UPDATES Archives

AUGUST 2000

• I am a little sore about what I found at Pete's QBasic Site.
  Actually, more of what I didn't find. My Pac-Man clone was reviewed there.
  Now I can't find the review or any indication that I had a review on there! What was that? I know it was mentioned in the Updates section before,
  so I checked and I couldn't find that mention either!
  No matter. Glad the site is back in any case. And when
  I finally complete the game in version 2.0, it will be much better.

• I reviewed Lianne in...The Dark Crown by DarkDread.
  That makes two programs by him reviewed on this site.

• I am still playing around with BWSB, and I am trying to figure out how
  I can implement it. I think I figured it out, but I need to find out how
  to create the music files. If I could make some MODs then I can do it, but
  finding MOD editors that make sense and work with the stereo speakers is tough.
  If you have any info, email the Webmaster! Please!!

• I found out months after the fact that QBasic.com was sold!
  The original webmaster auctioned off the site on eBay. Well, it was months ago, but the site
  is still as dusty as it ever was. No updates! Will the new webmaster even put his name on
  the site?!
  More info at Pete's QBasic Site.

• This is the last update of the month of August! I have received over 300 hits in this time. Hopefully we can break that record next month!

• I made 300 hits!! Not bad compared to how my site fared
  before when I only had one page with hardly any content.

• I am jealous of QBasic News
  since they managed to hit over 5,000 in less than half the time it
  took me to make 300. Still, I like the site. B-)

• I added a few more Links.
  Hyper Realistic Games, Alfaware, and Master Creating have been put up.
  I intend on cleaning up the LINKS SECTION soon.

• Recently I downloaded Bells, Whistles, and Sound Boards.
  BWSB is a very stable sound library for QBasic, Pascal, and C/C++ that
  produces music and sound effects easily. It uses its own format(GDM) but
  can convert MODs and other similar formats for compatibility.
  I will probably make a review of it once I get to use it enough.

• Skarab of Circe Software came out with another game for is RP-Jihad 2000 entitled Son of Rades.
  Check out my review of it.
  Also, check out the review of Battlecraft, the first strategy game reviewed here!

• I reviewed Mysterious Song finally!
  Hopefully I will have some more reviews this week.

• I am rapidly approaching 300 hits as of this writing!
  Not bad for less than one month!
  Technically I have more but if you remember the problem I had with my counters....

• I worked a on a few more frames of animation for Cosmo's Milky Way character.
  It is coming along nicely.

• I reviewed Car Race 3201 finally.
  I am working on a few other reviews at once.
  Mysterious Song, Dark Ages, and WetSpot2, just to name a few
  will be reviewed here soon!

• This site has been recognized as an up and coming site by Lutasarts himself!
  I find it an honor. B¬)

• I am starting to look into sound programs and tools for my games.
  If I decide to make a game, I don't want it to lack completely in that area!

• I recently agreed to help someone else in their graphics department.
  I will be working on some of the tile graphics for a now unnamed
  real-time-strategy game by Dean Marqutte.
  Hopefully it gets done soon.

• A lot of people seem to know about the QBExpo now. Good thing too, since it would
  be a shame if such a huge event was visited by only 10 people.
  It should be coming along soon. Not soon enough though!
  Good luck to all the participants! It should be a huge success when it is finished!

• I added some buttons to the ADD MY SITE SECTION
  so that there are more options for people to link to my site with.
  They are not that great, but I will make some good ones in the future.

• I reviewed a new game, which required me to add another
  genre to the list. Ultimate Super Stack is an amazing puzzle game. Check it out.

• I added the #qbchat to my site.

• I will have more reviews soon. Downloaded a few more games.
  Again, if you would like me to review a game, email me with the URL of your game. I could even link your page to mine.

• I am hoping that I can find a way to link to files outside of
  this site. I only have 30MB of storage, and I need to be able to
  use them for things other than programs. If you have any suggestions,
  email me. I will be most appreciative.

• I have a review on Sumo finished.
  I really liked this game.

• I am currently working on 12 reviews. I hope to have them done this week.

• Wow! 200+ hits! I am really, REALLY proud of this site!

• According to the News from Lutasarts him and Alien QB
  were going to monitor the #qbchat. Apparantly, there was a problem with spammers and other annoying
  people. so they decided that they were going to crack down on it.
  Also covered in The QBasic News.

• Since I found out about that last item, I have decided that I was going to add the chat to my site.
  You will see it here soon.

• Well, I guess a word of advice would fit here...
  If you are trying to program the next great game, just try to be creative.
  Flashy graphics and amazing sound only work well if they cooperate with great gameplay.
  Of course, try not to be lazy either. Some of the most amazing games AREN'T made because of poor workmanship and design.

• I added another review for the ARCADE section. The game is
  ShellShock from Angel Rift Software.

• I noticed that more people are visiting my site.
  I assure you that I will try to provide quality reviews, programs and links.
  I will also try to keep people up to date on the scene, directing you to
  different sites and online QBasic magazines that hold important info.

• I will soon have a review for Sumo, most likely by tomorrow.

• I found that the DOWNLOADS SECTION has been the most
  popular out of my entire site. That is why I have added the review programs
  there also. That way more people can see the reviews and get the games too.

• I added a new review. It is an RPG, called Tabu: The Mask of Delphin.

• My hit count reached over 100 since I last updated!

• I am trying to streamline the entire site. I will soon have a menu,
  and you can easily navigate from anywhere to anywhere else.
  Someone also suggested that I add a few more graphics to make this site look a little better.
  I am going to look into designing a few things, but only if they actually bring out a flavor for my site.
  I am not going to rush into anything that might make my site displeasing to the eye.

• I put a new pic up for 'Ghini Run's review.

• I updated my logo so it is a little easier to look at.

• I am playing around with possibly adding an ad. Besides that, I am thinking about
  how to make a frame for the menu to be on. I am playing around with the looks and colors.
  If you would like to be able to tell me what would look good on a black background
  (I am working with green right now...maybe red), please email me at pigeon_gb@yahoo.com.

• Future Software's site is back! Everything seems to be in order, and good
  thing too. That posting board is the most active QBasic board out there. I am sure that there are substitutes
  but everyone loves that one.

• I joined a few more webrings. I am hoping that more people will be able to see this site now.

• Thank you for coming, and remember to give me feedback! Email me.

• I was not able to do the review of Car Race 3201 or Sumo yet.
  I was able to create a nice little image for my page. It is in the title, as you can see.

• Future Software's QBasic board is kind of shot.
  William_Scott's cat managed to ruin the CGI on the posting board, so now we all
  have to wait until Jorden gets back from his vacation on the 12th.
  I suggested trying to use the CGI from the C/C++ section of qb45.com
  so hopefully that will work.

• I recently ordered "The Hobbit" from the Book of the Month Club.
  Unfortunately, the map at the beginning was stuck and it ended up being torn when I tried to open
  it. So now I have to send it back. I was getting all interested in it too. I read the first chapter,
  and it was getting good even then. B¬(

• Again, I would like to thank you for coming to see my site. There are a few of you, or maybe just one of
  you coming here multiple times, but in any case, thanks!

• I have updated the REVIEWS SECTION so now there
  is a quality rating system. I also reviewed the 'Ghini Run demo. Check it out.

• I am looking for some site to host .exe files that sometimes comprise the zipped up code.
  Some files are .zip and can be supported here, but eWebCity
  won't let me have .exe's. I have Angelfire currently hosting them,
  but I don't like having a page come up to proclaim the name of my host
  in all its glory (I will proclaim you if I feel you need proclaming, and you don't!).
  If anyone can suggest a site that does not feel the need to let everyone know that it is
  holding my files, email me at pigeon_gb@yahoo.com.
  I would appreciate it!

• I will do a few more reviews soon. I still have to review
  Car Race 3201 and Sumo. If anyone would like me to review a program,
  send it to me with a subject saying something like
  "Review my game!" or something like that.

• That is basically it for today. Thanks for coming to my site! I know there are a few of you who do!

• http://qbexpo.cjb.net is the location of the QB Expo, which
  promises to be THE QB event of the year, according to Lutasarts' news. There will be plenty of games and demos,
  and from what I read from the initial preview, it is going to be great! Can't wait!

• I recently had the chance to play two games, both car racing. One is 'Ghini Run and the other is Car Race 3201. I will have reviews for them hopefully within a day, including screen shots.

• I have worked a little bit more on the character for Cosmos' Milky Way game.
  He is moving quite fluidly, and I hope to have a finished product soon.
  I am using PixelPlus256 , and plenty of other games make use of it too. Try it out.

• I had a lot more hits on my site than I had expected.B¬)

• The new design for the REVIEWS SECTION is underway. It isn't up yet, but it should in a few days. I hope to have these ratings features:
  • GRAPHICS
  • SOUND
  • PLAY CONTROL
  • CHALLENGE
  • SATISFACTION/FUN
  • GAME DESIGN
  • also: SCREEN SHOTS
  • also: LINKS TO FILES, OTHER REVIEWS, AND OTHER RELEVANT URLS
  I just need to set up the ASP for it, but I am not too sure how to design it as of yet...

• I am reviewing a few more files and doing my research for files, news, and ASP techniques.

• I updated all of the pages to ASP. Now everything is more streamlined and easily broken down.

• My counter tells me that 10 people saw this site today since I set it up! I like that.

• I was trying to learn DirectQB, but it seemed a bit daunting since there are no checks and if you forget one small thing, the system is likely to crash. I think I will try to use Future.Library first since it seems easier, is still supported, and offers more.

• I heard that there is a new RPG out by Matthew R. Knight called QBasic: The RPG. Check it out at http://www.neozones.com/general/qbtherpg.zip

• I found out that my BeSeen counters were not keeping an accurate hit count.When I said before in the archives that I had 31 hits in one day, it might not have been true seeing that my counter info now tells me that I had 2 hits that day. All BeSeen could suggest was getting another counter! So I decided to create my own, and now I made a basic text counter. I like it. Made in ASP, but now I have to change a lot of things in the site, like the file names and such. Oh well.
• Besides that, I changed many of my pages to ASP, which allows more flexibility on my part. Also I have to reset my counter to 0 and start all over. Now I have no indication of how good my site was doing, but at least I can be sure that the counter will work this time.

• I fixed up a few things, like spelling errors and such. Links repaired also.
• I am going to update the REVIEW SECTION so that more info can be gathered about the different programs.
• I am hopefully going to get the memory errors fixed on my computer. I hate it when I can't play DOS games and other DOS like things.
• I don't have much else to say right now. I am just going to update my page a little with more current info.

• I recently added a few new features to this site:
  • New UPDATES ARCHIVES
  • New REVIEWS SECTION
  • New PROJECTS SECTION
  • New DOWNLOADS SECTION
  • New LINKS SECTION

• I am thinking about getting a frame also,
  so that navigation could be used like a menu on the side.
  Sort of like Future Software's site.
  It would make this site easier to navigate.

• I reviewed Pac-Clone 2, but
  there is not a lot of info. The REVIEW SECTION is still a work in progress.

• I had 11 visitor's to this site today. I hope to get many more.

• Well, I am simply going to clean up the site a bit. Make sure that the links work. Of course, a few didn't.

• Pete's site is down, but will actually make a comeback according to Lutasart's QB Scene . I found it to be good news, as I am sure many people did. In fact I emailed Wisdomdude and he responded with this email:
  

  Hi!
  And thanks for writing me. As for Pete's QB Site, I
  haven't heard from it lately, but I am sure it will be
  back online really soon. No, I'm not sure about the
  date, but I was told about 2 weeks or less by Pete
  himself. He's at camp, and we are here online
  frequently, just to see if anything happens. Oh and of
  course I remember your Pac-Man game, I thought it was
  really cool, being 2 years old, and lately, I saw
  another Pac-Man clone, called pac-Clone 2, at
  vplanet.cjb.net if you're interested.
  
  

  So everything seems fine with that. As for the Pac-Clone 2...it has many flaws according to the review. You can see it rated at vplanet by clicking on the Pac-Clone 2 link

• I also intend on reworking my Pac-Man game. I want to use Future Software's library for it. So the graphics should be better, and so will the controls.

• I think I should make the site better too. I found out that I had 31 people view this site in one day...and it was a terrible mess. Need to improve site. I think I will simply make it easily navigable by linking everything together. I am trying to do so in my UPDATES section. I will link as many things together as I can so that when I tell you about something, you can click and go. Quick and simple.