DarkBASIC Description:

Easier to comprehend than some other game-programming packages out there, DarkBASIC offers both a fun tutorial and a powerful code editor. You can start programming right away in this offshoot of the BASIC language. First you will learn about the principles of programming, then advance onto media and 3-D topics with further study. The program makes it easy, and with a handful of impressive examples you can learn by doing on several short, fast programs. The main editor area of the program is attractive, although it does remind us a bit of the role-playing games of the late 1980s. Our favorite perk was the Command Line Interface (CLI) button in the page header: this feature allows you to test single or small groups of commands without constructing an entire program. The online help system is multifaceted: it offers a "fast track" option for those with programming experience (or who are just impatient) as well as a more structured lesson plan. The user manual is particularly friendly and witty in tone, and we appreciated the Further Tutorials pamphlet that accompanied the package. The initial tutorials cover basic program form, creating line objects, using color, and terraforming. The advanced tutorials examine everything from determining camera perspective to the use of fogs and backdrops, from explosions to bullets and monsters. We first took DarkBASIC out for a spin with a simple text program, and then moved on to creating a simple 3-D game (unfortunately without conclusion). The package comes with a number of textures for floor, wall, and ceiling, as well as other objects like monsters, weapons, and the like. You're not limited to using only these: DarkBASIC covers how to import your own images and assets for use in your program. This package handles five types of media files: images (as bitmap files), sound (as WAV files), music (as MIDI files), animation (as AVI files), and object models. For each of these, you may specify the correct editor, ensuring a strong connection and compatibility between DarkBASIC and your selected applications. We were very impressed with the media browser and accompanying contents: in this gallery-style view, you can check out the goblins, samurais, game sounds, streaming music, textures, and game screens (like the "game over" screen). Our only issue with DarkBASIC was that there wasn't a minimize option readily available, making it difficult to multitask with other projects we're working on (yet easy to get engrossed in our dreams of 3-D game generation). Overall, DarkBASIC ran very smoothly after install and left plenty of resources free for other applications to continue running. In the end, we recommend DarkBASIC to future (and present) game-programming gurus for ease of use, quality, and the overall fun factor. --Emilie Herbst