The BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language was a monumental development in making computers accessible to the general public. Conceived in 1964 at Dartmouth College by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, its core design philosophy was simplicity and ease of use, moving away from the complex machine and assembly languages of the era. This accessibility was achieved through a clear, English-like syntax and a design well-suited for interactive use, making it ideal for the limited hardware of early computing times. BASIC’s straightforward nature meant that virtually anyone could learn to write simple programs with minimal instruction.
BASIC’s greatest cultural impact came with the rise of the home computer in the late 1970s and 1980s. Computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the IBM PC often had a version of BASIC (like Microsoft’s MBASIC or Applesoft BASIC) built directly into their firmware, sometimes booting straight into a BASIC interpreter. This immediate access to a programming environment was a catalyst, enabling a generation of enthusiasts to not only use their machines but to also create software, fostering a golden age of hobbyist programming, game development, and personal software creation.
Even today, in an era dominated by high-level languages like Python, the fundamental concepts of BASIC remain a powerful and relevant starting point for new programmers. While Python is celebrated for its clean syntax and vast libraries, BASIC’s directness and simplicity in its most common retro forms (like line numbers and immediate execution) provide an unparalleled, hands-on understanding of computational flow and machine interaction. Its legacy continues in modern, open-source derivatives, offering a valuable, nostalgia-rich gateway into programming logic that can easily serve as a foundational step before transitioning to languages like Python.
We’re building a BASIC system you can program in the browser. Whether you want to play your favorite BASIC games from the past, or want an easy way to learn BASIC for the first time, we hope you’ll find these pages helpful.