DarkBASIC Professional

Slow.
Innefficient.
Weak.
Lame.

Just a few of the words I can use to describe the completely evil, horrible software people call darkBASIC Professional.

I am going to describe how awful this stuff is. The main problem is really the incredibly slow, innefficient code that is encumbered by the BASIC language. The included tutorials are so cryptic that it would take someone who already knows how to program (me) to understand it. Not only does it delude people into thinking that they know how to program graphics when they really can't, but it also skips over the "hard parts" of programming, thus making it impossible to use pointers.

It also makes implementing graphics considerably harder. With Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition(free), you can import you're graphics fairly easily using the included directX tools, or simply code it out yourself.

This software makes it impossible to do the latter. Its irritating, frustrating debugger doesn't catch any of the bugs for you, like a good c++ compiler (CodeBlocks...Free) will.

I hate this software, get a free compiler, and man up to learn C++

I bought this, installed it, patched it, and then started going through the rather incomplete and disorganized documentation. The examples I played around with all worked fine. I started writing my own program, a simple math game with basic sprites and speech. I wrote a simple speech and graphics routine, which mostly worked. I wanted to try to figure out why one of my functions was going into an infinite loop and so I started the Debug mode, so I could watch what the variables were doing (very simple, basic, and common programming practice). Blat - debug mode crashes. Debug mode works on much simpler programs and for the few examples I tried out, but on my 200 line routine it generates exceptions. After the crash, I opened my project and found that everything I had written in my source had been reverted to an old version. I know for a fact that it was saved many times since then, but for some reason it decided to recall an old version for loading, as if all my Saves after an arbitrary point never happened. If I can't run debug mode on my programs or save my sources, then what's the point of this software? Complete and total buggy garbage.

DarkBasic Professional has a nicely written manual and is pretty powerful. If you're looking to make a Quake-like game, you may be dissappointed to find that it does not have a graphics editor or a map editor. Those you are going to have to purchase (or download) separately. It would be nice if there was an OpenSource graphics suite available.

If you're looking to create the next Doom 3 or Half-Life 2, then I can't really recommend this program. If you want to make an advanced FPS game, or a simple pong game, then I can recommend Dark Basic. In fact, Dark Basic Professional is probably capable of creating any kind of game that you can come up with. The catch? You have to program it yourself, all from scratch. Dark Basic makes manipulating 3D data extremely easy, but it's not a game creation package which lets you click and create. If you are determined enough, it's easy to learn all of Dark Basic's commands, as half of programming a game is in the logic. Dark Basic will hardly limit you, and will give you capabilities that were probably impossibly hard for you to use in C++. The end result of creating a game from scratch results in a tremendous sense of satisfaction, especially when you share it with friends and family. Although previous versions of Dark Basic Professional had some hardly crippling bugs, most of them have been eliminated, and with the release of upgrade 6.0, DBPro is a very stable development engine. Overall, I totally recommend this to anyone who wants to create a game, but is determined enough to learn how.

I give the DB Pro 5 stars, but I am totally disappointed in Amazon.com and The Gamecreaters, heres why

The first thing I noticed is my box is different than that shown here... http://darkbasicpro.thegamecreators.com

I didnt recieve any of the free software stated in the link above

I cant find the
Over 45 Demo's
Over 25 Tutorials
Over 600 Textures
Over 120 Sound Effects
900 3D Models
That is stated here...
http://darkbasic.thegamecreators.com/

I applied the .59 upgrade patch and now my program wont start. It says its missing MSVCR71.dll file.

The original version was 1.05

I cant believe the darkbasic.com is advertising this product, yet Amazon.com is shipping some ancient version. Hopefully I will be able to resolve this issue...