QBASIC 4.5

Download QBASIC 4.5

The first programming language I ever used was QBASIC. For a long time I used an early version of QBASIC that came free with DOS. It didn’t have the ability to compile code and you had to run all programs from within the QBASIC environment. I remember finding QBASIC 4.5 and thinking I had struck gold because it has the ability to compile code and create .exe files. Compiling not only gave a speed boost but allowed programs to be transportable to other computers. It was pretty amazing stuff.


I used to spend hours hacking away at QBASIC trying to create ’super awesome’ graphics programs. Ah the fond memories! :) I looked around and can only find one of my graphics program from the past. Unfortunately, it is an .exe file and not the source code. I’ve zipped and uploaded the program if you wish to check it out. It’s pretty cool so check it out! :)


It’s 2008 and there are a lot better languages to learn but QBASIC will always have a fond place in my heart. It’s still incredible to see what can be done with those old DOS graphics. I’ve zipped and uploaded QBASIC 4.5 so if you’ve never used it or have fond memories download it now and check it out. If you develop something cool I’d love to see it!


If you’re on a Linux machine you can run these programs using dosemu. On a Windows machine I believe you should be able to run them from the command prompt.



Click to directly download QBASIC45.zip

Click to directly download cloud.zip

ASCII LCD Number Printer

Old School Graphics

I took some time and hacked out an ascii lcd number printer. It is written in Ruby and contains no comments. The number you want printed must be passed as the first parameter. The size of the output can be changed by passing a second number. The default size is 2.

How to run:

~/test> ruby lcd.rb 0123456789 5

Click to directly download lcd.rb

# filename 'lcd.rb' # Use: takes a number as the first parameter,  #      a size value > 0 as the second parameter # Output: Displays the number as ascii # By: Louis Casillas, e-mail: oxaric@gmail.com zero = [" - ",         "| |",         "   ",         "| |",         " - "] one =  ["   ",          " | ",         "   ",         " | ",         "   "] two =  [" - ",          "  |",         " - ",         "|  ",         " - "] three = [" - ",           "  |",          " - ",          "  |",          " - "] four = ["   ",          "| |",         " - ",         "  |",         "   "] five = [" - ",          "|  ",         " - ",         "  |",         " - "] six =  [" - ",          "|  ",         " - ",         "| |",         " - "] seven = [" - ",           "  |",          "   ",          "  |",          "   "] eight = [" - ",           "| |",          " - ",          "| |",          " - "] nine = [" - ",          "| |",         " - ",         "  |",         " - "] numbers = ARGV[0].to_s size = ARGV[1].to_i output = "" #1 or 3 for levels in (0...5)    runs = 0        if (size > 1) && (levels == 1) || (levels == 3)       runs_for_this_level = size    else       runs_for_this_level = 1    end    while runs < runs_for_this_level       for i in (0...numbers.size)          case numbers[i, 1]                    when "0"                line = zero[levels]             when "1"                line = one[levels]             when "2"                line = two[levels]             when "3"                line = three[levels]             when "4"                line = four[levels]             when "5"                line = five[levels]             when "6"                line = six[levels]             when "7"                line = seven[levels]             when "8"                line = eight[levels]             when "9"                line = nine[levels]          end          if (size > 1)             if (line[1,1] == "-")                                line = line[0,2]                   for j in (1...size)                      line += "-"                   end                   line += " "             else                if (line[0,1] == "|") || (line[2,1] == "|")                                   temp = line[2,1]                   line = line[0,1]                   for j in (1..size)                      line += " "                   end                   if (temp == "|")                            line += "|"                   else                      line += " "                   end                else                   if (line[1,1] == "|")                      temp = (size / 2.0).ceil                                            line = ""                      for j in (0..temp)                         line += " "                      end                                line += "|"                                            if size == 3                         temp = temp - 2                      else                         if size == 2                            temp = 0                         else                            if ((temp % 2) == 0)                               temp = temp - 1                            else                               temp = temp - 2                            end                         end                      end                      for j in (0..temp)                         line += " "                      end                                                           else                      for j in (1...size)                         line += " "                      end                   end                end             end             for k in (1...size)                line += " "             end       end              output += line       end       output += "\n"       runs = runs + 1    end end puts output