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Life & fun · August 23, 2026

I wrote a BASIC interpreter that boots on UEFI machines

I started writing Thoreau BASIC because I wanted a small, old-fashioned BASIC interpreter: line numbers, immediate mode, simple graphics, strings, arrays, the sort of environment where the computer starts with a "Ready" prompt and you can immediately make it do something. Then I wondered: why should it need an operating system? So I made it boot directly on x64 machines using UEFI. The UEFI version uses the Graphics Output Protocol for its framebuffer and gets its keyboard input directly from the firmware. There is no Windows or Linux underneath it. The machine boots into BASIC. It supports…

I wrote a BASIC interpreter that boots on UEFI machines launched on August 23, 2026 with 156 votes, #198 of 23,274 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.

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In plain words

Thoreau BASIC is a modern BASIC interpreter that runs on x64 Windows or boots directly on bare-metal UEFI systems without an operating system. It provides a classic BASIC environment with a "Ready" prompt and immediate-mode programming, while supporting modern features like 64-bit addressing, high-resolution graphics, networking, and mouse input. Programs are largely portable between the Windows and UEFI versions, making it useful for both retro computing enthusiasts and those wanting to explore bare-metal development.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

The BASIC you started with - now with GB of RAM, wavetable sound, SSE2 and hyperthreading

And what if it still ran your GW-BASIC programs with virtually no changes? How would one achieve double buffering? In old dos BASICs you could set a virtual screen as active and all graphics operations would draw to there. That's still missing. I will include a way to do double buffering in the next release. The UEFI build is super cute. A particular issue I have is that I put this on my x86 handheld (a gpd win mini) which has a portrait native display, meaning everything running in UEFI is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, including ThoreauBASIC. It'd be really nice if there was a configuration option to rotate the display - of course, depending on how the graphics subsystem is…from tarjan.itch.io

In the maker’s words, at launch

I started writing Thoreau BASIC because I wanted a small, old-fashioned BASIC interpreter: line numbers, immediate mode, simple graphics, strings, arrays, the sort of environment where the computer starts with a "Ready" prompt and you can immediately make it do something. Then I wondered: why should it need an…

Pricing, as stated on its site

Free — Name your own price model on itch.io, allowing free download with optional payment

checked September 2026 · prices change

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