Great stuff!

[catventure]

Hi,

I'm new here. Just downloaded ThinBasic. Have run the examples. Am using Win98. Seems Ok. Very impressed. Like the string commands and console support... Also the ThinBasic crypting stuff.
I'm thinking of making/updating my text adventure/interactive fiction game maker. Made it a few years ago using a 16-bit Liberty BASICv2.
Looking forward to seeing IDE and using windows edit controls in future releases... Currently familiarising myself with the help docs and language. Sure looks and reads good!! Well done - and I like what you've done so far. Terrific.

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Catventure,

It looks your dreams becames true ! The preview version of thinBASIC already contains thinAir - very nice IDE by Roberto, although some features are still under development.

The preview support for windows looking dialogs and controls is there too, in the SampleScripts\UI\Calculator for example - buttons, texboxes, comboboxes, even colors ...

The idea of making game in thinBASIC ( both text mode / OpenGL 3D ) is nice. The string handling functions and console module are ideal for text based input/operations, and thinBASIC itself is becoming faster and faster with each version, so 3D game is possible too !


Regards,
Psch

[catventure]

Hello,

It's going to be fun with this adventure project. I don't foresee any probs using arrays to hold the adventure data for the various game vocabulary, objects, locations, messages, characters etc. Can probably make an IDE eventually to enter/store this info for saving to a file (encrypted)
I shall make a parser to interpret player input for game responses and a scripting language for various conditions and actions that can be used...
I'm envisioning the actual game display will be like those old Infocom, Magnetic Scrolls, Level 9 type text adventures where the game prints an input prompt such as

What now?
>get the rope and tie it to the branch

You now have the rope
You carefully tie the long rope to the branch of the old oak tree.

Think I'd rather output the adventure text to a window with a scrollable text control (maybe richedit?) with a "Press Any Key to continue" prompt if the viewable area fills with text. After a keypress any further text needed to be shown would be printed etc....

Should be fun.

[Petr Schreiber]

Yup !

That would be really nice. When I was young :), I was making text adventures too.

In Windows I solved it with one scrollable editbox ( to display actual situation ), and the other actions were under buttons, which were automatically generated. And the listbox on the side was the "inventory" -> by doubleclicking it you could use the object. That's easy to make with thinBASIC preview ...
If you need any help, tell me.

Have fun,
Psch

[catventure]

Hi Psch,

Thanks for your reply and comments. I'll download and have a look at the preview you mentioned. I'm pleased that you find an adventure project interesting and worth pursuing with ThinBasic. It certainly seems quite powerful and fast enough to do what I envisage...
My 16-bit engine is desperately in need of a makeover but works on win98 upwards. If you want to take a look go here:
http://www.richmond62.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm
Would be 10 times better using ThinBasic I'd imagine :)
Since you have done something similar, I appreciate your offer of help with ideas and advice and as an expreienced adventure maker would value your comments later when I've got something ready.

Cheers,
catventure

[ErosOlmi]

Hi catventure,

welcome aboard.

I hope thinBasic will be able to second your needs. In any case consider this project is just at the beginning so you are in the position to ask us to develop some feature you may consider missing into the language. We will be very happy to integrate new functionalities or even develop some specific modules.

Originally thinBasic was not developed to be executed under OS below Win2000. But thanks to Psch we were able to perform some test also under Win98 and WinMe. In any case expect some functionalities not working or working strange under Win98. Please report them to us under Bug reporting forum and we will do our best to fix them and immediatelly release a new version.

Thanks a lot
Eros

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Catventure,

I'v downloaded your engine from the web you'v posted and I'm impressed.
The atmosphere of old good adventures is back !

I think you will be able to do it perfectly in thinBASIC. It has really large set of commands and Eros is able to implement new ones in lightning-speed, when requested.

Let me know how's your project going!


Psch

[catventure]

Psch,

Glad you found time to take a look. Being 16bit its a tad slow and creaky and some things aren't compatible with XP... You possibly now have an idea as to what I'm trying to accomplish when I update it under ThinBasic. Now the adventure text display I made for it used a vscroll, readonly RICHEDIT control rather than the limitations of a simple text edit control. I could output text in bold, underlined italic or combinations and different colours etc.. Ideal. I have no doubts that all the other adventure building routines will be able to be done in ThinBASIC, but the thing that counts to the player of the adventure is the adventure text display - hence my questions in this regard. It's important to know that I am able to control the text display and the scrolling before coding the rest of the stuff. :)

Regards,
catventure

[ErosOlmi]

catventure,

I've worked a bit on richedit. I think to be able to give you something usable by this week-end. Control is already in place plus some messages. I'm working on fonts and other formatting stuff.

After that I will work on an image control, I think in the beginning working only on BMP files but in future I will try to add a native or 3rd party image control, I will see.

Ciao
Eros