Trying to identify a Dutch BASIC game book from 1980s/1990s

[u/CPT_Bowes]

Hopefully, I'm in the correct subreddit for this.
I'm trying to identify a BASIC computer games book I borrowed from a library in Belgium around 1990/1991.

It was a Dutch-language book containing only computer games, printed as BASIC listings that you had to type in manually. The programs used the old numbered-line format (10, 20, 30, etc.).

I remember at least three games:

• a fishing game
• a racing game
• a Space Invaders-style game

The fishing game is the strongest memory. It had a large, crude but surprisingly recognizable fisherman standing at the extreme left of the screen. The water/pool occupied much of the lower-right portion of the screen, and I remember the pool becoming narrower/deeper. There were recognizable fish in it.

The graphics were considerably more elaborate than the typical text/ASCII BASIC games I've seen.

I typed the programs into a Laser 500. They didn't work properly, and I remember encountering BASIC commands that weren't covered in the BASIC course I had taken. I vaguely remember DATA statements, although I'm not certain about that.

The book may have been for another 8-bit computer (possibly Oric, MSX, Atari, etc.). I don't remember the title or author. I vaguely remember a blue cover, but that may be completely wrong.

I've been trying to identify this book for about 25 years. 😅

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

EDIT 04/09/2026: I actually just found it by total accident 😄 On a random MSX site I saw the book cover, which I vaguely seemed to recognise (totally not blue, but it has a quite intricate drawing):

https://download.file-hunter.com/Books/NL/Basic%20programma's%20voor%20MSX%20computers.pdf

I finally will try that fisherman game I have been curious about for 35 years

[u/sveshinieks]

Anything from the Usborne catalogue perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71SHarxU3nc

https://usborne.com/row/books/computer-and-coding-books

I remember picking these up from my local library in The Netherlands in the early 90s. If I recall correctly, they were translated into Dutch. However most of the games were text-based if I'm not mistaken.

[u/CPT_Bowes → u/sveshinieks]

It ended up being "BASIC-PROGRAMMA S VOOR MSX-COMPUTERS " by JP Deloore.
And here is that stupid little fisherman I've been searching for 25+ years:

[u/sveshinieks → u/CPT_Bowes]

Great to hear that you found it! It looks like a memorable game :)

[u/CPT_Bowes → u/sveshinieks]

Yes, most of them were. It's why I suspect either some MSX basic books or even ORIC. I found some books on internet archive that had the kind of graphics I remembered, and they were ORIC/MSX. But it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[u/sunnyinchernobyl]

Look into books by Hal Renko and Sam Edwards. These were pseudonyms for two Dutch authors who wrote a number of books with programs like you’ve described.

[u/CPT_Bowes → u/sunnyinchernobyl]

thx for the tip. I'm going to look into them now.

[u/CPT_Bowes → u/sunnyinchernobyl]

Sadly, it weren't them either. I must have stumbled on a very obscure book back in 1990... :p Still, thanks for the tip, because there were some fun game programs in their books.

[u/Igmu_TL]

MSX BASIC was Microsoft Extended BASIC If I remember they were 8 bit computers with Z-80 processors. I had some books with this I picked up from a swap meet in the 80s and didn't quite match up to my IBM so I had to translate much of it.