Kids writing code in Microsoft basic on 1980's microcomputer
Tech news

Bill Gates Drops the Code That Started It All — BASIC Is Back!

Break out your cassette decks and retro keycaps, because Bill Gates just dropped some vintage gold for us tech nerds: the original source code for Altair BASIC – Microsoft’s first-ever product – is now free to download.

Yep, this is the code that kicked off a little side hustle you may have heard of… called Microsoft.

And for anyone who spent their childhood (or, let’s be honest, way too much of their adulthood) tinkering with early home computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II, or my personal favorite, the Dick Smith VZ200, this is a nostalgic blast from the silicon past.

Let’s dive into what BASIC was, why this release is such a big deal, and how Bill’s latest book, Source Code, ties it all together.

BASIC: The OG Gateway Drug to Programming

Back in the 70s and 80s, if you wanted to make a computer do anything cool—play a song, make text scroll, launch a pixelated UFO—you used BASIC. Short for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, BASIC was designed to be simple, accessible, and—most importantly—fun.

Most microcomputers back then shipped with a version of BASIC pre-installed or easily loadable. It was the language for curious minds and bedroom coders.

Dick Smith VZ-200
Dick Smith VZ-200

If you had a Dick Smith VZ200—which launched in 1983 in Australia and New Zealand—you were likely pecking away in BASIC. That humble little machine with its 4KB of RAM (expandable to 16KB if you were feeling fancy) brought a generation of kids and tinkerers into the digital age.

Here’s the kind of thing we used to write:

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"
20 GOTO 10

Endless scrolling. Infinite loop. Pure joy.

Altair BASIC: Microsoft’s First Hit

Rewind to 1975. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were two young nerds fresh out of Harvard (or rather, one about to drop out of Harvard) when they saw a photo of the Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics magazine. The Altair didn’t even come with a screen or keyboard—it was just blinking lights and switches. But it had the potential to be the first true personal computer.

Bill and Paul got hyped and hacked together a version of BASIC that could run on the Altair. They did it in just a few weeks, using a simulator they wrote before they even got their hands on the actual hardware.

Wild, right?

Their Altair BASIC became the very first product from a brand-new company called “Micro-Soft.” (Yep, with a hyphen.)

And now, 50 years later, Bill has released that original code to the public. It’s 3,400 lines of hand-assembled 8080 machine code—no frills, just raw 70s brilliance.

Why This Is a Big Deal

This isn’t just a nostalgic throwback—it’s a peek into the genesis of modern computing.

When Gates and Allen sold BASIC to MITS (the makers of the Altair), they were also selling a vision: software could be just as valuable as hardware. That idea helped birth an industry.

By open-sourcing this code now, Gates is giving back to the community and showing just how far we’ve come. From typing on green monochrome screens to deploying apps to the cloud with a few keystrokes.

BASIC and the VZ200: My First Programming Crush

For me, the Dick Smith VZ200 was the start of it all. It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t have much memory. But it had BASIC—and that was everything.

You could write your own games. Play music using beeps and boops. Control pixels like a digital puppet master. BASIC turned the VZ200 from a plastic box into a playground.

Many of us learned logic, problem-solving, and debugging long before we knew those words officially. BASIC taught us to experiment. To try things. To fail and fix. To save to tape, rewind, and try again.

This is why BASIC has such a cult following. And why seeing its roots come to light in 2025 hits us right in the feels.

Bill Gates’ Book: Source Code

As if that wasn’t enough, Gates has also dropped a book called Source Code, reflecting on 50 years of Microsoft, software, and the future of tech.

It’s not just about the code—it’s about what the code meant.

In the book, Gates talks about how Altair BASIC wasn’t just a technical project. It was an act of faith. A belief that software could change the world. That it could be personal. That it could be yours.

The book includes scans of Gates’ original notebooks, memories from the early Microsoft crew, and thoughts on what’s next—AI, climate tech, and even digital health.

You can tell it’s a bit of a “full-circle” moment for him. From coding BASIC in his dorm to shaping the digital world as we know it.

So… Where Can You Get the Code?

You can grab the original Altair BASIC code from Bill Gates’ blog, GatesNotes. It’s all there, beautifully commented and scanned in like an artifact from a time when computers fit on desks but not in pockets.

(And yes, some genius will probably port this to run in a browser within a week. That’s just how the internet works now.)

What We Can Learn From BASIC in 2025

We live in an age of React, Swift, Rust, and AI-assisted coding. But BASIC still has lessons for us:

  • Start small – BASIC was lean, limited, and taught us to do more with less.

  • Stay curious – It rewarded exploration. Try it. Break it. See what happens.

  • Make it fun – At its heart, programming should be joyful. BASIC never forgot that.

Whether you’re building a full-stack app, making beats on your DAW, or just playing around with microcontrollers and synths, the spirit of BASIC is still alive: make something weird, make it yours, and enjoy the process.

Final Thought: This Isn’t Just Code—It’s Culture

Bill Gates releasing the source code for Altair BASIC isn’t just a tech moment. It’s a cultural one. It’s a tribute to a time when anyone with a cheap computer and a few lines of code could feel like a wizard.

If you ever typed 10 PRINT, this is your time to smile.

And if you’ve never seen code like this before—maybe it’s time to give it a go. Who knows where it might lead?

Want the code? Get it here: gatesnotes.com
Want the book? Check out Source Code by Bill Gates—perfect reading while your old cassette tapes load.

Stay curious. 😎

By Geoff Williams with chatGPT