To celebrate the BASIC (Beginners' All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) turning 60 years old, I'm releasing a big update to my old Bunny Basic from 2019, now called Hare Basic.
Hare Basic is a fast, limited instruction set, integer-only basic interpreter (not a compiler) for Commodore 64 and VIC 20.
Commands: PRINT, INPUT, GET, POKE, SYS, GOTO, CLR, GOSUB, RETURN, IF/THEN, END, FOR/NEXT, LOAD, SAVE, REM, LET, RND (as command), CMD (repurposed for POKE mode)
Functions: AND, OR, PEEK, VAL, LEN, ASC, <, =, >, <>, <=, >=, +, -
Variables: 26 one-letter variables A-Z, 16-bit unsigned integer (not shared with CBM BASIC)
Arithmetics: 16-bit unsigned integer addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, negation
Limited string functions: CHR$, STR$ (repurposed to display strings), POKE12345,"TEXT"
Hare Basic syntax is very similar to CBM BASIC, but there's quite a few restrictions and some critical differences. You should still feel like at home right away, just dive in!
A=USR(10) in CBM BASIC starts running a Hare Basic program starting from line 10.
If you're writing your entire program in Hare Basic, just type A=USR(10):END on the first basic line before line 10. Start writing Hare Basic code from line 10. This way you can start your program normally with a RUN.
Example programs on the disk: 8 balloons, font editor, text on bitmap, calling kernal routines, koala display, play $1000 music, smooth scroller, memory fill benchmark etc. |
