BASIC

David H. Ahl's compilation, ''101 Basic Computer Games'', was first published in 1973 by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Though not the first book of computer games, it was the first to collect only games in BASIC. It contains a listing of games, a sample run of each game, and usually a short description of each game. It also acknowledges each game's author(s) and lays out other sources if the game has been transformed from a previously known game. The program's "computer limitations" are also decsribed so users understand the hardward requirements. Finally, illustrations, courtesy of ''Mad Magazine'' among others, punctuate the presentation, usually between this modicum of contextual information and the program's listing. The game's titles are abbreviated into names that are no longer than six characters long -- e.g. ACEYDU for "Acey Ddeucy CArd Game"; AMAZIN for "Draw a Maze"; or POET for "Random Poetry (Haiku)." The book's table of contents comprises three columns: a list of game nametags in alphabetical order, a column bearing a single-line description of the game, and a page number where the game's actual title accompanies the game's nametag along the top of the page. The book’s preface makes a point of teasing out the educational value of games, the need for “unguided learning,” especially if one considers the value of creating games, not just playing them. The games in this book were submitted for compilation by many authors.

As we learn in the Preface of the first printing (Jan 1978) of the book by the Creative Computing Press, David H. Ahl left DEC in 1974, but DEC continued to publish this version, but without his name on it. The first printing of ''Basic Computer Games, Microcomputer Edition'' in January 1978 reflects the fact that, at the time of the DEC publication of ''101 Computer Games'', microcomputers hadn't been manufactured yet and, programmers using the BASIC language were still running code on time-sharing machines or on minicomputers.

The preface of this January 1978 edition of ''Basic Computer Games, Microcomputer Edition'' is newly conceived and re-written. With this edition, the goal appears to be to spell out the value of games within broader contexts. The preface begins with a dictionary definition of the word “game” (though without naming the dictionary). It then provides a cursory history of sports and games moving from the ancient Chinese and Egyptians to the 1970s in little more than a paragraph and a half, only to emphasize that games offer recreational, breaks “from the “realities of life,” and also have other “important redeeming virtues.” The next two sections of the preface emphasize games as an educational tool and computer games in particular. The Preface also tells explains to users that the programs in this book all run on MITS Altair 8K BASIC, Rev. 4.0. Some new programs replace those that were deleted because they “could not be converted or weren’t worth converting to MITS BASIC.“ (p. ix)