1981 · Bill Gates · Racing

DONKEY.BAS

Donkey, often known by its file name Donkey.Bas, is a computer game written in 1981 and included with early versions of the PC DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a driving game in which the player must avoid hitting donkeys. The game was written by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Neil Konzen.

Released: 1981
Platforms: MS-DOS Windows iOS
Genres: Racing
Developers: Bill Gates Neil Konzen
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Country: United States

About

Donkey, often known by its 8.3 filename DONKEY.BAS, is a video game written in 1981 and included with early versions of the IBM PC DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a top-down driving game in which the player must avoid hitting donkeys. The game was written by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and early employee Neil Konzen.

Although on the game's title screen it is simply named Donkey, it is often referred to by its filename of DONKEY.BAS. All BASIC programs used the ".BAS" extension, and MS-DOS-compatible operating systems that came before Windows 95 display file names in upper case. These conventions are often maintained when the game is referred to in writing.

Keywords

driving

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

DONKEY.BAS is a simple driving game in which the player controls a car but cannot steer, accelerate or brake, only changing lanes to avoid a series of donkeys on the road. There is no goal other than to avoid donkeys.

The game uses the CGA display mode, the only colour graphics mode available on the original IBM PC. The mode allows four colours, but in DONKEY.BAS there are usually only three on screen.

Development

When IBM was developing its personal computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it contracted Microsoft to develop an operating system and a version of the BASIC programming language to release with the new computer. The operating system was released as IBM PC DOS when included with IBM PCs and as MS-DOS when sold separately by Microsoft. Both included versions of Microsoft BASIC.

DONKEY.BAS was written by Bill Gates and Neil Konzen to demonstrate the IBM PC and the BASIC programming language's capability to produce interactive programs with color graphics and sound. The game continues to generate interest, in part because of the involvement of Gates at a time when Microsoft was relatively small and only six years old. According to a speech delivered by Gates in 2001:

Legacy

As a programming example for the new .NET platform and Visual Basic .NET programming language, in 2001 Microsoft developed a game called Donkey .NET in homage to DONKEY.BAS. It is a three-dimensional driving game in which the aim is to hit donkeys. The game demonstrates to programmers how a Visual Basic .NET application can be structured and how to use various features of the .NET platform. A version was also included as part of Google's wwwBASIC browser based interpreter.