Donkey.bas is 45 Years Old – 131 line of Glory

A 45-year-old computer game written by Bill Gates is having a bizarre little comeback, and honestly, the real entertainment is in the replies. DONKEY.BAS was one of the early games bundled with IBM’s first personal computers: a super simple driving game where you switch lanes to avoid smashing into a donkey. That’s it. No giant open world, no fancy story, just 131 lines of old-school glory. One fan rebuilt it in the browser for the IBM PC’s 45th birthday, and commenters immediately turned the nostalgia dial to maximum.

Some people were delighted that so little code could make something so memorable, calling it a reminder of a time when games felt almost magical. But the peace did not last. One player reported the game was “flickering like crazy” on a very specific window size, which is exactly the kind of oddly specific complaint that gives old-computer fandom its chaotic charm. Another commenter brought the real scandal: the donkey hitbox drama. According to them, their car keeps crashing into the donkey even after they’ve already passed it, which is the kind of injustice that can fuel a comment section for hours.

Then came the purists. One person praised the remake but declared the sound effects too fancy for early IBM machines, basically accusing this donkey of being historically inaccurate. And because no retro thread is complete without someone flexing, another commenter casually mentioned they’ve spent four months building an ultra-faithful browser version of old BASIC software. In other words: what started as a cute tribute instantly became a messy mix of nostalgia, bug reports, authenticity wars, and donkey-related suffering.