Some Atari BASIC Books

As I’ve written about before, the Atari 8-bit computers used a BASIC that was not all that compatible with the Microsoft BASIC, which quickly becoming the standard used by most personal computers.

Apparently, Atari and/or Microsoft were having trouble getting Microsoft BASIC to fit into an 8K cartridge, so they punted and hired another company to make what is now Atari BASIC.

For this post we will take a look at two seemingly “official” Atari books about BASIC. The first is Atari BASIC: A Self-Teaching Guide by Albrecht, Finked and Brown which was released in 1979 apparently along side the Atari 400 and 800 computers themselves. The 2nd is is Inside Atari BASIC by Carris which was released in 1983, just before the Atari 600XL and 800XL computers. Plus, there’s a little bonus at the end…