DONKEY.BAS

📅 2025-05-22

DONKEY.BAS is a simple yet historically significant computer game that debuted with IBM’s PC-DOS 1.00 in 1981. Written in BASIC by Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Neil Konzen, the game was designed primarily as a demonstration of the capabilities of the IBM PC’s graphics and the BASIC programming environment that shipped with the system. It was included as a .BAS (BASIC source code) file, intended to be run through the IBM Advanced BASIC interpreter, also known as BASICA.

The gameplay in DONKEY.BAS is rudimentary: the player controls a car that automatically moves along a scrolling road, and the only interaction is pressing the spacebar to swerve between lanes to avoid donkeys standing in the road. With its crude CGA graphics and minimal sound, the game was never meant to compete with arcade hits of the time but served to highlight the potential for interactive, graphical programs on the IBM PC. Despite its simplicity, DONKEY.BAS is often cited as one of the earliest PC games and has become a quirky footnote in the history of Microsoft and personal computing.