Robot Art of George Beker

Bot by George Beker

Probably one of the most influential books of my computer development was Basic Computer Games. This book that was developed in the 1970s by David Ahl was ahead of its time. 

I was a pre-teen with an APPLE ][+ computer (48k RAM),  no disk drive, no hard drive.  I would sit for hours and type the programs into the computer (it had a built in BASIC interpreter). Playing them was fun, and in the process, I was learning to code.

Perhaps more influential on me than the BASIC programs, was the artwork in the book.  This is the work of George Beker.

I found his "not of this technical reality" Robots to be inspiring for some unknown reason. They were everyday, melancholy looking, and sentient(!)  Loving them or not, It allowed me to visualize robots possessing a strong anthormothic spirit.

by George Beker

You can find more information about George Beker here.  The sites links are not all up to date. If you are interested in purchasing an ebook of his portfolio of robots you can find it at his publishers site: Kidware Software.  it also has the BASIC Programming book.

Also - if you found the BASIC Programming Games book to be inspiring, there is an Open project underway to modernize it with current languages. you can find more information about that here.

-G.Beker, you find my humble site, Thank You!