Getting Started with Blitz BASIC
Set up Blitz BASIC on an emulated Amiga, then type, compile, and run your first program.
What You Need
Blitz BASIC isn’t an interpreter you type into and watch run — it’s a compiler. You write your program in its editor (called Ted), press a key, and Blitz turns it into a native Amiga program that runs at full speed. So the loop is write → compile → run. You need three things: an emulator to be the Amiga, a Kickstart ROM for it to boot, and Blitz BASIC itself.
⚡ Blitz BASIC
The living, freely-licensed version of Blitz is AmiBlitz3 — the maintained, open-source (Apache-2.0) descendant of the original Blitz BASIC 2. It compiles the same language, so everything in this course runs on it.
Get it
- AmiBlitz3 on GitHub (the official, maintained release)
You’ll unpack it onto your emulated Amiga’s hard disk. Everything in Meet Blitz stays within the original Blitz BASIC 2 feature set, so if you ever meet the original 1993 disks instead, the code is the same.
🖥️ Emulator + Kickstart
Install an Amiga emulator natively for the best experience.
macOS / Linux
brew install --cask fs-uae # macOS
sudo apt install fs-uae # LinuxWindows — Download WinUAE
Kickstart ROM
The emulator needs a Kickstart ROM. AmiBlitz3 wants Kickstart 3.0+ with a Workbench hard disk; set the machine to an A1200 (or an accelerated A500). Get a ROM by dumping one from a real Amiga, or from Amiga Forever.
Run It
- Boot your emulated Amiga to Workbench, and open Blitz’s Ted editor.
- Type your program into the editor — it’s a plain text editor that talks to the compiler.
- Press right-Amiga + X (the Compiler menu’s Compile & Run). Blitz compiles your program and runs it.
- When the program ends, you’re back in the editor, ready to change it and compile again.
That’s the whole loop. The difference from an interpreted BASIC is that step 3 builds a real program before it runs — which is exactly why Blitz code runs so fast.