DECEMBER 11TH, 2000
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A QUICK MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
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Hehehe...it's been almost a year
since the last issue of QBOA appeared, then vanished off of the face of
the earth. Many things have happened since then. I technically retired
from QB altogether, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten my roots. In
an effort to show the people that QB is not forgotten, I brought this
magazine back to life. As of this writing, there are only three people
who even knew this was coming back (you know who you are), so now, the
whole world will know ;)
So, why did I bring it back? There
must be some deep-rooted reason, right? Right? Of course there
is...kind of. You all know of QB Cult Magazine. Well, they're without
question one of the most popular QB zines out there right now, and with
good reason: they're honest, helpful, and prompt! With the recent
closing of the QB Times, it leaves QBCM as the only QB zine on the net
that doesn't suck. Well, this is an effort to once again broaden the
horizon for the members of the QB world. Enjoy, and don't forget to
send in your comments!
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IN THE NEWS - WORLDWIDE CHAOS AND REVOLUTION
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The original NeoZones, founded by Neo
(now known as Tek) way back who-knows-when, was apparently hacked a
couple of days ago. The majority of the blame is pointed at a member of
the QB community known as Zip (formely known on IRC as 'person').
Although no solid proof of this accusation has come to light, Tek has
decided to shut down NeoZones until further notice. You can read his
closing message at NeoZones. In addition, the NeoBasic webboard seems to be stirring over this event, fingers pointing everywhere.
Future Software has undergone a
massive overhaul, and people who have bookmarked various parts of their
site have been coming up with 404s. Their QB side is under a subdomain
now. The new design is very nice, however, and if you haven't seen it
yet, drop by Future Sofwtare and check it out for yourself.
The IRC EfNet channel #quickbasic
recently underwent some massive reform after a war was waged for four
days. It seems peace is once again restored, but it's split the members
into two factions; the former controllers, who have now gathered in
#qbcc, and the current controllers, among them including some of the
original #quickbasic founders. War on #quickbasic is never-ending, and
there will never be one controller, but instead, it's all about who has
the current advantage.
Pretty big news for you Darkness Ethereal
fans...the popular Mysterious Song game released by the group many
months ago has been getting a very large download rate on CNET, in
excess of 500 a day. For a QB game written in DOS, that's pretty
impressive, proof positive that not only is DOS not dead, but QB isn't
either!
German programming group Master Creating
has announced that their new fantasy strategy game Imerion is finally a
true network game as they recently launched its first official
networked game. Things look promising for this project, check it out at
their homepage.
The popular project QBCC, the
QuickBasic Compatible Compiler, is looking for programmers for its
standard libraries. Knowledge of C++ is a must. A first alpha of this
compiler has already been released, check it out and more at the QBCC website.
I found this game on V Planet and thought it might be a good game to
check out, since they did a little review for it. It's rare that you
find a game like this, so I said "what the hell". I was not
disappointed.
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The first thing you'll notice is
the nonstandard graphics. This is a game obviously meant for hicolour,
but stuck with the limitations of 13h. There is a lot of dithering in
the graphics, but it's understandable. The game does not come with a
sound setup option, so if you want to hear anything but FM synth music,
you'll have to edit the batch file yourself. And on the subject of
music, the selected score is very fitting to the game. And the sound
effects throughout the game are very well-done. The technical aspect of
this game was altogether done wonderfully.
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HIGH POINTS
As stated earlier, the graphics and sound are
great, despite being in 13h and having to manually configure the music
driver. The game plays very well, and the object of the game quickly
becomes apparent; collect five little "tubes", whatever they are, and
get to the exit. Pretty simple, no? No. The game's difficulty level is
high. Even if you collect all the objects you need to finish the level,
chances are you're going to run out of firepower and get wasted. This
makes the game among the more challenging I've seen in awhile, and for
a little while, makes you play it again and again...
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LOW POINTS
It's hard to find any cohesive low points to this
game. There are a few minor issues I have with this game, however.
First of all, there are some issues with collision. Near the exit is a
platform which you must jump on at a certain angle to get onto. If you
don't jump at the right angle, you won't get on it. In addition, if an
enemy is on the platform, and you shoot at it from the lower platform,
the bullet will go through his legs! At one point, there is a set of
bullets on a shelf, and you need to actually jump up to get them, when
in fact your character passes right over them. The enemies in and of
themselves are a minor issue...there's only two types of enemies, and
they both look the same, they're cops. Some have larger bullets, but
that's about the only variation to them. The only other gripe I have
about this game is the setup of the music. It would have been nice to
have a custom sound setup program that builds a batch file with the
options specified to your needs.
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All in all, this is a pretty solid
piece of work, and is highly recommended. It seems to me that this is
the new era of QB games, and with more and more platformers appearing
every day, the age of RPGs is over, to be replaced by more active games
like this. Let's hope this trend doesn't end soon!
DOWNLOAD THIS GAME
QBOA should have featured this game a year ago, but we ended it before
this gallery could be shown. Now, here it is! Legends Of Destiny, by
Tenshi Animétion. Feast your eyes on these beautiful graphics!
For more information, visit the Legends Of Destiny homepage.
Toshi's Project Page.
I don't think you'll find a larger set of links anywhere. In addition,
there's a ton of files and resources all over the place. It's a little
cluttered, but spend some time here and learn all you ever wanted to
know. Not just QB, but he covers C, C++, PASCAL, ASM, and more.
According to Toshihiro, the webmaster, the site was also recently
updated. Additionally, there's another QB-compatible compiler project
on the site called QBJC, an interesting concept in itself. If you
haven't been there yet, go now or you'll be condemned to a life of
boredom.
Yeah, it's a quick issue, but that's
just because we sprang this one as a surprise on you all. Hopefully
this will be the start of a new era of QBOA. Feel free to write us with
your comments, suggestions, flames, etc. Until next time...this is
Nekrophidius, signing out...
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