Complex sentence: Also akin to MS BASIC, 16-bit signed integers (i.e. in the range -32768 to 32767) were available by postfixing a variable name with a percent symbol, and string variables were represented by postfixing the variable name with a dollar sign.
Split into simpler sentences: Also akin to MS BASIC, 16-bit signed integers (i.e. in the range -32768 to 32767) were available by postfixing a variable name with a percent symbol. String variables were represented by postfixing the variable name with a dollar sign.