35 years of the game "Donkey" by Bill Gates
35 years ago, in August 1981, the first IBM PC model (on the left) went on sale - the first mass personal IBM computer with the PC-DOS 1.0 (MS-DOS) operating system and the BASIC interpreter.Apple watched the IBM experiment with curiosity and even greeted colleagues with a large ad in the Wall Street Journal newspaper entitled “Welcome, IBM. Seriously". Although Steve Jobs at the time saved every cent, but still allowed employees to buy one copy of the IBM PC and examine its contents .
The staff was not very impressed with the hardware of the IBM PC: it was clearly inferior to Steve Wozniak's expertly designed electronics. The software was even worse: Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system was a clone of the old CP / M operating system, and even the demo programs were made rude.
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Apple was particularly puzzled by a strange game Donkey ("Donkey") written on BASIC.
In this rather ridiculous low-resolution game, the player drives a racing car on a poorly drawn road that jerks down. By pressing the space bar, the car jerks into the next lane (in fact, any key works, not just the space bar).
From time to time a gray spot appears on the road, which symbolizes a donkey. The fact that the spot is a donkey, indicated the entry with the account on the screen - Driver: 0, Donkey: 2. If you do not press the space in time, the machine crashes into the donkey, and the counter is increased by one.
You can compete in this game on the emulator of the original IBM PC Model 5150 ROM BIOS with a 4.77 MHz processor, 64 KB of RAM, a CGA display and PC-DOS 1.0 operating system.
The game was terrible, but Apple employees, for the sake of interest, found its source code in BASIC, to see how it was written. This source code was recently published on Github .
Source code donkey.bas (131 line)
940 REM The IBM Personal Computer Donkey 950 REM Version 1.10 (C)Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982 960 REM Licensed Material - Program Property of IBM 975 DEF SEG: POKE 106,0 980 SAMPLES$="NO" 990 GOTO 1010 1000 SAMPLES$="YES" 1010 KEY OFF:SCREEN 0,1:COLOR 15,0,0:WIDTH 40:CLS:LOCATE 5,19:PRINT "IBM" 1020 LOCATE 7,12,0:PRINT "Personal Computer" 1030 COLOR 10,0:LOCATE 10,9,0:PRINT CHR$(213)+STRING$(21,205)+CHR$(184) 1040 LOCATE 11,9,0:PRINT CHR$(179)+" DONKEY "+CHR$(179) 1050 LOCATE 12,9,0:PRINT CHR$(179)+STRING$(21,32)+CHR$(179) 1060 LOCATE 13,9,0:PRINT CHR$(179)+" Version 1.1O "+CHR$(179) 1070 LOCATE 14,9,0:PRINT CHR$(212)+STRING$(21,205)+CHR$(190) 1080 COLOR 15,0:LOCATE 17,4,0:PRINT "(C) Copyright IBM Corp 1981, 1982" 1090 COLOR 14,0:LOCATE 23,7,0:PRINT "Press space bar to continue" 1100 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN GOTO 1100 1110 CMD$ = INKEY$ 1120 IF CMD$ = "" THEN GOTO 1110 1130 IF CMD$ = CHR$(27) THEN GOTO 1298 1140 IF CMD$ = " " THEN GOTO 1160 1150 GOTO 1110 1160 DEF SEG=0 1170 IF (PEEK(&H410) AND &H30)<>&H30 THEN DEF SEG:GOTO 1291 1180 WIDTH 80:CLS:LOCATE 3,1 1190 PRINT "HOLD IT!" 1200 PRINT "YOU'RE NOT USING THE COLOR/GRAPHICS MONITOR ADAPTER!" 1210 PRINT "THIS PROGRAM USES GRAPHICS AND REQUIRES THAT ADAPTER." 1220 PRINT "PRESS THE SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE." 1230 DEF SEG 1240 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN GOTO 1240 1250 CMD$ = INKEY$ 1260 IF CMD$ = "" THEN GOTO 1250 1270 IF CMD$ = CHR$(27) THEN GOTO 1298 1280 IF CMD$ = " " THEN GOTO 1298 1290 GOTO 1250 1291 KEY OFF 1292 ON ERROR GOTO 1295 1293 PLAY "p16" 1294 GOTO 1300 1295 COLOR 31,0,0 1296 PRINT "THIS PROGRAM REQUIRES ADVANCED BASIC -- USE COMMAND 'BASICA'":COLOR 15,0,0:FOR I=1 TO 9000:NEXT: RESUME 1298 1298 ON ERROR GOTO 0 1299 SCREEN 0,1:IF SAMPLES$="YES" THEN CHAIN"samples",1000 ELSE COLOR 7,0,0:CLS:END 1300 REM 1410 COLOR 0 1420 DEFINT AY 1440 SCREEN 1,0:COLOR 8,1 1450 DIM Q%(500) 1460 DIM D1%(150),D2%(150),C1%(200),C2%(200) 1470 DIM DNK%(300) 1480 GOSUB 1940 1490 GOSUB 1780 1500 CLS 1510 DIM B%(300) 1520 FOR I=2 TO 300:B%(I)=-16384+192:NEXT 1530 B%(0)=2:B%(1)=193 1540 REM 1550 CX=110:CLS 1590 LINE (0,0)-(305,199),,B 1600 LINE (6,6)-(97,195),1,BF 1610 LINE (183,6)-(305,195),1,BF 1620 LOCATE 3,5:PRINT "Donkey" 1630 LOCATE 3,29:PRINT "Driver" 1631 LOCATE 19,25:PRINT"Press Space "; 1632 LOCATE 20,25:PRINT"Bar to switch"; 1633 LOCATE 21,25:PRINT"lanes "; 1635 LOCATE 23,25:PRINT"Press ESC "; 1636 LOCATE 24,25:PRINT"to exit "; 1640 FOR Y=4 TO 199 STEP 20:LINE(140,Y)-(140,Y+10):NEXT 1650 CY=105:CX=105 1660 LINE (100,0)-(100,199):LINE(180,0)-(180,199) 1670 LOCATE 5,6:PRINT SD:LOCATE 5,31:PRINT SM 1680 CY=CY-4:IF CY<60 THEN 2230 1690 PUT (CX,CY),CAR%,PRESET 1700 DX=105+42*INT(RND*2) 1710 FOR Y=(RND*-4)*8 TO 124 STEP 6 1720 SOUND 20000,1 1730 A$=INKEY$:IF A$=CHR$(27) THEN 1298 ELSE POKE 106,0:IF LEN(A$)>0 THEN LINE (CX,CY)-(CX+28,CY+44),0,BF:CX=252-CX:PUT (CX,CY),CAR%,PRESET:SOUND 200,1 1740 IF Y=>3 THEN PUT (DX,Y),DNK%,PSET 1750 IF CX=DX AND Y+25>=CY THEN 2060 1760 IF Y AND 3 THEN PUT (140,6),B% 1770 NEXT:LINE (DX,124)-(DX+32,149),0,BF:GOTO 1670 1780 CLS 1790 DRAW "S8C3" 1800 DRAW"BM12,1r3m+1,3d2R1ND2u1r2d4l2u1l1" 1810 DRAW"d7R1nd2u2r3d6l3u2l1d3m-1,1l3" 1820 DRAW"m-1,-1u3l1d2l3u6r3d2nd2r1u7l1d1l2" 1830 DRAW"u4r2d1nd2R1U2" 1840 DRAW"M+1,-3" 1850 DRAW"BD10D2R3U2M-1,-1L1M-1,1" 1860 DRAW"BD3D1R1U1L1BR2R1D1L1U1 1870 DRAW"BD2BL2D1R1U1L1BR2R1D1L1U1 1880 DRAW"BD2BL2D1R1U1L1BR2R1D1L1U1 1890 LINE(0,0)-(40,60),,B 1900 PAINT (1,1) 1910 DIM CAR%(900) 1920 GET(1,1)-(29,45),CAR% 1930 RETURN 1940 CLS 1950 DRAW"S08" 1960 DRAW "BM14,18" 1970 DRAW"M+2,-4R8M+1,-1U1M+1,+1M+2,-1 1980 DRAW"M-1,1M+1,3M-1,1M-1,-2M-1,2" 1990 DRAW"D3L1U3M-1,1D2L1U2L3D2L1U2M-1,-1" 2000 DRAW"D3L1U5M-2,3U1" 2010 PAINT (21,14),3 2020 PRESET (37,10):PRESET (40,10) 2030 PRESET (37,11):PRESET (40,11) 2040 GET (13,0)-(45,25),DNK% 2050 RETURN 2060 SD=SD+1:LOCATE 14,6:PRINT "BOOM!" 2070 GET (DX,Y)-(DX+16,Y+25),D1% 2080 D1X=DX:D1Y=Y:D2X=DX+17 2090 GET (DX+17,Y)-(DX+31,Y+25),D2% 2100 GET (CX,CY)-(CX+14,CY+44),C1% 2110 GET (CX+15,CY)-(CX+28,CY+44),C2% 2120 C1X=CX:C1Y=CY:C2X=CX+15 2130 FOR P=6 TO 0 STEP -1:Z=1/(2^P):Z1=1-Z 2140 PUT (C1X,C1Y),C1%:PUT(C2X,C1Y),C2% 2150 PUT (D1X,D1Y),D1%:PUT(D2X,D1Y),D2% 2160 C1X=CX*Z1:D1Y=Y*Z1:C2X=C2X+(291-C2X)*Z 2170 D1X=DX*Z1:C1Y=C1Y+(155-C1Y)*Z:D2X=D2X+(294-D2X)*Z 2180 PUT (C1X,C1Y),C1%:PUT(C2X,C1Y),C2% 2190 PUT (D1X,D1Y),D1%:PUT(D2X,D1Y),D2% 2200 SOUND 37+RND*200,4:NEXT 2210 FOR Y=1 TO 2000:NEXT 2220 CLS:GOTO 1540 2230 SM=SM+1:LOCATE 7,25:PRINT "Donkey loses!" 2240 FOR Y=1 TO 1000:NEXT 2250 CLS:GOTO 1540 They were surprised to find comments at the beginning of the program, where the authors of the game were listed (the names of the authors were removed from the sources on Github): Bill Gates and Neil Konzen. Neil Conzen - a talented teenager, one of the first employees of Microsoft. Later he was appointed to lead the development of the second version of Windows, after the failure of the first version. He also led the development of Microsoft software for the Mac.
The most striking thing that co-author of the game was Bill Gates himself, co-founder of Microsoft, and that he expressed a desire to be noted in the comments to the code.
Many years later, Bill Gates confirmed that he had participated in the development of this strange game. He told about this in 2001 in his speech at the TechEd conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Visual Basic - “the most effective and popular development tool”.
Bill Gates said that he and his friend Neil Conzen wrote the game at four in the morning on the IBM PC prototype, being locked together in a small room. IBM insisted that the room with the prototype computer was locked. That is how Donkey appeared, “very exciting” for its time, Bill Gates said. She had to demonstrate the possibilities of language.
Possessing a good sense of humor, Bill Gates in 2001 introduced a new version of that cult game, made in 3D in the VB.NET programming language, to show how much Basic has changed over the past two decades.
The game was published on March 21, 2003 on the official Microsoft website. Now there is no web page, but the .exe file with the game still lies on the Microsoft server .
The game Donkey is a rare example of a real program for which Bill Gates himself wrote the code. He was then 25 years old.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/369493/
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