If you’ve ever typed out a few lines of BASIC on a glowing green screen back in the day—or wished you had—this one’s for you. Microsoft just cracked open a time capsule from the 1970s and released one of its earliest implementations of BASIC as open-source code.
We’re talking about the version built between 1976 and 1978, designed specifically for the legendary MOS 6502 processor. That little chip was the beating heart of machines like the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Vic-20, and even the Nintendo NES. In other words: the computers and consoles that defined an entire generation of creativity, play, and tinkering.
Now, thanks to Microsoft, version 1.1 of its 6502 BASIC is sitting on GitHub, ready for curious coders, nostalgia-chasers, and retro hobbyists to explore.
BASIC, short for “Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code,” first appeared in 1964. But it was Microsoft’s implementation that fueled the computer boom of the late ’70s and early ’80s. For countless budding programmers, this was their entry point into real coding—typing a command and watching a machine respond.
This wasn’t just a side hustle for Microsoft either. BASIC was the company’s first product, written for the Altair 8800, and essentially launched the company itself. So this GitHub release isn’t just an archived curiosity—it’s a peek at Microsoft’s origin story. Think of it as opening an old family album, except the baby pictures are lines of assembly code that powered machines running on only a few kilobytes of memory.
Sure, there’s a big dose of nostalgia here, but it runs deeper than that:
The full source for Microsoft BASIC 6502 version 1.1 is live on GitHub via Microsoft’s official repository. It’s sitting there, open to anyone who wants to read, study, or even tinker with decades-old assembler.
By publishing this code, Microsoft has handed the world a kind of digital time machine—an opportunity to return to a period when programming meant direct dialogue with the hardware, byte by byte. For retro enthusiasts and curious newcomers, it’s a chance to touch one of the building blocks of modern computing.
Will this release inspire a new wave of BASIC-inspired projects on GitHub? Or maybe spark someone’s curiosity to learn their first bit of code, just as it did decades ago? Whether your personal BASIC journey began on a Commodore 64, an Apple II, or even on a TV hooked up to a Nintendo NES, this release invites you back to where it all started.
And in an era dominated by artificial intelligence and powerful cloud systems, there’s something refreshing about rediscovering the roots of personal computing. Maybe, just maybe, this old code will inspire a new generation to open the hood and start tinkering again.