Introduction to the BASIC Engine, Fosdem 2019

(low cost single board computer that a beginner can build).

I had heard of this before and had previously dismissed it, but found it interesting enough to take a second look. I am glad I did.

  • Ulrich put a real emphasis on how easy it is to put together even if you are a beginner with soldering. This is interesting to me. A lot of beginner friendly soldering projects are kinda useless projects. I’d like to one day learn and have useful beginner projects or intermediate ones to work towards.
  • Not only can it run basic, but supports coding in basic on the platform itself to. Sounds like it has some sort of basic REPL.
  • He dismisses LCD controllers when asked about it durring the talk, but they don’t mention that a lot of retro RaspberryPi handhelds use analog LCDs. That should be possible for some kind of handheld Basic Engine today.
  • Project is working on lua support. This is interesting to me because that almost kinda makes it a a real life Liko-12.
  • Parts are under 10 euros but he estimates first time soldering equipment might set you back a couple hundred. Still reasonable if your going to do more with the equipment later.
  • Has tutorial videos, parts pricing, schematics, and everything super well documented on project website. https://basicengine.org
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