DarkBASIC
What is it?
Note: I originally wrote this article in 2001 or so, when DarkBASIC was a single product. In 2002, The Game Creators released DarkBASIC Professional, which is a completely different product, but the original DarkBASIC is still available.
Being an Old Fart, having learned to program BASIC on an Apple ][-clone with a green phosphor screen, I was of course charmed that someone would hold up the tradition and create a game development system using this language. And what the developers said about it sounded interesting, too:
DarkBASIC has been designed to eliminate the restrictions your PC has presented you with in the past. If your previous tool was complicated and frustrating like 'C', you'll find programming DB simple and enjoyable. If your tools capabilities were limited, you'll find DB providing more power than you can handle. If your tool was incapable of producing commercial quality games, you'll find DB providing you with fast full screen 3D action as standard! Whatever it was that stopped you creating awesome games on your PC has been eliminated by DarkBASIC!
Other things sounded a bit strange, as they claimed at the same time that (a) DarkBASIC was a programming language, and (b) you did not need any programming knowledge, two statements that are obviously mutually exclusive. And I thought it a bit ridiculous that they called it the ultimate 3D game creator seeing that while the engine supported outdoor terrain, usually a weak spot with 3D engines, it supported little else.
Anyway, I downloaded the trial version, which at that time was still good for 60 days of use, and found that the first statement was absolutely correct. I think they have dropped the other by now. DarkBASIC is a programming language, it is a version of BASIC with some game-specific commands added.
This allows for a great versatility. Need a level editor? Write it with DarkBASIC. Want to distribute it along with your game? Go ahead and do it. You wrote it after all. Need a texture or sprite editor? Write it in DarkBASIC. And so on. Quite a number of utilities have already been written this way.
General verdict: This is an interesting product. Try it out if you are interested in creating games. Of course, being an Old Fart, I might be slightly biased.
