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General Questions: What software do you use to make your programs? What restrictions do you have on your games? How did you get started? Why do you program? What tools do you use? Where can I buy DarkBASIC? How do you make a game? What does the DarkBASIC language look like? How do I unzip a zipped file? Troubleshooting: When I double-click on a zipped folder it won't open and when I right-click on it the "Extract all..." option is not displayed. Why is this? When I try to post my score on Ice Hockey II it freezes the computer. Why is this? Can it be fixed? I can't see the text on Text Blaster when I play it. Is there some way I can fix this? When I run Codename Countdown I get an error saying it can't load the music/animations. Can this be fixed? When I try to play one of your games it crashes for me asking for "d3drm.dll". What should I do? All games produced by Trek have been created using the DarkBASIC programming language. You can visit their website at thegamecreators.com to see more games produced using the DarkBASIC language. Q - What restrictions do you have on your games? All software produced by Trek has the following guidlines set on them. You may use the media, alter the graphics or models, and change the code (if included). However, you may not claim credit for any production made by Trek or sell anything produced by our company without our express, written permission. Since we do not currently have a wide-range of test computers, we cannot be sure of the results produced by running any of our games. Therefore you must play them at your own risk. We cannot be responsible for any negative effects produced by running them. Q - How did you get started? Sometime in the spring of '04, D3 bought DarkBASIC and the "Beginner's Guide to DarkBASIC Game Programming". After reading through the part of the book on text, he made his first program - Etch-A-Sketch. After this, he continued to read the chapter on 2D and while reading it made a game with a mix between text and graphics called Text Blaster. When he finished the 2D chapter, he made his first completely graphics based game - Skeet Shootout. Then he continued on to finished the book and program Trek's first completely 3D game called Sub Hunter. CB, on the other hand, took the fast track and read right through the whole book making several partial games on the way and then plunged right into 3D for his first complete program, Soccer Extreme. Q - Why Do You Program?
Q - What tools do you use?
Q - Where can I get DarkBASIC? You can get this popular software from many places but the following websites are the most likely to have it. Q - How do you make a game? Making a game consists of alot more than just the typing in of the code. It really consists of four parts. The first part is planning the game. This consists of thinking up the idea to begin with, planning the specifics of each level, deciding on the menu style, and even choosing the theme text font. Then comes the actual making of the game itself. I start with a few basic 3D models or graphics and then, with that as a base, start programming and making more models and graphics as the game needs them. After this comes the menu and intro. The intro can be as simple as the showing of a title screen like in Text Blaster, a slightly animated version of the title screen that transitions into the menu as in Sub Hunter, or a full blown 3D intro as in Clue and Alley Squirrel. Finally comes the debug process. This consists of connecting the menu and intro and game together and checking every possibile thing that can be done with the program to make sure there are no bugs. Some really aweseome games made with DarkBASIC have been flawed by multiple bugs due to action un-anticipated by the programmer. For example, in Alley Squirrel I didn't initially realize that in Level 2 someone could make the Squirrel fall right off the top platform without getting the help file and consequently get stuck. During the debug process, however, I realized that someone could do that and solved the problem by deleting the help file if they hit the floor before reading it. And the final step is downsizing the game files so that it'll fit on the web and people can download it without waiting all day. Q - What does the DarkBASIC language look like? Here is a sample section of code that makes a simple object, colors it blue, and rotates it while the left mouse button is being clicked:
All my games come in zipped files so that 1) They are smaller size and 2) It protects the executables from my upload system that disables them when they are uploaded directly. To unzip the file, do the following steps:
Q - When I double-click on a zipped folder it won't open and when I right-click on it the "Extract all..." option is not displayed. Why is this? This problem is most likely due to a lack of WinZIP or another program that can unzip zipped folders. Installing WinZIP should solve this problem. Q - When I try to post my score on Ice Hockey II it freezes the computer. Why is this? Can it be fixed? The most probable reason for this is because of the new security measures found in Microsoft XP Service Pack 2. If you have certain features activated, it will block any program from accessing the internet. This can usually be fixed by going to your Control Panel, switching to Classic View (if not already in this mode), and double-clicking on "Windows Firewall". At this point, if it is turned on, you can do one of two things. 1) You can simply turn it off 2) You can go to the "Exceptions" tab, click "Add Program", click "Browse", and select the Ice Hockey II executable (found in C:/Program Files/Ice Hockey II). Q - I can't see the text on Text Blaster when I play it. Is there some way I can fix this? I've only heard of this problem happening once and it was because the computers desktop resolution was set higher than 1024 x 768. None of my programs are designed to run at resolutions higher than 1024 x 768 and therefore unpredictable results such as that can be expected. To change your desktop resolution, Right-click anywhere there is free space on your desktop and come down to the "Display Modes" option. After that, select whatever option is checked (high color or true color) and choose the "1024 by 768" resolution from the list of choices. Q - When I run Codename Countdown I get an error saying it can't load the music/animations. Can this be fixed? In some cases, yes. This problem can be solved by getting Windows Media Player 10 from www.Microsoft.com. You should also make sure you have DirectX 9.0C in order for it to run correctly. Q - When I try to play one of your games it crashes for me asking for "d3drm.dll". What should I do? For some reason with Windows Vista this happens to almost all of our DarkBASIC Classic productions. The good news is that it's very easy to resolve. To fix the problem, download the dll here, copy it to C:/Windows/System32 and you should be all set to go. If not, you can register on the forum and post your problem there. |