Microsoft BASIC

Microsoft BASIC is the foundation product of the Microsoft company. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, the first programming language available for the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer. The Altair BASIC interpreter was developed by Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates using an Intel 8080 software simulator running on a minicomputer.

After the initial success of Altair BASIC, Microsoft BASIC became the basis for a lucrative software licensing business, being ported to the majority of the numerous home and personal computers of the 1970s and especially the 1980s. Most home computer BASICs were resident in ROM, thus always available on the machines and constituting part of their simple operating systems.

See Also: BASIC programming language

BASIC variants based on Microsoft BASIC

• Altair BASIC
• BASICA
• Commodore BASIC
• GW-BASIC
• QuickBASIC