Editing DONKEY.BAS (section)

==Gameplay==
''DONKEY.BAS'' is a simple [[driving game]] in which the [[Player character|player]] controls a car but cannot steer, accelerate or brake, only changing lanes to avoid a series of [[donkey]]s on the road. There is no goal other than to avoid donkeys.

The game uses the [[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]] display mode, the only colour graphics mode available on the original IBM&nbsp;PC. The mode allows four colours, but in ''DONKEY.BAS'' there are usually only three on screen.

The center of the screen shows a vertical [[scrolling]] road with two lanes; the areas on either side of the road are used for [[Score (game)|scores]] and instructions. The player's car is driving up the road, and every few seconds a donkey will appear at random on one side of the road at the top of the screen. As the donkey moves down the screen, the player can press the [[space bar]] to switch between lanes to avoid the donkey. If the car hits the donkey, both car and donkey explode, and parts of the graphics are scattered to the four corners of the screen to the sound of a short [[Monophony|monophonic]] tune played through the [[PC speaker]], with the word "BOOM!" displayed on the left side of the screen. If the player avoids the donkey, it will scroll off the bottom of the screen, with the words "Donkey loses!" displayed on the right side of the screen, and after a few seconds another will appear. There is never more than one donkey on the screen at any one time.

The game keeps the score between the player and the donkeys. If the car hits a donkey, the donkey gets a point, and the player is returned to the start of the road. As the car avoids donkeys, it moves slowly up the screen, giving the player less time to react when donkeys appear. If the car avoids enough donkeys, the player receives a point, and the car is moved back to the bottom of the road. The game displays the number of points earned by the player and donkey, but does not end or change when a particular score is reached.

The [[Esc key]] quits the game.

[[Sprite (computer graphics)|Sprites]] are rendered slightly differently between the QBasic interpreter and the original IBM BASICA/GW-BASIC interpreter.