Blitz BASIC

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BlitzBasic

Developer(s)	Blitz Research Ltd.
Written in	Compiled to C++, but the languages are dialects of BASIC
Operating system	IDE for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Platform	Crossplatform
Available in	English
Type	Game creation system
License	Proprietary
Website	BlitzBasic

Blitz BASIC refers to the programming language dialect that was interpreted by the first Blitz compilers, devised by New Zealand-based developer Mark Sibly. Being derived from BASIC, Blitz syntax was designed to be easy to pick-up for beginners first learning to program. The languages are game-programming orientated but are often found general-purpose enough to be used for most types of application. The Blitz language evolved as new products were released, with recent incarnations offering support for more advanced programming techniques such as object-orientation and multi-threading. This led to the languages losing their BASIC moniker in later years. ^[1]

History

The first iteration of the Blitz language was created for the Amiga platform and published by the Australian firm Memory and Storage Technology. Returning to New Zealand, Blitz2 was published several years later by Acid Software (a local Amiga game publisher). Since then, Blitz compilers have been released on several platforms.

BlitzBasic

Idigicon published BlitzBasic for Microsoft Windows in October 2000. The language included a built-in API for performing basic 2D-graphics and audio operations. Following the release of Blitz3D, BlitzBasic is often synonymously referred to as Blitz2D.

Recognition of BlitzBasic increased when a limited range of "free" versions were distributed on popular UK computer magazines such as PC Format. This resulted in a legal dispute between the developer and publisher which was eventually resolved amicably.

Versions

Blitz3D

Blitz3D was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2001, competing with other similar PC game-development languages of the time (such as Dark Basic). Blitz3D extended BlitzBasic's command-set with the inclusion of an API for a DirectX 7-based 3D engine.

Although originally Blitz3D's distribution rights were owned by Idigicon, Blitz Research Ltd. later signed a deal with the firm so as to allow Blitz Research Ltd. to distribute Blitz3D themselves. In return, Idigicon were granted full rights to distribute BlitzBasic and to clear any outstanding stock copies of Blitz3D.

BlitzPlus

In February 2003, Blitz Research Ltd. released BlitzPlus also for Microsoft Windows. It lacked the 3D engine of Blitz3D, but did bring new features to the 2D side of the language by implementing limited Microsoft Windows control support for creating native GUIs. Backwards compatibility of the 2D engine was also extended, allowing compiled BlitzPlus games and applications to run on systems that might only have DirectX 1.

BlitzMax

BlitzMax
Paradigm(s)	imperative, object-oriented, modular, reflective
Appeared in	2004
Designed by	Mark Sibly
Developer	Blitz Research Ltd.
Stable release	1.42 (March 31, 2011 (2011-03-31))
Typing discipline	Static, Weak, Strong (Optional)
Influenced by	BlitzBasic
Influenced	Monkey
OS	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

The first BlitzMax compiler was released in December 2004 for Mac OS X. This made it the first Blitz dialect that could be compiled on *nix platforms. Compilers for Microsoft Windows and Linux were subsequently released in May 2005. BlitzMax brought the largest change of language structure to the modern range of Blitz products by extending the type system to include object-oriented concepts and modifying the graphics API to better suit OpenGL. BlitzMax was also the first of the Blitz languages to represent strings internally using UCS2, allowing native-support for strings literals composed of non-ASCII characters.

BlitzMax's platform-agnostic command-set allows developers to compile and run source code on multiple platforms. However the official compiler and build chain will only generate binaries for the platform that it is executing on. Unofficially, users have been able to get Linux and Mac OS X to cross-compile to the Windows platform.

BlitzMax is also the first modular version of the Blitz languages, improving the extensibility of the command-set. In addition, all of the standard modules shipped with the compiler are open-source and so can be tweaked and recompiled by the programmer if necessary. The official BlitzMax cross-platform GUI module (known as MaxGUI) allows developers to write GUI interfaces for their applications on Linux (FLTK), Mac (Cocoa) and Windows. Various user-contributed modules extend the use of the language by wrapping such libraries as wxWidgets, Cairo, Fontconfig as well as a selection of database modules. There are also a selection of third-party 3D modules available namely MiniB3D^[2] - an open-source OpenGL engine which can be compiled and used on all 3 of BlitzMax's supported platforms.

In October 2007, BlitzMax 1.26 was released which included the addition of a reflection module.^[3] BlitzMax 1.32 shipped new threading and Lua scripting modules and most of the standard library functions have been updated so that they are unicode friendly.^[4]

Blitz3D SDK

Blitz3D SDK is a 3D graphics engine based on the engine in Blitz3D. It was marketed for use with C++, C#, BlitzMax and PureBasic, however it could also be used with other languages that follow compatible calling conventions. As of January 2011, Blitz3D SDK is no longer listed for sale on the official Blitz website.

Max3D module

In 2008, the source code to Max3D - a C++-based cross-platform 3D engine - was released under a BSD license. The engine focused on OpenGL but had an abstract backend for other graphics drivers (such as DirectX) and made use of several open-source libraries, namely Assimp, Boost and ODE.

Despite the excitement in the Blitz community of Max3D being the eagerly awaited successor to Blitz3D, interest and support died off soon after the source code was released and eventually development came to a halt. There is no indication that Blitz Research will pickup the project again.

Monkey and Mojo

In 2011, BRL released a new cross-platform programming language called Monkey and its first official module called Mojo. Monkey has a similar syntax to BlitzMax, but instead of compiling direct to assembly code, it translates Monkey source files directly into source for a chosen language, framework or platform e.g. Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, HTML5, Flash, and much more.

Sample code

The following code creates a windowed application that shows the current time in binary and decimal format. This code is written in Blitz Basic, but will compile and run in both Blitz3D and BlitzPlus. See below for the same example written in BlitzMax.

 AppTitle "Binary Clock"
 Graphics 150,80,16,3
  ;Copy, modify and redistribute this source with no limit
 
  ;#####################################################
  ;                      MAIN LOOP
  ;#####################################################
 
  ;create a timer that means the main loop will be
  ;executed twice a second
 secondtimer=CreateTimer(2)
 Repeat
 
 	Hour = Left(CurrentTime$(),2)
 	Minute = Mid(CurrentTime$(),4,2)
 	Second = Right(CurrentTime$(),2)
 
 	If Hour >= 12 Then PM = 1
 	If Hour > 12 Then Hour = Hour - 12
 	If Hour = 0 Then Hour = 12
 
 	;should do this otherwise the PM dot will be
 	;left up once the clock rolls past midnight!
 	Cls
 
 	Color(0,255,0) ;make the text green for the PM part
 	If PM  = 1 Then Text 5,5,"PM"
 	;set the text colour back to white for the rest
 	Color(255,255,255)
 
 	For bit=0 To 5
 		xpos=20*(6-bit)
 
 		binaryMask=2^bit
 
 		;do hours
 		If (bit<4)
 			If (hour And binaryMask)
 				Text xpos,5,"1"
 			Else
 				Text xpos,5,"0"
 			EndIf
 		EndIf
 
 		;do the minutes
 		If (minute And binaryMask)
 			Text xpos,25,"1"
 		Else
 			Text xpos,25,"0"
 		EndIf
 
 		;do the seconds
 		If (second And binaryMask)
 			Text xpos,45,"1"
 		Else
 			Text xpos,45,"0"
 		EndIf
 	Next
 
 	;make the text red for the decimal time
 	Color(255,0,0)
 	Text 5,65,"Decimal: " + CurrentTime$()
 	;set the text back to white for the rest
 	Color(255,255,255)
 
 	;will wait half a second
 	WaitTimer(secondTimer)
 Forever

BlitzMax version of the above clock:

 AppTitle = "Binary Clock"
 Graphics 145,85
 
 secondtimer = CreateTimer(2)
 Repeat
 
         Hour = CurrentTime()[..2].ToInt()
         Minute = CurrentTime()[4..6].ToInt()
         Second = CurrentTime()[6..].ToInt()
 
         If Hour >= 12 Then PM = 1
         If Hour > 12 Then Hour = Hour - 12
         If Hour = 0 Then Hour = 12
 
         'should do this otherwise the PM dot will be
         'Left up once the clock rolls past midnight!
         Cls
 
         SetColor(0,255,0) 'make the text green For the PM part
         If PM  = 1 Then DrawText "PM",5,5
         'set the text colour back To white For the rest
         SetColor(255,255,255)
 
         For bit=0 Until 6
                 xpos=20*(6-bit)
                 binaryMask=2^bit
                 'do hours
                 If (bit<4)
                         If (hour & binaryMask)
                                 DrawText "1",xpos,5
                         Else
                                 DrawText "0",xpos,5
                         EndIf
                 EndIf
 
                 'do the minutes
                 If (minute & binaryMask)
                         DrawText "1", xpos,25
                 Else
                         DrawText "0", xpos,25
                 EndIf
 
                 'do the seconds
                 If (second & binaryMask)
                         DrawText "1",xpos,45
                 Else
                         DrawText "0",xpos,45
                 EndIf
         Next
 
         'make the text red For the decimal time
         SetColor(255,0,0)
         DrawText "Decimal: " + CurrentTime(),5,65
         'set the text back To white For the rest
         SetColor(255,255,255)
 
 	 Flip
 
         'will wait half a second
         WaitTimer(secondTimer)
 	 If KeyHit(KEY_ESCAPE) Then Exit
 Forever

Notable software written using BlitzBasic

Eschalon: Book I - BlitzMax
Eschalon: Book II - BlitzMax
Fairway Solitaire - BlitzMax
Grid Wars - BlitzMax
Platypus - Blitz2D (Mac port, BlitzMax)
Worms - originally titled Total Wormage and developed in Blitz Basic on the Amiga before its commercial release^[5]

References

External links

Official website Blitz Research, BlitzBasic author, distributor
wxMax for BlitzMax Brucey's wxWidgets language binding for BlitzMax
MaxMods for BlitzMax Brucey's mods for BlitzMax
Blitz BASIC on the Open Directory Project
BlitzBasic on WikiWikiWeb
Modules for BlitzMax
Blitz3DFr Official site of the French Blitz Basic community
German BlitzBasic site
Socoder A friendly coding community
Russian electronic BlitzBasic-related magazine "Blitz Et Cetera"
BlitzBasic codebase Code archive
BlitzMonkeys.com Indie Coders Community Forums
Grey Alien BlitzMax Game Framework (No longer for sale)
Misc BlitzMax modules a selection of useful modules for BlitzMax including Theora movie playback
Blitzforum.de German portal inclusive forum and German command reference
BitBrothers Team Site Polish portal of BlitzBasic language
Dark Bit Factory & Gravity Demoscene coding site
T-C's Blitz Tutorials Learn making games using Blitz
(French) Site non officiel : http://blitz3d.serveur.free.fr/
BlitzBullet wrapper of Bullet (software) physics library for Blitz3D
Digital Wizard's Lab - BlitzMax framework for making 2D and isometric games

Books on Blitz Basic

Learn to Program 2D Games in Blitz Basic by John "Krylar" Logsdon, (2003)
Game Programming for Teens by Maneesh Sethi, (2003), ISBN 1-59200-068-1
Games Programming for the Absolute Beginner with BlitzMax by Sloan Kelly, ISBN 0-9553771-0-2
3D Game Programming for Teens by Eric Grebler, (2006) ISBN 1-59200-900-X
3D Game Programming for Teens, 2nd edition by Maneesh Sethi, (2009) ISBN 1-59863-843-2

v t e Dialects of the BASIC programming language (list)

Classic	Altair BASIC Applesoft BASIC Atari BASIC Atari Microsoft BASIC Atari ST BASIC BASIC A+ BASIC Programming BASIC XE BASIC XL Color BASIC Commodore BASIC Dartmouth BASIC Family BASIC G-BASIC GFA BASIC GW-BASIC HP BASIC for OpenVMS IBM BASIC Integer BASIC Locomotive BASIC Mallard BASIC Microsoft BASIC MSX BASIC ScriptBasic Sinclair BASIC Southampton BASIC System STOS BASIC TI BASIC (TI 99/4A) TI-BASIC (calculators) Tiny BASIC Turbo-Basic XL UBASIC Vilnius BASIC

Procedure-oriented	AmigaBASIC AMOS BASIC BBC BASIC Beta BASIC DarkBASIC FreeBASIC FutureBASIC GFA BASIC GLBasic Liberty BASIC Microsoft Small Basic PowerBASIC PureBasic QBasic QB64 QuickBASIC SmallBASIC SuperBASIC ThinBasic True BASIC Turbo Basic XBasic Xblite Basic4ppc Visual Test

With object extensions	AutoIt Basic For Qt BlitzMax Chipmunk Basic FreeBASIC Gambas GLBasic Monkey OpenOffice Basic PowerBASIC ProvideX RapidQ Realbasic Run BASIC Tibbo BASIC Visual Basic Visual Basic .NET

For mobile devices	Basic4ppc GLBasic NS Basic

Microsoft	Microsoft BASIC IBM BASIC/BASICA GW-BASIC QuickBASIC QBasic VBScript Visual Basic VBA Visual Basic .NET VSTO VSTA Microsoft Small Basic

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