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Comment by rob74 | Hacker News Reader

I wasn't aware of this cartridge until now... so back then, not only did every home computer come with a BASIC interpreter as a matter of course, but Atari also felt the need to provide some programmability for their consoles. I wish this mentality would have stuck around... nowadays, everyone has a computer in their pocket, but there is no beginner-friendly way to develop apps for it.

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The Basic Programming cart for the 2600 was made mostly to satisfy an advertising promise. Atari had advertised the console as expandable into a programmable computer, but there wasn't any way for a user to do it. There were threats of a class-action lawsuit, so Atari made that cart to head that off. (I remember this from years ago, though can't find a cite for it now, the search terms are too vague and wikipedia doesn't mention it.) It wasn't really intended to be a usable programming environment for anything useful.

This list of Basic/keyboard expansions for early videogame consoles mentions Mattel getting fined by the Federal Trade Commission until it delivered the promised computer module to clients:

https://lady-eklipse.livejournal.com/6081.html

Ah, thanks for the pointer. I wonder if I'm misremembering Mattel's threat as Atari's, or if Atari also had a similar problem.

Check out iOS "Shortcuts" if you have an iPhone. It's... visual-ish programming, a bit buggy, very incomplete, poorly supported by third party apps, slow, evolving quickly and lots of fun. Control Apple's core apps, bang on internet APIs, incorporate NFC tags, it's fun.

And if you have an ipad check out Swift Playgrounds

iOS has apps like Pythonista, limited compared to a computer but leagues ahead of 2600 BASIC. Android of course has Termux and so gcc or anything else is available. And the last few Nintendo consoles have had SmileBASIC letting you program on your 3DS, Wii U or Switch.

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