Looking for information on Scholastic BASIC programming books from the mid-1980s

Question

My very first introduction to programming was in grade school, when I would purchase books full of BASIC code listings from the Scholastic school catalogue.

Lately I have been searching teh Internetz for information on these books, but without any success. Does anyone know or remember anything about these books? All I can recall is that they were large paperbacks full of various BASIC code listings, some of which were game like. They all included instructions on how to modify the code listings for the different systems of the day, and I distinctly remember that they would always ask for a number in order to seed the RANDOMIZE command (since I figured out on my own that RANDOMIZE TIMER eliminated the need for the question and answer).

Answer 1

I've probably just re-traced your steps, but thought I'd share what I found just in case I haven't

The publisher web site (Scholastic.com) does not appear to have anything for past editions.

All I found on eBay was a reference to "Problem Solving with BASIC", published in 1983, so it's probably contemporary to the books you are looking for:

• http://cgi.ebay.com/Scholastic-computers-math-Problem-solving-Basic-/260157222217?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item3c92942d49#ht_484wt_1128

There is also a link here: http://openlibrary.org/works/OL4311858W/Problem_solving_with_BASIC . That same site holds some links to some promising leads for Scholastic books (http://openlibrary.org/search?q=basic&publisher_facet=Scholastic), including ISBN numbers:

• http://openlibrary.org/works/OL3987154W/Learn_BASIC_on_the_Apple_IIe
• http://openlibrary.org/works/OL3987155W/Learn_BASIC_on_the_Commodore_64
• http://openlibrary.org/works/OL9469312W/Scholastic_computers_math

This might be enough to get you going enough to get ahold of some used bookstores and trace back the ISBNs.

Good luck!

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Adventure I think these ones are the one you're looking for :)