QB Express
Issue #14 ~ September 18, 2005
"A magazine by the QB community, for the QB community!"
In This Issue
Contributors
- Pete (Editor)
- MystikShadows
- Peter Lenz
- Lachie Dazdarian
- J.B.
- Rattrapmax6
- Josiah Tobin
- Torahteen
- Adigun A. Polack
- Daniel Verkamp (DrV)
- Matt2Jones
- The Awakened
- Deleter
- Moneo
- Syn9
- Wallace
- mennonite
- Seb McClouth
- Regular Columns
- Articles & Editorials
- Tutorials
From The Editor's Desk
Written by Pete
Here we are again!
You know, it's funny. September 2005 has been by far the busiest month of my life. I have no weekends, no free time to speak of, and I'm down to about four hours of sleep a night. I'm running on fumes. But amid all of the hustle and bustle, I have actually become a much faster and more productive worker. This issue came together so quickly. I just set my mind to it and focused on getting it out in the miniscule time window that I could find....and here it is. I guess after fourteen issues, putting together QB Express has turned into a bit of a science.
Issue #14 turned into a great issue at the very last minute. On just Wednesday, two days before the deadline, I looked at the submissions I had and thought "this isn't enough... this issue will be practically empty." But then the submissions came roaring in, and I was pleasently surprised by the great selection of quality articles we got. After a month with no reviews, we have recovered and have a QB Express record of five reviews in this issue! That's quite an accomplishment, and I hope it becomes a trend. I feel that reviews are one of the most important parts of this magazine, and they came out in full force this month.
The tutorials and articles/editorials are also great this month. We even have two comics. Plus, for the first time in a many issues, we've actually had some proofreading. Peter Lenz volunteered to proofread about half of the articles in this issue, so you should be pleased to find that QB Express is missing many of the characteristic spelling/grammatical errors/typos that we usually find. Overall, it's one of the best issues ever.
But I don't want to keep you waiting (plus I want to get this out before my self-imposed deadline / time window runs out), so go ahead, have at it!
Submit To QB Express
You all know the drill. This magazine can't exist without people SUBMITTING articles, editorials, tutorials, reviews, news and feedback. This is not just a solo effort by me... it's a group effort by people throughout the QB community. If you have anything to submit, or have time to write something, DO IT!
If you want to write about something, but can't think of a topic, or need inspiration, check out the "Official QB Express Article Requests" thread! There have been quite a few articles requested -- and even if none of them strikes your fancy, we can help you come up with something that you would like to write about. If you're interested in getting your own monthly column or just want to write an article or two, by all means, do it! Anything that is submitted will be included!
I also want feedback and letters to the editor regarding this magazine. I want suggestions and critiques. What do you like? What don't you like? What could be done better? Let me know!
All submissions and feedback can be sent to pberg1@gmail.com. You can also PM me on the Pete's QB Site or QBasic News message forums. If QB Express is going to continue to be so good, YOU need to contribute!
-Pete
Letters
Letter From MystikShadows
Hi Pete, Arial is a great font choice in my book... it's a very clear, easy
to read font. So you got my vote. :-)
Well, when you mentioned on the board that the magazine was half the size
of QB Express #12, I was wondering what would happen to this #13 release.
Well lo and behold, another outstanding issue. Looks like everybody pulled
it off at the last minute and made, like you said, a very solid issue after
all. Excellent work to everyone involved (err... me too ;-) ). You're
right though, the newsbrief is one of the biggest part of the magazine, and
that's exactly where you'd need help, I believe it. When I happen to find
something I'll let you know. :-). But it seems others are better at digging
out the news than
I am. Seems I'm not always at the right time and place to get the news hot
off the press. But whatever I do find out, I'll send you, no problem about
that and I'll even format what I find into news briefs :-). Everyone that
reads this should have my email by now
srichard@adaworld.com (in case you don't, shame on you lol). If people that
make the news, send me an email telling me about it, I'll be sure to create
a newsbrief for it. I can't find them all that well for some reason (I always
hear it from someone that heard it from someone, you get the picture lol,
it's not news by the time I get it hehe). But if I get material, I'll be
glad to turn them into newsbriefs. So people, start sending :-).
If you could, I'd like you to define and clarify what a newsbrief is. Now, if I see 3 projects, one is an idea that just got announced, a new
project just getting started, one is a new release, and one is an request for help on a
new or existing project. Would all three qualify as news briefs? Some I
know; for example, when Los Monos Del Obos got formed as a group, it could
have been announced, and other quite obvious news Items :-). When looking at potential newsbriefs
do you draw a line somewhere as far as how developed a
project is? Do you at least need a screen shot of a brand new game before
you'll announce it or do you want to know about the game even if it's just a
thought? :-) I think by clarifying this for everyone people might suddenly
start to find a lot of "newsworthy" items they could send to you.
Na_th_an, what's to say about Na_th_an and his IF series. I've read so many
RPG and IF tutors from your website, some were good, some, not so good. But
it seems none of them was good enough to get me into game creation. That
changed with Na_th_an's IF series. I thanked him on his own turf at
thebasicnetwork, but now, with the contents of the 7th part of his series,
I really truly need to let the QMunity know that Na_th_an's IF series has
taken my whole understanding on IF gaming to a whole new level.
All 7 parts of his series seem to just make
sense to me, it's my kind of reading, well explained, to the point,
interesting from start to end. It's exactly what I needed to read to really
kick myself into gear on continuing to make some of the games I started a
while back, before QB Express itself :-). Na_th_an, to me, is quite gifted
in the art of putting thoughts into words, not just any words, but words
that make sense, words that can really transmit an
idea or a concept into a very understandable explanation. I don't usually
print QB Express (unlike some other people
I know... I don't want to mention names, but it's so damn tempting... Lurah!
;-) ) .... But I printed the IF series because I know I'll be using it
often and referring to it. That is some quality knowledge in there and I just
can't let that go unknown and unnoticed. To everyone thinking of making a
game, you'll definitely want to read Na_th_an's IF (Interactive Fiction)
games series from start to finish. Well at least to the 7th part. I for one
can't wait to see how he'll put it all together and make it fit as
intelligently as I know he will.
It's always amazing to see the news section. It's growing like weed,
but in this case, it's good weed ;-). People are just busy creating things,
anything and that's always a big plus side to a community. :-). and it
seems today people are busier than ever creating ideas and porting QB
projects to FB. Just what FB needs to gain popularity. That goes for
the projects in your newsbriefs of course, but also all the libraries that
are being porting for the compiler itself. FreeBASIC is gaining momentum and it's
starting to gain online presence where it's needed to get it known even
beyond the QMunity itself. For example, a PowerBasic programmer developed
Jellyfish Editor. It was for PowerBasic but now he's putting in the effort
to making it work with FB. That's awesome news in my book. Vic and the Development
team are working really hard and the fruits of their efforts are really
starting to spread. They deserve all the attention FB is getting :-). Great
work guys.
Deleter's “Rant on Reality in Games” was quite informative. As for me,
reality in games is superficial at best. I mean if you're making a game
based on today's world, it wouldn't make much sense at throwing some dragons
or something into the scene. I had a movie concept once about an
adventures in all of the 10 known dimensions. and the only thing that would
allow the viewers to recognize the main character through it's
representation in all the dimensions would have been his watch. so yeah,
perhaps one small detail that players can relate to would be more than
enough realism for me ;-). Games should be a place where a
player can escape to, a place where there are no laws, no order, no physics, a
place where you could, ultimately touch and feel emotions, where dream and
reality are but one. Where we can touch the intangible. No limits to
imagination and no limits to creativity. :-). Did you ever want to hold
Love in your hands? How do you turn something you feel into something you
touch? Something you hear into something you can feel? Can you imagine
that? There's definitely many ways to accomplish it (depends on imagination
itself) and I'm sure all of them would be more than interesting to see. :-).
Adigun's website is a work of art in itself. He definitely deserves that
award, I think even an illiterate person could spend hours looking at the graphic
contents of the website. :-). He knows his graphics programs and knows how
to make it all fit together quite artistically. Good job on the website
Adigun. :-) Rattrap's coding efforts, what can I say, like you said he's
really being productive. So productive, he's now an official contributor to
http://www.ascii-world.com :-). He did so many ASCII related projects, in
such a short time, that no matter how you look at it, I think he's gonna need a new keyboard soon ;-). his must still be steaming from all his work. That's
how you better yourself at something, sit down and make it happen and that's
all I've been seeing Rattrapmax6 do these past months. he deserves nothing
less than that programmer of the month award in my book. Good work Ratt and
your FreeBASIC tutorial was very well put. Keep that up too. And great job on
his screensaver tutorial too. :-).
I gotta say that I really enjoyed Wallace's “Enemy Artificial Intelligence” it
offered quite a different way of looking at enemy AI all together. It was
very well written and easy to follow and understand. Great work there
Wallace. Looking forward to reading more of your material. I also think
that Torahteen's A* implementation was interesting. If this first of the
series is any indication to what's up ahead in the future release in the
series, it promises to be quite interesting. I always love any AI that gets
thrown at me, I always like to reach the limits of those AI and see what
they can really do. So great work Torahteen, can't wait to read the next
part :-). Same goes for his Evolutionary Programming. That too really
caught my attention. I really like his way of presenting this concept. And I
can't wait to see where and how he's going to apply it.
Moneo's date and time functions, I believe, will be used quite often. In
Visual Basic, date functions can almost be taken for granted. But in the
world of FreeBASIC and QuickBASIC, there's not much to work with as far as
date and time are concerned, I really appreciate his effort in presenting
these functions to us.
What can I say, it's a definitely solid issue, and well worth the extra day
or two of waiting. From the table of contents, it looks like any other
issue of QB Express, not shorter, and definitely an awesome read. :-).
MystikShadows
Stephane Richard
srichard@adaworld.com
Thanks for all the great feedback.
I really appreciate you helping me with the News Briefs, and I wish more people would join you. Writing up news briefs takes forever, so I appreciate all the help I can get!
Now to answer your question over what is "newsworthy" and what is not:
I guage whether a news item is "newsworthy" based on whether it's interesting to me, and whether I think it will actually pan out. A lot of announcements are made in the QB/FB scene that simply aren't gonna go anywhere, or that nobody will care about. Every newbie in history has made one or two posts announcing their epic new (vapor-ware) RPG, but unless they have something to show for it, I'll ignore it.
I tend to give higher credence to news posts by more established/experienced members of the Qmunity. If V1ctor or lillo makes an announcement, I will almost certainly feature it in QB Express, but if Joe McNewbie makes a similar announcement, I'm most likely to ignore it. I almost always ignore posts asking for help on a project, because that's another way of saying "my project is doomed and I can't do it on my own". Almost every project that's ever had a post asking for anonymous help has not been finished.
Here's the most general rule of thumb for newsbriefs: something is newsworthy if it announces that something new has been created, and the news poster includes something to show for it -- whether it's a screenshot, a downloadable program, or a website. If there's no *content* to back up a news announcement, it's most likely not going to pan out.
Hopefully that answered your question!
-Pete
Letter From Matt2Jones
Sir,
Okay, this has been eating me up inside so I'm gonna spit it out.
12 months ago I came back to the Qbasic Scene after about a year and a half long absence, where I spent most of my time on RPG specific boards, populated mainly by C++ coders. After a while I became so fucking sick of the bullshit that kept spinning around there, like the intollerant behaviour, that I stopped posting on the boards altogether. Of course, this was in pre-FreeBasic times (I just wanted to say that), so unless you were using C+Allegro at a minimum there were guys there who considered you worse then shit. I happen to enjoy the physical act of coding in Qbasic more then in C, it doesn't mean I think it's a better language, but that didn't stop 10,000 posts on the subjects of why I, apparantly, do. And when I say C+Allegro minimum I mean fucking minimum, I remember guys who went fucking nuts unless shit was done in the most religiously Object Orientated manner, and nothing else would do, just acting like 'I don't have time for anyone who doesn't code in my specific way'. It's everyone's right.
Slowly, I found my enthusiasm for the communities had decayed, and I never returned.
After a year of no programming I wandered on Pete's New Petesqbsite, and was sucked back in. The most amazing thing of all was how TOLLERANT everyone was with each other. I remember posting on this fact a while ago, to be greeted by understanding laughs, and told I'd spent to much time hanging around C coders. It was true.
Last night I read a post on one of the QB/FB community boards that really fucking sickened me. People complain about guys spamming every fucking thread on a board to get their post counts up, but it seems that that's the only way to do things around here. Unless you have >100 posts no-ones gonna listen to you, no matter how legitimate your post is. The attitude seems to be, if a guy has a few posts, he must be a newbie, so he must be an idiot, so I flame him.
I'm all for destroying the guy who enter's declaring his greatness and his grand ambitions and orders us to line up and work for him, but I'm up for destroying him whether he types in block capitals with his elbows or whether he writes pure fucking poetry. It sounds like many of you would flock behind the banner of an articulate con-artist, as long as he kept to a formatting you like. It's what he says, not how he says it, that means someone is a retard. But many of you seem to be caught up in a such a superficial view of things, that you don't (by your own admission) bother to read a post before you rip the shit out of it.
But whatever, mistakes happen, maybe the guys were having a bad day. I've certanly vented my anger on people who don't deserve it before. But if someone then comes in and tells you to SHUT THE FUCK UP, because the dude is asking a real question, you don't respond with the pitiful arguments like I'd seen and expect to ever be taken as a individual capable of cognative thought again. There's nothing more pathetic then people trying to justify mob-mentality as if it has some kind of divine purpose (for further study, see: Religion).
On the whole, the entire scenario made me feel like I was back the the C++ coders in a world where I could never stop watching my back or I would be knifed to peices.
This letter is not a childish threat to say I will leave the community if shit doesn't change. I won't, but I wouldn't pretend it would make a difference even if I did. I am also not going to threaten you with a mass-exodus of like minded malcontents (a silent majority of support, if you will), because that won't happen either. All I'm saying is if things keeps going this way, and people in a position of respect can't pull off the act of having an IQ of over 40, then this place is going to turn to shit, and we're all going to have misreable lives here from now on.
The good feeeling you get from the Qmunity, coupled with coders who are willing to help, is one of the main reasons it's thrived. Quite simply it won't die because it won't kill itself. That won't last if you all turn into the bitter, superficially-cynical, pensioners, with ungodly egos, I've had the displeasure of witnessing. Earlier in the week I got angry at a guy because he impinged upon one of the few area's of my life I hold absolutly sacred. The Qbasic Scene is the other. Don't fuck with the good shit we have, or we will have fucking nothing.
matt
Matt, I'm familiar with the incident that you're referring to an I agree with you completely. The reason why the QB / FB community is so darn irresistable to all of us is because of just that: it is a community. It is a group of people that (generally) get along, work together, help each other out, chat and enjoy each other's company. It's also a group that's open to new members, even if they aren't the best programmers in the world. I have never found another community on the Internet that is so open, accepting and encouraging. That's the reason why I brought my website back, and that's why I do QB Express. It doesn't matter that I don't really program in QB / FB anymore -- I'm in it for the benefit of the community.
So when a few people start arguing and treating others like crap on forums, it really goes against the spirit of the entire scene. People get angry and feel rejected, and then they not want to be a part of the Qmunity. It's incidents like these that led to QBasic News getting shut down a few months ago -- a few too many angry forum posts set the wheels in motion, and it nearly tore apart the Qmunity. I'm glad that we survived through it.
Anyway, I wish the few flamers and lamers on forums would just shut up, instead of rudely assaulting everybody else (the people posting about, you know, programming). If you're not going to be nice, we don't want you hanging around.
-Pete
Have a letter for the editor? Send all your rants, raves, ideas, comments and questions to pberg1@gmail.com.
News Briefs
News from all around the QB community, about the latest games, site updates, program releases and more!
QB Site News
- V Planet! Finally Restored
-
The greatest QB reviews site to ever grace the Qmunity, V Planet!, is finally back to its former glory. After much poking, prodding and begging, new webmaster Joe King gave us what we were asking for: the old content back. You see, while V Planet! has been undergoing a massive redesign over the past year, the majority of the old reviews and news archives had been inaccessible. But luckily new webmasters Joe King and Fishstix finally gave us what we all really wanted:
Joe King wrote:
"After Nekrophidius handed control of the site over to Joe King and Fishstix, things haven't been going too well. Originally, my plan was to restore the old site whilst we work on the new site. For some reason we decided not to do that, but rather not update until the entire new site is done. Well, after a few months of virtually nothing getting done, the community's been urging that, if anything, the old site should be restored.
"VPlanet will continue to update on a regular basis with articles and reviews."
The restored V Planet! features a slight redesign, as well as a few new articles by Joe King. Additionally, the V Planet! message board has been restored after being broken since sometime late last year.
Joe King is working busily to finish the new CMS and to convert all the old V Planet! content to the new layout, but right now he's found that he's a bit of a lone ranger. At the QBasic News forums, he posted: "As of right now this is just Joe King Planet, for it to truely be VPlanet then it needs a management team of members from around the QB/FB community.
If you want a job as a reviewer or article writer (or both), then email me at goathell2000@hotmail.com. QB Express encourages you all to join the V Planet! staff and help bring the site back the top of the QB world.
- Alexander M. Prado Launches AMP Software
-
A new website by Alexander M. Prado called AMP
Software has recently been launched. It is apparently hosted by the Data Components QBasic
Network. This small site has a few QB projects. MystikShadows has more:
I have just received a link from a member of Jacob Palm's website about a
person he knows [Alexander M. Prado] that has a website which has QB (and other) related
contents. Namely, QB Objects which is his creation. He was going to sell
it but went the freeware direction instead. The website has quite alot of
projects in more than one language, some DOS and Windows applications are
featured but the big taker there is the QB Objects library available.
I'm trying to see if there's anything new there I emailed the fella but
apparently he can't check his email too often... so I don't expect an answer
too soon from him but when I do know, I'll let you know. :-) If not, might
be interesting to mention the website anyways even if it's not a newsbrief
per se.
This is MystikShadows reporting for QB Express (Always wanted to say this
lol).
- Pete's QBasic Site Battles Spam
-
For the past several months, my site has been bombarded with spam posts from a single Texas Hold'em Poker / Cialis / Viagra / Phenteremone spammer. 
The spammer took advantage of the ability to anonymously submit "QB News" articles to be posted on the front page of the site. Last month, one spam attack corrupted the site database which keeps track of almost all the content in all the main sections (links, downloads, news, etc.). Luckily, I had a backup and the content was restored, minus a few of the most recent submissions.
This month, the spam attacks became like clockwork. Ten to twenty posts would come per day, spread out evenly. After several attempts to prevent the spam without affecting the legitimate users, I finally decided that I'd had enough, and completely blocked all guest posts to the QB News on my site. This solved the problem -- there hasn't been any spam since. But there also haven't been any QB News posts. Oh well.
- ASCII-World Forums Restored
-
MystikShadows and Lurah's ASCII programming site, ASCII-WORLD has finally had its forums return. For the past several months, the ASCII World forums were a popular outlet for programmers who were interested in making games and applications that use no graphics and just text characters. When the site switched servers recently, the site was no longer able to access the old forum database, and as a result functionality -- and all the posts -- were lost. Now the forum has been restored, but it was restored in an empty state, with no users and no posts. So if you're a member of the ASCII-World community, go sign up and help restore the forums back to a bustling community!
Project News
- KENTAURI Unleashes Poxie
-
KENTAURI (aka Lachie Dazdarian) has released a new game called Poxie and it's the first KENTAURI game written in FreeBASIC.
Poxie is a 2D action game combining pacman and platform game concept,
featuring vertical scrolling, 256 colors graphic and Sound Blaster sound
effects and music.
Poxie is very similar to Panic Vicious, a QBasic game released 7 years ago.
Here are some of the game's features (quoted from the KENTAURI website.)
- 6 stages each with different background graphic
- 3 worlds(2 stages per world) each featuring it's own enemies and foreground graphic
- 6 types of enemies
- 2 types of enemy AIs(movement algorithm)
- several layers of animated graphic
- ability to play the game in full screen and window mode
- ability to play the game in stripped graphic mode (no dizzy background and
animations)
- game ending worth being mentioned
Poxie has already had two reviews, both featured in this issue of QB Express! Check them out here and here.
This is MystikShadows reporting for QB Express ;-) I just love saying that.
- Zero G Academy Races Along
-
Syn9 is well on his way on FB follow-up to his hit QB racer, Zero G. For Zero G Academy, Syn9 is pulling out all the stops. He has created an extensive devlog which includes shots from the game's various modules, as well as renderings of ships and space highways. Syn9's also released an OpenGL demo of his racetrack engine, as you can see from the road screenshot below. All in all, some very impressive work!
- FBIde 0.4.2. Released
-
VonGodric has released the latest version of the best FreeBasic editing environment: FBIde. Version 0.4.2 has many minor improvements over the past version (released last month), which you can read about here. To download FBIde or the latest package of FBIde 0.4.2. + FB 0.14b, visit the official site: http://fbide.sourceforge.net
- Quake in FB?
-
Oz has started a project entitled "The FreeBasic Quake Translation Project" which aims to, well, translate Quake III to FreeBasic. The groundbreaking first person shooter was originally written in C, and Oz hopes to port the entire game over to FreeBasic from the freely-available source code. Currently there is a document entitled "FreeBasic Quake III Source Translation Standards" which explains some of the conventions / semantics that will be used throughout the project. This project is still in the early / vaporware stages, but it sounds very interesting. Check out the official site or this forum thread for more details.
- Attack of the Kilotwerps!
-
Deleter has create a game recently that I believe is worth the attention of a newsbrief. He didn't name his game yet but here is a description in Deleter's own words.
"You(the green circle) are the hungry Tera-mamoliny, largest organism of the Bitbytenibble world. You must eat the dynamicaly electrode infused megachow(blue circles) in order to survive. However, the kilotwerps(red circles), are selfish little buggers whom--when they take time out from there random dancing moves--want nothing more than to irritate and then eat you. Luckily, you have the peta-blast on your side(left mouse button). One discharge of this power packed punch and they'll be sorry they ever messed with you. :D You progress to the next level once you have eaten the required amount of mega-chow. "
It's getting great comments from everyone. Check it out at this FreeBasic.net thread.
MystikShadows reporting for QB Express :-)
UPDATE (by Pete): Thesanman112 has released a modified version of Deleter's game, which you can check out at this FBTK thread. I'm not sure what the changes include, but at least one of them involves the word "FIRE" in big, red letters -- so it must be good.
- FreeBasic Compiler Testing Version v0.15b Released
-
On September 10th, V1ctor released the newest version of the FB compiler: Testing Version 0.15b. Yummy! Get it at FreeBasic.net.
- Simple ASCII Drawer by Lurah
-
Lurah has been a busy individual. He's been working on a little project of
his own. He calls it SAD (Simple ASCII Drawer). The name is pretty much
self explanatory. it's main feature is it's the first Linux ASCII Drawer
made in FB.....It should also work for windows as well only it will need to
be compiled for windows.
It was made with simplicity in mind and does a good job at what it does.
Here are a few more screenshots: http://www.geocities.com/roope00/sad/
This is MystikShadows reporting for QB Express ;-).
- FreeBASIC Winsock TCP Chat Program
-
Cenozoite has posted a very useful sample program / tutorial on using Winsock in FreeBasic. It is a "small and simple, direct client-to-client two-way simultaneous chat program using Winsock TCP in FreeBASIC for Windows." A very helpful read for anyone wanting to make networked applications or games in FreeBasic.
- Nekrophidius Releases PTCXL 1.1
-
Nekrophidius's FreeBasic graphics / sprite library from late last year has gotten an update. It features many sprite and font routines, including some very useful alpha blending and sprite buffering options. Here's Nek's very own description of this library:
"This is the same PTCXL I released back in December of last year with a few changes...plus modified to work with the latest stable version of FB. PTCXL, for those who don't know, is an extension of TinyPTC which adds some basic game-related functions like sprites and image handling, as well as line and ellipse primitives. It's still a little buggy and isn't tested or debugged enough but it's pretty decent and I've used it in a couple of games already (Killers FB and Phantasm). When gfxlib2 was developed, PTCXL still had a speed advantage over it but since I've been out of the FB loop for so long, I dunno if it can still compete or not...but check it out anyways if you like. :)"
You can get PTCXL 1.1 at this link: http://fb.nodtveidt.net/ptcxl11.zip
- FreeBasic Screensaver Kit
-
Jofers has put together a very handy "kit" to turn your FreeBasic graphics demos into Windows screensavers. This kit dumbs down the process of making an FB screensaver and simplifies everything. Since graphics demos seem to be the most popular type of program to come out of the FB scene in its first year of existence, I think that this kit will be an instant hit.
You can get a copy of the FB ScreenSaver Kit at this address.
Oh, and make sure you check out Mambazo's "Doodle" demo that comes packaged with the kit. It's really friggin' awesome.
- Phat Kids Reunite and Kids of Karendow Chapter 2 In The Works!
-
The Phat Kids, the guys behind the hit QuickBasic RPG Kids of Karendow are back together, and ready to take the FreeBasic scene by storm! Blair of the Phat Codes posted the following on the FreeBasic.net forums a few days ago:
For those of you who were around in the qbasic community about 5 years ago might remember an RPG called Kids of Karendow. For those of you know, we split the game up into multiple chapters and we never completed chapter 2.
Today I announce that Kids of Karendow is coming back. The old Karendow source code will be compiled in Freebasic and the game will be continued (and improved, a lot) from the existing code. It will be the entire story of Kids of Karendow told in one game.
Blair's post was met with a warm reception of eager fans. Everyone still remembers Kids of Karendow, which is the third-highest rated QB RPG in V Planet! history, with a score of 29/35. When it's released, the FB remake of Kids of Karendow is sure to be a big hit...and you should all look forward to Chapter 2 of the epic (and hilarious) KOK storyline. Personally, I can't wait to see what the Phat Kids release next. Judging by their track record, I'm sure it will be pure gold.
UPDATE:
Right before press time, I got the following press release from Blair:
Hello,
As I imagine some of you have already heard, Phat Games and Kids of Karendow will be making a return to the independent video game development scene. Today, I am going to let everyone know some of the details of this new Kids of Karendow project.
Thanks to FreeBASIC, Kids of Karendow will have new life breathed into it. In a matter of a few short weeks, Phat Games will re-release the very original Kids of Karendow Chapter 1: The Dawn of a Revolution compiled in 32 bits. This means that many people who had problems playing the original in Windows XP will no longer experience these problems. Once this conversion is complete, Phat Games will then begin the work on a project tentatively titled "Karendow: Revisited".
Karendow: Revisited will include the following:
- The complete story for Kids of Karendow Chapter 1: The Dawn of Revolution and Chapter 2: From Dusk to Darkness
- The story will be flushed out A LOT. There will no longer be random events strung together simply for furthering what little story line the game had. Kids of Karendow was and still is primarily known for it's vulgar humour, and strong musical score. While the music will remain (and even improved with the addition of a number of new tracks originally written for Kids of Karendow 2) the vulgar humour will be toned down and the story will be strengthened a lot.
- The history of the Karendow nation, the world (unlikely to be called Gon-Airia), and all the characters will be flushed out and brought to life in many different ways.
- Enhanced 32 bit graphics
- I am not promising a complete redesign of every sprite and every graphic, but we will bring you some enhancements to graphics.
- An enhanced battle engine
- Kids of Karendow had a very strong battle engine, and changes will be made to make sure this battle engine is improved upon. The style will move slightly away from a Final Fantasy feel and more to a Phantasy Star feel without any loss to the strategy or pace the battles had.
- More mini games
- Kids of Karendow was also well known for it's mini games. There will be more of them; need I say more?
Phat Games welcomes any comments and criticisms you may have. Should you want to get in touch with us, or if you have any questions, please e-mail PhatGames [at] gmail.com
Blair
Phat Games
- Doctor Who?
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Marinedalek has created a cool graphics demo that mimics the slit-scan effect used in the old Dr. Who opening credits. And it looks great. Here's some more info from marinedalek:
"I have to admit that I'm something of a Doctor Who fan, and I've always been fascinated by the Tom Baker opening credits with the famous "Time-tunnel" slit-scan graphics.
"To replicate this effect I've written a program that takes a bmp as a mask and creates a virtual 3D tunnel from it. Onto the sides of the tunnel is then projected a bmp texture that scrolls, giving the impression that you are travelling down the tunnel.
"I also have a very similar second program hardwired for cylindrical tunnels as this produces slightly better image quality."
After creating the program, mareinedalek used it to generate a replication video of the old Dr. Who closing titles. Check out the video. Very cool!
- Wizardry Style Maze Game Source Released
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Stevens522 has released the source code / demo of his Wizardry-style maze engine, called WizClone. It is just a walk-around engine with a few enemy encounters (but no actual battle engine), but it could easily be modified to be a real game. Maybe someone in the FBTK Roguelike Compo could turn this engine into a cool game.
You can download the source code (along with a compiled version of the game) here: WizClone.zip. Check it out if you're interested in mock-3D dungeon crawlers like Wizardry or DarkDread's QB game The Legend of Lith II
- Phantasm Back In Development
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Nekrophidius has begun work again on Phantasm, his traditional FreeBasic RPG with beautiful graphics. This game, which was started during one of SJ Zero's 24-hour FB coding competitions, was abandoned when Nek decided to drop all of his FB projects and focus on coding TurboGraphix games. Although he has only done a few hours more work on the game, it's coming along very nicely. Check out the screenshot below. If you'd like to see more, visit this post.
- AAP Announces AFlib2
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Adigun A. Polack recently announced a new FB graphics library called AFlib2: "For those of you wondering about RelLib to be ported to FB, then hey, better look no further! ^_-=b I am so truly and generously proud to introduce to you a preview of what could well be the most talked about “8-bit graphics library”-based wrapper for Angelo Mottola’s GFXlib2: AFlib2, or Aura Flow Library 2, based upon the potentially many original implementations of RelLib from QB itself, straight to FreeBASIC!!!"
AFlib2 already features routines for Translucent Pixels, Translucent Filled Boxes, Wu-lines, Wu-pixels and five custom 8x8 fonts with italicization and scaling features. But as Adigun says, "we are *only* warming up!!! Future versions will include more 8-bit sprite routines (translucent-, one-color-, and collision-based), as well as 8-bit gamma sprites, 8-bit sprite scaling / rotation ala the CosmoX QB library, 8-bit screen smoothing / anti-aliasing, and 8-bit water effects ala RelLib 5.0.
Competition News
- FieldView Encryption Challenge Winner
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Z!re, developer of FieldView, recently ran an Encryption / Decryption Challenge for the game. Here are the criteria for the challenge:
Description:
Create an encryption with an accompanying decryption algorithm. The functions will be used in Plantasy Studios upcoming game FieldView, proper credits will ofcourse be given.
Rules:
- Should be fully compatible with latest official version of FB (This does not include pre-releases and/or CVS builds)
- Resulting encrypted message should be as close (or smaller) in lenght to the original message as possible. 1:1 (or less) encryptions are favored.
- Should finish within a reasonable time, meaning 5-10 milliseconds or less for 200byte messages
- Functions should be formated as: Function (Msg As STRING, Pwd As STRING) As STRING
- Multiple entries are allowed, and encouraged
- The routines should be able to handle any ASCII char from 0 to 255
The challenge went on for over a month at the QBasic News Forums, and get quite a few entries. Here are the official results, courtesy of Z!re:
Winner: Deleter
Valid entries:
BlueKeyboard: 46ms
Red_Marvin: 48ms
Neo: 65ms
Neo: 107ms
Neo: 651ms
Deleter: 178ms
BlueKeyboard: 760ms
The time is for one message, average length of ~600bytes. Random message and length, random password and length.
Disqualified entries:
Whitetiger0990
Dark_Prevail
Dr_Davenstein
Cha0s
Dumbledore
Program used for testing: http://fieldview.mine.nu/Tester.bas
Hurrah for Deleter, winner of this challenge!
- FreeBASIC Ultimate Demo Compo Ends September 30th!
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Entries for Adigun A. Polack's FreeBASIC Ultimate Demo Compo (FBudc) are due by September 30th -- less than two weeks away! This compo, entitled "The QuickBASIC Demo Stikes Back!" challenges programmers to create the best FreeBasic graphics demo they can, now that the QB demo scene has evolved to its 32-bit cousin. So far there is one official entry to the competition: "Keftedes" by Optimus. But don't let this be a one-demo race! Enter the compo and impress us with your spectacular graphics coding!
- FBTK Roguelike Compo Thrives
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...And the award for most under-covered Qmunity news story in QB Express is: the FBTK Rogue Compo!
Seriously, this competition, to create a full "roguelike" game (dungeon crawler), is big. There are over a dozen teams signed up for it, and new demos are getting released left and right. It has its own FORUM over at FBTK... and it gets a ton of posts. Unfortunately, the fact that there are so many posts means that I can't really sum it all up in a newsbrief (and reading all of those posts and then trying to make sense of it all would just take too long). So I suggest you just head over to FreeBasic.tk and check it out for yourself.
I've been hoping an FBTK member that's more "in the know" than myself would write up a little article to tell all of you QB Express readers more about the compo, the contestants entered in it, and the game demos released thus far... but nobody's taken the bait. With a bit more poking and prodding, maybe next month... Until then, check out this month's gallery with a bunch of random screenshots from various work-in-progress games being made for this competition.
(The awesome screenshot you see to the right is from Dr_Davenstein/Team Dr_Zappo Inc's entry.)
Have news you want reported in QB Express? Send your News Briefs to: pberg1@gmail.com
Review of Poxie by KENTAURI
Written by Adigun A. Polack
Our next FreeBASIC game up for review is a brand-new one that has JUST NOW been released by the great Lachie Dazdarian and it is called Poxie, a promisingly interesting little hybrid of Pac-Man and a platformer. Lachie has been such a mastermind behind such QuickBASIC classics as Rocket Fuel Mayhem, Ball Blazing Fantasy, and the superbly-played (yet unfinished) game that was created for Nek’s own Space Invaders compo entitled Evil Baron Lachie, but, will how will his very first officially released game in FB fare on my review table? Let us find out as we go along, shall we? 
G A M E • S Y N O P S I S :
When the game launches, you are taken immediately to a title screen where you can start the game, view the instructions on how to play, display the top scores, and some other stuff. Not bad here! 
!
When you start the game, though, you are given a nice little stage introduction telling you what the name of the stage is called and the simple clear objective that you must successfully meet in order to pass on through, which is kinda like the old original ‘80s arcade games you used to play (Namco’s Super Pac-Man and Universal’s Ladybug would come to mind here, even if you can remember them! 
). Then once you press either “Enter” or “Space”, the dash is on!!
Do not forget, the character you control is a greenish tall little creature, and you have to indeed collect all of the items in a stage to get through. Throughout the game, you will be challenged with six (6) types of enemies, including the medieval armoured knights with swords, as well as some Eskimo-like characters with sharp fishing poles (you *sure* wouldn’t want to be stung by the front end of the poles themselves, believe me! ) Also, there are certain power-up and point items to aid you here, and they are:
500pts ::: Gives you 500 points, of course! 
1000pts ::: Nets you a bonus of 1,000 points when gotten!
Slow (marked with a snail) ::: When picked up, it slows down your enemies for a temporary period of time, giving you the advantage!
Jump ::: Simply teleports you out of a current stage of play and skips you right to the next! A *really* handy item if you run into some big trouble!! 
1up ::: Reels in one more extra life to add to your totals. VERY important!!
.....and remember also that the items will disappear after a short time period, so be wary here.
One word here about the platforms on the left and right sides of the playing field at ground level: if you are in hot pursuit of the enemies trying to wipe you off, use those little trampoline-like things to escape danger and potentially on to safely! The catch is in the direction you want to go while bouncing up, not down. Bear in mind that when the enemies use the platform with you while bouncing, you will not be harmed during that time. This part I am talking about is such a wonderful throwback to the days of Namco’s 1983 arcade game Mappy, and I like that very much as it is so splendidly captured here!!! =b !
Continuing with the platforms, the only sheer danger to them is that when one of them turns red from your continued bouncing, DO NOT get use that platform again at that point because one more bounce on it can actually throw your character off the playing field, costing you a life! However, the only way that thing can return back to its original color again is to simply take the opposite platform. Lachie has devised an excellent little strategy with the platforms themselves and the way they are designed for, adding a real depth of extra challenge and even dexterity to the game itself! Truly impressive, really, and this deserves some extra points right there!! (^_-)//
T H E • B R E A K D O W N :
First off here, the gameplay of Poxie is originally intended to be a marriage of Pac-Man and a platform game indeed, and it pretty much shows its stuff here because this game does *quite* a good job at that, to be honest with you! 
! The look of the graphics are the usual “Kentauri” style that you come to expect from Lachie himself, just like in Ball Blazing Fantasy and Rocket Fuel Mayhem and some others, and there is nothing wrong with that and the style of play as well, because gameplay matters more than just pretty graphics alone, I believe!!
Speaking of which, the keyboard play control is REALLY right on target here, with the simple taps of the left and right arrow keys that you will be using to move your character left and right, respectively. The way the game moves may be very slow at first, but do not let that fool you, ‘cause as you keep on playing (even going to the later stages!), it will end up growing on you just as it did me!
Talking about the graphics a bit further, Lachie has made the water and lava into parallax-like flowing rivers as you go rather instead of them going just in the same direction and speed, and the way your character eats and thereby leaving apple cores and chicken bones and other mostly eaten stuff to be thrown out is truly so masterfully well done, giving Poxie a more realistic arcade feeling in a whole new way in FB!! ^-^=b And some simple custom-programmed scaling apparently is used on your character mainly when he dies and gets thrown off the screen, let us not forget.
The amount of music here is very limited; however, as for the sound effects, from the “gulp” sound your character makes when eating to the “EEEK!” and slapping noise you encounter when you lose a life, they are *very* good here and are used well. But more importantly — and here is the brilliant payoff, folks — the best part in this department has gotta be the ambient sounds..... HANDS DOWN. They range from the rushing water you get in the river stage, to the chirping birds in the forest, to the fire-kindling sounds of the lava and more....... it is downright so awesome stuff and some of the convincingly best I have ever heard in this interesting little game, without question!!! d==b !! (Come to think of it, apparently Lachie must have learned so well from the other FB game that used ambience effects also, entitled The Quest for Opa-Opa! Great for him!! )
The only problem is that this game has only six stages, making it too short. But let us face it, the rest of the areas really holds such a brightly burning candle and then a lot where retro gaming in FreeBASIC is concerned!!! Remember that! By the way, this game Poxie comes in two versions for you to download: the normal version and the no-sound version. And you can zoom right on over here to lead you to the versions themselves, too!
It surprised some of the minds of the QB45/QB71/FreeBASIC community that Lachie has made such an unusual move to release this game instead of the finished FB port of Evil Baron Lachie, which is shockingly the game that he said that he gave up on over at on Kentauri’s site just now. What a shame. 
! HOWEVER, he got some great and high-quality tricks up his sleeve with Poxie, as it is without a shadow of a doubt the first and very hottest retro-like game that I have ever reviewed in FreeBASIC!!! !!
T H E • F I N A L • V E R D I C T :
— 9.2 out of 10 —
As a short yet so phenomenally sweet ride in the style of such ‘80s arcade classics as Pac-Man and Mappy, Poxie is truly both a most pleasant surprise and such an intensely fun and challenging little game in FB in its own right, definitely!! My deepest congratulations to you, Lachie Dazdarian, on creating one of the VERY best FreeBASIC-created retro games to kick off the fall of 2005!!! (^_-)//
Download Poxie at KENTAURI.
Review of Poxie by Lachie Dazdarian
Written by Daniel Verkamp (DrV)
Poxie, created by Lachie Dazdarian of the Kentauri game design team, is a 2D game that pulls gameplay elements from Pacman and platformer games. The game concept is based on an obscure QB game called Panic Vicious by HUR.Poxie is written in FreeBASIC and compiled for Win32 operating systems. It features sound effects and music and detailed, animated 256-color graphics.
The entire game has been designed in a way that immediately evokes thoughts of the "golden years" of computer games. 
The low resolution and color depth combined with carefully hand-drawn graphics and well-crafted, carefully-placed animations, along with the delightful vertical parallax scrolling, put this game graphically on par with any DOS action game from the mid-1990s. This is by no means a point against Poxie; in fact, it is the highest praise I could give any 2D game. A few times, the colors used for the textual display or the characters coincided a bit too much with the background, making them hard to distinguish, but this is probably just an artifact of the limited number of colors available. The technical details are taken care of in a professional manner - the display is always smooth, with no tearing during scrolling, and collision detection is pixel-perfect. The depth of detail was very good for such a small game; for example, the way the stages are connected (the forest seen in the distance on the first stage becomes the setting for the second; the castle in the background near the volcano shows up in the subsequent stage; and so on).
The gameplay itself is relatively easy, but it takes a little while to get the hang of the concept. After a few times of playing, the game can become frustrating, mostly because it is possible to put yourself in certain-death situations without any recourse. There are also the times when a special item appears but, despite your best effors, you cannot reach it in time. That said, the simple gameplay requires a steady hand and a mind for problem solving in order to do well. This challenge, besides the graphics and audio, is enough to keep a player's interest in the game for a number of hours. There is no true "platforming" involved, in the sense of jump'n'run-style games, but the draw of the platformer still exists in this game, and gravity plays an important part.
The controls are minimalistic (only two directional keys are used) but certainly sufficient and in fact essential to the gameplay. The controls feel responsive and make sense intuitively.
Audio during the game is an essential part of the experience; playing to the sound of a gentle, flowing river or happily chirping birds adds immeasurably to the game's enjoyability. Well-mixed sound effects are used throughout the game when important actions occur. My only complaint here is the use of a sound effect that I am quite certain I heard in The Time Warp of Dr. Brain... if you ever played that particular Dr. Brain game, you'll probably notice it immediately, but regardless, it doesn't detract from the fun of the gameplay.
The game feels complete and polished. It is not long or complex, nor is it meant to be. All in all, it is what many game designers aspire to create: a finished game with a well-defined, unwavering purpose. Poxie knows what it is and doesn't pretend to be something else. The lack of any appreciable storyline is not important; this sort of game could only be made less enjoyable by tacking on a story after the fact.
Only once during testing did the game crash; I assume it was because of the "miscellaneous program crash" described in the readme. Also, there were a few times that I thought I was in the launcher area and supposedly safe but still triggered a death when touching an enemy. These minor details did not affect gameplay adversely.
Strategy
In playing this game, I came up with a few simple strategies that I have distilled into (hopefully) helpful guidelines for other players. I encourage you to find your own strategies as you play the game and find how best to grab all of those items.
This falls into the "look before you leap" category - before you commit yourself to jumping from a platform, make sure that your new location isn't one of those particularly nasty two-tile platforms with an enemy under it, as shown in Fig. 1. If you find yourself in this position... well, let's just say a jetpack would be quite handy.
If you are on a platform above any other enemies, use your position to your advantage. The characters found in the first four levels can be easily manipulated into walking off platforms and falling to a lower level, allowing you a clear path for collecting items. Fig. 2 illustrates the concept on the Volcano stage, where your character begins on the top level. Patience is a virtue here, and since there is no time limit, there is not much of a point to rushing things when you are not threatened.
As the instructions say, the platforms are safe havens. Use them to draw your enemies away from the items you need to collect and keep them occupied. Note that you can usually stay essentially in one spot on the lowest platform (just keep alternating between left and right) before actually jumping on the launcher so that the enemies have a chance to catch up to you without using up all of your jumps. If timed correctly, you can keep the enemies at the peak of their bounces while you run off to collect items or move to the launcher on the opposite side.
Ratings
|
Graphics:
|
Sound / Music:
|
Gameplay / Fun Factor:
|
8/10
|
7/10
|
6/10
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Overall rating:
7/10
You can download Poxie at www.kentauri.cjb.net. DrV can be reached at i_am_drv@yahoo.com.
Is QuickBasic Dead?
Written by J.B.
For quite some time, many computers have been able to run Qbasic only through custom made life support systems. With out modifications, the shiny blue integrated development environment coughs and splutters its way through the regular debugging process with as much dignity as a soprano making her way through the Lakme opera despite having throat cancer. Indeed it is admirable that QuickBasic, as a survivor of conflicting Microsoft policies, is capable of loading into modern systems at all. But beyond loading, with the minor miracle performed, it quickly becomes apparent that the BASIC interpreter is not particularly healthy. Like a fish out of water, Qbasic has been running out of oxygen ever since Windows 95 was released. The first signs of hypoxia were, for many, constant Blue Screens Of Death. At the time, we all blamed this on the Operating System. And with good reason.
But as windows became more stable, and Blue Screens Of Death became ever more rare, signs of ill health continued to show themselves. I blame some of these nuevo problems on the reckless coder "Angelo Motella". His ambitious use of mode X techniques and EMS memory in ‘Wet spot’ led Qbasic programmers to believe that they could actually make impressive looking games on the sick and dying platform. Later, his release of DirectQB meant that Qbasic programmers could actually make High Quality projects. Other libraries like directSound4QB gave access to the windows sound system, which incidentally led to the creation of DOS-Windows hybrid programs. Such programs would only work in systems that had both full DOS support and windows sound support. Despite this, and in an act somewhat akin to that of injecting stem cells into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, Qbasic development went stratospheric overnight. The language wasn't just alive, it was hot, hip and damn attractive. But, like a prostitute with an AIDS infection, unexpected and unwelcome surprises were just around the corner. The increased useability of Windows meant that increasing levels of Newbies began to consider themselves 'computer literate' even though they often lacked basic PIF editing skills. This false sense of computer literacy caused much of the audience of QB games to bombard developers with emails titled "What’s the EMS error mean?"; "I downloaded the zip file but it doesn't do anything."; and my personal favourite, "SonicX destroyed my computer. I am going to track you down and KILL YOU."
Dealing with the frustrations of incompetent computer users was not a real problem. We just ignored them. But with the release of Windows XP, we became one with the frustrated. Unfortunately for us, with the hordes of nuevo 'computer literate' users dwarfing the number of Qbasic hobbyist programmers, MSDOS became irrelevant to Bill Gates' future plans of world domination. The MSDOS which remained in Windows XP was an emulated shadow of its former self, and suffocated Qbasic to the realms of uselessness. EMS began to erratically and unpredictably stop working for users who actually knew what the EMM386 batch command used to do. The interface with the shell command became irritatingly different. And meanwhile, those cool utilities like directSound4QB stopped working properly under XP.
New compatible versions came out, but it was too late and pointless. The real QB programmers refused to support Windows XP, and instead continued to use Windows 98. More reasonable programmers such as myself installed dual boot systems so that both operating systems were available. But even among the XP sympathisers, Windows 98, as the first love for many, was still the only environment used for programming. It was our oxygenated fish pond where we could give QB temporary relief from the hypoxia which left it suffocated under windows XP. But now it is time to face facts. In 2005, it has become clear that mainstream users of Windows XP can not run ambitious QB programs, ie ones that use EMS and hook into the windows sound system. It's over. Qbasic is dead.
But as all hope was lost, a saviour came along who would not allow the world to exist without QB. Victor has created the excellent FreeBASIC compiler which is 95% compatible with QB. Together with Vongodric's FBide, it seems that QB has entered a higher realm of existence. So, it appears that while a manifestation of QB is no longer with us, a far better and superior version is. QB survives in the form of FreeBASIC.
J.B. (creator of SonicX. Made entirely in QB)
Visit J.B.'s site QBasic Central.
Qbinux - Revisited
Written by Seb McClouth
“Do you want to know what Qbinux is? If you want to know, follow the kiwi-bird.”
Yes, welcome to my third (and hopefully not the last) article about Qbinux. As you might have read on the forum, (and if not:), there is some major stuff going on with Qbinux.
- The implantation of Novix, actually implanting Qbinux into Novix.
- The Setup-program, which you some of you already may have seen, if not, you can download it from QbxSetup. (Please note that you need a packing program that can unrar.)
Next thing:
At the present moment I'm working with the real thing: Linux. Windows XP doesn't let me on the Internet anymore and I found Linux to be real helpful instead. This also gives new ideas on what to do next with Qbinux, since I'm currently trying to install all sorts of useful programs.
Rearranging:
In order to make Qbinux look more like Linux, I've begun to rearrange all the files, in the appropriate files/directories as you might find them on Linux-core-directory. This is how the kernel source is arranged.
This means we currently have up to 7 directories, namely:
- FS Where the source of the NoViX File System residences
- INCLUDE Where the ASM-source and .bi files residence
- INIT Where the source of the initialization residences
- KERNEL Currently contains the rest of the source.
- LIB Contains the source and libraries for Qbinux
- NVXFS Which contains the filesystem
- TOOLS Which contains extra program e.g. Qbash
Current development:
Currently I'm working on the sourcefiles for NVXFS, short for NoViX File System, as I have called the file system. This is just extracting all the necessary NVXFS code from the other files and move into the appropriate files.
I've been able to extract a bit of the shell of Novix, and placed it into TOOLS/Qbash. Since Bash in Linux is an external program, I though it would be wise to extract Qbash from the sources. This also gives some freedom for adding some extra's to Qbash.
It doesn't work yet the way it should, so I have extracted the file system routines from the Novix source code and have tried to figure out how it works. This could mean that the release of the next version of Qbinux (editorial note: Core v. 0.0.6, and McClouth Qbinux v.0.02) will take some more time. I have been able to redo the original files/directories of Novix, so it seems like we have some sort of a working file system. This means we have a ßeta-release before the end of this week. It will contain a home-directory for the users and the root, and most important of all, the available core-source, where it should be. As soon as I get this version running, I'll be sure to post it.
I have to admit that Z!re did a great job on Novix. Even though she says it's junk code, I think it looks marvelous. If she would ever get to moment to build a real OS of Novix, I'll be happy to help her.
Make:
This should sound familiar. Yes, I'm also working on a Make-program to make it easier to install separate modules. I'm using some real Make-source and some made up. Because it is under the development, I won't give it out yet, but as soon as I have a stable version which can do the make-stuff, I'll be sure to let you all know.
Security:
Because of the success on the file system, this means we can actually work on the security codings. Since we need this before Qbash could run.
Qbash:
I removed the prompt-code from INIT\nvx25.ns5 and moved in into \TOOLS\Qbash. It contains also some real Linux code.
For the rest, nothing much yet. I personally think that a proper file system is important. When I have that finished I'll get to the drawing table for Qbash.
Bte,bte,bte... That's all folks (now you can hear in your head the end tune).
Grtz>
Seb McClouth
Review of TerraScape: Breakdown Velocity by Pieslice Productions, 2003/2004
Written by Lachie Dazdarian
Introduction:
It's really difficult to make an introduction for this review. TerraScape. A 3D-flight arcade game in QBasic. Not a demo. Completely finished, polished and long game. A game that simply amazes and demands respect.
TerraScape was released in a really awkward moment for the QBasic community. 
At that time the community was slowly dying. Almost nobody was developing or releasing anything grand, remaining QBasic game reviewing sites were dead or disappearing and many people were giving up on QBasic for more or less justified reasons. There was one or two threads about TerraScape in the QBasicNews forum but TerraScape's quality was never properly recognized or awarded in a form or a review or some article in a QBasic magazine. But like I said, the community was in a really poor shape back then. Let's not name-blame. Anyway, Pauli Merilainen(TerraScape developer) is known for putting almost no effort in advertising his games. If I remember correctly he didn't even take a single screenshot of TerraScape and put it on the net. People want to know what they are downloading when the package exceeds 16 MB.
At the time TerraScape was released I was unable to play it and due the rather weak response on it I've pictured TerraScape as something with amazing 3D graphic but not very playable and user-friendly. Some complex flight sim, I thought. So I was quite surprised once I finally downloaded it. It was completely different from what I imagined. From professionally designed graphic, great 3D engine to easy controls. But after several hours spent playing it that old folk wisdom popped in my mind - it's not gold all that shines. :P
Nevertheless, the final verdict and my impression of the game is highly positive. Maybe I should start with the actual review now.
Graphics: 5/5
Definitely the strongest part of TerraScape and the main reason why TerraScape should be remembered and respected. TerraScape was done in a quite uncommon graphic resolution for me, ModeX 320*400. I can assume that there are benefits of working in it, especially with this type of 3D engine. TerraScape graphic should be observed in two parts. The first one would be the 2D graphic(the title screen, the intro, the outro, the menus, the briefing screen and the status bar). The 2D graphic is done very professionally and with care for details. The intro and the outro graphic is very good, featuring a very distinctive style. The only notable flaw I see in the images featuring the main game character and those are the only places where a human character appears in the game. It is very obvious that the developer has a problem there and the drawing program he uses doesn't appear to be very convenient for drawing people. The title screen and the main menu is impeccable in style and quality. The status bar didn't sit well with me but maybe that's just a matter of taste. It looks too shiny and plastic to me. I would prefer one that is a bit more rugged. Just for the sake of atmosphere.
The 3D graphic follows the quality of the 2D graphic. The very 3D engine is state of the art in QBasic and doesn't seem to be crippled in any way. The terrain, the sky, it all looks great. Yes, the code is not pure QBasic but how much sense there is in demanding it to be pure QBasic when most of QBasic libraries use Assembler code? The 3D objects are also awesome. Very smart choice of textures and shapes. Still, the 3D graphic is not entirely even in the quality throughout the game. I can say that 3D objects and textures are the best in missions 1 and 2 while in the mission 3 you can already notice a small decline in the quality. It doesn't go terribly down but the last mission, compared with the first two missions, is evidently poorer in quality of graphic, from the ship designs to the structures and even in the choice of texture for the terrain. One structure especially looks bad in the last mission. Also, I wish the particle effects after explosions are more visible and complex. Overall, the 3D graphic is amazing. I never saw anything better in QBasic(talking about 3D graphic). These negative remarks are just nitpicking. Nothing that should lower my final score.
Sound/Music: 5/5
Unfortunately Pauli Merilainen decided to use DS4QB2 for sound support which I personally hate. It's a 32-bit library which means it's not compatible with DOS. 
It also doesn't work in Windows 2000 and NT and in most cases not in Windows XP too, which is the situation with TerraScape too. What is also annoying is that most QBasic programmers didn't allow users to bypass DS4QB2 routines which made their games impossible to start in the mentioned Windows versions(and in DOS too). Luckily this is not the case with TerraScape. But there is still the problem of not many people being able to enjoy in TerraScape properly. Who has Windows 95/98 these days? Maybe there wasn't a better choice because of the high requirements that Pauli had for the sound but there is BWSB and the sound routines used in QBasic games like Groov Buggies, PromZone or Monkey Blast which are way more compatible with Windows. Since I was not able to start the game with sound turned on I can't score this section properly. Still, having in mind the rest of the game and the environmental audio mentioned in the documentation I can guess it's on the level of the rest of the game, meaning excellent. I was able to play the music tracks in Winamp and play the game in the same time so there was no problem in checking how the music works in the game. The music tracks range from good to excellent and Pauli took the trouble to compose ten of them. It is obvious that they are composed by an experienced composer. The tracks are far beyond my capabilities and since I've been trying to compose tracks lately I can appreciate Pauli's work even more. Original sound effects, environmental audio, original music tracks and ten of them. Admirable effort.
Gameplay: 4/5
Pauli describes TerraScape as 3rd-person perspective flight arcade game, Raptor updated to 3D. There is probably a better comparison with another 3D game but since 3D games are not my thing I can't make one. I'm sure there is more than one game like TerraScape coded in some other language, commercial or not. The main thing you should notice is that TerraScape is a 3rd-person perspective 3D game which means you play it outside your spacecraft(called Avatar) and observe it from the back. You can rotate the camera but the game is meant to be played with normal camera position(behind Avatar). I have quite mixed feelings about TerraScape gameplay since some of the elements that make it are great while some other are not that great. The first aspect of the gameplay would be the controls. Avatar is terribly easy to control which is great for the gameplay. I had a fear it would be a difficult task but since this is an arcade game my fears disappeared quickly. With right hand you steer the Avatar(left and right arrow key) and change pitch(up and down arrow key) while with left hand you change the speed using A and Y key and with SPACE key(you keep your thumb on it) you fire projectiles. Very smart choice of control keys. Other keys include numbers 1-7 for weapon change, INS/DEL for adjusting the camera(HOME resets the camera to normal position) and TAB key for toggling map on/off. The controls might seem complex but believe me, TerraScape is very easy game to play(this doesn't mean it's an easy game). You'll only use arrow keys, A and Y key for changing the speed and space for firing. Other keys are used when needed and not so often. For example, I never used camera adjusting since I see no benefit in it. The easy controls make TerraScape a very enjoyable game to play on the first ball. You will enjoy in the simplicity of blasting enemy fighters and enemy buildings, pitching up and down, flying between buildings or making crazy turns. Now when you actually try to finish a mission your excitement will start to decline.
The goal of each mission is to destroy several buildings scattered around 6-7 locations if not more. Maybe the number of locations depends on the mission. Didn't counted but it is definitely more than 6. 
Sometimes between locations you need to visit a specific checkpoint. You won't have problems in orienting yourself since you are guided with a pointer placed on the mini-map in the upper-right corner of the screen. One the very end of each mission the mission boss awaits you, which can be anything from a protected building to a huge spacecraft. This unlucky mission design damages the gameplay quite a lot. It makes finishing a mission a very tiring and repetitive procedure. One mission can last up to 20, 30 minutes(maybe even more) so when you get destroyed somewhere toward the end of a mission or when fighting the boss playing that mission all over again can be very discouraging and frustrating because save game feature only puts you in the beginning of the current mission. Saving the game in the middle of a specific mission only saves the weapons you have accumulated. This allows "cheating" since when you load a game you get full shield. You can collect weapons, save a game, kill yourself and then load a game. Viola! You are on the beginning of the mission but now with all the weapons from the last attempt to finish it. Still, this doesn't help much. Who will have the patience to accumulate weapons and play a specific mission several times just to have better chances against the mission boss? And you don't feel the game is meant to be played like that. Also, you will often feel that your success depends on luck since few lucky shots from an enemy ship and your shield strength is cut in half(not in missions 1 and 2). This is especially the case with some mission bosses. What helps are shield cores you can pickup from destroyed ships(very rarely) or from destroyed storage bunkers but dragging yourself with almost no shield to the next storage bunker with hopes you will be able to find another super shield core(gives you full shield) is another frustration. One shot and you are dead while the full shield was just few meters away. But I'm starting to wander. The main problem of TerraScape is the poor save game feature. If one game was ever so ruined with one bad feature then that game is TerraScape and it's save game feature. I gave up on mission 3 and it's boss. Got destroyed by it 2 times. A person simply can't have the patience to play a mission for another 30 minutes just to try out another tactic with the mission boss; approaching from low this time, flying with another speed and when it doesn't work repeat the procedure. See what I'm talking about? People want to be able to save their progress, especially if a game features missions/levels that last up to 30 minutes and are repetitive. If you are wondering how I am able to comment the rest of the game missions and the game ending Pauli showed me how to cheat. I should point out that not all the missions are placed on Earth. Actually, most aren't. Cool, eh? Anyway, the positive aspects of the game prevail, I think. The controls are something that can always make you return to the game and the missions are varied enough, featuring different enemies(air and ground units) with different attack patterns and characteristics.
Story: 4/5
Very good. The game does start with a rather worn out story of the future controlled by evil corporations, in this game fascist corporate armies knows at The Corporates. After an attempt to police The Corporates by The Initiative(global military concordance), The Corporates launch a nuclear attack and destroy seven world's largest cities, killing 2.3 billion people in the process. The Initiative launches a counter attack. You play the role of Shara O'Neal(yes, a female person) The Initiative's best pilot and fly the Avatar, most powerful fighter in the fleet of The Initiative. The plot unfolds quite interesting with each new mission. The end is quite rewarding delivering a very original and well written epilogue. Something that is worth being seen/read. If you manage to finish TerraScape without cheating your effort will be more than awarded. Trust me.
Replay value: 4/5
Maybe a bit too high score having in mind the terrible save game feature and what it does to the experience of playing the game but I wish to ignore that in this section. The nature of the gameplay(3D-flight game) makes the experience of playing one mission never the same. And because of the length of the game and all the content in it the replay value is quite high.
Challenge: 3/5
I'm still unsure about which of these two sections(Replay value and Challenge) should get 3 but I know that one has to for sure. Since I was unable to finish the game or just didn't had the patience for it I can't tell how much nerves it takes to finish TerraScape and how much the difficulty is reasonable. TerraScape features 4 levels of difficulty but the game is already too difficult on the easy level. At least to me. Anyway, I have to return to the save game feature again since Pauli wrote in the documentation that it increases the challenge. Yes, it sure does but for a too high price. Challenge shouldn't be a test of patience. People don't have so much free time today. I think Pauli didn't though on that when working(or deciding not to) on the save game routine.
Fun factor: 4/5
What has been said in the gameplay section applies to this section too. TerraScape is a game that is both fun to play and not in the same time. One single game feature ruins it all, the save game feature. All else can pass. The mission design is not that bad but in conjunction with the poor save game option results in something frustrating and unrewarding. Despite all of that I kept returning to this game several times. Once I gave up on mission 2. Tried it again a month later and reached mission 3. The elements for a great game are there. The game works but demands too much patience and time. If it was just one of these two things(patience or time) I would give TerraScape 5/5 in this section but since that is not the case I can't.
Total Score:
Total:
29/35
Good: The graphic and the sound/music. The 3D engine. The simplicity of the controls. Large number of missions(8) with varied graphic and enemies. The overall professional approach.
Bad: Terrible save game feature that puts you in the beginning of a mission - lowers the quality of the gameplay a lot. Repetitive mission objective design.
Last thoughts:
You might get the wrong impression about TerraScape from the review since I like to point out the bad things. So to be clear, this game is a fundamental part of QBasic game design history. It is one of the best QBasic games ever made. In the top 5, by my opinion. If you ever belonged to the QBasic community or are interested in it you must have TerraScape in your collection. Even if that collection is consisted out of 3-4 games. This is one of those game. Get it!
Download the game here (16.5 MB): tscape.zip
No sound version(2.1 MB): tscape_nosound.zip
Source code (643 KB): tscape_source.zip
Review by Dean Janjic (Lachie Dazdarian)
Game Apathy: Another Symptom Analyzed
Written by Deleter
It has been quite a while since I’ve written an article, but for all of you who thought I had written my fill, think again. After a somewhat anger filled conversation with an unnamed someone from the community, I realized another reason behind the dreaded game apathy. In past articles, I’ve given ways to get your game idea worked out, and ways to make sure it didn’t go down the tube. However, what I haven’t discussed is what I believe now to be one of the main reasons a game trips and dies.
A lack of meaning for their existence.
You see, games are wimpy. Humans can keep going on without a reason in life, doing their every day routines while holding out for something higher or better. Games on the other hand die without a real purpose. If the only reason you are making a game is because it is fun to code, then you might be better off just stopping now. When it comes down to that one part of the game, a crucial element that has always been your sore spot (mine is the GUI) that reason isn’t going to sustain you. Even if you have the determination and energy to hack your way through it and complete your game, not only will you be exhausted from the experience (not always a bad thing) but the resulting product won’t be the best. Sure, you could keep coding it until its refined and great, but you could also simply take preventive measures before the first line of code is even placed.
So, what’s a good reason to make a game? I can’t say, if I had an answer for that, I’d code it before someone could steal it ;). You see, the answer to that question is not one specific thing. There is no universally correct answer. However, there is a right answer, or hopefully several because lets face it, when the coding gets tough, you need some other motive to sustain you. In light of that, there are universally wrong answers. Any purpose involving solely the pleasure of development is wrong. No matter what it is, modeling, coding, or the like, there is some point were you just don’t want to do it. If the game you are working on has qualities and a purpose that you just love, you can pull yourself through it better and easier than if you have no other reason than because the hell you are putting yourself through "is fun".
However, I am not saying that you shouldn’t code a game to learn. Especially in this community, it is good to code a game to improve your skills. If you have a reason in addition to this, it will be better, because when you finish a game, you learn a lot more than if you give up on it.
So to sum it up, the reason you need a purpose for creating your game is because it gets you out of tight jams and it pushes you to do better when coding and developing your game. It really helps when you can get two models down instead of one. When you code the full GUI sub instead of the first one hundred lines. Your game doesn’t have to be some genre-busting, mega-fun behemoth either. As long as your reason will be enough, and preferably more than enough, to make the game, you are good. For example, when I made that simple game (damn, I haven’t even named it! lol) with the kilotwerps and such, my reason was "I am going to make a game right now, because I want to feel the effects of finishing something." Because it was such a small and simple game, that was enough. Just so you know, that will not work while you try to make the hl2 engine in freebasic. So, to cut a long story, erm, medium length, you have to have a reason so while you are sitting their with a excruciating headache coding distance vector spliced sub loop altruisms, you can say to yourself, "I can finish this, because (insert reason here)." So, don’t let your game die, give it a purpose in life, all right?
(And that unnamed someone, if you actually forgive me enough to read this, please don’t take any of this as an insult...It’s quite the opposite.)
Visit Deleter's site: Random Musings of a QB/FB Game Programmer.
It's Been A Dark Month, Hasn't It?
Written by mennonite
i don't want to get superstitious on anybody, the thing about superstition is that it (and the people that give in to it) don't seem to be any better off... they just seem to worry more.
what i'm going to say isn't about worrying, it's about hope- so bear with me... or, if you prefer, go on to the next article.
now maybe i'm imagining this, but it looks like it's been a low point this month for qb... and for everything. for qb, the forums seem to have been less active, i've personally done almost no coding whatsoever, and just to confirm this, pete's saying he needs more stuff. he always says that, but it sounds like this time he really means it.
whenever something bad happens, a horde (invariably) leaps out to declare the end- of days, of hope, of an era. if darker times are ahead still, then there has to be an end of a good era, and if there has to be an end of a good era, then there has to be an end of a dark era, too.
take any point in history, and determine if the people of the day thought things would happen just like that. maybe a handful saw something coming, but even they were unable to convince most people. unpredictability can work in our favor, however, as when we expect the worst we can rest assured (at least) that we have no reason to be sure that things will be bleak.
because you really don't know, the best thing you can do is hope for the best, and to do your best to that end. if you're reading this, chances are, you have an interest in, or are an expert with, or are possibly trying to become an expert with qbasic or freebasic.
what could be better?
well, okay, there are a few things. but programming is a useful, fulfilling, constructive activity. it combines logic with creative imagination, and rewards you with the knowledge that you've brought something into existence... this is no small thing. no matter what level you're working at, you're basically doing for the head what hours in the gym do for the body. if you're having too much fun, maybe it's more like a long, pleasant walk outside. the main point here is that it's good for you.
sometimes we have an off-month, or even an off-year. that time always ends, however, around the time we become really convinced that better things are ahead. wherever we get that little push, we eventually go back, shake the dust off, and return to what we love doing. for some of us, that's qb. for some of us, it's being in our jeep. for some of us, it's reading or time spent on a forum, but these things always happen in seasons.
it's been a dark month, indeed. some people have reached the last season they know. some people have lost their livelihoods, homes, even loved ones. one guy on the qbasic forum is trying to get back to a place he can work on a computer (of all things)- his house is underwater.
but there's a secret there, and i promise you, i'm not being glib. with the greatest sensitivity possible- life does, will, must, should go on. whatever you see as "the big picture," you may be reminded of a bigger picture this month. this month might be a hard one, and there may be more ahead. on the other hand, (and this is only partly a metaphor, to an extent it's very literal) you have almost certainly derived great pleasure from working with qb/fb(/c/asm) in the past. it may seem like a small thing, but really there is a symbol in it. there is a reason you enjoy and have enjoyed coding, and it's part of the biggest picture you can imagine. many tragedies throughout the world have taken place since some of you began coding, and you've kept doing it. whatever that may be to you, don't let go of it- it may be more important than you know. this may sound very odd, but i'm certainly not kidding. every good thing that happens in the course of human life is something that only takes place while humans are pushing towards it. don't stop pushing now.
best of things to everyone, coder and non-coder alike.
august, september 2005
Visit mennonite's site.
Rattrapmax6's ASCII Scrolling Map Maker 2.5
A review by Stéphane Richard (Mystikshadows)
INTRODUCTION:
Some of you might remember the review I did, in QB
Express #11 on Rattrapmax6's Scrolling Map Maker 1.0. Well Today, I have the distinct
priviledge to review
version 2.5 of this amazing software. As you might have guess from my last review, I've become
a fan of that software and just when I thought it was at the top of what it could do, along comes
Rattrapmax6 and changes my whole
system of beliefs on this software by presenting me this new and improved version of his
software. Just take a look at these screenshots and the list of new features I present here.
The Splash Screen:
What's an application without a good, decent, respectable splash screen? This shows off some
basic application information.
New Map Option:
When you select to create a new map, the options on the right screen appear allowing you to
select the height and width of the map as well as a day scene or a night scene.
The new File Dialogs:
If you have used the first version, you might have noticed the more primitive means of loading
and saving a map. Well in version 2.5, that part changed quite dramatically, as you can see here
you now have a more standard file dialog where you can select folders and files by simply
clicking on the appropriate place in the presented dialog. A big plus in my book.
The User Tile Editor window:
The tile menu offers some 16 preset tiles. However most of the 255 ASCII Characters can be
used in the creation of a map. Here is the window where you can select which tiles you want to
use in your map.
The Main Application windows:
Once your map is ready to be worked on, these windows will appear so you can get busy in a
very direct fashion. Being everything is in a seperate window, one of it's main advantage is you
can set it up to work the way you want to work.
The Open G.L. Map Viewer:
Once your map is essentially done, you can view it with this Open G.L. viewer. You can zoom in
or out and you can rotate your map in 3D as well. I ask you have you every seen a Text map that
looks like this screenshot?
List of "new" features:
- Console Based S.D.I. (Single Document Interface) design.
- Now you can drag a map to the Application Icon and have it opened and ready to work.
- The S.D.I. interface allows the user to organize the windows the way they want them to
be.
- Sophisticated Dialog Based File selection for loading and saving files
- Dynamically sizable maps (which can vary on any project and change on the fly to a bigger
or smaller map).
- Overall operability greatly enhanced with a more intelligently designed user
interface.
- The full range of 32bit color definitions can be used.
- OpenGL map view for a never before seen view of an ASCII map (quite stupendous to say the
least) with zoom in/out and rotate features.
I will be reviewing this software with the same review categories I've used in the last review
because I believe those are good evaluation criteria for an application
of this type. So fasten your safety belts folks, cause here we go!
Functionality and features: 9.5/10 points
After seeing all of what the application can now do, everything it allows the user to play
with, the views the users can generate to view their maps, etc etc...I had to give it a score of
9.5 for just one reason only. The ability to Print the map (Version 3.0 perhaps?) .
As far as I'm concerned, this version is far more complete than it's predecessors and far more
versatile and usable.
You don't need to look at it too long to figure out that it is a great, all in one, complete
and integrated Scrolling Map Editor and as such has been created very intelligently. I gave it a
9.5 out of ten and to me, it deserves no less.
Layout and Disposition: 10/10 points
I know, in my last review I said that having everything on one screen like the previous layout
had nothing but advantages, made things quicker to access, that I liked having all things
available, etc etc. Well with version 2.5 I can say, officially, that I stand corrected. The way
the different windows are organized, and the way that you can call them up
only served to make everythings even more organized. The main screen is much better this way.
There's just no flaws anymore and since now it has good stable file dialogs (his own creation) to
top it all of, I just don't have a word to say about the layout and disposition.
This layout is so functional, that I just didn't have a choice to give it a 10 out of 10.
Everything is cleaner than the previous design as well as more functional. What else can one ask
for.
Suitability to the task: 9/10 points
The way this category differers from layout and dispositions is that it also takes into
consideration the functionaly AND the means to access the functionality. In that context a
program with a great user interface could score low here, or vice versa, a program with a very
poor user interface and score perfectly in this category if the functions are present and readily
available.
As such, This version of the Scrolling Map Maker Version 2.5 scores a whopping 9 out of 10
here. Indeed looking at what's available in this new version and the means to get to that
functionality, it's easy to see that the userinterface was created with ease of use and ease of
learning in mind. I'm not sure if I'm the only one to say this, but when you open this program up
for the first time,
everything just seems to be exactly where I would typically expect them to be and to me, that
helps with the review, it's how it should be and it's exactly how it is too. Great work there.
Overall performance rating: 9/10 points
Well again here, if I click an option and have enough time to make myself a coffee while
waiting for the option to execute itself, I would say it has a serious performance disability.
Well This is far from the case with
this program. When the system is getting the folder/file information when you choose to
save/open the current map, there is a small wait, but really, nothing dramatic especially
considering what is going on. The rest of the application
is very responsive all around.
With this in mind. The application is so usable, as it is now, that the small wait posed no
problem to me. This Map Maker software is fast in pretty
much anything you try to do in there. Of course that's after the map is initialized (if it's
in the bigger size range) But that would be the same for
anything initializing a matrix of the same bigger size, in any language. So definitally a big
9 out of 10 in this category for me.
The Final word: 38.5/40 (96.25%)
As a final word, all I can say is that Rattrapmax6 really outdid himself in this new version.
For one thing, if you look at what a typical vesion 2.X of a product adds in features, you'll
notice that this version offers far more than the average version 2.X update.
He included, in this new version, more than a fair share of new functionaly and features as
well as a totally redesigned user interface. So just for that he more than deserves the score I
gave him for the sheer hardwork he put into the Scrolling map maker.
I'm not exactly sure what could be added, if any, to this program. But if there's another
major release of this, I'll definitaly be there to review that one too. On a side note, I had a
glance at the code and I do have to say that I like the coding style used. it's clear, pretty
easy to follow through, excellent code. Until the next review, enjoy this program, it's worth
every minute you'll put into it.
MystikShadows
Stéphane Richard
srichard@adaworld.com
My QBasic Story
Written by Nathan1993
I first got started programming at the end of the fourth grade. I was a 9 year old that sucked at math. Our school library was giving away all of the old books in its that no one wanted, and if they weren't taken they were trashed. I was a complete outcast geek, so when someone saw a computer book they would give it to me. Someone found a book titled “Using the Home Computer”, gave it to me, and I read the introduction. It said something about robots, so I kept reading.
That book had a small part on “How to Make Games: Using QBASIC”. I found QBASIC.EXE and went on to type in a small game that I found in the book. I thought, “Hey, this looks pretty cool, and easy!” So I went on to learn its workings with extreme help from my dad, a computer programmer. But we couldn't find out what was wrong with this line of code:
IF choice$ = yes THEN PRINT “Yes”
We were thinking about how to solve this problem when my dad remembered about his old QBASIC book that just happened to be sitting on a nearby bookshelf. I read all 620 pages that summer, and mastered it all. I spent a year programming and learning from old stuff, I had no idea how active the community was. All I saw was occasional updates on QBASIC New Zealand and a new version of Rellib.
Then there was a ray of hope: Pete re-opened his site! I thought “Hey, one person is active! Maybe there is hope for QBASIC! Then I saw that his forums were active. It was heaven, after that QBASIC was more than just QBASIC, I upgraded to QuickBASIC, and found libraries. As time went on I thought “Well, FreeBASIC rules, but we have a major shortage of C++ programmers”, so I got djgpp and am learning C++ from www.cprogramming.com. I will probably not be posting and coding as much, but do not worry, I still love QBASIC. I cannot wait to return and be able to program in C++ and port C++ tutorials to FreeBASIC. If I suddenly stop showing up on QBASIC and FreeBASIC sites, son't worry, I have not left, I will be back with goodies. Can you say full Allegro tutorial!?
And if there is a need for it, I will make a series of “From FreeBASIC to C++” so we can all know C++. I do not care If I am hated for writing this, but I feel that another C++ programmer will not hurt. But face it, after programming in nothing but a tiny bit of assembler and QuickBASIC, your going to want something different. I will try to write some articles for QBExpress if I can think of it, but don't expect much. Be back soon!
Contact Nathan1993 through this link.
Searching For The Unknown
Lunatix: The Insanity Circle by Mike Snyder, 1999.
Written by Lachie Dazdarian
Introduction
Lunatix: The Insanity Circle is an excellent "illustrated" text adventure game developed by Mike Snyder. This game is a real QBasic gem and probably the most perfect game for the column.
Mike Snyder is a relatively unknown person in the QBasic community if not completely. I cannot know how much this is true since he used to release QBasic games before I joined the community. Still, I never heard anyone mentioning him or any of his games ANYWHERE in the community and just looking at Lunatix: The Insanity Circle makes me wonder why. Maybe I should have checked some of the old QB mags before doing this article to be more sure. Oh, well. Most of his games were released in the period from 1990 till 1997 as shareware(later became freeware) under his shareware label Flogsoli Productions so that was in most part a time before Internet and the QBasic community as we know it. I think that some of his games like Lexter 1 and 2 were quite respected back then(1993) in shareware circles. He also released three other text adventure games(interactive fiction) before Lunatix; Spore, Mystic Force and Breath Pirates. From this, and some things said in the game documentation, we can guess that he was much more interested in interactive fiction than in QBasic. Which is probably another reason for him being so unknown in the community.
Mike's other interests were BBS door games and Lunatix was originally an BBS game. He even earned a nice sum of money on it. According to Breath Pirates readme file he sold around 1000 copies of Lunatix BBS for $15.00(the readme file was written in 1997). It sure was nice to be a shareware developer back then. Lunatix today is a web-based RPG(sad to admit, didn't had time to try it out) and is called Lunatix Online. In this online game you play a role of a mental hospital patient and interact with other players. We could say that Lunatix: The Insanity Circle(the QBasic game) is a by-product of this Mike Synder's decade-long, online project which is still alive.
About Lunatix: The Insanity Circle
Like I said before, Lunatix: The Insanity Circle(L:TIC) is an excellent "illustrated" text adventure game. This "illustrated" means that it features graphical scenes and mouse controllable text boxes(mouse is not required, you can control the boxes with the keyboard too) but it plays like any other text adventure game. Like the designer says, graphical scenes are here to make the play experience more enjoyable. What's cool is that you can play L:TIC it text-only mode by starting the game with LUNATIX /T command-line parameter.
In L:TIC you play the role of Dr. Armund Hammer. After an uneventful day in your asylum you awake for an afternoon nap. 
It's time to go home but your keys are missing. This leaves you locked in the asylum. You must find your way out of it.
The main game screen in L:TIC is very intelligently designed. It's divided in three parts. Two boxes are placed in the upper part of the screen. The current scene is displayed in the left box while in the right box is displayed the description of the current scene(you can scroll through it). In the lower part of the screen is the game command prompt(the place where you input your commands) and the message box right above it. Message box is used to display the results of your actions(inputs) and it keeps a pretty large history of your commands and command results through which you can scroll. The choice of colors and game font is very smart and makes playing the game very comfortable for the eyes.
The very graphic scenes are quite nice. Mike Snyder used a combination of photographs and some original artwork to create the game scenes. While most scenes are cool you will find some lacking, especially the ones that are custom made. The scenes are more incoherent with one another than poor in quality. The game is a bit unbalanced in that part but overall, compared to other QBasic games, the graphic is excellent.
Now the gameplay. Those who are familiar with interactive fiction(IF) know how these games work.
For those who are not a short introduction. Your entire communication with the game is done through the game command prompt, more popularly known as parser. You simply need to type in the action you want for your character to execute. LOOK UNDER TABLE, EXAMINE BOOK, stuff like that. Like in most text adventure games moving around locations is done by typing in the direction where you want to go(for example, NORTH or NORTHEAST). Since Mike Synder is an experienced(or well informed) IF game designer L:TIC supports short substitutes for directions like N for north, U for up, SE for south-east and similar. L:TIC parser also supports X for examine, I for inventory, multiple commands at once, pronouns(for example, "GET BOOK THEN READ IT"), command recall with UNDO, ability to retrieve previously typed commands and few other things that every good IF should have. Not that these things alone make a good IF. What makes a good IF is the parser and the game script. L:TIC parser is simply brilliant. During the entire game I only had a problem on one place with phrasing what I want to do and that was probably a problem with my English vocabulary and imagination and not with the parser. Nothing more to say about the parser but that every newbie in IF game design should check L:TIC or a game with equally excellent parser just to be aware of the standards.
L:TIC is a rather difficult game. I might not be the most suitable person to express such opinion since my experience with IF games is minimal(2 games; :P) but some puzzles really have that "evil" note in them. The game also start with a quite complex and demanding puzzle which can be very discouraging for most of the players. Luckily I happened to have a walkthrough on my hard disk but then it was hard to resist to use it on some easier puzzles. I ended up finishing about 50% of the game by myself. But it was fun to play it even with a walkthrough. The other thing that increases the game difficulty is that you are not sure what is your objective or to be more precise how to accomplish it(leave the asylum). Almost the entire game you(Dr.Hammer) are under the influence of a drug(unknown pill) so for the most of the events in the game you are not sure if they are real or not. This brings me to the game script. L:TIC is a well written game. Mike Snyder sure knows how to write nice, long and often funny description and comments on your actions(inputs). Now the other thing is the plot. I already explained why. Putting the main game character under the influence of an unknown drug is a really convenient way to add illogical and bizarre content/puzzles in your game and that's where lies the only real flaw of L:TIC.
L:TIC features relatively poor sound effects and music. Ok, they are better than PC Speaker blip and blops but not terribly better. Mike Snyder used Tim Truman's(another QB game developer) sound card FM register routines to play the music and sound effects directly from the code. Music plays only during the intro, when you exit the game and when you complete the game and it doesn't sound like something fitting for the game theme. But having in mind how the music is played we should appreciate the trouble. Sound "effects" only play when you die, when you undo a move after dying and load or save a game. They are nice and fit in the game theme but since these are the ONLY sound effects in the entire game they leave you thirsty for more. It makes the rest of the game more in need for sound effects than it would without any sound effects implemented at all. In a nutshell, better than nothing which you can't say about PC Speaker sound effects/music in most cases. :P
What puts L:TIC above the majority of QBasic games is the fact it's an ILLUSTRATED text adventure game. The graphical interface, the technical perfection of it, the colors, the font and the way the screen is composed makes L:TIC unique, notable and different(in QBasic games world). I don't know if there are any IF purists in the community by they too know that if L:TIC was a classic IF game it would never be properly appreciated in the QBasic community even if Mike took the trouble to promote it. It's just the curse of IF as a genre. No matter in which language an IF game is written it will be played mostly by IF fans and not by fans/users of that specific language. Anyway, you can always choose to play L:TIC in text-only mode but you will miss the real L:TIC then. The graphical interface and the scenes(plus the good script and the parser but not only that) are the reason why L:TIC is a lost part of QBasic game design history and should be something that anyone with a minimum interest in QBasic games must check. Also, the small number of graphical adventures ever released in QBasic puts L:TIC in the top(if not in the very top) of that genre.
Final score:
7.5/10
Get Lunatix: The Insanity Circle
To download the game click here: Lunatix_TIC.zip (L:TIC works in Windows XP just fine without any need for DOS emulators but if you want to hear the sound effects and music you will have to start it with a VDMSound shortcut)
A walkthrough can be acquired by emailing Mike Snyder(the reply email is sent automatically): wyndo@prowler-pro.com
Also, check out the game readme file. It's a very well written and informative document.
That's it for this issue. Hope I brought your attention to something you didn't know about. For the next issue I will probably "do" MadMix. But I have some other things being considered too. Let's make it a surprise.
Download Lunatix or visit Lachie's site, KENTAURI.
Monthly Awards
Written by Pete
Every month, QB Express hands out two awards to recognize QB or FB coders and websites that have done exceptional work in the last month. They are not awarded for work done in the past, only for work that has been released since the last issue of the magazine. We will bring you these awards on a monthly basis to help give credit where credit is due.
Site of the Month
ASCII-World
http://www.ascii-world.com/
Webmasters: MystikShadows and Lurah
"It's time computer technology went back to it's roots." That's the slogan of ASCII-World, the phenomenal retro coding site run by MystikShadows (Stéphane Richard) and lurah (Kristian Virtanen). When this site launched back in February, I was very tempted to make it the first QB Express site of the month. It has a great retro DOS/ASCII-style design, and even in its infancy, had more ASCII-related content than you can shake a stick at. But now seven months later, ASCII-World has had the chance to grow and expand into a much greater site that's even more deserving of this award.
Over the course of the year, ASCII-World has become a community of ASCII programming enthusiasts. Its forum has become quite active with all sorts of ASCII discussion, and even after all the posts were reset as a result of a server switch this past month, it looks like the ASCII-World members will be making a full comeback.
ASCII-
