INPUT magazine

[erico]

Here I´m not sure it is legal to publish these links, but I think there should not be any harm done.

Long time ago in a galaxy far away, I bought the whole encyclopedia and even got it into hard official cover. I think I was 11 or 12.
These magazines were great and helped me a bunch into figuring out BASIC for our little 8-bit computers (tandy color computer was my thing).

There are a lot of fundamentals going in there, could provide a great read.
http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines/input/input.htm

A lot of those info of basic can be used nowadays, enjoy!

[mentalthink]

  :nw:Thanks Erico I don't think it's illegal.
This kind of Magazine are absolutely amazing, in Spain was Microhobby, a lot of drawings and pictures, they make you travel with your imagination thru those pages...
Thanks I bookmarked the Web.

[erico]

This one, I have heartily collected every single issue, it was one of the only source of computer knowledge way back on the days.
The art department  into those issues were really cool, they really blew up my imagination. I have great found memories of those.
Got me into a bit of assembler too

edit: we got a portuguese/brasilian translation here, I never knew they were English, it is a new experience to savour them into their original flavor.

[MrTAToad]

I used to get it quite regularly...  Some of the programs were quite handy

[fuzzy70]

I collected the full set when they came out & remember waiting impatiently for the next issue 

Sadly they got severely water damaged & had to be thrown away but I did manage to get another full set on ebay a few years back. If I remember rightly the postage cost more than what I won the auction for lol.

Lee

[Ian Price]

I remember it being available and wanting it, but it didn't support CPC so I never got it. I'm sure there's still plenty of tricks and ideas in them to help out GLB noobs and not so noobs

[MrTAToad]

The Dragon 32 BASIC was always interesting to look at - and laugh at too

[Ian Price]

The Dragon 32 BASIC was always interesting to look at - and laugh at too

Why? Was it very different as a BASIC language?

[mentalthink]

I always listen the Amstrad Basic was the better of all 8 bits Computers (MSX I don't know nothing), but seems Locomotive Basic was really powerfull a bit slowly... But looking c64 very advanced than another machines it's have a really complex basic.. Poke and Peeks in all...

[erico]

Msx basic was quite nice, it had some weird drawing commands.

The thing I most envied on msx from my cocoII point of view, was editing the code. You can move your cursor around freely with arrows and editing a line was a simple matter of moving the cursor over it, changing and hitting enter...back on the coco we had to call edit line# to make changes, it annoyed me a little I could not see the rest of the code around it.

I also think msx, iirc, had some sprite commands too, cocoII had get and put, but it was a tough thing to use.

One thing though, is that most of these basics were interchangeable with little changes (not the peek and poke though  ), so I think they could pretty much run on a CPC.

Lots of LET command all around looks a bit weird these days

[MrTAToad]

The Dragon 32 BASIC was always interesting to look at - and laugh at too

Why? Was it very different as a BASIC language?

Unlike other basics, where you could specify X & Y coordinates for text, the Dragon was somewhat different in that you could only position text based on the offset from the top-left of the screen.

And everything was green...

However, saying that it did have a much newer processor than, say the C64, but unfortuately as its graphical capabilities were limited, it didn't help.

[Ian Price]

I always listen the Amstrad Basic was the better of all 8 bits Computers (MSX I don't know nothing), but seems Locomotive Basic was really powerfull a bit slowly... But looking c64 very advanced than another machines it's have a really complex basic.. Poke and Peeks in all...

Locomotive BASIC (CPC BASIC) had POKE & PEEK etc. but was, as you said slow (good enough for simple games, but not much more). A shame really, as it was incredibly well documented and powerful.

[mentalthink]

Yes this Basic was Slow, but Ian what machine can use Basic for make Serious Games... I know about Blitz Basic and another I discovered these days , Basic Compiled, but I ear isn't enoutgh for make Games... In Amiga I read about with Blitz Basic people did some very goods games, but we are Speaking about the Best Machine in all the times*** , today the good thing it's about the new Developments, like "churrera Mojon Twins" CCZ80 Compiler (Very easy) or the Boriel Basic Compiler, they are Cross Compilers and you can do games for MSX,CPC and ZX at once ... I'm sure we win more money than in APPStore 

***Sorry for a bit of Spam
For Amiga Users at today, we have a new and I think the only one Accelerator for A500, don't is too much expensive about 80Euros and works very fine... you can add A1200 and 2000 cards in the free Slots. 

[Ian Price]

Yes this Basic was Slow, but Ian what machine can use Basic for make Serious Games...

Surprisingly, there were quite a few 8bit computer games made with BASIC that were actually fairly successful. Some magazine listings for the CPC were in BASIC and were actually very good (and not just for the time) - they were responsible for me getting into coding way back in 1984.

[MrPlow]

OMG! I had all these mags from 1 to 10 for definite...after that cant remember...

The 8-bit football managers of old were frequently done in BASIC and were very popular...
;-)