Denial

What was the last computer marketed with BASIC built in to ROM?

Interesting question.

Most 8-bit lines disappeared in the early 90s, the C64 stopped being made in 1994 so that's a starting point.

I'm speculating there may be other machines or clones produced for non-western markets after that?

The last sharp pocket computer was released in 2001 and has built in BASIC if you can widen the criteria beyond desktops.

http://pocket.free.fr/html/sharp/pc-g850v_e.html

beamrider wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:10 am Interesting question.

Most 8-bit lines disappeared in the early 90s, the C64 stopped being made in 1994 so that's a starting point.

I'm speculating there may be other machines or clones produced for non-western markets after that?

The last sharp pocket computer was released in 2001 and has built in BASIC if you can widen the criteria beyond desktops.

http://pocket.free.fr/html/sharp/pc-g850v_e.html

I had the Radio Shack version of the PC-3, which had about the same free RAM as the Vic.

Do modern clones and projects count? Ie the 64 mini or the x16.

The last Computers to my knowledge with BASIC in its ROM are the ACORN ARM based 32 Bit Machines like the Archimedes or Later even the RISC PCs, they could be configured to Start into Basic instead of the Desktop, but even in Desktop Mode by just pressing the F12 Function Key and then typing BASIC you are ready to go to start coding...

I think that is a major factor in why the early machines were simply more fun is that they had development ability included from the start. The last computer I personally bought that had built-in BASIC was the trs80 model 100, of which I'm also a current fan and supporter of. I'm thinking about porting my largest Model 100 project to the VIC-20, but it would be a gigantic undertaking. It was a game inspired by Scorched Earth, and surprisingly enough I was able to get a great many features of the original game including a downright vicious AI.

http://www.club100.org/library/ups/toastd.do Documentation file

http://www.club100.org/library/ups/toast.ba BASIC program. My Model 100 had 32k which would be doable on a maxed out Vic, but monochrome hires BASIC routines were included and write-only access to the LCD consumed no additional memory, so it could be a challenge. It was math and physics heavy with a lot of floating point routines so porting it to assembly would be no easy task.

Victim_RLSH wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:38 pm so porting it to assembly would be no easy task.

OT but, you could try something like TRSE instead of assembler. It has a lot of libraries and you can then target a variety of different platforms as well.

Victim_RLSH wrote:so porting it to assembly would be no easy task.

You could keep BASIC for the house-holding part of the game and use MINIGRAFIK for the graphics.

Of course the screen layout and the graphics would need to be rescaled for the different resolution of the VIC-20, but that is a thing you'd have to do anyway, regardless of how you choose to port the game.