DONKEY.BAS by XVision for iPad and iPhone reviewed

The original DONKEY.BAS on IBM PC

A bit of history…

Way back in 1981 Microsoft founder Bill Gates co-wrote a top down scrolling (of sorts) game with Neil Konzen called DONKEY.BAS. It was written partly to show off the power of the  new PC-DOS operating system Microsoft had been contracted to develop for the new IBM PCs. It was actually called Donkey but was written in BASIC hence the .BAS file extension. The original game is widely credited as being the first ever IBM PC game written.

The game explained

You are ‘controlling’ a car near the bottom of the screen, with a road that scrolls from top to bottom with donkeys randomly generated appearing within it’s lanes every few seconds or so. The aim of the game is to switch lanes by tapping the screen whenever a donkey appears on your side of the road. Every time you make it past a donkey you move incrementally towards the top of the screen so reducing the time you have to react. After eleven donkeys you score one point and are taken back to the bottom of the screen, where the process begins all over. If you should hit a donkey, the donkey’s get the point and you start over.

Description from the developers:

You’re cruising in your new supercar on a little-used, dead-straight rural road when suddenly a zombified donkey attacks you. It charges at you, dead-set on destroying you. Can you escape the donkey?

DONKEY.BAS is a challenging retro arcade racer. To be successful, you need to react fast with your finger. There’s no room for mistakes.

For the first time on iPhone and iPad, relive the classic racing game that started it all.

  • Cool 8-bit graphics and sounds
  • Great grandma of all racing games
  • Simple one-tap game control
  • Game Center enabled
  • Win all 14 achievements if you can

Conclusion

iPad version of DONKEY.BAS
iPad version of DONKEY.BAS

We see the point of the game as a tribute to the first ever PC-DOS game ever made. We even had a some fun playing it for a while, having heard about the original game and wanting to see it in action. It is Game Center enabled so you have access to leaderboards etc. and the game has a nerdy-retro coolness that cant really be explained but unfortunately we don’t think it would appeal to anyone who doesnt ‘get’ what it represents – the very first attempt at gaming on the IBM PC.

Pricing is fair at £0.69p and if you had an original IBM PC with Donkey or are interested in the history of Microsoft/early IBM PCs you are going to love reliving the simplistic gameplay that this offers. Anyone else I’m afraid is going to get bored real quick.

Pros

  • Does what it says on the tin – delivers original DONKEY.BAS action on ipad/iphone

Cons

  • People who weren’t there wont ‘get’ it
  • Very simplistic, almost too simplistic for todays iPhone generation

 

 

 

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