This is a BASICODE interpreter in Javascript, compatible with BASICODE versions 2, 3 and 3C. It's free & open source, released under the Expat MIT licence. There is a live demo and a collection of programs.
BASICODE was a 1980s-era cross-platform BASIC standard designed to allow software transmission by radio.
Screenshot taken from Arabesque, a 1987 BASICODE-3 program by Ch. W. Brederode.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="basicode.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/basicode">
1010 PRINT "Hello, world!"
</script>
</body>
</html>
The package consists of a single Javascript file. To embed one or more interpreters in an HTML5 document, link the script in the header.
It will scan the HTML for any <script type="text/basicode"> elements , replace them with newly created canvases and execute the BASICODE
in the script content or src= text file. Enjoy!
A number of options can be set through the dataset attribute of the script element:
| Attribute | Setting |
|---|---|
data-columns |
Number of text columns |
data-rows |
Number of text rows |
data-speed |
Number of cycles per second in FOR loops (roughly) |
data-font |
Font to use for text (see below) |
data-color-0 |
Set the colour value for black (background) |
data-color-1 |
Set the colour value for blue |
data-color-2 |
Set the colour value for red |
data-color-3 |
Set the colour value for magenta |
data-color-4 |
Set the colour value for green |
data-color-5 |
Set the colour value for cyan |
data-color-6 |
Set the colour value for yellow |
data-color-7 |
Set the colour value for white (foreground) |
The following fonts are available:
| Font | Size | Description |
|---|---|---|
smooth |
Browser's native monospace font | |
tiny |
6x4 | A very small bitmap font |
apple |
7x8 | Apple-II font |
msx |
7x8 | MSX font |
atari |
8x8 | Atari 8-bit font |
bbc |
8x8 | Acorn BBC Micro font |
c64 |
8x8 | Commodore 64 font |
cpc |
8x8 | Amstrad/Schneider CPC font |
exidy |
8x8 | Exidy Sorcerer font |
genie1 |
8x8 | EACA Colour Genie 1st font |
genie2 |
8x8 | EACA Colour Genie 2nd font |
kc85 |
8x8 | Robotron KC85/1 font |
pcw |
8x8 | Amstrad PCW/Schneider JOYCE font |
spectrum |
8x8 | Sinclair ZX Spectrum font |
vic |
8x8 | Commodore PET and VIC-20 font |
cga |
8x8 | IBM CGA font |
thin |
8x8 | IBM CGA thin stroke font |
pcjr |
8x8 | IBM PCjr font |
tandy |
8x8 | Tandy 1000 font |
tandy2 |
8x8 | Tandy 1000 font, later version |
p2000 |
8x10 | Philips P2000T font |
coco |
8x12 | Tandy TRS-80 CoCo v1&2 font |
coco3 |
8x12 | Tandy TRS-80 CoCo v3 font |
mpf |
8x12 | Multitech Micro-Professor MPF-I font |
ega |
8x14 | IBM EGA font |
mda |
9x14 | Hercules and IBM MDPA font |
olivetti |
8x16 | Olivetti M24 and AT&T 6300 font |
vga |
9x16 | IBM VGA font |
wyse-serif |
16x16 | Wyse WY-700 serif font |
wyse-sans |
16x16 | Wyse WY-700 sans serif font |
The interpreter should work on reasonably recent, standards-compliant browsers. You need a keyboard, so it will be difficult to use on mobile. I've superficially tested it on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. It probably works fine on Edge, but I haven't tried. It mostly works on Internet Explorer 11 (except sound) but not at all on older versions.
There's a similar, earlier implementation of BASICODE in JavaScript by Steven Goodwin. His implementation and mine are completely independent; however, he got there first.
The bitmap fonts were drawn based on various sources:
- Damien Guard's overview of system fonts in 8- and 16-bit systems
- John Elliott's Vintage PC Pages
- Exidy Sorcerer page on The Trailing Edge
- Z9001 page on Homecomputer DDR
- Ulrich Zander's character sets for the KC85
Originally, BASICODE tape reader and conversion programs were sold by broadcasters and publishers. Many of these are still available on retrogaming archives. A few can also be found on BASICODE-Software für alle.
A few authors have published their own source code for conversion programs. I'm aware of:
- BASICODE-3 for ZX Spectrum, by Jan Bredenbeek
- BASICODE-3 v2 for Sinclair QL, by Jan Bredenbeek
- BASICODE-2 for C64 and Commander x16, by Iljitsch van Beijnum
- BASICODE-3 for MS-DOS, by Jac Goudsmit
- BASICODE-3 for KC85/3-5, by M. Leubner