December 1999
Well, we're a bit late, but we're still alive and kicking
butt. We've got a new subtitle..."The zine other zines rip off!". After all the
BS we recently endured, it was questioned as to whether or not we should shut
down, but then our senses came to us and we realized that if we have the news
first, and others rip US off, then readers will just come here first, knowing
full well that other zines will just have the same news WE had WEEKS BEFORE
THEM. Of course I'm not going to mention any Razor Diskmags (oops) but I
certainly hope more zines rip us off!
Anyways, to this month's content (yes we have content here! yay!)...
THE NEWS
Quickbasic.Net...ripoff artists?
It was recently
brought to our attention by a source who wishes to remain silent that
quickbasic.net is apparently stealing software and claiming it as their own.
Upon investigation of their site, at first it does appear true! However, only
upon closer examination does one spot that they ARE in fact crediting people
with their work...in very small print, however. The ironic part of the site was
at the bottom of the first page where they claim that the site's code is
original and you cannot copy it...funny guys, considering you ripped off
webcrawler.com for most of your HTML...
Speaking of ripping off...
The recent release of
Cadarn has sparked our interest. Apparently the creator, Polfalk, ripped off
most of the graphics from DarkDread's Secret Of Cooey 2 without
permission. We downloaded Cadarn to see for ourselves...and it was confirmed.
However, he tried to justify his actions by explaining himself in a text file
that comes with the game. Sorry, but that is not enough! He did not ask
permission to use the graphics, therefore, he is a thief. Nowhere on
his website does it say that he's used them, so one only finds out upon
downloading the game, which in itself is questionable, since it is of quite poor
quality and is quite an insult to DarkDread's name. However, he apparently
redeemed himself as he released a version with his own graphics in it. Since it
was so close to this release of QBOA, we have not been able to verify this yet,
but we'll let you know what happens.
New diskmag revealed!
As a response to Razor's
delay, several Efnet people had decided to create their own diskmag. It's
apparently still in the early stages as of now, but it shows promise. QBoA was
able to obtain an early copy of this new diskmag, and it looks pretty
impressive, but looks are one thing, and content is another...we'll see what
develops.
CORRECTIONS
Robert Lee vs. Lord QBASIC
Our sources were not 100%
correct...apparently it was LordQBASIC who made the official challenge. This was
confirmed by LordQBASIC himself.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
From Kevin Bryan
Heya, ya print an article about the
K man, and I'll reply for ya =).
Last issue (nicely done on the whole, I thought, that Master Creating game
looks yummy; they're definitely one of the top dev teams in qbasic these days)
Big Nose wrote about me not doin' a preview of Kids of Karendow. I've talked to
him a bunch about why I didn't do this, and I'll re-explain them for ya here.
Firstly, in my opinion, Kids of Karendow just didn't look like a good game.
It was sort of...juvenile. But that's a different style that I'm used to
playing, and can of course be done to good effect; look at Leisure Suit Larry!
Secondly, I've done previews of only 3 games in 12 issues of Qb:tm. Those
were Dark Ages 2, Project RT, and Eternal Frost. All three were from people who
already had experience making a qbasic game, and all were games which I heard a
lot of email about asking for more information.
That's right, the people had experience! This is important! It's not because
I don't like the little guy, it's just because there's only so much space in a
magazine every month, I don't like doin' game previews in the first place, and
99% of games from "the little guy" don't ever get finished.
It doesn't mean a game is BAD if I didn't want to do a preview on it! Look at
Space-a-Roo2, Freelancer, Shadow of Power, and the umpteen other kickin' games
which I didn't devote a lot of magazine space to! The surveys I took every issue
told me what people wanted to see covered in the magazine, and you could vote on
the survey simply by clicking on a button on the website!
I suggest to anyone who wanted to be in a feature for qb:tm (or, I assume,
Razor) to spend less time complaining about not getting "promoted" and spend
more time writin' some kick-ass games! Put your money where your mouth is! And
if you don't like how the qbmags are treatin' ya, start your own, like my man
Nek. T'aint as easy as ya think.
The last thing I'll comment on, though, is Big Nose's comment that only "big
names" wrote for the Mag (such as Darkdread, etc.). Anyone could write for the
mag back in the day! All you had to do was send me an article and if it was a
good quality, whoop, in it went. The people I sought out to write (such as
Darkdread, Petter, etc.) were the ones who were not "big names", but were
EXPERIENCED. Would you rather read an article on game design from Shigeru
Miyamoto or Joe from San Francisco?
Adios,
kevs
Editor's comments: Hrm..."juvenile" was the idea with KOK, it was meant to
be "funny" and "non-serious", a sort of break from the norm. However, that stuff
about "only so much space" is just wrong. Since when do these magazines have a
size limit? The only thing wrong with this mag is we generally don't have ENOUGH
stuff to print! There is no such thing as "too much", that was an excuse.
Anyways, it is good to see people defending their point of view.
From Majiko the Evil
I just read the newest issue of
QB on ACID
I am impressed.
Can I join the team???
There is going to be BIG competiton between dull Razor and QB on Acid...hehhe
I want to create a Badmouthing section where I complain about things in QB
like libraries, and trash dumbass QB members like myself! Except I'm the worst
of em all! hahaha! I'm the perfect person to do it, with my evil rep and all...
It will surely attract FLIES! I mean... nice QB Programmers! Those are very
insightful articles too! hehehe better than QB:The Shit could produce, see, you
tell the truth and I likes that! :)
Can I join???
--Majiko, the evil!
Editor's Note: One of the biggest rules here at QBoA is that ANYONE can
write for the zine, not just the "cool people", so yes, you can write for the
zine, Majiko =)
Adventure Game Making : Episode 1
**Part 0: Intro
Ok, so you're making an Adventure or an RPG which
requires a puzzle for the player to solve, just to add some brain to the whole
shebang. No prob.
**Part 1: What is a Puzzle:
What is a puzzle? (For those who are new to
the Adventure biz) A puzzle is when you come to a situation in which you must
get past an NPC, or some other obstacle that prevents you from continuing, and
eventually ending the game. Usually, you'll find items by buying, trading,
finding, stealing, whatever, somehow AQUIRING an item, and:
-Using it in an area, which will alter it somehow
-Giving it to somebody,
who may give you something in return, be it info or another item.
-Altering
it, either by combining it with another (Or several) other items, or screwing
with the insides or whatnot, and somehow changing the item to use in a different
way.
And then ya use this new item to accomplish the puzzle, and usually another
puzzle presents itself and the whole process starts again.
**Part 2: Why is it so hard?
Why is it so hard? Sometimes they aren't.
But usually, it requires great thought to relate the items to be used together.
That's what makes a good puzzle, if it's creative. So, instead of USING the
Pencil with the Pencil Sharpener (Which isn't original at all), you could use a
small tree in the Pencil Sharpener and somehow end up with a pencil. =)
Understand? Yes or no, read on.
**Part 3: How do I create a Puzzle?
Ok, no prob. All you've gotta do is
wait 'til Saturday, grab the remote, and watch some cartoons on TV. Don't have
cable? Splice your neighbours line, believe me, it's worth it.
Now, let's see what we've got. Ah yes, the infamous RoadRunner and Coyote
cartoon. Now, everybody loves it when you bring in a puzzle that people will
recognize when they see the pieces come together. Say you have a ROCKET and a
GIANT SPRING, and are near a ROCK FACE. Come on now, we all know what we should
do, so why bother explaining it? =)
A word of caution though, some puzzles are overused. Avoid these, or lose
respect in the gaming world. Although, if you take an overused one, twist it and
make fun of it's overusedness, THEN it'll be cool! =)
**Part 4: Conclusion
That's basically it, I've probably left something
out. Oh well.
Questions? Kermit@webjetters.com
Comments? Kermit@webjetters.com
Complaints?
Don't bother. =) j/k
That's it. Tut's over.
By The Specialist
Plots, characters, and bears Oh My!
99.99% of RPG's out there have a stupid-ass "Do this. Do that." interface.
Some culprits are Dark Ages, The Mystical Journey, anything by Majiko, Diablo
(yes even professional games do this), and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. These are
foolish games where the character is obviously not human, because he gets up to
do EVERYTHING he is told no matter what it is. The best way to make an RPG, is
to have a progressive plot, and give the character some options. For instance,
the Fallout series allows a broad range of movement, where you decide where you
go and what you do, not some king or lame plot-line.
9 tips for making a non-cliched game and making it FUN:
1) Play your damned game and work on it until you actually like it.
Seriously. If you don't have fun playing it, nobody will. That's a fact.
2) If your program crashes a lot, or has a bug every so often that causes
things to screw up, your users WILL find out about this and will be very pissed.
Please fix all of your bugs for a more enjoyable experience for you and your
players.
3) Add in some extra stuff. Things like codes at the title screen, or hidden
rooms. Possibly even some fun mini-games. Final Fantasy 3 had the Coliseum, for
example, where you could bet items and win better items. The same Coliseum could
be used to find a character as well.
4) Try something other than "treasure chests" or "swords". How about
backpacks, lockers, dressers, something like that? Also, swords are horrible to
put in your game. Put something in like a lance, a baseball bat, brass knuckles,
or something along the lines of that =].
5) If your plot involves saving someone from something evil, scrap it. It'll
go nowhere.
6) Add some humour! I loved Kids of Karendow because it had humour, not
because it was an ultra serious story. Also, know what parts are supposed to be
serious, and what are supposed to have humour. If a character dies, don't make
your other characters laugh, make them disturbed, or make them have emotional
problems later on in the game. These details add depth to your story.
7) Weird does NOT equal original. Just because your character is a ChiChi
Warrior! does not make him any less cliched. Also, don't copy the Chrono Trigger
characters, and don't copy anything basically. If you can't come up with your
own plot, make a parody on your own life story. After all, the easiest character
to come up with is yourself =].
8) Don't be afraid to add some love! For instance, if there's a guy and a
girl and they're travelling together, there's bound to be some attraction going
on.
9) Don't get too wordy with your story. Let the player take it as he/she
goes. For instance, don't make your characters have 10 minute long conversations
unless it's a major part in the story. 80% of time spent playing an RPG is
manueuvering through the world created by the game, so why not spend some time
making it enjoyable? Add some things like places to explore, caves to spelunk,
oceans to walk on, etc. Just because it's not relevent to the plot doesn't it
mean it shouldn't be there for the enjoyment of the player.
After you've taken a look at your RPG, does it really qualify as a fun game,
or some shoddy product you've shoved out in order to get your name out there? Is
it really an RPG, or is it a hard-plot-lined story where there's not much
imagination? Take a look at your game before you go around spreading the word of
the "BEST RPG EVER!" ok? I've seen way too many people arrogantly proclaim their
game as fun or a great RPG, when it is total crap (I myself did this a while
back, but I have spent my time building good engines so I can someday make a
good game =)). Don't worry too much about my article though, just keep the
entertainment of the player in mind.
By QbProgger
RPGs in QB: The NEW Tutorials.
Issue 3, Volume 2: 3D RPG Engine
Hail!
Welcome to the third installment of my new RPG tutorials. If you're just
joining us, the past issues can be found on the Darkness Ethereal website. The
address to the page is at the end of this tutorial.
This time around... The major chunk of the tutorial is in the 3drpg.bas file.
But, I still reccommend that you read this, so that you may familiarize yourself
with what we'll be disscussing.
1. A 3D Engine?
Well, not a TRUE 3D engine. If you've ever played Legend
of Lith II, or any of the AD&D Eye of the Beholder games, then you'll know
what this is about.
This engine allows you to create a first person 3D view, where moving is a
character is limited to cell-by-cell movement. What do I mean when I say
cell-by-cell? Picture a normal 2d tile engine, moving tile-by-tile, only in a
first person perspective.
Don't let that fool you though. With this kind of an engine, it is possible
to create a very nice game. Just take a look at Shining the Holy Ark for the
Sega Saturn system if you don't belive me.
2. The code
The Qbasic code is fairly simple to learn. Not as easy as a
tile engine, mind you, but I've kept it as simple as possible. If you wish, you
can fire up QB and run the code now. Take a look at it, and play around with it.
I've added a lot of comments into the code, especially in the important parts.
The main thing that you may wish to look at, is the DrawLocation sub. This is
the meat of the code, and the part that is used to determine what to draw on the
screen.
Okay... That's enough chatter here. Go look at the code!
3. Final words
Well... These tutorials are written for YOU. So tell me
what you want to read about next. I'm almost out of ideas here, so I need YOU to
tell me what you want to know. How about an explanation of shops and inns? Does
that sound good? Or maybe something else... Let me know!
E-mail me darkdread@hotmail.com
and let me know what you want!
Visit the Darkness Ethereal site, for more tutorials and some freeware RPGs:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Ring/1683/index.html
Cheers!
DarkDread
4. Licence
THIS TUTORIAL AND ITS ACCOMPANYING FILES, MAY BE DISTRIBUTED
FREE OF CHARGE BY ANY MEANS, SO LONG AS ALL FILES ARE INCLUDED AND NOTHING IS
MODIFIED. THE AUTHOR SHOULD BE GIVEN CREDIT IN YOUR PROGRAMS IF YOU USE ANY OF
THE CODE OR GRAPHICS CONTAINED WITHIN THESE FILES. THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE USE OR MISUSE OF THESE TUTORIALS. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
By DarkDread
Libs Good or Evil?
Many of you have
probably seen the good, and bad effects of libs, here's a small list:
Good
1 - Programs seem to be better, faster, and break more limits
2 - Programs
are completed faster
3 - Programs require less work
4 - Programs are easy
to update, by converting to the newest lib, instead of re-coding the whole
program
Bad
1 - Programmers skip the learning process
2 - Harder to debug, and
potential computer crashes
3 - Programmer's can't call the code their own
So, the real problem is...are the Good things REALLY Good, and do the Good
things outweigh the Bad things?
Programs seem better, faster, and break limits - a plus, but since the code
isn't all the programmers, he really doesn't deserve all the credit. And he
doesn't know how to do it on his own.
Programs are completed faster - a plus, but they'll learn to give up easily,
when they try to code it on they're own.
Programs require less work - same as above.
Okay, so are the Good's really better than the Bads?
Well, you've probably noticed the new programmers, who have a LOT of problems
coding their own stuff, and get discouraged when it's not as easy as
playwavfile. So, they get stuck to the libs, and never leave, and never
learn to do it on their own. Meaning the future of qb will be somewhat
non-existant without the lib writers to do the work after the 160000X100024
screens come out.
So, should we stop using libs? Of course not! The main damage caused, is when
the programmer who is not ready, gets into libs anyway. Pure qbasic, can still
do TONZ more than we've seen. There is no reason to jump to asm. But, converting
the qbasic code, to assembly code, will most likely provide speed ups. As soon
as a person can code in asm, and has the knowledge to code his own library, I
see no harm in him using someone elses lib. But, when someone who is still
mastering pset, jumps to loadjpeg, he is skipping a huge step, and his
learning will decrease rapidly.
If lib writers keep their code to themselves, their programs will still be
awesome, in fact, they'll look amazing because no one will steal their ideas.
Amazing programs will inspire others, and programmers will decide to learn it,
and Qbasic will move on.
But, the lib writers MUST write tutorials, or programmers will not learn
their secrets, and will resort to ripping their code, which is even worse than
using their libs. Programmers will continue to make libraries, but they must
restrict other's use, to ensure Qbasic goes on, and programmers remain working.
By Speige
Give CREDIT Where CREDIT Is DUE
I rarely go on rants
like these, but this is a serious issue which needs to be addressed. It appears
that the ripping-off of other's work is getting out of hand.
This little trend in the QB community seems to have started back a couple of
years, when TheGame was the talk of the town. Several people saw the work of
Tsugumo, and decided to steal his graphics without permission and use them in
their own little excuse for an RPG, and went as far as to call them their own. I
talked with Tsugumo himself about this, and his general thought was that if they
had asked first, he may have granted permission...however, the fact that they
had stolen them outright was kind of ridiculous. Needless to say, Tsugumo sorta
disappeared from the QB scene not too long afterwards.
Ripping off commercial software is bad enough...but to rip off a fellow QB
coder's work? Now that's just idiotic. I have more respect for people who draw
their own graphics, no matter how lame they are. Ripping off another QB coder's
work is disgraceful. There are some who rip off others and give credit...this
isn't such a bad crime, but it's still bad. It's still stuff you didn't
do...remember the great library war and code you didn't write? Same idea here
folks.
Now, I'm not immune to this. I used ripped graphics in my latest game,
Killers Remix. I took the graphics from commercial games, and I did give credit
to the games, and described where each character came from, and who they were in
their original games. However, I'm a thief nonetheless. Since I don't have the
final graphics in my game yet, I needed some to fill the gaps for now, and these
worked. This is a common explaination for ripping; temporary graphics until the
real thing is done. In my eyes, this is almost acceptable, however, it's still
sorta wrong. In my case however, I know that I will eventually replace the
graphics with the real ones we're working on, and I don't claim the current
graphics to be original. Master Creating is a coding group that is becoming very
well-known for their cheating ways, ripping graphics without credit from
commercial games and QB coders alike...Shadow of Power contains mostly ripped
graphics from games like Zelda 3, and contains a few graphics ripped from
Syraphage. Their newest game (portrayed in last issue's Gallery) contains a
sprite ripped from Quake.
It goes beyond artwork however, code ripping is even more common than artwork
ripping. It's called ripping when the original coder is not credited. This is an
area in which I have NEVER been guilty, since it is only fair to the original
coder to have credit. However, I have seen way too many times where a coder was
denied credit for their hard work. Case in point was very recent, when I visited
the homepage of Dmitri Bryant, noted for his work with SVGA and file formats.
After downloading some of his work, a terrible thought hit me...he'd been
ripping off Aaron Severn for quite some time now without credit. This was gross.
The recent work I've done with SVGA was derived from Aaron, and I've given full
credit to him for his work (I even listed his name in every SUB in my libs that
use his code). This denial of credit by Mr. Bryant thoroughly disgusted me.
It goes into QB web site design as well! A recent discovery was made on a
newer QB site, known as QNN. Apparently, a lot of their content was ripped
directly from the old QB:TM, including their projects page and a couple of other
sections. According to my sources, other sections of the site were ripped from
NeoZones and a couple other sites. What the hell is this all about?
The ripping...will it ever stop? Has modern-day technology made us all too
lazy to do our own work? I don't know. I do know however that although I am
guilty of these crimes, I can at least accept responsibility for that, and I
don't try to take credit away from the original creators. Others are not so
kind. Maybe someday, when they are sitting in a jail cell somewhere, or are
forced to work four jobs to pay off a steep fine, then they might learn...or
not.
By Nekrophidius
Nexus 13
Product Review
Well, I received an email
from the creator of this library, Eclipzer, wanting me to review his great new
Nexus 13 library, programmed in 100% QB. So I did, and here's what I saw...
THE PROS
Well, it's all QB code, I guess that could be counted as a
plus. For something like this to be done in QB code is quite rare, and for what
it does, it's got pretty good speed. The potential is there.
THE CONS
The library is horribly inefficient with its sprite
routines, requiring twice as much memory than usual. The guess is that this
speeds up blitting, since no bitshifting is required, but this is very
inefficient. The supplied demos were very jittery. Not to mention not all that
impressive. DEMO003.BAS was probably the most impressive...however, it was also
the slowest. And what the hell is the point of auto-masking? This seems stupid
as hell, but it is always possible that he used the term wrong, since his code
was so damned cryptic that even I couldn't figure out what the purpose was.
THE SKINNY
Well...it works...that's about all I can say for this.
It certainly doesn't even compare in speed to Dash or DirectQB. Not even close.
The functions are wasteful and the library is larger than it needs to be, so if
you use this, expect some unneccessary overhead. What really kills it for me is
the total overhyping of this thing. This guy acts as if his library owns all
else. Which couldn't be further from the truth. Although this shows talent and
hard work, that is quickly erased by this guy's large ego problem. A message to
Eclipzer...respect is earned by deeds done, not by hyping yourself up. Ego trips
will make you lose respect, not earn it. Get off your high horse and
realize that you're certainly not the best coder in the world (QBV is pure QB
code and is MUCH faster than your lib) so please stop trying to act like you
are, it is quite insulting to the rest of us.
Anyways, I do recommend you check out this lib, whether or not you take this
guy seriously or not is your decision. But like we always say, we tell it how it
is here, and if anyone has a problem with that, then oh well, because honesty is
what we base our zine on, not hype and buttkissing. You can find this file here,
along with all kinds of other hype and rhetoric about how great this guy is.
By Nekrophidius
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
This issue's Quote Of The Month
goes to, of all people,
Robert Lee
This little gem was spotted very recently
on NeoZones' WWW board. The story behind this is sort of long, but here's the
quote, then the story...
Haven't you heard of PCOPY?
Okay, this may make no
sense at first. However, this is based on a recent post made by Wafn. He was
trying to make a mode 13h buffer-to-buffer copying routine. And Robert spurts
out the quote of the month. Now, Robert Lee thinks he's a great coder. However,
if he had been so great, he would have noticed that the example code that Wafn
had written is set to move exactly 64000 bytes from a linear buffer to a linear
screen array, and the only standard screen mode capable of an arrangement like
this is 13h, which just so happens to be incapable of PCOPY (which pretty much
everyone knows), which is what makes this funny as hell...
THE END
Well, that's it for this issue. Sorry it's
late, but at least we didn't put it out over a month and a half late (heheh like
some diskmag I know about...oops) but it was late, but mainly due to lack of
material. So, to prevent lateness next time, we need your stuff! Send us your
letters, reviews of QB stuff or QB related stuff, screenshots of upcoming
games/projects, news, anything! We're open-format, so anyone has the right to be
heard here. There is no set release date for the next issue, but it will be out
before Y2K. Be warned...the world's gunna blow up! MWUAHAHAH! So get QBoA while
it's hot! You won't have time to read it when you're hurtling through space! Cya
next time!
