Writing a QBasic game from scratch -- Snake game example

[blodseker2]

znam da pisem u programu,al neznam engleski bas najbolje

xDDDDDDDDDD

[blodseker2]

ok.aj me sad nauci :)

[blodseker2]

i know somethings but it isn`t enought :(

[Bisqwit]

@blodseker2 Programming languages are highly formal. A single letter spelled wrong may and often does change the meaning of a program: it is often the difference between a properly functioning program and a program that does not work.

I suggest that you first improve your spelling and grammar. Written ability in natural languages (such as English or Serbian) is correlative with programming potential, and it _can_ be improved.

[blodseker2]

u r the best!i wont to be like u.ehhh. :(

plz teach me

[brutaka359]

LOL this is something like TRON! xD

[ProjectZeus]

Is this the best for ASCII games? I wanted to learn programing but only to do stuff in ASCII, im a huge fan of games like Dwarf Fortress and Rogue =)

[Bisqwit]

@ProjectZeus Definitely one of the easiest approaches, if you don't mind the fact that it's an obsolete platform. For a more modern platform (for ASCII games), I recommend trying Lua or Python.

However, both have the issue that they both run on a wider variety of terminals (i.e. input & output devices) than just a DOS prompt. Line input and text output are trivial, but achieving _colors_ already requires making assumptions on what the program is being run on. Which may or may not be a factor.

[ProjectZeus]

@Bisqwit Thank you very much! I think I actually have a book about Python Programing somewhere so I will dive into it as soon as I get a chance.

[NoFak3rs]

@ProjectZeus

Pascal is a good language for that as well.

But Basic will be easier to learn.

[Bisqwit]

To anyone who is having trouble reproducing the program in this video, please publish your sourcecode at some web address and post the address here or in a private message. I can review it quickly and possibly point out what is wrong with it.

[DotAIsMyLifeXxX]

Fuc_ u ...These Is Shi_...OmG...Almost all thing doesn't work...you can check...maybe you are superhero...And That Work To You...Fuckin_GiK...

[summ22]

extremely leet shit

[KomaruMedare]

Can you send me the precompiled MIDINS.EXE file through PM?

No matter what I do, I can't get the thing to build. I've tried Turbo C, Turbo C++, Turbo Pascal, GNU Make, Unix CC, Unix G++... Pretty much anything I could get y hands on.

[Bisqwit]

@KomaruMedare I don't know what you tried to compile to get yourself a copy of MIDINS.EXE . As far as I know, I do not have the source code published anymore. But I can give you the EXEs. The URL is (replace "dot" with an actual dot character and remove possible special characters inserted by youtube to thwart URL postings): bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/midins_and­­_intgen dot zip

For reference, it was compiled with Borland C++ 3.1.

[DavidRockin1]

this is a piece of fucken shit! it doesnt even work!!! fuck u!!! go die

[Bisqwit]

You wish death to a person who gave you instructions you do not understand?

That is a sad, sad personality. You aren't going to get far with it; better change!

[DavidRockin1]

@Bisqwit then why the fuck it doesnt work? i followed everyshit u did

[Bisqwit]

@DavidRockin1 Imitation without actual insight rarely does much good.

I provide these videos to provide the opportunity for insight, not as a step-by-step guide for "do this and this follows".

Nevertheless, I assure you that the code written in this video is fully functional up to the point where I added the beforehand-prepared music-engine to it. If it does not work for you, you are not typing it in QBasic, or QBasic does not work for you for whatever reason, or you have mistyped something.

[DavidRockin1]

@Bisqwit i typed the exact same stuff you typed in

[Mossj32]

Ah, yes. QBasic. I used to have a lot of fun with this back when I was younger. My Grandmother used to have an old 33mhz 486, and I'd make little games and graphics patterns using it.

[InspectorCarnbarn]

Hey, the link to the S3M Player is no longer functioning. Do you think you can re-upload it?

Also if you don't mind me asking, where did you get the S3M's? I don't know of many sites that have AD-LIB based S3M's.

[Bisqwit]

@InspectorCarnbarn Thank you for the feedback. The link to S3M player was wrong; I have fixed it now. I wrote most of the S3Ms myself using Scream Tracker. You can see videos of them playing in ST3 in my other videos.

One or two of them (the Future Crew ones) were shipped with Scream Tracker.

[InspectorCarnbarn]

@Bisqwit Thanks man!

[InspectorCarnbarn]

@Bisqwit Alright, another question. Where did you get the ADL samples? Or is there a way to make them? Looking at your songs in Screamtracker mentions ADL files so I'm just a bit curious as to where to find them/make them. I know about the parameter editor, but nothing played back when I went I set it up, my guess is I need ADL files.

[Bisqwit]

@InspectorCarnbarn I picked many of them from Future Crew's songs, but one can design/modify them directly in ST3's instrument editor. Adlib samples consist of just a dozen or so some numeric parameters that control the synthesis and the waveform that makes the sound. It takes a bit of understanding of how Frequency Modulation works to understand how exactly to achieve the sound that you want, but with simple random experimentation one can end up with many interesting sounds.

[InspectorCarnbarn]

@Bisqwit Ah, okay I see. I did get it to work, I just had to muck around and set one of the tracks to A1, I wasn't aware of that till I looked at your songs and now I got it working so I can play around with the attack, decay, and all that fun stuff.

Thanks for the help!

[Bisqwit]

@InspectorCarnbarn Oh, and also, do note that you need to set up at least one channel as an AdLib channel (such as A1). Otherwise, all of them are PCM channels (such as L1 or R1), and no adlib sounds can be played.

[Bisqwit]

For clarity, I'll explain that I did plan this program beforehand. You can download my plans (PDF) through the link in the video info.

I spent about a day designing this program, optimizing the feature set and code length to what I thought I can probably type in 10 minutes with occasional pauses to show the intermediate result. Sometimes, I sacrificed readability for typing speed (the sub SetDir would have been a switch-case originally), but I made it back in recording by adding extra comments.

[Bisqwit]

"From scratch" refers to that I begin from a blank file, and that I don't use outside code libraries (with the exception of the S3M player at the end).

[8bitbubsy]

:) I see you're very used to QBasic!

Those were the days (although I was a little kid)

Very cute tune you have in the background btw, although I can't stand FM Synthesis :)

[Bisqwit]

Even though I rarely touch QBasic/QuickBasic nowadays, it's something I just cannot forget. At most, I need to look up things in the IDE's help.

[creaothceann]

I started with QBasic too. :) It was very frustrating to have no programming language on the PC, but then I discovered the old DOS tools on the Win95 CD.

When I got Turbo Pascal though I didn't look back. (Teacher: "It fits onto a diskette, that's all I'm saying on the topic.")

[BlueFlyer101]

nice