It's also frightening to think people got away with selling commercial software written in interpreted Commodore BASIC. I say got away - if there's any justice they went out of business fairly quick - BASIC games were just too slow back then. You can push out pretty professional jobs in BlitzBasic - but that's becuase it compiles really well and has built-in graphics features such as screen buffering and collision detection.
In some cases I would say "got away with", in others, I would just say "sign of the times". I remember Avalon Hill selling BASIC games and reviewers of the time saying essentially along the lines that Avalon Hill allowed editing of the game's "source code" so the user could make their own modifications to the program. It's surely sugar coating, but there is something of a point to that, particularly as late as the early 80's. Many publishers - including Adventure International - would often advertise whether their program was BASIC or Machine Language. BASIC often meant an inferior program, but not always, and many top games - including some of the Ultimas - were mixed languages, including BASIC.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
It's also frightening to think people got away with selling commercial software written in interpreted Commodore BASIC. I say got away - if there's any justice they went out of business fairly quick - BASIC games were just too slow back then. You can push out pretty professional jobs in BlitzBasic - but that's becuase it compiles really well and has built-in graphics features such as screen buffering and collision detection.
In some cases I would say "got away with", in others, I would just say "sign of the times". I remember Avalon Hill selling BASIC games and reviewers of the time saying essentially along the lines that Avalon Hill allowed editing of the game's "source code" so the user could make their own modifications to the program. It's surely sugar coating, but there is something of a point to that, particularly as late as the early 80's. Many publishers - including Adventure International - would often advertise whether their program was BASIC or Machine Language. BASIC often meant an inferior program, but not always, and many top games - including some of the Ultimas - were mixed languages, including BASIC.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.