Dark Basic Professional

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Publisher: The Game Creators Ltd
The lowest price: $62.99
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A lot of developers like to create and then self-publish their games, offering them for sale from their web sites. One such high-class example written in DarkBASIC Professional is 3D Mahjong. The quality level of graphics, sound and extreme playability showcase perfectly just what DarkBASIC Professional is capable of.

This version of DarkBASIC Professional is ideal for those of you who don't need the printed manual and can get by with the built-in help files. The help files list all of the commands by category and are available from within the editor at the touch of a key. Because there are no packages to send, you get the same programming language at a vastly reduced price and without the usual wait for the mailman to deliver your goods.

There are two versions of DarkBASIC Professional On-line. One is 11 MB and the other is 90 MB in size. When you order you will be given download links to BOTH versions - it is up to you to decide which one you prefer. So if you currently use a modem at home then you can start with the 11MB one, but should you upgrade to broadband then you can login to your account at any time and download the 90MB version too. There are no restrictions on this.

All of the help files are intact, but in the 11MB version especially most of the showcase examples have been removed to save space in the archive. This means when you view a help page and click "Load showcase example" most of the time you will not have that example to view. The 90MB version includes a lot more of these example files, but still not the full amount included with the boxed CD version.

3D Engine features:

Binary Space Partitioning (BSP), Potential Visibility Set, Pixel & vertex shaders, Real time shadows, True reflections, Lights, Matrices, Advanced terrain, Multiple camera views, Particle system, Lightning fast 2D sprites, Polygon collision detection, Bump mapping, Light mapping, Environment mapping, Multitexturing, Bone based animations, Cartoon shading, Rainbow rendering, Low level access of object data, Vector and matrix manipulation.

2D features:

Super-Fast 2D Sprites, Mirror, Stretch and Blur, Fade, Transparency and Rotate, Screen-Sized sprites, Fast Collision, Animated Sprites, Gamma Control, Scale Sprites, 2D Drawing Functions.

Read reviewsDisplaying 11-20 of 20 reviews
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Pros: Easily learned Easy file save/access Fun to learn Many possibilites Great output of graphics Comes with OVER 60 models to get you started in the DarkMatter pack A great engine, for a great price!
Cons: Slightly restricted in the way of gameplay (may feel too narrowed) Rather sloppy GUI. (In my own opinion.) Messy guide book included to help you. (I recommend joining the Dark Basic forums for more learning)
Dark Basic Pro is some software that I, personally have used for quiet some time. It is a great tool for indie game development, and has some commercial quality abilities which also make it worth...
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Dark Basic Professional, the Promising Programmer of the Future

By pound4poundg on Thu, 2008-05-29 00:49
Pros: DBP is a lenient programming language that makes room for some "goof-ups," in other words you don't have to have everything right. The user friendly GUI makes programming and understanding this outstanding program a lot better.
Cons: Although DBP is a powerful developing language, it is not as flexible as C++ or powerful for that matter, but with the new DarkBasic SDK, C++ better watch out.
I tried my hand at C++ a while back, when that didn't work out for me I came across DarkBasic Professional. Immediately I sent an order in, and what I received had me standing in awe. DarkBASIC...
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For Begineers

By febinsoft on Tue, 2008-04-01 05:19
Pros: Very easy to learn and use and also powerfull.
Cons: English language and a creative mind is needed to learn it.
Dark basic is a programming language can be used for begineers in the world of computer programming. To get in touch with programming concepts. It's because dark basic is a programming language...
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Dark Basic Professional

By obione on Tue, 2008-02-05 16:27
Pros: very good prog for greating games.
Cons: non.
DarkBASIC Professional is the most advanced games development package built on the BASIC language currently available. No other package out there makes it as easy to incorporate all of the special...
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Weave Words Review

By md irfan on Sun, 2007-12-09 12:58
Pros: In addition to that, there are special bonuses, but I did not fully grasp the meaning of those, except for the fact that you get double or triple the points for some letters.
Cons: The game graphics is really nice and the music is very soothing.
I’m no big fan of word games, but Weave Words really got me hooked. I’d say that this is a new game genre that I’d call word strategy games. Weave Words rules are quite simple. You have a bunch...
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Dark Basic Professional... or is it?

By alex2pb on Fri, 2007-08-17 13:48
Pros: Good for starters, pretty nice IDE
Cons: Awfully slow, old (latest version is from 2005), poor documentation and ackward syntax, it is not really a compiler.
When I first wanted to run the program I got greet by an error. That's right... A Direct3D error. Well I am pretty sure my computer is ok since I have some years of experience behind. After I...
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Dark Basic Professional Good

By wansly123 on Tue, 2007-07-17 23:16
Pros: easy to use cheap
Cons: need to buy more dll's for it not as flexible as C
Here are some of the basic feature of this Programming language: eneral Features Plug-in Architecture, Save/Load System: • Command Line Interface • Creates .EXE files with the option of...
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Good featureset, taken together, not so great

By mgsloan on Fri, 2007-07-13 07:41
Pros: Easy access to advanced 3d graphics engine features
Cons: Horrible programming language. Easy to learn, but quite annoying to use. The language, IDE and periphery libraries are also quite bugprone.
The primary reason that Darkbasic pro is such a staple of easy, individual game development, is the books. They have books everywhere. It is a triumph of marketing.
The actual product, however,...
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Awsome for less serious applications.

By gamerfreak on Fri, 2007-03-16 23:15
Pros: Great IDE interface, easy to learn language with few bugs, great community.
Cons: Many limitations compared to open source alternatives. A bit pricey considering there are free equivalents.
This is really a great language for beginner programmers, or advanced programmers who don't need to overkill with c/c++ etc. The reason I say it isn't great for "serious" applications, is that it has...
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Dark Basic - An excellent programming language

By Grayzag on Tue, 2006-09-05 12:02
Pros: easy to use cheap
Cons: need to buy more dll's for it not as flexible as C
Here are some of the basic feature of this Programming language: eneral Features Plug-in Architecture, Save/Load System: • Command Line Interface • Creates .EXE files with the option of...