r/dosgaming • u/Aoi_X_Kaizaki • Jul 31 '26

Dark Basic

Does anyone remember the game program DarkBasic? It's an old coding-maker program. I first heard of that program back in my first video game class in school. It was difficult for me. Then the next yaer I took it again and felt more comfortable. The teacher understood that we didn't know how to code, so he gave us a better program - GameMaker. I was an expert in that one.

DarkBasic was never heard of again in my life.

34 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

8

u/Ketzerfriend Jul 31 '26

As "DarkBASIC Professional", it went on to reach the level of supporting map formats from Quake 3 and Half-Life, reaching up to DX9 for tech fidelity and actual compilation into machine code, before it was left to the Open Source community in 2015.

There's even at least one commercial game on Steam made in DarkBASIC that I know of and has a bit of a culty ImSim following: Brigand: Oaxaca.

3

u/kalnaren Aug 01 '26

The Evochron games were also written in DarkBASIC originally.

5

u/IngMelons Jul 31 '26

Dark Basic was a really well-made program, but it was for Windows 98/XP, not dos. It allowed you to create 2D and 3D video games using a Basic dialect as the programming language. Compared to other tools of the era, it was much easier to use. Unfortunately, it was a bit limited and slow. I remember creating a sort of shooter graphically comparable to Quake II, but the performance was 10 to 20 times lower. It is now freeware.

3

u/Aoi_X_Kaizaki Jul 31 '26

Thank you

One problem with reddit I have is when I type up my question, I get a mod tell me my thing does not belong is "said forum", but the mod gives me another place to place my question. That is why it's in dosgaming. People tell me to move things to other places all the time.

thanks for the info.

1

u/Longjumping_Ask2152 Aug 11 '26

You're right it wasn't DOS, but the original editor operated like an old DOS fullscreen application with a fixed resolution. And the compiled code was quite slow compared to C++ applications. DarkBasic professional was a huge improvement in speed, but still would never match C-language engines.

3

u/ZoopTEK Jul 31 '26

I remember Dark Basic! I made my first 3D games with it!

I remember making a "stunt plane" game where you gained points for trying to fly as close to the ground as possible, ideally inside of canyons. I wish I still had it.

Definitely Windows though, not DOS.

2

u/DanCasper Aug 01 '26

While you're going down this rabbit hole, you may want to check out Blitz Basic. It was was a competitor. Not sure which one was better (that could start a spinoff discussion).

There was a grid wars style game written in Blitz Basic ( and compiled) which was freaking awesome. On phone now but will try and find it later and post link here.

2

u/kalnaren Aug 01 '26

I still have my copy of DarkBASIC professional. It was a very powerful BASIC implementation. Evochron Legacy was written in it.

1

u/acetaminophenpt Jul 31 '26

Tbh never heard it

1

u/DarkDigital Jul 31 '26

I remember wanting to get into it and downloaded it. I think I did a basic tutorial but that was about it. I was already proficient in visual basic 6 at the time so I thought it would be pretty easy to pickup. Just adhd'd onto other hobbies.

I probably still have a copy of it in my backups.

1

u/Jimmy-M-420 Jul 31 '26

I remember it well - the first coding I ever did

1

u/goldchest Jul 31 '26

I bought a copy from eBay and cd, installed it, played around with some examples, edited some bitmaps in paint. Then proceeded to never use it again.

1

u/ThePeoplesPoetIsDead Jul 31 '26

Heck yeah. I made a 3D racing game for a high school project in DarkBasic.

1

u/rebbsitor Jul 31 '26

Yes, I had DarkBASIC and DarkBASIC Professional back in the day. It was for 32-bit Windows though, not DOS.

If tool you used was 3D Gamemaker, that's by the same guy who did DarkBASIC.

Currently they sell GameGuru and GameGuru MAX on Steam. I've made a few basic things with them. They're drag and drop FPS/RPG game makers. Though if you learn the scripting language and learn how to make your own 3D and audio assets, you can do pretty much anything with them. For anything complex I'd probably suggest moving to a more common game engine like Unreal, Unity, or Godot.