BlitzMax Released!

[simonh]

Auckland, New Zealand - December 10 2004.

Blitz Research Ltd., developers of the BlitzPlus and Blitz3D programming solutions for Windows, proudly announce the release of BlitzMax for OS X.

BlitzMax

BlitzMax is the new, next generation game programming language from Blitz Research. BlitzMax provides developers with a complete cross-platform 2D programming solution for OS X, Windows and Linux.

BlitzMax comes complete with it's own syntax highlighting editor, documentation, debugger and plenty of samples to get you started.

Instant porting!

The BlitzMax license is 'all in one' - buy BlitzMax once and run your programs on OS X, Windows and Linux. Porting games between platforms becomes trivial with BlitzMax!

An in-depth guide to porting BlitzMax games
1. Write the game on your preferred platform and compile it.
2. Copy the source code and media to your target platform and compile it.
3. All done!

The initial OS X release will be followed shortly afterwards by the release of Windows and Linux versions. When you buy one version of BlitzMax, the other 2 versions come for free!

Expandability and Openness

BlitzMax's core modules (the sections of code that provide graphics, audio and other capabilities) are written in BlitzMax itself. Because BlitzMax comes complete with the source code to these modules, you can see how it all works on the inside and easily build your own custom modules. BlitzMax's online update system provides easy access to updates and new modules.

This modular approach gives Blitz Research and third party developers great potential to provide loads of exciting new functionality for the future.

Pricing and Availability

USD$80, available now direct from www.blitzmax.com

About Blitz

From it's humble beginnings on the Amiga computer (where it was used, incidentally, to write the first installment in the multi-million selling Worms franchise) and through it's proven track record on the Windows platform for speed and stability, Blitz has provided legions of programmers - hobbyists and professionals alike - with the tools to write fast and exciting games.

Blitz frees programmers to explore their creativity, unhindered by the low level details of games programming.

About Blitz Research Ltd.

Blitz Research Ltd. is an independent New Zealand software developer providing easy to program variants of the BASIC language for development of interactive and video game software. For more information please visit www.blitzmax.com

[Mike Boeh]

Hehe, yes.

I guess I have to go out and buy Mac tonight and get started porting Platypus straight away :)

[Tom Cain]

I dove in a few hours ago. It is a very impressive piece of software so far.

[Greg Squire]

That's Awesome! I like the ability to just compile the same code to Windows, Mac, and Linux. My current project is in Blitz3D however, but now with BlitzMax out it means that BlitzMax3D will soon be underway. Yeah! :)

[Mike Boeh]

I got an ibook g4 14.1", with a 1 ghz processor, and 512mb ram as an open box deal from frys. Thing seems slow as can be to me. But all I need it for is bmax! I will get into it tomorrow I guess.

[arcadetown]

Cool beans Mike. Get us those mac versions as they're converting at a good percentage and we're starting to draw pretty good Mac traffic.

[rodent]

Arrrr, my dreams about making games with PTK are ruined! :eek:

More seriously, this is great news. I look forward to making many small fun games with BlitzMax. I haven't used previous Blitz products (I had Blitz on Amiga-500, but never made anything "serious" with it - I was more of an AMOS man myself), but I am aware of the Blitz track record and the capabilities of Max.

There is no choise for me now, but to buy BlitzMax and start making those games! :D

Anyone with good suggestions on which Mac to buy? :rolleyes: All I need the Mac for, is to be able to compile and test the games. So it doesn't need to be too powerful. The cheaper the better. :)

[Coyote]

I need a Mac.

[arcadetown]

Picked up an EMac a few months ago. They're cheapest new Mac at $800 and don't take up too much desk space plus have a decent enough configuration for a Mac @ 1200ghz / 256 ram / 40 gig drive / low end ati card. Macs in general are a complete rip, in particular the IBooks which are way overpriced for the terribly underpowered configs plus I've already got a PC laptop.

[Red Marble Games]

As someone who has never used Blitz before -- any idea how difficult it would be to migrate a project from Visual Basic to Blitz? I tried once moving a (fairly complex, admittedly) VB program to RealBasic, and it was a complete waste of time -- too many VB language features that RealBasic didn't support (not to mention a pretty amateurish IDE). Any idea whether Blitz would be any easier?

[Mike Boeh]

This ibook g4 is just too slow. It's going back to frys!

[Quest Engine]

@ Red Marble.

I ported OTT from VB (w/ directx 7) to Blitz 2d in just a couple weeks time (and added a pile of features). I've never used Real Basic, my my VB->BB conversion was very painless.

[Jack Norton]

Hmm that's good news. I can port USM to Mac now :)
But for USM2 I'll surely use the C/C++ power and the great VC debugger...unless BlitzMax has a completely new debugger but I don't think so!!

[Greg Squire]

This ibook g4 is just too slow. It's going back to frys!

I hope you mean that G4 that they gave you has a problem, as I would imagine a G4 should be plenty fast enough for BlitMax games (and most other stuff).

[Mark Fassett]

I have a 1ghz g4 IMac, and the OS, and any non-game stuff is really slow. My game, however, runs better on it than it does on my faster windows PC. Go figure...

[beenThereDoneThat]

Here (http://www.blitzcoder.com/cgi-bin/ubb-cgi/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum1&topic=004358) is some discussion about BlitzMax on the blitzcoder.com discussion forum. What's interesting is that one user got it working on a PC using the PearPC (http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/) emulator.

Now, that's some enthusiasm!