Microsoft Visual Basic is to be feted at the 19th annual D.I.C.E. Awards in Las Vegas next week, where development lead Scott Ferguson will accept the Technical Impact award on Visual Basic’s behalf.
Though its effectively been put out to pasture, Visual Basic is still beloved by many game developers despite its age (it was officially released at Windows World ’91) thanks to its ubiquitous and long-lasting influence on the field of software development — and by extension, game development.
“Visual Basic inspired and spawned a new generation of coders and programmers thanks to its simplicity, laying the foundation for creative experimentation,” stated AIAS president Martin Rae in a press release announcing the award. “Microsoft’s philosophy to provide free access to all lowered the barriers of entry and inspired some of the most successful platforms today to similarly make their tools available without restrictions.”
This will be the second Technical Impact award handed out by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences at D.I.C.E. since the category was added in 2014 — the inaugural award was given to Apple’s App Store last year.
Incidentally, if you’re curious for more details about how Visual Basic was born you can read this firsthand account from Ferguson.