BASIC on the IIGS

[rpiguy2]

I am not new to the IIGS, Ive owned and used one for years BUT Ive never tried programming on it and I finally have some time to look into it and have a couple of questions:

I presume the BASIC in ROM is identical to AppleSoft BASIC in other Apple IIs (no support for added memory, etc.)?

But it will still work in fast mode right? Could be fun to try some slow BASIC games on a system a little faster than the other Apple IIs.

What are my other options for BASIC? Are any of the options mostly Microsoft compatible?

 

[njroadfan]

Built-in Applesoft BASIC is the same as the 8-bit Apple IIs. It'll run in fast mode just fine. For 16-bit usage, there was GSoft BASIC from The Byte Works, TML BASIC, MD BASIC, and a beta version of Apple's own IIgs BASIC system. Don't know how compatible they are with Microsoft BASIC but I'd assume they are similar enough to Applesoft BASIC for porting reasons. Also a company called So What Software released extenders for Applesoft BASIC to allow one to program SHR graphics, the Ensoniq chip, and even make Toolbox calls easily from Applesoft.