The cool thing about Basic (at least on DOS with QBasic) how many lino of code you have to write to draw a line on the screen. Just two lines, first set the screen to graphic mode and then just draw the line wit one command. Very easy and simple.
it was indeed cool. also generating audio. fun times.
I never managed, no tried, to put a jpg on screen though. Not sure how many lines that would require.
See also the Atari 8-bit Bot [0] Apple II BASIC Bot [1] and the turtleSpaces Logo Bot [3]