Thoreau BASIC is a modernized GW-BASIC that boots from UEFI on x86 hardware or runs under Windows, maintaining full code compatibility with legacy GW-BASIC programs, line numbers and GOTOs included.
The runtime is not purely interpreted: programs compile to native Windows executables or bare-metal UEFI binaries. Hardware support is current: 64-bit memory, multithreading, 24-bit graphics at any monitor resolution, 32-channel audio, sprite handling, and mouse input. That feature list, mapped against a 1980s syntax, is the tension worth reading about.
The project lives on Itch.io under a pay-what-you-want model and is not open source. Competing revivals like MoonBASIC and BASIC-256 exist, but Thoreau is the only one that lets you cold-boot a modern PC straight into a BASIC prompt.
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