cbm

Commodore BASIC

Keywords

The BASIC used in the famous 8-bit Commodore machines such as PET, VIC-20, C64, 16, Plus/4 and C128. Originally, it was pretty much the Microsoft port of its BASIC-80 for the 6502 processor, later improved by Commodore developers into a number of versions with some meaningful differences. None of them however was nearly as popular as the rather crude one known as V2, which is the baseline to what this site refers to as "Commodore BASIC".

Where it is/was used

  • PET
  • VIC-20
  • Commodore 64/64c
  • Commodore C128
  • Commodore C16
  • Commodore Plus/4

Noteworthy characteristics

Environment and usage

Extensions

Curiosities

Influenced by

Influence for

Versions and successors

Commodore's numbering scheme for the versions of its BASIC was, well, awkward. It does not follow the chronological order of releases as told by Wikipedia, here simplified:

  • After V1 for the PET 2001 with calculator keyboard, came the first release of V2 for the newer PET 2001
  • Commodore BASIC V4 was launched with the PET/CBM 4000 and 8000 series
  • Then V2 had its second release with the VIC-20, and would later be used with the C64 as well
  • Commodore BASIC V4+ was then released with the CBM-II machines
  • Commodore BASIC V3.5 came with the C16 and Plus/4 machines
  • Commodore BASIC V7 was the last released version with the C128
  • cbmbasic is an open-source, portable C version of Commodore BASIC V2 which claims to be 100% compatible and has been tested on MacOS X, Linux and Windows NT.

References

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