitz to previous
14 18-Sep-2017 15:46 2 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
13 18-Sep-2017 15:42 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
12 18-Sep-2017 15:31 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
11 18-Sep-2017 15:29 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
9 18-Sep-2017 14:13 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last Microsoft Basic ==> Microsoft Basic I
10 18-Sep-2017 14:13 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last Microsoft Basic ==> Microsoft Basic I
8 15-Feb-2015 03:11 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
7 29-Jan-2015 04:10 1 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
6 29-Jan-2015 03:55 892 bytes Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
5 29-Jan-2015 03:44 390 bytes Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last Atari Microsoft Basic
4 23-Dec-2010 11:41 286 bytes Carsten Strotmann to previous | to last
3 23-Dec-2010 08:51 256 bytes Carsten Strotmann to previous | to last
2 23-Dec-2010 08:45 219 bytes Carsten Strotmann to previous | to last
1 23-Dec-2010 08:44 130 bytes Carsten Strotmann to last

Page References

Incoming links Outgoing links
Microsoft Basic I
Microsoft Basic I

Version management

Difference between version and

At line 1 changed one line
!!!Microsoft Basic for Atari 800
!!!Atari Microsoft Basic I
CX8126 ; Copyright (C) 1981 Microsoft Corporation
At line 3 changed one line
* [Information on Microsoft Basic on Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Basic]
!Background
Atari licensed the the Microsoft "9k BASIC" for their new machines, intending to add a number of new commands to it to take advantage of the machine's graphics and sound capabilities. Unfortunately, they had designed the machines to allow only 8k in the ROM cartridges, and in spite of considerable effort, they were never able to get even the original version to fit, let alone any of the extensions. And thus [Atari BASIC], which was written to fit into 8k.
In 1981, Atari released their original extended version of Microsoft BASIC on disk. This version included the various extensions, and as a result was much larger than the cartridge version. It could only run on machines with at least 32k of RAM, and after loading it left little RAM free; on a 48k machine about 20k was left.
In spite of these limitations, MS BASIC had a number of advantages over Atari BASIC. For one, it supported all of the standard MS commands, making it much easier to port BASIC programs from other platforms to the Atari. It also included additional editing commands for renumbering, merging, and deleting blocks of lines. And most importantly, it was much faster; Atari BASIC had a number of well-known performance problems that MS BASIC did not, and this was enough to make most BASIC programs run much faster in MS BASIC.
The disk-based version was later replaced by [Microsoft Basic II], which used a ROM cartridge for the key parts of the language, and put extensions on a separate floppy disk.
!!Pictures:
[{Image src='Atari Microsoft BASIC I.jpg' width=750 height=980 }]
Atari Microsoft Basic I box\\
\\
[{Image src='Atari Microsoft BASIC I Instruction Manual.jpg' width=421 height=536 }]
Atari Microsoft Basic I Instruction Manual\\
\\
[{Image src='Atari Microsoft Basic-CX8126 Disk 2.jpg' width=785 height=785 }]
Atari Microsoft BASIC I Diskette CX8126 - image 1\\
\\
[{Image src='Atari Microsoft BASIC I Diskette CX8126.jpg' width=403 height=399 }]
Atari Microsoft BASIC I Diskette CX8126 - image 2\\
\\
[{Image src='Atari 800 Basic V1.0 (C) 1981 Microsoft.jpg' width=711 height=275 }]
Atari 800 Microsoft BASIC V1.0 startscreen
!!Manual:
* [missing]
!!Atari Microsoft BASIC Cross-Reference Utility - APX Catalog Number 20125 by Fred Thorlin System Software; Many thanks to bob1200xl from AtariAge for sharing it with us!
!!ATR Image:
* [Atari Microsoft BASIC Cross-Reference Utility|http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-microsoft-basic-cross-reference-utility_30054.html]
!!Picture
[{Image src='ATARI Microsoft BASIC Cross-Reference Utility.jpg' width=681 height=892 }]
Atari Microsoft BASIC Cross-Reference Utility\\
!!References:
* [Wikipedia: Microsoft Basic I|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Basic]
* [Wikipedia: Atari Microsoft Basic I|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Microsoft_BASIC]
* [Atari Microsoft Basic at Atarimania|http://www.atarimania.com/list_utilities_atari_search_77.105.99.114.111.115.111.102.116.32.66.65.83.73.67._8_U.html]
This page (revision-15) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Maury Markowitz  Top