10 PRINT "What book was this?" .. 20 INPUT a$

January 27, 2010 2:05 AM

FindABookFilter: What set of books did I get from my elementary school library in the late 1980s that taught BASIC programming, and contained pages upon pages of BASIC code to be keyed in by the reader?

When I was in elementary school, I remember (repeatedly) checking out two or three books from our school library that had BASIC programming code in them. Each program was completely standalone and did different things, and each had a "common" BASIC code, but also had instructions at the end of each program for different platforms, such as: "If you are using TRS 80 BASIC, change line 70 to 'xxx' instead of 'yyy,' and add lines 71-74 as below." I think the books were written in the early 80s at the earliest.

My search-fu has failed me, so hopefully the hive mind knows.

posted by fireoyster to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

If they were quite lavishly illustrated they would likely have been from the Usborne range - of which there were several that had lots of code inside. Better Basic was one that springs to mind.
posted by Sparx at 2:19 AM on January 27, 2010

Dunno if this is it, but I was a big fan of this book (and the sequel) back in the early 80s: Basic Computer Games.
posted by chbrooks at 7:49 AM on January 27, 2010

Don't remember books, but 3-2-1 Contact magazine had the same thing. Each month would have new programs, with customization options for each BASIC platform.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:36 AM on January 27, 2010

I remember 3-2-1 Contact having BASIC listings (my favorite part of the whole magazine), now that you mention it, infinitewindow. The other books aren't quite it, or maybe my memory is off... Still, through Sparx's reference, I found Tim Hartnell's "Create Your Own Simulation Games," which I also owned. :)
posted by fireoyster at 9:09 PM on January 27, 2010