BASIC 10 Liner 2025: The seven Atari 8-bit games in competition | Download
From puzzles and online battles to reinvented classics, these titles showcase creativity in just ten lines of code.
2 min read
views
The 14th edition of the BASIC 10 Liner contest once again showcases the ingenuity of programmers in pushing 8-bit systems to their limits with just ten lines of code. With 45 games submitted so far, seven have been developed for Atari 8-bit computers, standing out for their creativity and diverse range of genres.
Eric Carr enters the EXTREME-256 category with two games, leveraging the capabilities of FastBASIC 4.7. «The Lost Temple of Gold» is a puzzle adventure inspired by the classic PC DOS game Paganitzu. It features room designs adapted from the original, combined with new layouts, forming a compact yet challenging mini-adventure. Meanwhile, «FujiNet Battleship!» reinvents the classic Battleship game by enabling networked matches between two Atari computers connected via FujiNet, an innovative solution to the screen-sharing limitation in turn-based gameplay.Chilean developer VÃctor “Vitoco” Parada also presents two titles. «Pac-10Liner», in the PUR-120 category, is a minimalist take on Pac-Man, where players must evade Blinky while clearing a row of dots, with the chance to fight back after consuming a power pill. His other game, «Guess the Number», competing in the SHOW category, offers a deduction challenge: the player sets an upper limit and must guess the number the computer has selected within that range.
D. Scott Williamson contributes two games in the PUR-80 category, both programmed in Atari BASIC. «Wordle» brings the popular word-guessing challenge to Atari, giving players six attempts to identify a secret five-letter word, with visual feedback indicating how close their guesses are. Meanwhile, «2048» introduces the classic number-merging game to the Atari 8-bit, challenging players to slide tiles on a 4×4 grid and combine identical numbers to reach the highest possible score.
Finally, «Bomb Squad» by Noah Burney, also in EXTREME-256 and programmed in FastBASIC 4.7, tests players’ focus and precision. Following a bomb-defusal manual, they must cut the wires in the correct order—one mistake, and it’s all over.
Beyond these seven Atari titles, three notable entries by Marco “spotlessmind1975” Spedaletti stand out for their compatibility across multiple 8-bit platforms. «Beyond the Door», in EXTREME-256, is an escape challenge where players must pick the correct door before being caught by a pursuing monster. «Beauty Contest» introduces an AI-driven beauty competition, where neural networks learn from each playthrough. «Dojo Floats», a multiplayer game for Atari and TRS-80 Color Computer, uses the DOJO protocol to let players battle by sinking their own floats or assigning them to their opponents.
The deadline for game submissions is Saturday, April 5, at 18:00 CET, with the awards ceremony set for Friday, April 18, 2025. As more games enter the competition, excitement builds, further cementing BASIC 10 Liner as a must-watch event for retro programming enthusiasts.
Posted by
Please comment politely. Spam comments will be moderated. Thank you.