A developer going by the name Tarjan has published Thoreau BASIC, a BASIC interpreter that boots directly on bare-metal x86 hardware via UEFI. No operating system required: the machine starts straight into a BASIC prompt, just like an 8-bit home computer from the 1980s.

The interpreter is largely compatible with GW-BASIC. Beyond that, it modernizes the concept in a few places. Available memory is whatever the system reports, so a contemporary machine effectively becomes a BASIC computer with gigabytes of RAM. Graphics capabilities go well beyond the original too: Thoreau BASIC supports high-resolution 24-bit color modes and can load bitmap files. Multiple text windows are also possible, something classic interpreters never offered.

The project is available for download on the itch.io platform. Hackaday notes that the practical use case may be limited, but expects plenty of tinkerers to try it out of nostalgia for the era when switching on a computer meant being greeted by a programming language.