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GameBasic a good idea?

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 11:43 am
by Harry Potter
Sorry for the SPAM, but I just want to know:

GameBasic for DOS is to be a version of BASIC for games. It is to contain built-in graphics with sprites, transparencies, clipping, sfx and better drawing routines. This will be for EGA, VGA, Mode-X and SVGA. It will also include digital sound for AdLib and Sound Blaster. It will work for 8086 to Pentium. There should be versions for 16-bit and 32-bit DOS. It will have unsigned number types and variable-length strings in user-defined types. There may be a GUI. Language extensions will be able. Anyone interested? Should I make it? Feedback would be appreciated.

Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:21 am
by angros47
Why doing it only for dos? Why don't you build a multiplatform?

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:37 am
by Harry Potter
Maybe I could.... A Win32 version would be nice--if I had the knowledge and experience.

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:36 pm
by Imortis
FreeBASIC produces win32 executables.

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:53 am
by angros47
How are you going to do it? It will have a RAD/IDE or a command line? It will be an interpreter, a P-code compiler/interpreter, or a true compiler?

An interesting idea could be a compiler that create flash or java executables (emitting java/actionscript code) so that games can be developed for internet pages.

Also... Will be free software (open source)? Or freeware/shareware? Or omething else?

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:21 am
by Harry Potter
It is planned to be Shareware and include both an interpreter and a compiler. It should have an IDE, but I could use a prompt-based compiler/linker/librarian.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 6:02 am
by angros47
To be honest, I'm not much interested in a shareware.
Also, XST Basic for DOS is already a good solution, and it's free.

It can be found at http://www.geocities.com/snakessoft/xst.html or at http://www.geocities.com/snakessoft/vault.html.

It provides an interpreter, a c emitter, 2d and 3d games creation... The only problem, it isn't open source.

Most of DOS users, nowaday, use freedos on old machines, and so I don't think they'd like to spend money to buy software (but I could be wrong)

So, IMHO, you should either release your work as free software, or choose another target (embedded games in web pages, or games for mobile devices)

Good luck

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:12 pm
by qbasicfreak
one of the reasons qbasic and other BASIC programming languages are still going are because members share their source code.
I can promise that nobody will buy a dos program nowadays unless it is a classic.

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:53 am
by angros47
Well, a game-oriented basic compiler is needed for DexOs (http://www.dex4u.com).

DexOs is a tiny, dos-like 32-bit OS with an original GUI, that instead of using a window interface tries to simulate a gaming console.

It's 100% written in ASM, so if you are a good ASM coder maybe it could be your target: the author already said that needs a basic language, something like DarkBasic or BlitzBasic (easy to use, not too advanced, without features like OOP or pointers, but with a lot of built-in graphics and sound commands).

Have a look at the site, maybe your work could be more appreciated here.

yeah

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 7:22 pm
by floogle11
i think its good

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:22 am
by angros47
XST Basic for dos is now open source: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xstbasic/