BlitzBasic

[OneHitWonder]

Hi all,

Anyone had any experience with BlitzBasic?

http://www.blitzbasic.com

Kirk.

[E.K.Virtanen]

Hi Kirkkaf.

My experiences with Blitz is limited for trying the end user programs mostly. I do remember i tried some demo version of it back at years ago, but no any flashbacks what i did thought about it.

Maybe i should check it out, when happens a miracle that i can make some time.

[OneHitWonder]

HI E.K.Virtanen,

I am quite new to any BASIC language, how did you learn and where should I start, what are the basics are the language that I would need to learn?

- Kirk.

[E.K.Virtanen]

Well, i got Spectravideo 328 back at early 80's, and after that it was "type and test" learning 
There isn't any specific method how i have learned. Self studying and lot's of errors 

It is hard (impossible) to say what is good for learning and what is not. Background of previous languages, interest of what kind of software to develope and some other things (interpreter, compiler, open source, commercial, multiplatform...?) does affect lot's of what fits in your needs.

[Garrett]

I'm a BlitzMax user myself with MaxGUI.  I've only used Blitz for making GUI apps, not games though.

Blitz is relatively easy to use like a few other Basic languages out there.  How I learned to use Blitz was simply to open examples, run them, then read through the code to see what was doing what, as well as referencing the help file along the way for anything that I didn't comprehend.

Also, the forums for Blitz are highly helpful!

It's actually been a few years now since I last did any programming in Blitz.  My main reason for using Blitz back then was to do some programming for my Mac.  I don't use my Mac anymore so haven't touched Blitz in a long time.

[OneHitWonder]

Thanks for your replys, I have Blitz3D, I want to hopfully in the future to create some sort of 3D game. I have started programming in the console hopfully go on to the graphics mode soon for 2d games then finaly 3d I know there is a learning curve and it don't happen over night.

I have learnt the basics of Variables, basic arrays, loops, structures, functions, sub routines.

Where should I go from here?

I also I don't quite have the logic on how to program some games like pong, tetris ect..

- Kirk.

[aurelB]

Yeah Pong game is good starting point for basic programming becose
you will lern how loops work and i think that somwhere on net is
pong example written in basic..

[OneHitWonder]

I think I will make that my next project!  

Would I start with the basics, printing the bat type png's to screen and moving with arrows keys?

I would have no idea how I would get the other bat to attempt to hit the ball back.

EDITED:

After posting this I then thought of something, would I move the other bat to the X axis of the ball then right a collision detection if ball hits bat.

Wouldn't know how to hit the ball back at the angles though.

- Kirk.

[Cybermonkey]

I wrote a kind of Pong for sdlBASIC a time ago. It uses only one bat and a wall which reflects the ball. Every time one hits the ball again the score is going up. Every 100 points (or so) the speed of the ball increases. If there is interest I will upload the game called "Pongle" (Swabian for "small pong") this evening.

[Garrett]

I was going to suggest just doing a good old Tic-Tac-Toe game to get your feet wet.  It would at least give you much of the basic workings of making a game, but lacks any of the motion and math needed for moving games.  But still, at least you'd get some experience just programming a simple game at first, then you could move onto sprites and motion and such.

[E.K.Virtanen]

One good idea is to port some old classic to Blitz. Take a look at atariarchives.org to find tons of books from micro-computer era.

Guess what number im thinking, 23 matches, nicomahcus...there is tons of great and pretty simple games with the sources. Port one to blitz, then make it bit modern.

How about "Guess what 5 numbers im thinking" or plr vs. 2 cpu version of 23 matches?

[OneHitWonder]

I created a Tic-Tac-Toe game using Vb.NET (Visual Studio Professional) however I fount that alot easiest as I made it using 9 buttons. I am struggling to understand where I should start with 'BASIC' would I use 9 images instead which are blank and depending on whos go it is when image is clicked it chages to either X or O.

Sorry for such a stupid question, just feels like I am bashing my head against the wall, maybe one day it will all come clear.

Kirk.

[aurelB]

Yes every start is hard

[OneHitWonder]

Well while beatng my head against the wall I took a long think about what most 2D games need and that is some sort of movement so I came up with this:

Code:

;graphics mode
Graphics 640, 480, 16, 0

;application title
AppTitle "Movement_Test"

;set buffer
SetBuffer BackBuffer()

;global variables
Global x=10, y=10

;main game loop
While Not KeyDown(1)

;flip buffers
Flip

;clear screen
Cls

;set color (red)
Color 255, 0, 0

movement()

Wend

;movement function
Function movement()

If KeyDown(203) Then x = x - 3
If KeyDown(205) Then x = x + 3
If KeyDown(200) Then y = y - 3
If KeyDown(208) Then y = y + 3

;draw player
Oval x, y, 10, 10

;end function
End Function

End  

As most of you here seem to be very skilled with basic you probably understand what happens here.

Might work on collision detection next  

- Kirk

[E.K.Virtanen]

Code:

Function movement()

If KeyDown(203) Then x = x - 3
If KeyDown(205) Then x = x + 3
If KeyDown(200) Then y = y - 3
If KeyDown(208) Then y = y + 3

;draw player
Oval x, y, 10, 10

;end function
End Function

That works as should. However, Blitz should have support for ELSEIF/ELSE and CASE. They can make that faster in runtime.

Code:

If KeyDown(203) Then
x = x - 3
ElseIf KeyDown(205)
Then x = x + 3
ElseIf KeyDown(200)
Then y = y - 3
ElseIf KeyDown(208) Then
y = y + 3
EndIf