May 24, 2026
Old code, fresh chaos
Microsoft's 6502 BASIC is now Open Source (2025)
Microsoft opened a 1970s time capsule and the internet instantly got nostalgic, nosy, and weird
TLDR: Microsoft has officially open-sourced the vintage coding language that helped teach millions of early computer users. Commenters turned the moment into a drama-filled nostalgia fest, asking where the code came from, swapping retro war stories, and debating what computer history might have looked like if things had gone differently.
Microsoft has officially released the source code for its old 6502 BASIC program — the beginner-friendly language that helped power early home computers like the Commodore 64 and Apple II — and the comment section reacted like someone opened grandma’s attic and found a lost Beatles tape. The big mood was equal parts history class, victory lap, and playful suspicion. People loved that a foundational piece of personal computing is now officially out in the open, but they also immediately started asking the juicy question: where did Microsoft even find it? One commenter practically demanded the origin story, joking about forgotten archive boxes and tractor-feed printouts being typed back in by hand.
The nostalgia was loud. One reader flexed that they wrote a visual database in this very BASIC back in 1979 and won a joystick for it — which is honestly the kind of charmingly specific retro brag the internet lives for. Others connected the release to modern retro celebrities like Ben Eater, whose hobbyist videos already use Microsoft BASIC, turning this from dusty museum news into something today’s tinkerers actually touch.
Then came the side-quests and hot takes. Someone wondered if Apple might finally release MacBasic now that this old licensing drama has thawed. Another tossed out an alternate-history grenade: what if Microsoft had pushed Pascal instead of BASIC? In other words, this wasn’t just “old code goes public.” It became a full-on comments-party about computing’s childhood, corporate archaeology, and the roads not taken.
Key Points
- •Microsoft officially released its 6502 BASIC source code under an open-source license in 2025, formalizing access to code that had long circulated unofficially.
- •The 6502 version of Microsoft BASIC was completed in 1976 by Bill Gates and Ric Weiland and licensed by Commodore in 1977 for $25,000.
- •The released source tree corresponds to BASIC M6502 8K VER 1.1, which underpinned Commodore BASIC and includes Apple II adaptations such as Applesoft BASIC.
- •Microsoft says the released 1.1 version includes 1978 garbage collector fixes implemented by John Feagans and Bill Gates and shipped as the PET’s BASIC V2.
- •The release builds on preservation work by Michael Steil and is presented as part of the broader Microsoft BASIC lineage that later included GW-BASIC, QBASIC, and Visual Basic.