DarkBASIC is a programming language and development environment that allows you to write games using the speed and power of DirectX and Direct3D. The programming interface has been designed to get programmers up and coding immediately. So friendly and easy is DarkBASIC, you will have your very first program running in less than five minutes!

Unlike many game creation and programming tools, DarkBASIC’s simple and uncluttered interface makes all the options available to you via a single mouse-click. The help system uses HTML code for simple layout and easy navigation (the programmer can easily create and add custom help screens), and contains extensive examples and tutorials that illustrate how one or more commands are used. There are examples that demonstrate how to activate and manipulate simple two-dimensional objects and examples that showcase the entire range of capabilities including 3D objects with bitmaps applied to the surfaces, sounds, movie clips, sprites, text, camera and lighting angles, and input and output to keyboard, mouse, and force-feedback joysticks. If the programmer needs some instant assistance, placing the text cursor on a command word and pressing F1 brings up a help screen for that command.

Unfortunately, however, there is no separate programmer’s guide (available soon) and I also felt that more links in the on-line help system for ancillary commands and parameters were necessary.

Programming is to computers what printing dollar bills is to the economy. Sure, it’s great to have thousands of dollar bills to spend, but a lot goes into the process of the Mint actually printing those bills. So it is with software. It’s great to play the latest edition of Tomb Raider, but somebody had to write the program. Now, I’m not saying that DarkBASIC was used to write any part of Tomb Raider, but with a little persistence, one could write something that looks a lot like it.

One of my students expressed an interest in a certain kind of game. Not finding anything suitable, I was asked how easy was it to program such a game. That lead me to search for the "easiest to learn," "easiest to program" game development environment. There were others but DarkBASIC was the only one that presumed the programmer to be at the novice level. DarkBASIC has a "fast track" learning mode where we learn the essential commands, explore the areas of the editing environment, and develop your programming skills. The other offerings required that you already know "C++" or other sophisticated, "steep learning curve" language or development environment. I asked to review DarkBASIC because the sample screenshots at their Web site proved irresistible to my curious mind: DarkBASIC did that?!

Still, knowing the time allowance, patience, and overall skill level of that student, even DarkBASIC would drain away many hours of otherwise productive time needed for the development of skills in other computer-related endeavors.

DarkBASIC is a variant of the standard BASIC language, and as such, should be easy for those who come from certain antique computer platforms – the Commodore 64 or the Apple II for instance. Those computers had several magazine titles that published BASIC programs and many of us old-timers got to know those variants of BASIC as we typed in program listings. DarkBASIC’s command set includes the core BASIC commands and is augmented with commands specific to manipulating 2D, 3D, and media objects. DarkBASIC has mainly the same editing environment, but then, it’s also enhanced permitting a "compile-execute" process, an "execute immediately" process (that runs kind of slow), while also giving a "command-line interface" (CLI). The CLI will immediately execute command sequences that can be entered on one line. (Pressing the cursor–up or –down keys will cycle through past command line entries.) Programs are saved as simple text files (.dba extension, "Dark Basic Assembly"?) and if you have a preferred text editor, feel free to use it. Professional programmers will likely object to DarkBASIC’s 76-column (scrollable) by 32-line editor. On the other hand, the editor is integrated and for some, the convenience of "execute immediate" is considerable.

The integrated editor switches the screen to 640x480 graphics mode complete with its own mouse and text cursors, and may cause problems for some video card/monitor combinations. (The mouse cursor’s persistence was horrible until I switched to "full acceleration" in the video card’s properties page.) The CLI interface still needs a bit of work to clean up some artifacts. DarkBASIC includes commands that will force the graphics mode to any of several standard resolutions: CGA, EGA, VGA, and SVGA at 16 and 24 bits of color.

Again, DarkBASIC’s focus is on games and their respective display modes. If you want a program to print lines of data, row after row, I have yet to figure out how to do it. The execution screen (as opposed to the editing screen) apparently does not scroll. Once a program has printed as many lines of output that fills the number of rows available, any additional lines of output are not displayed.

Personally, I have always wanted to get back into programming. I have studied FORTRAN, C++, and Visual Basic and all require a relatively huge investment in computer power, monitor size, and the actual language development environment itself. I will really enjoy DarkBASIC and it’s modest requirements.

Shortly after the company mailed the version 1.06 review product, two updates were available for download from their site. There will be another major update available in a few months. There is also an upgrade offer that includes a printed manual and an extra CD of demonstration files.

The DarkBASIC retail package includes a number of thrilling game demonstrations, a 168-page manual and a 48-page tutorial.

Requirements: Windows 95/98, 233 MHz Pentium processor or greater, 32 MB of RAM, 4x speed CD-ROM, 50 MB of hard disk space (minimal install, 409MB full install), DirectX compatible Sound Card, DirectX compatible 3D Accelerator required (4MB+), and requires DirextX 7.0a or above (included). Reviewer’s system: Win98SE, Pentium 200MMX.

DarkBASIC 1.08
$75 Boxed CD
Dark Basic Software Ltd. (UK)

Note: Since the product comes from the UK, a few terms may confuse the American programmer. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though.