Basic is a family of high-level programming languages originally developed by students at Dartmouth College in 1963. Due to the emergence of microcomputers in the late 70s, numerous variations of Basic began appearing. As memory limitations on personal computers were an issue during this time, Tiny BASIC was created with only 11 commands and single-letter variable names but provided a completely free version of BASIC.

Microsoft BASIC, a more complex dialect, required additional RAM to run and gained popularity in the 80s when it came pre-installed on popular home computers. Microsoft's GW-BASIC was included with early versions of MS-DOS, later replaced by Microsoft's QBasic from version 5.0 onwards. While QBasic had its own integrated development environment (IDE) and interpreter, it lacked a compiler. The commercial counterpart to Qbasic, called Quick Basic, came with a compiler.

In the 1990s, as more powerful microcomputers entered the market and advanced programming languages were developed, the popularity of BASIC declined. In 1991, Microsoft released Visual Basic, an updated version that included a Forms builder to compete in the evolving landscape of computer technology.