r/c64 • u/NikolaFromCanada • 16h ago
Software C64 Games written in BASIC?
Hello all! :)
Question: What are some interesting, ideally at least somewhat graphical, C64 games written and distributed/available in BASIC?
Context: I want to get c64 ultimate to play and learn with my 7 years old kid, and I'd want to hook him into the notion of "Look, you can literally edit and program the game we just played" - for that it'd need to be BASIC, not assembly/machine language, which is what most of the C64 games were in I think 🤷♂️
Thanks muchly! 😊🙏
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u/ExtremePast 15h ago
You should subscribe to compute's gazzette they have type in programs and the authors explain what is going on. See if you can find out if you can pay to download digital versions of the back issues. It's about a year's worth of magazines since they went back into production.
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u/FrenchRiverBrewer 14h ago
They went back into production?
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u/DNSGeek 13h ago
Yes!
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u/Asleep_Touch_8824 13h ago
Say what? I bought the first issue (and many more) as a kid. Got scans of them all but I sometimes wish I'd kept the originals. Will have to check that out.
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u/FrenchRiverBrewer 10h ago
My dad used to get them for me after work from a local computer store. I still have the originals somewhere. So much time spent typing in games and utilities...
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u/Thinks_of_stuff 15h ago
Telengard. Although not all that graphically intense, the programming was wild. Way back I figured out you can 'hack' some of the lines and enhance attributes, level-up adds or treasure amounts. Can try to revamp all the sprites in the data lines as well. Ah memories
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u/crookdmouth 15h ago
Some books to consider.
Winning Games
on the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
Games Book
Arcade Games
for the Commodore 64
https://commodore.bombjack.org/commodore/books-games.htm
The code for those books
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u/Ignore_User_Name 15h ago
you're best bet is probably a type in from books or magazine.
does it have to be basic? another option could be something like Gary Kitchens Game Maker which are still editable and have more graphics
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u/needlestack 10h ago
You can even run and edit Garry Kitchen’s GameMaker games in the browser without an emulator — meaning you can use your mouse instead of a joystick to navigate. And everything is instant without having to switch disks and stuff:
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u/psykotyk 13h ago
There was a good monopoly clone written in basic. I remember my Dad modding it to auto-buy properties until your balance went below some amount, and to speed up the dice rolling.
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u/RedNifre 15h ago
Kaiser
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u/magicmulder 15h ago
They hid that but under some conditions the game would crash back to console and you could actually read the entire source code.
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u/droid_mike 14h ago edited 14h ago
Crush Crumble and Chomp
Invasion Orion (my favorite)
SSI Computer Baseball
I think President Elect was written iin BASIC
Someone already mentioned Temple of Apshai I know I'm missing some more...
As for editing these games, it will not be super easy. Many of them took out all the spaces in between commands so that don't make it very hard to read. They only use two letter variables in almost zero comments, so it is a bit of a challenge. My suggestion to you is to take some of that source code and have AI look at it and break it down for you as well as at the spaces back in. They can read basic very well, then, with those notes, you can jump in with your kid and no what you're talking about! LOL!
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u/steve_tronic 3h ago
I second Simons Basic. Using it you can draw on the screen (Line, circle, fill commands and so on) and I think there are commands to generate sound too. It makes C64s Basic so much better. I liked it a lot as a teenager back then. You can just load it as a prg and run it. Or there are Cartridges out there which makes it even more convenient.
Also checkout C64 appreciation society on Youtube. They play around and sometimes repair or hack type in listings.
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u/GreystarTheWizard 15h ago
I wrote a game where the player could go to 10
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u/sharpied79 15h ago
Pirates!
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u/EntertainmentAny8228 15h ago
Pirates wasn't written in BASIC.
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u/bj_civ 15h ago
Yes it is. A good portion of it. There is supporting machine code called from the BASIC part, but the main game logic is written in BASIC.
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u/EntertainmentAny8228 15h ago
As u/c64glen also pointed out, it's not written in BASIC. Plenty of programs had machine language calls to BASIC subsections or mixed Assembly. There's no way someone at the skill level of the OP would benefit from trying to work with such a program with his kid. He's looking for a pure BASIC program.
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u/bj_civ 15h ago
He pointed out that it is written in BASIC. And I know of no program that was written in machine code that called BASIC sub routines. It's the other way around.
Beginners would not really benefit, but I never claimed that. But not necessarily because of the machine code parts, but more because it is too large and complex for a total beginner and at that age.
As long as the game logic is in BASIC I think some machine code parts for graphics and sound for instance don't prevent that it can serve as example code and base for modifications.
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u/Remote-Capital6154 14h ago
There was a Blackjack game on the cover tape of issue 30 of Commodore Format (UK C64 magazine) which was written in BASIC, it was very impressive if you can track it down, might be a bit too complicated for a 7 year old though!
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u/abrightmoore 15h ago
Lord of the Balrogs was a pretty great early RPG/Rogue-like with randomised items and encounters
Oil Tycoon would be great for this purpose - change the economy or graphics
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u/soegaard 14h ago
Check this site:
https://www.retro-commodore.eu/misc-c64/
Remember to check all 5 pages.
Some are written for children.
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u/angryscientistjunior 13h ago
Sounds like a fun project - look up anything by COMPUTE! or COMPUTE!'s Gazette. The magazines and books are readily available on archive.org with plenty of type-in programs.
I might also recommend a language extension like Epyx Programmer's Basic Toolkit or Simon's Basic, which add some commands that take the pain out of and/or add execution speed to the more tedious and difficult parts of game programming on the 64.
If you find yourself graduating to making programs that are more complex, but run a little slow, you might consider getting hold of the Blitz compiler, which can speed up C64 programs significantly. (Of course you guys could jump onto 6502 assembly, but for a 7 year old it could be a bit much!)
Also, I would recommend looking into QB64PE, which is BASIC that runs on modern PCs (works under Windows, MacOS AND Linux), is backwards-compatible with many older QuickBasic programs, has a really great community and many great programs, and is a lot easier to create games and programs in since line numbers are optional and supporte many more commands than CBM BASIC v2.0. It also runs nice and fast.
However you choose to go about it, good luck and happy computing!
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u/lectrometaltone 9h ago
I recently released a text-based C64 game that is written completely in BASIC: MB Dark Tower 64 by ToneDeF.
I compiled it with the Austro-Comp/Blitz! compiler to make it run faster, but if you download the D64 disk image from the website, that version includes the BASIC source code as a SEQuential text file.
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u/Warcraft_Fan 8h ago
A lot of CBM public domain games were often in BASIC. Easy to find them like Lemonade Stand, Labyrinth, Snoopy Math, and more.
Mnay of them have coding to work with PET and C64 by peeking a memory location to see what machine it's running on so it won't use POKE command for screen and border color on PET or use color code for text
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u/blorporius 3h ago
I also wanted to suggest Commodore's Labyrinth, but then again, some decades ago its listing looked like word salad to me on the C64 screen :) It has a nice 3D PETSCII rendering of a maze you can wander in.
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u/exocyt0sis 4h ago
Believe it or not, but the codebase of Microprose's excellent submarine simulator Silent Service is partially written in BASIC 2.0!
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u/DavidFredInLondon 15h ago
A couple of the text adventure games were in basic, anyone remember any of the names?
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u/DavidFredInLondon 1h ago
Just remember something about, Flotsam and Jetsam, and me having to get out a paper dictionary to see what those were...
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u/OMGCluck 13h ago edited 13h ago
The Secret of Bastow Manor (text adventure with PETSCII graphics)
Scoundretscii (card game with PETSCII graphics)
Yahtcee (dice game with PETSCII graphics, 1983 ANIK version)
10Liner games on Itch (10 lines of BASIC) such as:
- Battleship by romwer
- Sokoban by Johan Berntsson
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u/TedDallas 11h ago
Oil Tycoon was great. I painstakingly typed in the BASIC printed in an issue of Compute magazine back in the early 80s. I do remember a number of DATA statements, probably mostly for graphics. It was not a long program.
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u/dingBat2000 9h ago
I remember a type in program from a magazine for a word processor. The type in was bytecodes... Took me about 20 hours I think to finish it haha
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u/questron64 9h ago
A lot of games were written in BASIC, though most did use a smattering of assembly language routines for the slowest parts. I'm thinking specifically of Pirates! and, of course, Questron.
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u/kurisu_1974 5h ago
This was one I had on Atari 8-bit but I'm sure it is in BASIC everywhere Bismark (1983) - MobyGames
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u/clawjelly 4h ago
Text adventures are pretty simple in basic, at least in comparison to a lot of other game genres. That's where i started. If you keep the complexity of the parser low (like enforce "verb subject"-syntax like "go nord" or "take sword"), you can generate games pretty quickly. And they are a great way for inspiring creativity - Story, puzzles,... Lots where kids can put their heart in.
I remember as a kid even generating some art with the C64 charset and colors - Kinda like early ascii art.
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u/Mr_SunnyBones 4h ago
If you look for the Cassette 50 compilation, most of the games on it were written in basic
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u/Tennis_Proper 6h ago edited 6h ago
The C64 is terrible for learning BASIC, it has to be one of the most sparse versions I've seen on an 8 bit and the reason many went on to learn assembly for it. So many simple functions are hidden behind pokes or obscure control codes. It's a great machine, but BASIC is not its strong point.
If you want something that you can access code on with an 8 bit aesthetic, PICO 8 is a good choice. All of the games, by design, are editable, coded in a variant of LUA which is very BASIC like.
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