All the 8 bit home computers I'm aware of, had BASIC in their ROMs. A notable exception was Jupiter Ace, a British home computer which used Forth.
Were there any other 8-bit home computers that came with other languages in their ROMs? Or perhaps without a full programming language at all, something like a rudimentary OS.
I'm not asking for other languages availability in general on these systems, but only to the embedded language in their ROM chips.
One example of popular 8-bit computers without BASIC in ROM is the first three Atari 8-bit computers, the 400, 800, and 1200XL, which didn’t have BASIC built-in but on a separate cartridge.
Their predecessor, the Atari Video Computer System, also had a BASIC Programming cartridge, written by Warren Robinett, but it wasn’t supplied with the system (it was released in 1979) and required two CX50 controllers. (Thanks to supercat for the reminder!)
(Please see as well other fine answers for more computers fitting the list)
I guess we can put them in four categories (in descending order of application):
The early models of the Soviet BK-0010 series had FOCAL in ROM. BASIC was available as an add-on module. Later models starting from BK-0010.01 already had BASIC in ROM.
And then there would be the classic Sharp MZ-80 series with no language in ROM. Clean computers from the start, BASIC or any other language had to be loaded from Cassette. Quite successful around the world.
Similar but less fitting are machines that had no fixed language built in, but supplied (usually) BASIC separately on a (ROM-) module which was always included when buying the unit. After all, everyone would have had it plugged in ... at least until switching to something more sophisticated. The Exidy Sorcerer of 1978 might be the earliest example. Even more prominent examples are Atari 400 and 800 (as mentioned) of 1979.
The same, of course, goes for many very early systems, from single boarders to S-100, including hobbyist systems like Heathkit H8 or the Apple 1. Remember MS' first BASIC for the Altair was delivered on paper tape or cassette. But then again, these are so early, that the term 'home computer' may not really apply.
Also, while not really an 8-bit home computer, the Newton had its NewtonScript interpreter in ROM.
The French company Micronique had a few models that came with Forth instead of BASIC, like the Hector HRX and Hector MX.
https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=142&st=1
I had a Colecovision Adam computer back in the day. A very odd feature of that system was that the power supply was actually in the printer. It came with a word processor in its ROM rather than a programming language.
I remember using all my lawn mowing money to buy SmartBASIC and SmartLOGO on cassette tape along with a 300-baud modem for it.
Some more Soviet home computers that lacked BASIC in their ROMs:
Apogey BK-01 (wiki is only available in Russian and it is not very clear about whether there were built-in BASIC, but other sources say there weren't)
Microsha (only Russian, clear statement that the BASIC was loadable from the tape)
The ELAN Enterprise didn't have BASIC built-in. Its IS BASIC was supplied on a cartridge (that was, admittedly, part of the base pack). But you could just as well use any other language. It's "main application" was WP - A simple editor/word processor.
If you consider the Cambridge Z88 a home computer, its "main OS" was definitely not (BBC) BASIC, that was just one application amongst others. OS control was through the GUI.
The Coleco Adam was basically (sic) a ColecoVision plus Expansion Module #3 - the base machine was a games console, that expanded into the Adam home computer (includeing BASIC) using a set of add-ons.
* prompt if none were found. (Here ‘language’ meant any ROM which took over the system, as opposed to a ‘utility’ ROM which just provided extra commands or handlers; so e.g. a music production environment counted as a language.)
Likely too many to list.
However, PMD-85 is notable and borderline because it included a BASIC on a detachable ROM module. By default, it started into a monitor (with tape loading routines etc.); there were other ROM modules produced (with Pascal, LOGO, IIRC also KAREL). But they were almost exclusively used with the BASIC module.
The Nascom 1 didn't have any high level languages. Its successor the Nascom 2 came with BASIC however.
The Nascom 1 and 2 were single-board computer kits issued in the United Kingdom in 1977 and 1979, respectively, based on the Zilog Z80 and including a keyboard and video interface, a serial port that could be used to store data on a tape cassette using the Kansas City standard, and two 8-bit parallel ports. At that time, including a full keyboard and video display interface was uncommon, as most microcomputer kits were then delivered with only a hexadecimal keypad and seven-segment display. To minimize cost, the buyer had to assemble a Nascom by hand-soldering about 3,000 joints on the single circuit board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascom_(computer_kit)
I had one and remember programming Turing machines in assembler (or was it machine code - can't remember). I hand-made various dongles for it including a "slow down" clock and a hardware random number generator.
I cheated and bought the ready-soldered bare board (no case), plus keyboard to avoid all the soldering.
I'm not sure that the IBM5100 could really be considered a "home computer", and I believe that it was not an 8-bit computer (it was, as I recall, based on a cut-down version of the 360), but it might pass today's "sniff test" for home computers, and came in two versions: The 5100B did in fact have BASIC in ROM (which IBM called ROS), but the 5100A came with APL rather than BASIC in ROS. (The follow-on 5110 had both, user-selectable via a front-panel switch.)
The Amstrad PCW was clearly sold as a home word processor, its printer was not good enough for most office use. It did not have BASIC in ROM, I can't recall if even had basic on an included disk.
It used a Z80 cpu so was 8 but, but had bank switch ram.
The MCM/70 by Micro Computing Machines came with rom APL. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCM/70
The TRS-80 Model 4P was based on a 4-MHz Z-80a and had no BASIC in ROM.
The Apple 1 was shipped with BASIC on cassette.
The Amstrad PCW range begun in 1985 were all 8-bit (except for the final model) and didn't have BASIC in ROM.
Although intended primarily as "home office" machines, they were still essentially home computers.
( https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=190 : "ROM: No ROM chip.")
Victor Lambda in France was a clean ROM micro-computer. It had only 2K of ROM which contained a loader. Languages would be loaded from compact cassette. It was delivered with a BASIC interpreter. Other languages available were LSE (lanngage symbolique pour l'éducation) a kind of BASIC with French keywords. Later models, named Hector would feature the BASIC in ROM and some even had Forth and Assembler included in ROM.
The Tatung Einstein shipped with a Machine Operating System (MOS) in ROM, which offered a moderately useful if limited set of commands including a loader to boot from a language disk. Two such disks were included in the pack I had - a version of Microsoft BASIC, and a near-perfect port of BBC BASIC.
Annoyingly, the MS language had been extended to access the hardware capabilities of the machine but the BBC language hadn't - so one was forced to choose between the advanced (for the time) language features of the BBC, or the more rudimentary features (but better hardware support) of MS.
The Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom, also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System in the West) did not come with BASIC in ROM. In fact it didn't come with a keyboard, you had you buy a bundle that included the keyboard and BASIC cartridge.
I used this kind of computer that had no basic. CHIP8 language was available.
The Exidy Sorcerer (American, 1978) would boot into a 4-kbyte monitor program when there was no ROM Pac or disk drive. The monitor allowed you to examine and change memory, so if you understood z80 machine language well, you could program directly that way. (Don't laugh -- that's how programming started, well after they decided jumper wires were too spaghetti-y.)
It was sold with an 8-kbyte Basic Pac, and assembler and word processor pacs were also available. I had them all, including a modified PAC I converted to be RAM, giving the machine an awesome 56 kbytes!
The COSMAC ELF was an 8-bit build-it-yourself computer (so I suppose you could consider it a "home computer").
It had no ROM. You entered the machine code of your program using toggle switches after booting up!
(If you really wanted BASIC, a tiny version was available.)
Let's first establish that all computers that came with a programming language in ROM could also load a programming language, take a (E)(P)ROM you burned, or either had a cartridge port or something similar like a bus or expansion slot. (As in, the presence of a capable boot ROM was highly desired, and not only could you replace it if you didn't like it, but you could use it to load what you wanted instead of starting blank and entering bits/octals/hex/bytes into RAM just to load from paper tape.)
Personal computers of the 70s were marketed towards professionals or certainly adults already interested in electronics and hardware programming. You were expected to homebrew parts of the solution, both software and hardware with very few exceptions, or else it came with a cost few families could afford.
Home computers by contrast sold millions, and they were about the cost of a small color TV or record player - a household appliance, not a really good used car. This allowed not only some kids to get one, but there would be TV series to teach you programming, and schools could also afford enough of them, to become part of this nationwide computer education - "let's bring everyone into the future!" - no-one should feel left out of the computer revolution, feel left behind the times. (This was the concern then, not only as countries but individuals - socially, economically, intellectually.)
Most if not all of the 8-bit computers of the 80s booted to a programming language prompt precisely in order to become directly programmable. (See last section.)
Licensing. Computer manufacturers didn't hire programmers to develop their own built-in languages (there are 3 known exceptions). Microsoft has stayed true to using the code of others or buying a port, then license it as their own product with adaptations to computer manufacturers. They recognized the success of BASIC since the 1960s, as did from necessity those homebrewers and hardware programmers called hobbyists in that open letter.
OP is asking for a system that came with a competitor to BASIC. (Not for systems lacking a programming language in ROM, etc.)
The Jupiter Ace came with Forth, as mentioned in the question. I've heard of French, Polish, and Japanese home computers that came with different languages, but I can't substantiate details at the time of writing, as these are one of the few I don't own. As a consequence of the dominance of the licensed built-in commercial monopoly, it's now rare to find these systems as well as detailed information about them.
Most boot ROMs of any system will have so-called routines. In the 1970s, because of ROM and RAM sizes, these would be to provide very basic functions indeed, such as I/O interfacing, but no complete interpreter or compiler - because a big enough ROM to hold it would be prohibitively expensive.
Obversely, this is the strength of a language that is truly built in: without anything but the computer, it could be immediately be put to use - to run your programs. This is what makes home computers more personal than today's personal computers, who turn users into only that, disempowering them.
The routines (kernel if a reasonably complete set of routines) would again challenge the size and cost of ROM chips, so that no language could be built-in.
ROM sizes did increase for some systems offering a richer operating system than a Shell or language with disk operations added: The Lisa and Mac offered a GUI OS, and the Amiga a modern multitasking one with many features of Unix and Linux, but no longer could you boot to a built-in programming language.
The IBM PC appealed to the 1970s by restricting it to just I/O routines again. This was kept for the CP/M clone branded MS-DOS, and for Linux.
The Acorn Archimedes is currently the last platform to have both a GUI OS (if not modern multitasking) and a built-in language in ROM, even though it might not be a valid answer to the question as the language is called BASIC. (I would pay attention here though, as it's quite different from all other BASIC dialects in merit, and deserves consideration.)
The strengths of booting to a programming prompt (over a Shell prompt with limited script and file commands, or a desktop paradigm that you can only click on) is not to be underestimated. Certainly, computers are (sometimes) easier to use than ever - but mostly only to those who would rather not program, and just remains users.
Today, we have to set up things just right on computers (with actually some quite special software and elaborate preparations) to make it as easy as it once was for kids to instantly pick up that "this is a computer, this is how it works, and this is how you make it do what you want".
I think it's educationally powerful, and much more social and democratic, embracing all walks of life, rather than leaving it to only nerds and professionals again, like in the 70s. It really wasn't like that in the 80s with the home computers, we all typed in programs and learned because it was fun.
