OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/21229/8-Bit_Game_Creator_Now_Available_for_Order Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2010, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:49:20 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com UK reseller? http://osnews.com/thread?356030 http://osnews.com/thread?356030 i want to buy 5 of these for the kids.

Anyone selling these in the UK? Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AbuHassan) Comments Children like playing http://osnews.com/thread?356049 http://osnews.com/thread?356049 Something like this could make a greater impact with children than OLPC :-) Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dimosd) Comments Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356052 http://osnews.com/thread?356052 I wonder what that could do in the hands of a ten year old. If you can power it on and start to "program" for what BASIC is worth at least, then the possibilities are infinite... Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kaelodest) Comments WOW! http://osnews.com/thread?356063 http://osnews.com/thread?356063 Wonder if it is a full version of DOS. Too bad it's not the 6510 CPU - C64 anyone? Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (johjeff) Comments For More on 6502 http://osnews.com/thread?356064 http://osnews.com/thread?356064 Forgot to include a link to the wonderful Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6502

Jeff Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (johjeff) Comments RE: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356065 http://osnews.com/thread?356065
If you can power it on and start to "program" for what BASIC is worth at least, then the possibilities are infinite...

Some professors believe that starting with BASIC ruins one's brain for any real programming. Could this actually be an evil plot of some sort? Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:22:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE: UK reseller? http://osnews.com/thread?356094 http://osnews.com/thread?356094 I believe that they're shipping to other countries, but it takes longer and costs more for the shipping. Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (weildish) Comments hackable my bits http://osnews.com/thread?356154 http://osnews.com/thread?356154 basic interpreter and composer? wtf? give me a famicom compatible device with usb/sd that can read 6502 programs.. and we'll talk about hackable. This doesn't do it for a true 8 bits hacker ;) Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (reduz) Comments RE: hackable my bits http://osnews.com/thread?356165 http://osnews.com/thread?356165 It's famicom compatible too, read the article. ;-) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (MobyTurbo) Comments RE[2]: hackable my bits http://osnews.com/thread?356179 http://osnews.com/thread?356179 i know, but it's not useful for developing actual 6502 stuff for it ;) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (reduz) Comments RE[2]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356203 http://osnews.com/thread?356203
Some professors believe that starting with BASIC ruins one's brain for any real programming. Could this actually be an evil plot of some sort?


Starting with BASIC didn't do hundreds of 80s kids any harm.

I, myself, have gone on to learn VB, Pascal, PHP, C/C++ as well as a few smaller niche languages.Edited 2009-04-01 09:46 UTC Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Laurence) Comments RE[3]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356219 http://osnews.com/thread?356219
Starting with BASIC didn't do hundreds of 80s kids any harm.

I, myself, have gone on to learn VB, Pascal, PHP, C/C++ as well as a few smaller niche languages.


Well, that could be the brain damage in question. :-)

VB = Visual Beginners all-purpose symbolic instruction code.

This surely convices you that I'm quite old, but BASIC was my first programming language, too (on a robotron KC 87). I'm glad that my days of BASIC and Pascal are over, allthough I sometimes practice GOTO KNEIPE : INPUT BIER. :-) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Doc Pain) Comments RE[3]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356228 http://osnews.com/thread?356228 Starting with BASIC didn't do hundreds of 80s kids any harm.

I, too, started with BASIC on C64. Then I moved on to assembly, C, C++ and PHP. Never bothered with any BASICs, even Visual Basic, after C64 though ;) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WereCatf) Comments RE[2]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356238 http://osnews.com/thread?356238
Some professors believe that starting with BASIC ruins one's brain for any real programming. Could this actually be an evil plot of some sort?

Psh, those "professors" are not in touch with reality. As limited as basic is, it's still a good introduction for the curious child, where languages like C, C++, and Python might overwhelm them at that point. The very nice thing about basic, for this purpose, is its completely interpreted nature, you can run the program and monitor exactly which lines get executed, and look at said lines, all without having to learn a debugger. I'd say it's actually a very good introduction to programming for the youngsters, considering you learn some basic programming principles coupled with some basic debugging techniques. Basic itself is of limited practical use, but the principles are the same and it makes an excellent introduction. Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (darknexus) Comments RE[4]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356241 http://osnews.com/thread?356241
VB = Visual Beginners all-purpose symbolic instruction code.


To be fair, VB has grown it's roots in BASIC. In fact it's a whole new language in it's own right. And one that's actually pretty good for knocking up quick GUI interfaces to otherwise manual processes or building MSOffice macros.
Sure, it's not nearly as powerful as C++ and platform-tied unlike Java, but it's just another tool that's available for the right jobs.

but BASIC was my first programming language, too (on a robotron KC 87).


BBC Basic for me. I miss those machines ;) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Laurence) Comments RE[3]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356243 http://osnews.com/thread?356243
Psh, those "professors" are not in touch with reality.

0 goto hell

:-pEdited 2009-04-01 13:59 UTC Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE[5]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356261 http://osnews.com/thread?356261 BBC BASIC - procedures, functions and an inline 6502 assembler. I miss the Beebs too. A bit. Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Athlander) Comments RE[3]: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356279 http://osnews.com/thread?356279 That's more like it. I was a kid when I learned BASIC - If I was learning C when I was ten then pointers would have made me pick up a skateboard and say 'fcuk computers d00d' for a solid ten years. But in BASIC I could poke a value into an address and peek it out in a whole different part of the program. Years later I found out what I had done. I sort of wish I still had those tapes.

Now I am not suggesting anyone learn basic as an adult (or use a computer that has less RAM than any modern chip has for cache) but for 1983 it was the bomb

These boxes will be someones first computer too Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kaelodest) Comments Meh... http://osnews.com/thread?356283 http://osnews.com/thread?356283 I mean, it sounds novel and all, it's nice it's in production, but, seriously, why not just buy a used Commodore 64 or Atari off of Ebay, get some more peripherals, access to VAST amounts of information, and programs, etc.

Yea, you can't play Nintendo games...but, the C64 and Ataris were some seriously fine computers and I think would be a better option for someone wanted to go down that path than one of these. Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (whartung) Comments RE: Mmmm C64 http://osnews.com/thread?356320 http://osnews.com/thread?356320
I wonder what that could do in the hands of a ten year old. If you can power it on and start to "program" for what BASIC is worth at least, then the possibilities are infinite...


Not to mention you can give one of these to your kids in those in-between years between (1) being smart enough to use a computer, and (2) being mature enough to use a computer wisely.

(The years between 1 and 2 will vary by child.) Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Almafeta) Comments Nice benefit http://osnews.com/thread?356323 http://osnews.com/thread?356323 It seems to have gone unmentioned that sales of this product will benefit a worthy cause:

http://playpower.org/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Almafeta) Comments