There are hundreds of libraries for Windows packaged in "DLL"s, or "Dynamic Link Libraries". These libraries may be used with FreeBASIC, but they still require a header (a file containing declarations, structures, macros, and constants used in the library). Also, a GCC-compatible static link library should accompany it, unless you wish to use the Windows API to dynamically load it (a somewhat tedious task).

FreeBASIC includes headers and static files for a number of popular libraries, such as SDL and GTK. However, we here at QB45 would like to provide other libraries and headers not included with FreeBASIC. For instance, in the most recent update, we have self-submitted InpOut32, a popular library to access ports under Windows NT/2K/XP.

If there are any libraries or library headers you wish to be hosted here on QB45, which was not included with FreeBASIC, please pipe up in the comments here and specify.

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      While there weren't too many downloads submitted this week (I'm looking at you), we do have a new library and a charming little pong game, written in only 63 lines!

Downloads:
Pong In 63 Lines(FreeBASIC Games) - Upon challenge, our man Xerol downed a contest by writing an almost perfect FreeBASIC Pong clone in only 63 lines.

InpOut32(FreeBASIC Libraries) - A library allowing the direct use of ports under Windows, including 95/98/ME and NT/2K/XP. This library has existed for awhile elsewhere around the internet, but this package includes a FreeBASIC-compatible (read: gcc) static link library, a .bi header and instructions on use.

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      A huge new version of the totally free, open-source compiler "FreeBASIC" was released today! A long list of changes are available on site, but here are some of the biggies:

• Full GDB-compatible debugging!
• Function overloading
• Functions can now return UDTs
• Pointer type-casting
• Array-bounds and null pointer checking
• New GFXLIB PUT() modes, such as ALPHA
• A slew of bug-fixes

So check out http://freebasic.net to get the best BASIC compiler for Win32, Dos, and Linux around!

7 comments have been posted.

      ...And he's not telling anyone how I'm finding these amazing new downloads each week. We have a good update today: 5 new downloads and a tutorial, so let's get started:

Downloads:
RPGine Demo v1.0 - (FreeBASIC Strategy and RPG Games) A customizable RPG engine for FreeBASIC with advanced scripting? What more could you ask for? Includes a scripting reference and a short playable demo.

ArcherFire - (QBasic Space Games)
Neo-ArcherFire - (QBasic Space Games)
ASCII ArcherFire - (QBasic Space Games) Normally, when commercial publishers produce videogames, you'll have to wait a few months for it to get ported to your crummy system, and then you'd have to wait a decade for a remake. Santiago Zapata decided to sum this up with his 2002-2003 ArcherFire series, in which you heriocally pilot a craft to destroy evil aliens and other various things you intend to blow up. Well done, but Neo-ArcherFire is hard... I can't get past the first level!

Bounce! - (FreeBASIC Games) Come on... Stop lying and admit, you played that crazy kick'em'up soccer-ball (or as wierdos call it, "football") flash game over the internet. Now it's available to you who do not have the internet (but somehow have access to qb45!). Go ahead, kick up that ball. Keep if off the ground. Watch your time fly as you waste it!

RGB Support in palette modes. - (FreeBASIC Graphics) DJ Peters, German FreeBASIC enthusiest and, I guess, a DJ, has made 332 routines for use with FreeBASIC, with dithering and the whole sh'bang. Now, there finally is no color barrier left in America.

Griffon Legend - (FreeBASIC Strategy and RPG) Have you played Griffon Legend yet?? Why not!! Syn9's new action RPG is all the buzz, dubbed "the best qbasic/freebasic rpg released" by one Jocke H. Beast. Soundful version here, soundless version at Syn9's website for those imprisoned behind slower download rates.


Tutorials:
Any 2D Polygon Collision - (Other) James "GizmoGuy" gives the world a primer in detecting colliding polygons in a twilight realm in which our beloved "third" dimension does not exist.

Well, that's it for this week, please remember to submit those downloads and tutorials!


Oh, Duke... Now I have to kill you.

0 comments have been posted.

      For those of you interested in web languages, DevMo, Mozilla's answer to the Microsoft's mammoth MSDN, has launch. The wiki is a spiritual successer to Netscape's now-expired DevEdge, providing interesting developer articles about pretty much everything to do with Mozilla's browser, from CSS to its much-lauded XUL. It's a great reference for anyone looking to make good cross-broswer websites.

1 comments have been posted.

      QB Express Issue #12 has been released, which marks the magazine's one year anniversary!

In this special issue, we look back over the past year of QB Express and give special recognition to QB Express's contributors. Adigun A. Polack brings us two retrospective articles on QB Express's first twelve issues, and I also share my thoughts on QB Express's first year.

Other articles include reviews of The Griffon Legend, Pixel Snake Gem Hunt and Trek, "The Evolution of GUIs" by MystikShadows, QB GUI news by Jacob Palm, two articles about the QBasic.com forum community and an interview with Nekrophidius. Tutorials include Part 6 of Na_th_an's I.F. series, Music Composition Pt. 3 by Matt2Jones, dumbledore's second FB WX-C tutorial, "Useful QB Algorithms" by Moneo, a tutorial on Database Design by MystikShadows, and "Coding a Parallax Scrolling Platformer Chapter #2" by Na_th_an. This is the largest issue of QB Express ever, weighing in at nearly 150 pages!

Check it out: QB Express Issue #12

Editor's Note: QB45 has won an honorable mention for the site of year category! Except we didn't win. And you know what?? It's your fault. Warren G Harding didn't say anything to you, but stay away, man, cuz' he is pissed. Not at the other visitors of the site, but you personally. Me? I'm just a little disappointed in you. Either way, this is an awesome "ish" of the QB Express, and it's a good novel's length.

Breaking News: Former president Warren G. Harding has been pronounced dead at the ripe age of 180 years, of poisen. But I believe it was because of a broken heart. Let not his final days of rage be remembered, but the many, many, many accomplishments he made in office, and the fine moral caliber of his presidency.

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      Expelled from convenient subdomain access by the demise of the qbrpgs.com domain name, Jocke "The Beast" McCheese, maker of the cultly popular Dark Woods games, has moved into Plasma's phatcode.net, which hosts other BASIC-related sites as the awesome FreeBASIC compiler. Congratulations to Jocke on the move, and big props to Plasma for providing the hosting.

You can now find any Beast-related news and information at:
http://jockethebeast.phatcode.net

0 comments have been posted.

      For months a living corpse, QBRPGs.com's domain has been retired by our own Fling-Master. Once a humongous RPG database which was the "who's-who" in the QB RPG niche, its content has long been outdated and its forums barren, laid amongst a solumn heap of dead links, broken images, and vapored wares.

The site can still be accessed here for the time being:
http://qbasicnews.com/~qbrpgs/

This would be the part where someone plays 'taps' on a bugle and 21 guys fire their rifles, but I can't figure out those gaddanged audio plugs. There will be a wake at 12pm tomorrow at a weather station in Nuuk, Greenland, hope you all can make it.

1 comments have been posted.

      Syn9, known for his amazing Zero G and it's incredible "3rd dimension", released his highly anticipated FreeBASIC rpg romp, "Griffon Legend", featuring cool graphics and music by David Turner. This is so making our next download update, but in the meantime you can find it here.

1 comments have been posted.

      Welcome to download update #425 subset 46a, you take one ticket per guest and head to the food table where we are serving a light brunch with a mediterranean theme, and proceed to the main hall where the downloads will begin.

Downloads:
Cadisman: (QBasic Strategy and RPG) A concurrently named Indeed005 has delivered upon us the (not third, but) fourth release of Cadisman, an SVGA RPG grand in scope but slightly buggy at present. However, it is quite cool, and enables the user not only to kill chickens, but also invest profit made from the chickenn into a bank, generateing interest which is reinvested in alcohol and consumed! This will be a very cool RPG when finished, indeed(005).

Retrosoft Money: (QBasic Miscellaneous) Alex C (Look out, ladies, he's Greek) has submitted a wallet manager for thickheaded schmucks who can't keep track of money (such as myself). Keep track of the pettiest of funds, even interstate toll receipts (hey, I like to be thorough), this puppy is the grand poobah of QB money programs.

OMAlib SDL Wrapper: (FreeBASIC Libraries) One of (count 'em folks) three submissions today from Canadian correspondant SJ Zero, OMAlib is a library simplifying all the littl' nuances of SDL that drive you nuts.

Star Phalanx: (FreeBASIC Space Games) The Windows port of the first FreeBASIC game to be ported to the XBox. Though it's just a simple shooter, it will provide you with the tantalizing thrill of hurling through space in a metal craft, gunning down foreign fighters that I assume to be enemies.

Rambo vs Kitty-Kat: (FreeBASIC Platform Games) Rounding out this quintet of mayhem is Rambo vs. Kitty-Kat, a modern exercise in stupidity and platforming tour de force, in which Rambo is once again sent to South Asia to kill kittens, dinosaurs, and what appears to be a child in a Halloween costume. Silly, but a great show of graphic potential as drywall insulation sprays from your enemies in chunks.

So there you have it boys and girls, five Prime downloads, each meticulous tested and approved by the USDA (you are killing me, people). Don't forget to submit those downloads, and tune in next week for some hot new downloads, and a short musical presentation by New Mexico's premiere Bavarian folk band Polka Schlingel.

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