This folder contains the programs found in the March 1975 3rd printing of David Ahl's 101 BASIC Computer Games, published by Digital Equipment Corp. You can download all of the programs in a single archive using the Releases link to the right.
Contrary to popular belief, 101 is not the same as the later and more famous BASIC Computer Games (BCG) published by Ahl through Creative Computing. A number of the games in this collection did not appear in BCG, and vice versa. In comparison to BCG's used of Microsoft-like BASIC, the source in this book spans several different and sometimes incompatible dialects. For instance, CAN-AM is in its original Dartmouth version, and BATTLE appears to be HP 2100. In some cases the dialect is mentioned in the book, but in most it's not and the listing below is a best-guess based on the syntax.
This collection is an excellent example of the different dialects and programming styles one found at the time. ANIMAL is almost a different language than ACEYDU although they are both from DEC, while AWARI illustrates the editing style that made BASIC infamous. Even within the DEC examples we have differences in things like using \ to separate statements instead of :, the use of & as the short form for PRINT instead of ?, and the other oddities of BASIC-PLUS.
This collection was prepared with the help of the OCR in Gemini AI, ChatGTP and Le Chat. In contrast to other collections, like PCC, the print quality of this book is fairly good and most of the programs were converted with minimal problems. See the NOTES for some oddities to look for.
Many of these programs will run correctly without editing under RetroBASIC, and one of the reasons for creating this collection is to provide example code to improve that program.
| Name | Description | Page | Dialect |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACEYDU | Play acey-ducey with the computer | 13 | BASIC-PLUS |
| AMAZIN | Computer constructs a maze | 15 | BASIC-PLUS |
| ANIMAL | Computer guesses animals and learns new ones from you | 17 | BASIC-PLUS |
| AWARI | Ancient game of rotating beans in pits | 19 | BASIC-PLUS |
| BAGLES | Guess a mystery 3-digit number by logic | 22 | BASIC-PLUS |
| BANNER | Prints any message on a large banner | 24 | EduSystem 50 |
| BASBAL | Baseball game | 26 | EduSystem 15/30/35, uses CHAIN |
| BASKET | Basketball game | 29 | Dartmouth? |
| BATNUM | Match wits in a battle of numbers vs. the computer | 32 | Dartmouth? |
| BATTLE | Decode a matrix to locate enemy battleship | 34 | HP? |
| BINGO | Computer prints your card and calls the numbers | 36 | DECsystem 10 |
| BLKJAC | Blackjack (very comprehensive), Las Vegas rules | 39 | BASIC-PLUS |
| BLKJAK | Blackjack (standard game) | 42 | EduSystem 30 |
| BOAT | Destroy a gunboat from your submarine | 43 | |
| BOMBER | Fly World War II bombing missions | 45 | Unclear, supports ELSE |
| BOUNCE | Plot a bouncing ball | 47 | generic |
| BOWL | Bowling at the neighborhood lanes | 48 | BASIC-PLUS |
| BOXING | 3-round Olympic boxing match | 50 | generic DEC |
| BUG | Roll dice vs. the computer to draw a bug | 52 | HP? |
| BULCOW | Guess a mystery 5-digit number vs. the computer | 55 | Dartmouth? |
| BULEYE | Throw darts | 57 | BASIC-PLUS |
| BULL | You're the matador in a championship bullfight | 59 | generic DEC |
| BUNNY | Computer drawing of the Playboy bunny | 62 | No code |
| BUZZWD | Compose your speeches with the latest buzzwords | 63 | EduSystem |
| CALNDR | Calendar for any year | 65 | EduSystem |
| CAN-AM | Drive a Group 7 car in a Can-Am road race | 67 | Dartmouth |
| CHANGE | Computer imitates a cashier | 72 | EduSystem |
| CHECKR | Game of checkers | 73 | |
| CHEMST | Dilute kryptocyanic acid to make it harmless | 76 | generic |
| CHIEF | Silly arithmetic drill | 77 | EduSystem |
| CHOMP | Eat a cookie avoiding the poison piece (2 or more players) | 78 | generic |
| CIVILW | Fight the Civil War | 80 | generic |
| CRAPS | Play craps (dice), Las Vegas style | 83 | BASIC-8 |
| CUBE | Negotiate a 3-D cube avoiding hidden landmines | 85 | generic |
| DIAMND | Prints 1-page diamond patterns | 87 | BASIC-8/EduSystem |
| DICE | Summarizes dice rolls | 89 | BASIC-8/EduSystem |
| DIGITS | Computer tries to guess digits you select at random | 91 | BASIC-PLUS? |
| DOGS | Penny arcade dog race | 93 | EduSystem 50 |
| EVEN | Take objects from a pile--try to end with an even number | 96 | |
| EVEN1 | Same as EVEN--computer improves its play | 98 | |
| FIPFOP | Solitaire logic game--change a row of Xs to Os | 99 | |
| FOOTBL | Professional football (very comprehensive) | 101 | BASIC-PLUS |
| FOOTBAL | High School football | 104 | |
| FURS | Trade furs with the white man | 106 | |
| GOLF | Golf game—choose your clubs and swing | 109 | |
| GOMOKO | Ancient board game of logic and strategy | 110 | |
| GUESS | Guess a mystery number—computer gives you clues | 113 | EduSystem 20 |
| GUNNER | Fire a cannon at a stationary target | 115 | |
| GUNER1 | Fire a cannon at a moving target | 116 | generic |
| HANG | Hangman word guessing game | 118 | BASIC-PLUS |
| HELLO | Computer becomes your friendly psychiatrist | 120 | EduSystem 25 |
| HEX | Hexapawn game | 122 | BASIC-PLUS |
| HI-LO | Try to hit the mystery jackpot | 124 | |
| HI-Q | Try to remove all the pegs from a board | 126 | |
| HMRABI | Govern the ancient city-state of Sumeria | 128 | generic |
| HOCKEY | Ice hockey vs. Cornell | 130 | |
| HORSES | Off-track betting on a horse race | 133 | |
| HURKLE | Find the Hurkle hiding on a 10x10 grid | 135 | BASIC-8 |
| KINEMA | Drill in simple kinematics | 137 | generic |
| KING | Govern a modern island kingdom wisely | 138 | BASIC-PLUS |
| LETTER | Guess a mystery letter—computer gives you clues | 141 | EduSystem 30 |
| LIFE | John Conway's Game of Life | 143 | BASIC-PLUS |
| LIFE-2 | Competitive game of life (2 or more players) | 146 | BASIC-PLUS |
| LITQZ | Children's literature quiz | 148 | EduSystem 30 |
| MATHD | Children's arithmetic drill using pictures of dice | 151 | EduSystem 30 |
| MNOPLY | Monopoly for 2 players | 153 | BASIC-PLUS |
| MUGWMP | Locate 4 Mugwumps hiding on a 10x10 grid | 156 | BASIC-PLUS |
| NICOMA | Computer guesses number you think of | 158 | BASIC-PLUS |
| NIM | Chinese game of Nim | 160 | EduSystem 30? |
| NUMBER | Silly number matching game | 162 | EduSystem 30 |
| 1CHECK | Challenging game to remove checkers from a board | 163 | unknown, uses USING |
| ORBIT | Destroy an orbiting germ-laiden enemy spaceship | 165 | generic |
| PIZZA | Deliver pizzas successfully | 167 | |
| POETRY | Computer composes poetry in 4-part harmony | 169 | generic |
| POET | Computer composes random poetry | 171 | EduSystem ? |
| POKER | Poker game | 172 | BASIC-8 |
| QUBIC | 3-dimensional tic-tac-toe | 174 | generic |
| QUEEN | Move a single chess queen vs. the computer | 178 | unknown, line 99999 |
| REVERSE | Order a series of numbers by reversing | 178 | BASIC-8 |
| ROCKET | Land an Apollo capsule on the moon | 180 | EduSystem 30 |
| ROCKT1 | Lunar landing from 500 feet (with plot) | 183 | BASIC-8 |
| ROCKT2 | Very comprehensive lunar landing | 185 | generic |
| ROCKSP | Game of rock, scissors, paper | 188 | BASIC-8 |
| ROULET | European roulette table | 189 | generic |
| RUSROU | Russian roulette | 192 | BASIC-8 |
| SALVO | Destroy an enemy fleet of ships | 193 | generic |
| SALVO1 | Destroy 4 enemy outposts | 195 | BASIC-8 |
| SLOTS | Slot machine (one-arm bandit) | 196 | BASIC-8 |
| SNOOPY | Pictures of Snoopy | 208 | No code |
| SPACWR | Comprehensive game of spacewar | 210 | BASIC-PLUS |
| SPLAT | Open a parachute at the last possible moment | 205 | EduSystem ? |
| STARS | Guess a mystery number—stars give you clues | 207 | generic |
| STOCK | Stock market simulation | 209 | BASIC-PLUS |
| SYNONM | Word synonym drill | 212 | BASIC-PLUS |
| TARGET | Destroy a target in 3-D space—very tricky | 214 | EduSystem ? |
| 3D PLOT | Plots families of curves—looks 3-dimensional | 216 | generic |
| TICTAC | Tic-tac-toe | 218 | BASIC-PLUS |
| TOWER | Towers of Hanoi puzzle | 221 | BASIC-8 |
| TRAIN | Time-speed-distance quiz | 223 | BASIC-8 |
| TRAP | Trap a mystery number—computer gives you clues | 224 | EduSystem 30 |
| 23MTCH | Game of 23 matches—try not to take the last one | 226 | |
| UGLY | Silly profile plot of an ugly woman | 228 | BASIC-8 |
| WAR | Card game of war | 230 | generic |
| WAR-2 | Troop tactics in war | 232 | EduSystem 30 |
| WEKDAY | Facts about your birthday | 234 | BASIC-PLUS |
| WORD | Word guessing game | 236 | BASIC-PLUS |
| YAHTZE | Dice game of Yahtzee | 238 | BASIC-PLUS |
| ZOOP | BASIC programmer's nightmare | 243 | EduSystem 15/30/35 |