Newbie!, I've seen numerous examples of QBasic games with Zelda style graphics, but even in QBasic you'll have to deal with memory buffers using peek and poke. That alone cancels out any user-friendliness QBasic has. With C++, you could do the same much quicker and with little difficulty as compared to QBasic. I'm no expert though, so look around and see what you find.

First of all, C++ is free as well - GCC or whatever it is. There a thousands of tutes on the net. Anyway, you wanna use qbasic. Here are the problems you will have:

* Memory - i.e. none
* Detail - 256 colurs max, thats at 320x200
* Graphics - File format decoding takes years, screen clearing is very slow, no support for double buffer
* Sound - dont even try

If you want a hand getting rid of these, use QuickBasic 4.5 - it was discontinued by Microsoft but has several options like compile to .exe, support for libraries, and so on. I might be able to give you a copy?

Yeah, unless you are already totally fluent (and in that case wouldnt need help) in QBasic I would suggest picking something else.

Visual Basic may be good for you if you already understand BASIC and dont want to learn another language right away, and it also works with DirectX.

C++ is another way to go and is what most people use when they are trying to make programs that arent totally windows driven (with buttons, Windows text boxes and such).

-Geoff

Qbasic does support double buffering. And you cant make anything to fancy, it still can produce averge games. I made a Pac-man clone, you can look at it at http://www.123.net/~sourmosh/pacman.bas

Make the move up to Windows. Use VB if you don't want to deal with the learning curve of C++. You'd have to buy VB though. There is at least one free C/C++ compiler out there. It's a matter of how much you want to spend.

If you want, I can sell you VB 4 Professional (excellent condition) with all the huge manuals and docs for like $60... DirectX 7 needs VB 5 at least, but it's pretty good to learn the language on. Then you can:

-Get VB5 Control Creation Edition (free) to tinker around with DirectX (but you can't compile anything with it) or

-Upgrade to VB6 or 7 if it's out by then, and you get a big discount because you're upgrading, or

-Screw VB and download Bloodshed Dev C++ (also free).

This way you can learn the language for cheap (and it uses the same kind of format as the language you already know) and then decide if you want to switch or upgrade or try DX first or what. Sound good?

------------------

Lack

I don't think I want VB thank you.
My long term goal was to learn C++ anyways so I might as well do it now.
I'd like to know if it would be worth getting the introductry edition of Visual C++.
IS there anything major that is crippled in the introductry edition?

See the Bracket's reply in the thread in this group called "Visual C++ introductory edition".

He(she?) explains quite clearly what the intro. edition is (and how it's crippled).
Although, he is incorrect about the Academic version.

Dan

Hello
I am absolutly new to game programming although I am quite good with computers.
I am going to be creating a game with Qbasic. Now I know some people may be asking why the hell would you create a game in QBASIC when there is C++ and direct X!
Well the main reason is because It's free!
And the other reason is it's easy and I am already somewhat familar with it.

I would eventaully like to be able to create a Zelda style Action/RPG game with similar graphics to that of the SNES game Zelda a link to the past.
Would this at all be possible with QBasic?
Please let me know soon!

I started in BASIC a long time ago, but of course, I moved to C++, DOS though, using gcc(DJGPP), it was a Smooth Side Scrolling Game, running at around 70 fps, looked great.