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Standard BASIC Pac
The Standard BASIC Pac was the Sorcerer’s version of
Microsoft BASIC. Microsoft BASIC was the de facto standard
on almost all computers of the time and BASIC programs written
for one system generally worked on another with a few
tweaks. The friendly and informative Quick Tour of BASIC
manual along with the full stroke keyboard made programming in
BASIC on the Sorcerer a true joy. As such there was a
plethora of BASIC programs written for the Sorcerer including
games of varying quality. The Standard BASIC Pac was
provided with the Sorcerer which was a rather nice touch (Atari
8-bit users had to buy their BASIC separately until the release
of the XL line). The Exidy Standard BASIC was never
updated past its original version 1.0, but several alternative
BASICs were created by hobbyists which added various
features. Exidy did advertise an updated version of BASIC
called Extended Disk BASIC for use with the CP/M, but it is
unknown if this was actually released. A ROM for a
cartridge based Extended BASIC also exists, but it is unknown if
this is an official release or a hobbyist hack. The
Standard BASIC Pac could also be bought separately for $99.
It appears that the Standard BASIC Pac
came two different styles. The original version had the
title in a stylized 'computer' font and fewer commands listed on
label. The second and more common version had an easier to
read standard font and added a few commands to the instructions.
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