PlayBasic is full featured game creation language for windows. It was designed to make 2D game programming easier for beginners, retro gamers, right through to experienced game designers.

PlayBasic supports up to 8 open projects simultaniously.

It achieves this via including as many inbuilt features as possible, letting you work on constructing your game, rather than learning the many techniques behind it. It's this approach that makes Play Basic the best gateway to learning programming and game design on the PC. Just Like AMOS, and STOS did on the Amiga / Atari ST machines!

Since PlayBasic focues upon game creation, it includes a wealth of graphical features & effects. From Mapping, Sprites, Image effects, 2D Cameras, Vector Shapes, Texture Mapping through to a full set of traditional 2D vector art. The graphics engine also includes support for various special effects like Alpha Blending (variable, additive, subtractive), Rotation, Scaling, logical masking through to Raster Bar and real time Colour Replacement.

PlayBasic aims at compatibility first! over exploiting the latest DirectX hardware. So your computer doesn't require the latest 3D video hardware to use Play Basic. Nor do the games you create. SO they'll work on as many systems as possible. So you can share your programs with the world.

The package comes with a comprehensive programming environment, built in debugger as well 100's of examples and Help files to get you started. If that's not enough, We are always open to hearing your feedback on PlayBasic. We want it to be as powerful, flexible and of course FUN as possible.

So have fun creating !

PlayBasic is a powerful game making tool, based upon the Easy-To-Use Basic programming language. PB was developed by game enthusiasts for game enthusiasts and incorporates more than 20 years experience in the field. Our aim is to produce a language that would give users great flexibility, while providing them with a solid feature set for rapid game development. We want everybody to experience the fun and challenge of game making again.

Since PlayBasic is all about making games, it provides you with a wealth of graphical features at your finger tips. Ranging from Mapping (Creating worlds), Sprites, Image effects, Cameras, Vector Shapes, Texture Mapping through to a full set of traditional 2D vector art (Dots/lines/boxes through to polygons).

Sprite capabilities are one the most critical parts of a game programming language. PlayBasics sprite engine not only supports Rotation / Scaling / Flipping and Sprite Depth, but it also includes various real time image manipulation effects such as Alpha Blending (Variable, Additive, Subtractive), logical masking through to Raster Bar and real time Colour Replacement just to name a few.

But, what would good is a game making language be without a good collision system ? Virtually useless ! So we've built in support for up to seven different collision methods. Including Pixel Perfect Collision, Rect, Rotated Rect, Circular , Polygonal, Sliding and Sticky modes. Collision modes can be rotated / scaled and even mixed. Allowing you to can mix vector collision modes with pixel perfect collision and vice versa. Making PlayBasic's collision system arguable the most advanced available !

PlayBasic package comes with a comprehensive code editor, built in Debugger, Helper Tools and over 400 hundred examples to get you started. Moreover, we are always open to your feedback! We want PlayBasic to be as powerful, flexible and of course as much FUN as possible.

For all the latest information on PlayBasic keep checking the home page and be sure to sign up on the forums for live updates.

Requirements:

· Pentium II 500 or above


Limitations:

· 120 days trial

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· This release represents a massive overhaul of the previous PlayBASIC V1.62 demo. The V1.62c package not only includes the latest bug fixes and optimizations, but new cross referenced help files and the newly updated example pack