Welcome to UglyMike's Web Lair

A small collection of graphical-oriented Basic-256 demo programs.

Demo Programs

Here are some graphical doodahs in BASIC256, a great Basic IDE.

BTK2 Demo Programs

A set of graphical-oriented programs using the BTK2 routines to provide a rich and interactive visual environment.

Go
Particle based programs

Some simple dynamic, particle-based programs. For a small tutorial on how these are created, please look at the Particle tutorial

Go
Other programs

These are some simple programs that do not belong in the other categories... Mostly simple graphical tests/games/conversions

Go
BTK2 Toolkit elements

A set of small programs, each showcasing a single interface element. It also includes a small demo program containing all elements

Go

Particle Tutorials

Learn some programming concepts with this Particle Fountain tutorial. Hopefully other will follow (text&image disintegration,...)

Particle Fountain page

A step-by-step building of a visually impressive program!

Go
Particle Effect page

A step-by-step tutorial on how to transform text with different effects....

Go

Nature of Code

The 'Nature of Code' is a great site, book and Youtube channel by Daniel Shiffman to introduce you to the p5.js framework.
Loads of fun and interesting stuff to be had and it can run right in the browser!
As I'm a great fan of small graphical doodahs, I decided to try to redo some of the p5.js programs in BASIC256 (I also based my Starfield program on ap5.js sketch)
Sure, BASIC256 does not have vectors, OOP and loads of built in stuff that p5.js has, but one can give it a try...

Randomness

Random noise creates snow, static, chaos. Perlin noise is much more interesting....

Go
Moving balls (aka 'Vectors')

We start with a bouncing ball having mass and give it some types of acceleration like gravity and wind

Go
Forces

Here we add some other forces like friction (only when ball bounces), air/fluid resistance and have a look at gravity

Go
To be completed...

New chapters ot The Nature of Code will be added as they are completed...

Go

About Me

Hello! I'm UglyMike, a 64-year old amateur programmer showing off some of my demo programs written in Basic-256 and trying to share basic knowledge through tutorials.
This Basic-256 is a quit powerfull, interpretive BASIC dialect with a nice QT-based IDE and also has a nice Wikipedia Page.
Now that I'm retired, I decided to resurrect these pages after more than a decade in order to keep active and to show off some of my updated Basic-256 demo programs. (Now compatible with 2.0.0.11).

Although Jim Reneau (one of the original developers) is still active, I understand that Basic-256 has lost most of its former audience (A broken website doesn't help...). That won't stop me however. As long as I'm having fun with Basic-256, I'll continue! I must say, I'm currently looking at another old visual language: Processing's java cousin p5.js and I heartily recommend it!

Feel free to reach out to [email protected] for feedback!

Changes

13/02/2026 Finished chapters 'Randomness' and 'Vectors'. Almost done with 'Forces'.

13/02/2026 Added new section "Nature of Code" based on the site/book by Daniel Schiffman. (work in progress)

15/12/2025 Added "basic_Starfield" and "Warpfactor_Starfield" to the "Particle Based Programs" section.

30/10/2025 Added "ParticleMultiplication" to the "Particle Based Programs" section.

02/06/2025 Added "Doodle Generator" to the "BTK2 Demo Programs" section.

10/04/2025 Revamp the website (old one is here).

10/04/2025 Added "Artificial Intelligence Simulator" to the "Other Programs" section.

13/03/2025 Added "Dancing Tentacles Color" to the "Other Programs" section.

20/01/2025 Added "ParticleFun" to the "Particle Based Programs" section.

19/01/2025 Added "CobwebPlot" to the "BTK2 Demo Programs" section.

10/10/2024 Resurrected the site and updated most of the programs to be compatible with 2.0.0.11.

11/09/2013 Added Aqua inspired BTK2 routines to the site.

23/08/2013 Lots of older programs were horribly broken. Everything now runs ok again under 0.9.9.64.

22/08/2013 Added "Percolation" to the "BTK2 Demo Programs" section.

06/03/2013 Added "Basic Paint" to the "BTK2 Demo Programs" section.

23/11/2012 Added "Critters" to the "BTK2 Demo Programs" sectionto and a Flood-It game to "Other Programs".

27/10/2012 Updated BTK to BTK2 (CALL/SUBROUTINE) and added a BTK2 overall demo program.

Old Feedback from Users

  • 08/09/2013: Love having you involved in the BASIC256 community. - Jim
  • 04/08/2013: This is one awesome blog. Really looking forward to reading more!
  • 08/09/2013: Love having you involved in the BASIC256 community. Jim
  • 04/08/2013: This is one awesome blog.Really looking forward to read more. Will read on...
  • 24/07/2013: Great stuff, man. Keep up the good work!
  • 24/07/2013: Thank you ever so for you article post.Thanks Again. Great.
  • 04/07/2013: Thanks a lot for the blog.Really looking forward to read more. Will read on...
  • 20/04/2013: Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic article. Keep writing.
  • 25/03/2013: Excellent work!
  • 01/02/2013: Hey, thanks for the article post.Thanks Again. Great
  • 25/11/2012: On the particle Tutorial: Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic article post. Really Great.
  • 26/08/2012: Thanks for a Basic, so simple yet so hard. lrcvs
  • 28/02/2012: Thanks for the nice programming tutorials. I appreciate your efforts!!
  • 16/02/2012: Awesome, I found it Basic256 by accident while reading through stackoverflow.com recommendations for new programmers. You are doing a great job demonstrating advanced programming concepts in KB256! Thanks & all the best!
  • 18/10/2011: Excellent work - keep it up, please.
© 2025 UglyMike's Web Lair. All rights reserved.