When the original Apple I and Apple II computers hit the market, they weren’t the only invention of creator Steve Wozniak. Woz’s goal from the get go was that the Apple II should be able to run a faithful reproduction of Breakout, the game he had helped code for Atari before the formation of Apple.
Thus was born Integer BASIC, which shipped on every Apple I and II and eventually lead to Applesoft BASIC, the first computer language most people growing up in the 80s and even early 90s ever learned.
If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane, Joshua Bell has coded up an awesome emulator of Applesoft BASIC that runs using Javascript, in-browser. Not only can you use it to write endlessly recursive profanity just like you did in Junior High, (GOTO 10) but it even comes with a number of cool vintage sample programs… although ironically not Breakout.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
