QB ON ACID
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December 1999
Well, we're a bit late, but we're still alive and kicking butt. We've
got a new subtitle..."The zine other zines rip off!". After all the BS
we recently endured, it was questioned as to whether or not we should
shut down, but then our senses came to us and we realized that if we
have the news first, and others rip US off, then readers will just
come here first, knowing full well that other zines will just have the
same news WE had WEEKS BEFORE THEM. Of course I'm not going to mention
any Razor Diskmags (oops) but I certainly hope more zines rip us off!
Anyways, to this month's content (yes we have content here! yay!)...
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THE NEWS
Quickbasic.Net...ripoff artists?
It was recently brought to our attention by a source who wishes to
remain silent that quickbasic.net is apparently stealing software and
claiming it as their own. Upon investigation of their site, at first
it does appear true! However, only upon closer examination does one
spot that they ARE in fact crediting people with their work...in very
small print, however. The ironic part of the site was at the bottom of
the first page where they claim that the site's code is original and
you cannot copy it...funny guys, considering you ripped off
webcrawler.com for most of your HTML...
Speaking of ripping off...
The recent release of Cadarn has sparked our interest. Apparently the
creator, Polfalk, ripped off most of the graphics from DarkDread's
Secret Of Cooey 2 without permission. We downloaded Cadarn to see for
ourselves...and it was confirmed. However, he tried to justify his
actions by explaining himself in a text file that comes with the game.
Sorry, but that is not enough! He did not ask permission to use the
graphics, therefore, he is a thief. Nowhere on his website does it say
that he's used them, so one only finds out upon downloading the game,
which in itself is questionable, since it is of quite poor quality and
is quite an insult to DarkDread's name. However, he apparently
redeemed himself as he released a version with his own graphics in it.
Since it was so close to this release of QBOA, we have not been able
to verify this yet, but we'll let you know what happens.
New diskmag revealed!
As a response to Razor's delay, several Efnet people had decided to
create their own diskmag. It's apparently still in the early stages as
of now, but it shows promise. QBoA was able to obtain an early copy of
this new diskmag, and it looks pretty impressive, but looks are one
thing, and content is another...we'll see what develops.
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CORRECTIONS
Robert Lee vs. Lord QBASIC
Our sources were not 100% correct...apparently it was LordQBASIC who
made the official challenge. This was confirmed by LordQBASIC himself.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
From Kevin Bryan
Heya, ya print an article about the K man, and I'll reply for ya =).
Last issue (nicely done on the whole, I thought, that Master Creating
game looks yummy; they're definitely one of the top dev teams in
qbasic these days) Big Nose wrote about me not doin' a preview of Kids
of Karendow. I've talked to him a bunch about why I didn't do this,
and I'll re-explain them for ya here.
Firstly, in my opinion, Kids of Karendow just didn't look like a good
game. It was sort of...juvenile. But that's a different style that I'm
used to playing, and can of course be done to good effect; look at
Leisure Suit Larry!
Secondly, I've done previews of only 3 games in 12 issues of Qb:tm.
Those were Dark Ages 2, Project RT, and Eternal Frost. All three were
from people who already had experience making a qbasic game, and all
were games which I heard a lot of email about asking for more
information.
That's right, the people had experience! This is important! It's not
because I don't like the little guy, it's just because there's only so
much space in a magazine every month, I don't like doin' game previews
in the first place, and 99% of games from "the little guy" don't ever
get finished.
It doesn't mean a game is BAD if I didn't want to do a preview on it!
Look at Space-a-Roo2, Freelancer, Shadow of Power, and the umpteen
other kickin' games which I didn't devote a lot of magazine space to!
The surveys I took every issue told me what people wanted to see
covered in the magazine, and you could vote on the survey simply by
clicking on a button on the website!
I suggest to anyone who wanted to be in a feature for qb:tm (or, I
assume, Razor) to spend less time complaining about not getting
"promoted" and spend more time writin' some kick-ass games! Put your
money where your mouth is! And if you don't like how the qbmags are
treatin' ya, start your own, like my man Nek. T'aint as easy as ya
think.
The last thing I'll comment on, though, is Big Nose's comment that
only "big names" wrote for the Mag (such as Darkdread, etc.). Anyone
could write for the mag back in the day! All you had to do was send me
an article and if it was a good quality, whoop, in it went. The people
I sought out to write (such as Darkdread, Petter, etc.) were the ones
who were not "big names", but were EXPERIENCED. Would you rather read
an article on game design from Shigeru Miyamoto or Joe from San
Francisco?
Adios,
kevs
Editor's comments: Hrm..."juvenile" was the idea with KOK, it was
meant to be "funny" and "non-serious", a sort of break from the norm.
However, that stuff about "only so much space" is just wrong. Since
when do these magazines have a size limit? The only thing wrong with
this mag is we generally don't have ENOUGH stuff to print! There is no
such thing as "too much", that was an excuse. Anyways, it is good to
see people defending their point of view.
From Majiko the Evil
I just read the newest issue of QB on ACID
I am impressed.
Can I join the team???
There is going to be BIG competiton between dull Razor and QB on
Acid...hehhe
I want to create a Badmouthing section where I complain about things
in QB like libraries, and trash dumbass QB members like myself! Except
I'm the worst of em all! hahaha! I'm the perfect person to do it, with
my evil rep and all... It will surely attract FLIES! I mean... nice QB
Programmers! Those are very insightful articles too! hehehe better
than QB:The Shit could produce, see, you tell the truth and I likes
that! :)
Can I join???
--Majiko, the evil!
Editor's Note: One of the biggest rules here at QBoA is that ANYONE
can write for the zine, not just the "cool people", so yes, you can
write for the zine, Majiko =)
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Adventure Game Making : Episode 1
**Part 0: Intro
Ok, so you're making an Adventure or an RPG which requires a puzzle
for the player to solve, just to add some brain to the whole shebang.
No prob.
**Part 1: What is a Puzzle:
What is a puzzle? (For those who are new to the Adventure biz) A
puzzle is when you come to a situation in which you must get past an
NPC, or some other obstacle that prevents you from continuing, and
eventually ending the game. Usually, you'll find items by buying,
trading, finding, stealing, whatever, somehow AQUIRING an item, and:
-Using it in an area, which will alter it somehow
-Giving it to somebody, who may give you something in return, be it
info or another item.
-Altering it, either by combining it with another (Or several) other
items, or screwing with the insides or whatnot, and somehow changing
the item to use in a different way.
And then ya use this new item to accomplish the puzzle, and usually
another puzzle presents itself and the whole process starts again.
**Part 2: Why is it so hard?
Why is it so hard? Sometimes they aren't. But usually, it requires
great thought to relate the items to be used together. That's what
makes a good puzzle, if it's creative. So, instead of USING the Pencil
with the Pencil Sharpener (Which isn't original at all), you could use
a small tree in the Pencil Sharpener and somehow end up with a pencil.
=) Understand? Yes or no, read on.
**Part 3: How do I create a Puzzle?
Ok, no prob. All you've gotta do is wait 'til Saturday, grab the
remote, and watch some cartoons on TV. Don't have cable? Splice your
neighbours line, believe me, it's worth it.
Now, let's see what we've got. Ah yes, the infamous RoadRunner and
Coyote cartoon. Now, everybody loves it when you bring in a puzzle
that people will recognize when they see the pieces come together. Say
you have a ROCKET and a GIANT SPRING, and are near a ROCK FACE. Come
on now, we all know what we should do, so why bother explaining it? =)
A word of caution though, some puzzles are overused. Avoid these, or
lose respect in the gaming world. Although, if you take an overused
one, twist it and make fun of it's overusedness, THEN it'll be cool!
=)
**Part 4: Conclusion
That's basically it, I've probably left something out. Oh well.
Questions? Kermit@webjetters.com
Comments? Kermit@webjetters.com
Complaints? Don't bother. =) j/k
That's it. Tut's over.
By The Specialist
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Plots, characters, and bears Oh My!
99.99% of RPG's out there have a stupid-ass "Do this. Do that."
interface. Some culprits are Dark Ages, The Mystical Journey, anything
by Majiko, Diablo (yes even professional games do this), and Final
Fantasy Mystic Quest. These are foolish games where the character is
obviously not human, because he gets up to do EVERYTHING he is told no
matter what it is. The best way to make an RPG, is to have a
progressive plot, and give the character some options. For instance,
the Fallout series allows a broad range of movement, where you decide
where you go and what you do, not some king or lame plot-line.
9 tips for making a non-cliched game and making it FUN:
1) Play your damned game and work on it until you actually like it.
Seriously. If you don't have fun playing it, nobody will. That's a
fact.
2) If your program crashes a lot, or has a bug every so often that
causes things to screw up, your users WILL find out about this and
will be very pissed. Please fix all of your bugs for a more enjoyable
experience for you and your players.
3) Add in some extra stuff. Things like codes at the title screen, or
hidden rooms. Possibly even some fun mini-games. Final Fantasy 3 had
the Coliseum, for example, where you could bet items and win better
items. The same Coliseum could be used to find a character as well.
4) Try something other than "treasure chests" or "swords". How about
backpacks, lockers, dressers, something like that? Also, swords are
horrible to put in your game. Put something in like a lance, a
baseball bat, brass knuckles, or something along the lines of that =].
5) If your plot involves saving someone from something evil, scrap it.
It'll go nowhere.
6) Add some humour! I loved Kids of Karendow because it had humour,
not because it was an ultra serious story. Also, know what parts are
supposed to be serious, and what are supposed to have humour. If a
character dies, don't make your other characters laugh, make them
disturbed, or make them have emotional problems later on in the game.
These details add depth to your story.
7) Weird does NOT equal original. Just because your character is a
ChiChi Warrior! does not make him any less cliched. Also, don't copy
the Chrono Trigger characters, and don't copy anything basically. If
you can't come up with your own plot, make a parody on your own life
story. After all, the easiest character to come up with is yourself
=].
8) Don't be afraid to add some love! For instance, if there's a guy
and a girl and they're travelling together, there's bound to be some
attraction going on.
9) Don't get too wordy with your story. Let the player take it as
he/she goes. For instance, don't make your characters have 10 minute
long conversations unless it's a major part in the story. 80% of time
spent playing an RPG is manueuvering through the world created by the
game, so why not spend some time making it enjoyable? Add some things
like places to explore, caves to spelunk, oceans to walk on, etc. Just
because it's not relevent to the plot doesn't it mean it shouldn't be
there for the enjoyment of the player.
After you've taken a look at your RPG, does it really qualify as a fun
game, or some shoddy product you've shoved out in order to get your
name out there? Is it really an RPG, or is it a hard-plot-lined story
where there's not much imagination? Take a look at your game before
you go around spreading the word of the "BEST RPG EVER!" ok? I've seen
way too many people arrogantly proclaim their game as fun or a great
RPG, when it is total crap (I myself did this a while back, but I have
spent my time building good engines so I can someday make a good game
=)). Don't worry too much about my article though, just keep the
entertainment of the player in mind.
By QbProgger
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RPGs in QB: The NEW Tutorials.
Issue 3, Volume 2: 3D RPG Engine
Hail!
Welcome to the third installment of my new RPG tutorials. If you're
just joining us, the past issues can be found on the Darkness Ethereal
website. The address to the page is at the end of this tutorial.
This time around... The major chunk of the tutorial is in the
3drpg.bas file. But, I still reccommend that you read this, so that
you may familiarize yourself with what we'll be disscussing.
1. A 3D Engine?
Well, not a TRUE 3D engine. If you've ever played Legend of Lith II,
or any of the AD&D Eye of the Beholder games, then you'll know what
this is about.
This engine allows you to create a first person 3D view, where moving
is a character is limited to cell-by-cell movement. What do I mean
when I say cell-by-cell? Picture a normal 2d tile engine, moving
tile-by-tile, only in a first person perspective.
Don't let that fool you though. With this kind of an engine, it is
possible to create a very nice game. Just take a look at Shining the
Holy Ark for the Sega Saturn system if you don't belive me.
2. The code
The Qbasic code is fairly simple to learn. Not as easy as a tile
engine, mind you, but I've kept it as simple as possible. If you wish,
you can fire up QB and run the code now. Take a look at it, and play
around with it. I've added a lot of comments into the code, especially
in the important parts. The main thing that you may wish to look at,
is the DrawLocation sub. This is the meat of the code, and the part
that is used to determine what to draw on the screen.
Okay... That's enough chatter here. Go look at the code!
3. Final words
Well... These tutorials are written for YOU. So tell me what you want
to read about next. I'm almost out of ideas here, so I need YOU to
tell me what you want to know. How about an explanation of shops and
inns? Does that sound good? Or maybe something else... Let me know!
E-mail me darkdread@hotmail.com and let me know what you want!
Visit the Darkness Ethereal site, for more tutorials and some freeware
RPGs: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Ring/1683/index.html
Cheers!
DarkDread
4. Licence
THIS TUTORIAL AND ITS ACCOMPANYING FILES, MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF
CHARGE BY ANY MEANS, SO LONG AS ALL FILES ARE INCLUDED AND NOTHING IS
MODIFIED. THE AUTHOR SHOULD BE GIVEN CREDIT IN YOUR PROGRAMS IF YOU
USE ANY OF THE CODE OR GRAPHICS CONTAINED WITHIN THESE FILES. THE
AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE OR MISUSE OF THESE TUTORIALS.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
By DarkDread
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Libs Good or Evil?
Many of you have probably seen the good, and bad effects of libs,
here's a small list:
Good
1 - Programs seem to be better, faster, and break more limits
2 - Programs are completed faster
3 - Programs require less work
4 - Programs are easy to update, by converting to the newest lib,
instead of re-coding the whole program
Bad
1 - Programmers skip the learning process
2 - Harder to debug, and potential computer crashes
3 - Programmer's can't call the code their own
So, the real problem is...are the Good things REALLY Good, and do the
Good things outweigh the Bad things?
Programs seem better, faster, and break limits - a plus, but since the
code isn't all the programmers, he really doesn't deserve all the
credit. And he doesn't know how to do it on his own.
Programs are completed faster - a plus, but they'll learn to give up
easily, when they try to code it on they're own.
Programs require less work - same as above.
Okay, so are the Good's really better than the Bads?
Well, you've probably noticed the new programmers, who have a LOT of
problems coding their own stuff, and get discouraged when it's not as
easy as playwavfile. So, they get stuck to the libs, and never leave,
and never learn to do it on their own. Meaning the future of qb will
be somewhat non-existant without the lib writers to do the work after
the 160000X100024 screens come out.
So, should we stop using libs? Of course not! The main damage caused,
is when the programmer who is not ready, gets into libs anyway. Pure
qbasic, can still do TONZ more than we've seen. There is no reason to
jump to asm. But, converting the qbasic code, to assembly code, will
most likely provide speed ups. As soon as a person can code in asm,
and has the knowledge to code his own library, I see no harm in him
using someone elses lib. But, when someone who is still mastering
pset, jumps to loadjpeg, he is skipping a huge step, and his learning
will decrease rapidly.
If lib writers keep their code to themselves, their programs will
still be awesome, in fact, they'll look amazing because no one will
steal their ideas. Amazing programs will inspire others, and
programmers will decide to learn it, and Qbasic will move on.
But, the lib writers MUST write tutorials, or programmers will not
learn their secrets, and will resort to ripping their code, which is
even worse than using their libs. Programmers will continue to make
libraries, but they must restrict other's use, to ensure Qbasic goes
on, and programmers remain working.
By Speige
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Give CREDIT Where CREDIT Is DUE
I rarely go on rants like these, but this is a serious issue which
needs to be addressed. It appears that the ripping-off of other's work
is getting out of hand.
This little trend in the QB community seems to have started back a
couple of years, when TheGame was the talk of the town. Several people
saw the work of Tsugumo, and decided to steal his graphics without
permission and use them in their own little excuse for an RPG, and
went as far as to call them their own. I talked with Tsugumo himself
about this, and his general thought was that if they had asked first,
he may have granted permission...however, the fact that they had
stolen them outright was kind of ridiculous. Needless to say, Tsugumo
sorta disappeared from the QB scene not too long afterwards.
Ripping off commercial software is bad enough...but to rip off a
fellow QB coder's work? Now that's just idiotic. I have more respect
for people who draw their own graphics, no matter how lame they are.
Ripping off another QB coder's work is disgraceful. There are some who
rip off others and give credit...this isn't such a bad crime, but it's
still bad. It's still stuff you didn't do...remember the great library
war and code you didn't write? Same idea here folks.
Now, I'm not immune to this. I used ripped graphics in my latest game,
Killers Remix. I took the graphics from commercial games, and I did
give credit to the games, and described where each character came
from, and who they were in their original games. However, I'm a thief
nonetheless. Since I don't have the final graphics in my game yet, I
needed some to fill the gaps for now, and these worked. This is a
common explaination for ripping; temporary graphics until the real
thing is done. In my eyes, this is almost acceptable, however, it's
still sorta wrong. In my case however, I know that I will eventually
replace the graphics with the real ones we're working on, and I don't
claim the current graphics to be original. Master Creating is a coding
group that is becoming very well-known for their cheating ways,
ripping graphics without credit from commercial games and QB coders
alike...Shadow of Power contains mostly ripped graphics from games
like Zelda 3, and contains a few graphics ripped from Syraphage. Their
newest game (portrayed in last issue's Gallery) contains a sprite
ripped from Quake.
It goes beyond artwork however, code ripping is even more common than
artwork ripping. It's called ripping when the original coder is not
credited. This is an area in which I have NEVER been guilty, since it
is only fair to the original coder to have credit. However, I have
seen way too many times where a coder was denied credit for their hard
work. Case in point was very recent, when I visited the homepage of
Dmitri Bryant, noted for his work with SVGA and file formats. After
downloading some of his work, a terrible thought hit me...he'd been
ripping off Aaron Severn for quite some time now without credit. This
was gross. The recent work I've done with SVGA was derived from Aaron,
and I've given full credit to him for his work (I even listed his name
in every SUB in my libs that use his code). This denial of credit by
Mr. Bryant thoroughly disgusted me.
It goes into QB web site design as well! A recent discovery was made
on a newer QB site, known as QNN. Apparently, a lot of their content
was ripped directly from the old QB:TM, including their projects page
and a couple of other sections. According to my sources, other
sections of the site were ripped from NeoZones and a couple other
sites. What the hell is this all about?
The ripping...will it ever stop? Has modern-day technology made us all
too lazy to do our own work? I don't know. I do know however that
although I am guilty of these crimes, I can at least accept
responsibility for that, and I don't try to take credit away from the
original creators. Others are not so kind. Maybe someday, when they
are sitting in a jail cell somewhere, or are forced to work four jobs
to pay off a steep fine, then they might learn...or not.
By Nekrophidius
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Nexus 13
Product Review
Well, I received an email from the creator of this library, Eclipzer,
wanting me to review his great new Nexus 13 library, programmed in
100% QB. So I did, and here's what I saw...
THE PROS
Well, it's all QB code, I guess that could be counted as a plus. For
something like this to be done in QB code is quite rare, and for what
it does, it's got pretty good speed. The potential is there.
THE CONS
The library is horribly inefficient with its sprite routines,
requiring twice as much memory than usual. The guess is that this
speeds up blitting, since no bitshifting is required, but this is very
inefficient. The supplied demos were very jittery. Not to mention not
all that impressive. DEMO003.BAS was probably the most
impressive...however, it was also the slowest. And what the hell is
the point of auto-masking? This seems stupid as hell, but it is always
possible that he used the term wrong, since his code was so damned
cryptic that even I couldn't figure out what the purpose was.
THE SKINNY
Well...it works...that's about all I can say for this. It certainly
doesn't even compare in speed to Dash or DirectQB. Not even close. The
functions are wasteful and the library is larger than it needs to be,
so if you use this, expect some unneccessary overhead. What really
kills it for me is the total overhyping of this thing. This guy acts
as if his library owns all else. Which couldn't be further from the
truth. Although this shows talent and hard work, that is quickly
erased by this guy's large ego problem. A message to
Eclipzer...respect is earned by deeds done, not by hyping yourself up.
Ego trips will make you lose respect, not earn it. Get off your high
horse and realize that you're certainly not the best coder in the
world (QBV is pure QB code and is MUCH faster than your lib) so please
stop trying to act like you are, it is quite insulting to the rest of
us.
Anyways, I do recommend you check out this lib, whether or not you
take this guy seriously or not is your decision. But like we always
say, we tell it how it is here, and if anyone has a problem with that,
then oh well, because honesty is what we base our zine on, not hype
and buttkissing. You can find this file here, along with all kinds of
other hype and rhetoric about how great this guy is.
By Nekrophidius
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
This issue's Quote Of The Month goes to, of all people,
Robert Lee
This little gem was spotted very recently on NeoZones' WWW board. The
story behind this is sort of long, but here's the quote, then the
story...
Haven't you heard of PCOPY?
Okay, this may make no sense at first. However, this is based on a
recent post made by Wafn. He was trying to make a mode 13h
buffer-to-buffer copying routine. And Robert spurts out the quote of
the month. Now, Robert Lee thinks he's a great coder. However, if he
had been so great, he would have noticed that the example code that
Wafn had written is set to move exactly 64000 bytes from a linear
buffer to a linear screen array, and the only standard screen mode
capable of an arrangement like this is 13h, which just so happens to
be incapable of PCOPY (which pretty much everyone knows), which is
what makes this funny as hell...
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THE END
Well, that's it for this issue. Sorry it's late, but at least we
didn't put it out over a month and a half late (heheh like some
diskmag I know about...oops) but it was late, but mainly due to lack
of material. So, to prevent lateness next time, we need your stuff!
Send us your letters, reviews of QB stuff or QB related stuff,
screenshots of upcoming games/projects, news, anything! We're
open-format, so anyone has the right to be heard here. There is no set
release date for the next issue, but it will be out before Y2K. Be
warned...the world's gunna blow up! MWUAHAHAH! So get QBoA while it's
hot! You won't have time to read it when you're hurtling through
space! Cya next time!
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