Beagle Bros had a practice of printing programming tips on the inside of their software boxes — knowledge you’d only encounter if you’d already bought the thing, tucked in beside the manual like a secret handshake. These tips were arcane and specific: memory addresses, CHR$ codes, PEEK and POKE incantations that would do something strange to your screen or speaker. They assumed you were curious enough to try them.
There’s a form of closure in this document. The Apple II is long gone. Applesoft BASIC is not a living language. But this collection preserves the shape of that knowledge — the way tips were formatted, the humor in the annotations, the diagram of a plot command on graph paper, the program that flashes “BEAGLE BROS RULES!” five times and beeps. The bonus tip at the end gets it exactly right: the real magic was never in the code. It was in the community of curious people who shared it. That’s what closure looks like when it’s done well — not erasure, but transmission. Recovered from archives; originally created as a tribute to the Beagle Bros tradition of sharing knowledge freely.
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ BEAGLE BROS SECRET PROGRAMMING TIPS ║
║ (ASCII Edition - 2026) ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
TIP #1: THE MYSTERIOUS AMPERSAND
===============================
&
/|\ <- This little guy can call
/ | \ machine language routines!
/ | \
USR(0) Example: & "HELLO"
calls ML routine at "HELLO"
TIP #2: PEEK AND POKE MAGIC LOCATIONS
====================================
┌─────────────┐
│ PEEK(49152)│ <- Check if key pressed
│ POKE 34,4 │ <- Move text window
│ PEEK(-16384)│ <- Read keyboard (weird!)
│ POKE 768,X │ <- Store bytes in page 3
└─────────────┘
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲
MAGIC NUMBERS!
TIP #3: HIDDEN GRAPHICS CHARACTERS
=================================
╔══════════════════════════╗
║ PRINT CHR$(1) to CHR$(31)║
║ draws weird shapes! ║ <- Try it!
║ ║
║ CHR$(7) = BEEP! ║
║ CHR$(8) = BACKSPACE ║
║ CHR$(13) = CARRIAGE RETURN║
╚══════════════════════════╝
TIP #4: THE AMAZING PLOT COMMAND
===============================
Y
^
|
20 + * (PLOT 15,20)
| /|\
10 + |
| |
0 +-----+-----+-----+------> X
0 10 20 30 40
HGR: HPLOT 0,0 TO 279,159
Instant diagonal line!
TIP #5: SOUND WITHOUT &$^@! NOISE
=================================
♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪
FOR I=1 TO 100
PRINT CHR$(7); <- BEEP!
FOR J=1 TO I*10
NEXT J, I
OR: POKE 768,173: POKE 769,48: POKE 770,192
CALL 768 <- Direct speaker control!
TIP #6: THE SECRET & COMMAND
===========================
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ & "CATALOG D2" │ <- DOS commands
│ & "RUN HELLO" │ from BASIC!
│ & "BSAVE PIC,A$2000,L$2000"│
└─────────────────────────────┘
▲ ▲ ▲
ULTIMATE POWER!
TIP #7: RANDOM REVELATIONS
=========================
┌─────┐
│ RND │ <- Always give same sequence
│ (1) │ unless you randomize!
└─────┘
▼
X = RND(-TIME): REM True randomization
Based on current time! Genius!
TIP #8: STRING SLICE & DICE
==========================
"BEAGLE BROS SOFTWARE"
↑ ↑ ↑
1 8 14
LEFT$("BEAGLE BROS",6) = "BEAGLE"
MID$("BEAGLE BROS",8,4) = "BROS"
RIGHT$("BEAGLE BROS",4) = "BROS"
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ A$ = "HELLO": B$ = "WORLD" │
│ PRINT A$ + " " + B$ │ <- Concatenation!
└──────────────────────────────┘
TIP #9: THE MYSTICAL DATA STATEMENT
==================================
DATA 1,2,3,4,5,HELLO,WORLD
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲
│ │ │ │ │ │ └─ Strings OK!
│ │ │ │ │ └─ Numbers
│ │ │ │ └─ Mixed
│ │ │ └─ Data
│ │ └─ Types
│ └─ Welcome!
└─ All
READ X,Y,Z,A$: REM Grab 'em!
RESTORE: REM Start over from beginning
TIP #10: THE ULTIMATE BEAGLE BROS PROGRAM
========================================
10 HOME: REM CLEAR SCREEN
20 PRINT TAB(15)"BEAGLE BROS"
30 PRINT TAB(17)"RULES!"
40 FOR I = 1 TO 5
50 FOR C = 1 TO 255: POKE -16336,0: NEXT C
60 FOR C = 1 TO 255: POKE -16336,128: NEXT C
70 NEXT I: REM FLASH DISPLAY 5 TIMES
80 PRINT CHR$(7): REM BEEP!
90 PRINT "PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE"
100 GET A$: IF A$ = "" THEN 100
110 END
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ BONUS TIP: ║
║ ║
║ The real magic wasn't in the code... it was in the community ║
║ of curious hackers who shared tips, traded disks, and pushed ║
║ their Apple II computers to do impossible things! ║
║ ║
║ Keep the Beagle Spirit alive! ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
.-""""""-.
.' '.
/ O O \
: ` :
| |
: \______/ : WOOF! MORE TIPS
\ / COMING SOON!
'. .'
'-.......-'
THE BEAGLE BROS LEGACY
LIVES ON FOREVER!
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"Remember: In BASIC, as in life, GOTO is not always the answer...
but sometimes it's exactly what you need!"
- Bert Kersey (probably)
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