If you had a DOS PC in the 1990s, chances are it came with QBASIC. In this video I talk about how it came to be, from the earliest IBM PC with BASIC in ROM to... well, PCs with BASIC not in ROM. I then explain how MS-DOS's bundled-in BASIC captivated the imagination of a younger me, with a little help from a school programming club.

Yes, It's a #doscember video. It's released in December and it is largely about DOS.

There are also games (DOS games, natch) you've probably not seen before. They're not very good, but that doesn't change the fact you've probably not seen them, unless you're watching this video for the second, third or even fifth time, an activity I'm fully on board with.

And where else are you going to see someone hold up a copy of The Revolutionary Guide to QBASIC, eh?

Program Listing:

0:00 How I fail at retro gaming YouTube
0:55 Nobody saw that coming did they?
1:28 Transitional bits
2:40 Let's hope this doesn't wind up all the ST owners
3:18 The beginning, finally
4:17 IBM PC DOS
5:28 That's a lot of BASICs.
6:02 That which shall not be named
6:38 Oh wait so all of that was pointless
6:52 BIOS copying explained by virtual chalkboard
8:58 I just wanted to show off that wild Compaq bundled software
9:58 I get into GW-BASIC... sike it's just truck sims again
12:14 QuickBasic
13:15 The trouble with DOS
15:15 A game, at last! Not mine. Geoff's.
15:47 Wait, I thought you said you programmed BASIC?
16:32 I really hope none of those 1996-1998 filenames are "hilariously" offensive in a teenage way
16:47 Authentic imagery of the British school system
17:48 The programming club approaches
18:13 Self-demystification and enraged Logo fans
19:00 Social dynamics
19:26 I lied. Sort of.
19:55 Timberwolf's Games: Fast Driver
21:28 A Graphical Interlude
22:01 Ultima Net: too cool for school
24:08 I fall behind
24:54 Timberwolf's Games: Oval Racer
25:05 Timberwolf's Games: Velocity
26:08 Timberwolf's Games: Velocity 2
27:45 Timberwolf's Games: Flying Eye
28:30 Crocodile Clips!
29:06 The end in sight

Yes, I only have high... er, medium resolution pictures of my first computer at the point when it had already been upgraded to a K6/200, and by that point was an old PC we had kicking around spare to be a server for our student house. Digital cameras weren't exactly household items in the 286 era. Maybe if you're all really nice I'll dig around in the nostalgia box and see if I've got an out-of-focus film photo from a cheap, light-bleeding 35mm fixed lens camera for the next time I mention it.

Comments are pre-reviewed to avoid spam. I aim to publish all comments, including dissent, but overly pedantic or negative ones may be moderated. Hearing about different experiences and what things were like in other countries adds a lot to the video! Please try to do so in a positive way while remembering that if I had to explain every minor international difference the video would be 2 hours long and boring, rather than 29 minutes long and boring. Failing that, at least make me laugh.

Bonus Fact: many of the QuickBasic language features we know and (possibly) love from QBASIC only came along in later versions, and if it looks like I'm struggling to get a program together in the footage of QuickBasic 2.0 it's because everything I'm used to is yet to exist!

Bonus Game: spot the error in the example "kind of C program I wrote when I was 12" section - worse still, something which was widely suggested by many C tutorials in magazines and books of the time!

#doscember #qbasic

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