This is a good example of scrolling background picture maps. Bplus made the saucer fighter graphic. Download the zip file and put all the files in the same directory. 
Use the arrow keys (or WASD keys) to move and also change the direction of your laser. Press the space bar to fire. The object of the game is to shoot the cannons, dodge the cannonballs and to make it to the end of the cave.

Attached Files

  Cave Fighter.zip (Size: 1.13 MB / Downloads: 45)

Here's an ancient game from long ago and far away that still seems to run more-or-less as intended on QB64PE -- QB Missle!

Quote: Fully playable, unfinished version of Qbasic Missile Command clone. Defend your city's against a barrage of nuclear missile attacks. Features sprite graphics, FX sounds, mouse control and unlimited levels. This game is not compiled.

Attached Files

  qbmissle.zip (Size: 196.56 KB / Downloads: 49)

Before I go and reinvent the wheel, I'm wondering if this or something similar already exists...? 

I'm thinking a program that 

• looks in a directory like "c:\Users\MyUser\Pictures"
  (extra points if it can handle environment variables like "%USERPROFILE%\Pictures") 
  
• finds all images (extra points if it lets you specify 1 or more wildcards to match like "*.jpg;*.png;*.gif")
  
• gets the size of all of them and figures out (based on layout chosen) how big the final image will be & initialize it
  (I'm not sure what kind of limitations QB64PE has for image size, I am thinking this prog would limit the size only based on the computer memory & hard drive space)
  
• for each pic:
  loads it into memory,
  resize/scale/rotate (depending on options)
  copies to a new giant image (depending on the layout you choose,
  e.g., if we have 16 pictures, maybe 4 columns x 4 rows, or 8 columns x 2 rows)
  
• outputs a new image file in the selected format. 
  

• list files from a folder
  
• match based on *? wildcards
  
• load an image file into a _NewImage
  
• detect image height/width
  
• rotate image
  
• scale/resize image
  
• stretch/skew image
  
• display an image bigger than the screen shrunk down to fit the screen (to preview on screen)
  
• save image from memory to a file
  

• make a pic collage for your PC's desktop 
  
• take a bunch of pictures and turn them into a poster you can have printed at somewhere like CVS (the web site says 24"x36" is $15.99 ?!)
  
• make a background for a game
  

This is not something new. This is something I made a long time ago that I may or may not be trying to work on again. I like message boxes. Always have. Especially customizable ones. These are highly customizable and can replace the built-in error message boxes in QB64.

After my recent debacles with getting a Zeller's congruence (determine day of week from date) formula, I repeated my foray into software archeology, by searching my collection of 90,142 files (many being zip files) and more than 12 gb of Basic source and basic-related files, I found an old file that purports to return day of week from date. It was old enough to be from the days when Basic programs had to have line numbers:

_Title "Possibly_accurate_zellers_congruence"

10 ' DAYOPFWK = Calculates the day of the week given date

20 '

30 Cls: Print

40 Print "  This routine calculates the day of the week given the date"

50 Dim DAYS$(6): For I = 0 To 6: Read DAY$(I): Next

60 Data Saturday,Sunday,Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday

70 Line Input "Enter date as mm/dd/yyyy "; EDATE$: S$ = EDATE$

80 PS = InStr(S$, "/"): MONTH = Val(Left$(S$, PS - 1)): S$ = Mid$(S$, PS + 1)

90 PS = InStr(S$, "/"): DAY = Val(Left$(S$, PS - 1)): S$ = Mid$(S$, PS + 1)

100 YEAR = Val(S$)

110 '

120 If MONTH > 2 Then 140

130 MONTH = MONTH + 12: YEAR = YEAR - 1

140 N = DAY + 2 * MONTH + Int(.6 * (MONTH + 1)) + YEAR + Int(YEAR / 4) - Int(YEAR / 100) + Int(YEAR / 400) + 2

150 N = Int((N / 7 - Int(N / 7)) * 7 + .5)

160 Print DAY$(N)

' Date_testbed.bas - load every date and test a Zeller's congrence algorithm for correctness

' Paul Robinson October 23, 2024



Option _Explicit

_Title "Zeller_testbed"



' The system time function can be used from QB64, I was mistaken it could not

Type SYSTEMTIME

    wYear As Integer

    wMonth As Integer

    wDayOfWeek As Integer

    wDay As Integer

    wHour As Integer

    wMinute As Integer

    wSecond As Integer

    wMilliseconds As Integer

End Type



Declare Dynamic Library "kernel32"

    Function GetLocalTime& (lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME)

    Function GetLastError& ()

    Function FormatMessageA& (ByVal f As Long, f$, Byval e As Long, Byval d As Long, g$, Byval s As Long, h$)

End Declare



Dim As SYSTEMTIME StartTime, EndTime

Dim TimeString As String





Color 15

Cls

Const Saturday = 0

Const Sunday = Saturday + 1

Const Monday = Sunday + 1

Const Tuesday = Monday + 1

Const Wednesday = Tuesday + 1

Const Thursday = Wednesday + 1

Const Friday = Thursday + 1



Const January = 1, February = 2, March = 3, April = 4, May = 5, June = 6

Const July = 7, August = 8, September = 9, October = 10, November = 11, December = 12



Const LimitYear = 9999





Dim Shared YD(1800 To LimitYear, December, 31) As Integer

'    Dim As Integer Month

Dim Shared As Integer Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second, Leap

'Dim Shared Year$, Month$, Day$, WeekDay$, Minute$, Second$, AmPm$

'Dim Shared As String DateString

Dim As Integer DayStart, I, WindowsOffset, ZellersOffset

Dim As Long RecCount



' these use 1-12 for convenience

Dim Shared MonthDays(1, December) As Integer, MonthNames(December) As String

' This one uses 0

Dim Shared DayNames(12) As String

Data "January",31,"February",28,"March",31,"April",30,"May",31

Data "June",30,"July",31,"August",31,"September",30

Data "October",31,"November",30,"December",31



Data "Saturday","Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday","Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday"



For Month = January To December: Read MonthNames(Month), MonthDays(0, Month): Next

For Month = January To December: MonthDays(1, Month) = MonthDays(0, Month): Next ' Leap years

For Day = 0 To 12: Read DayNames(Day): Next



' We start Saturday =0 as most Zeller's congruence algorhythms do

' If either the test routine or Windows starts any other day, add the offset



WindowsOffset = 1 ' Windows starts Sunday

ZellersOffset = 0 ' The Zeller's Congruence starts Saturday



MonthDays(1, February) = 29 'Adjust for leap year



' Start the clock

I = GetLocalTime(StartTime)



TimeString = DayNames(StartTime.wDayOfWeek + WindowsOffset) + ", "

TimeString = TimeString + " " + MonthNames(StartTime.wMonth)

TimeString = TimeString + Str$(StartTime.wDay) + "," + Str$(StartTime.wYear) + " at"

TimeString = TimeString + Str$(StartTime.wHour) + ":"

TimeString = TimeString + Right$("0" + LTrim$(Str$(StartTime.wMinute)), 2) + ":"

TimeString = TimeString + Right$("0" + LTrim$(Str$(StartTime.wSecond)), 2)

Open "L:\ZteatResults.txt" For Output As #1

DPrint "Program begins, " + TimeString

DPrint "Initialization: Collecting dates from 1-1-1800 to 12-31-" + LTrim$(Str$(LimitYear))

DPrint "Please wait while initialization is completed"

Dim As _Byte ok, PP, Sc, InitialDay

ok = -1

InitialDay = Wednesday ' January 1, 1800

DayStart = InitialDay

RecCount = 0

PP = 0

For Year = 1800 To LimitYear

    '    Leap Year Calcultions

    GoSub GetLeap



    ' Now count the days

    For Month = January To December

        For Day = 1 To MonthDays(Leap, Month) ' if leap year, uses alternate

            YD(Year, Month, Day) = DayStart

            DayStart = DayStart + 1

            RecCount = RecCount + 1



            If DayStart = 7 Then DayStart = 0

        Next

    Next

Next





I = GetLocalTime(EndTime) ' Stop the clock



' Compute elapsed time



Hour = EndTime.wHour

If StartTime.wHour < EndTime.wHour Then Hour = Hour + 24

Hour = Hour - StartTime.wHour



Minute = EndTime.wMinute

If StartTime.wMinute < EndTime.wMinute Then Minute = Minute + 60: Hour = Hour - 1

Minute = Minute - StartTime.wMinute



Second = EndTime.wSecond

If StartTime.wSecond < EndTime.wSecond Then Minute = Minute - 1: Second = Second + 60

Second = Second - StartTime.wSecond

Dim As Single St, Et

Et = EndTime.wMilliseconds / 1000

St = StartTime.wMilliseconds / 1000

If Et < St Then Second = Second - 1: Et = Et + 1



Et = (Et - St)



TimeString = ""

If Hour > 0 Then

    TimeString = Str$(Hour) + "hour"

    If Hour <> 1 Then TimeString = TimeString + "s"

    TimeString = TimeString + " "

End If

If Minute > 0 Then

    TimeString = TimeString + Str$(Minute) + "minute"

    If Minute <> 1 Then TimeString = TimeString + "s"

    TimeString = TimeString + " "

End If

If TimeString <> "" Then TimeString = TimeString + "and "

If Second < 0 Then Second = 0

TimeString = TimeString + LTrim$(Str$(Second + Et)) + " seconds."



DPrint "Initialization completed;" + Str$(RecCount) + " records initialized. "

DPrint "Initialization took " + TimeString

Second = Hour * 3600 + Minute * 60 + Second

Dim As Integer ProcessCount

If Second + Et > 3 Then

    ProcessCount = RecCount / (Second + Et)

    DPrint "Initilization rate was approx. " + Str$(ProcessCount) + "records per second."

End If

DPrint ""

DPrint "A check will be made to see how accurate the Zeller's congruence algorhythm is."

' Insert code to test here

Dim DOW As Single



Month = 1

Day = 1

Year = 1800



I = 0



GoSub Zeller

DPrint "January 1, 1800 was a " + DayNames(YD(Year, Month, Day)) + ", the algorhythm says it was " + DayNames(DOW) + "."

If YD(Year, Month, Day) <> DOW Then DPrint "": DPrint "Algorhythm fails.": Close: End



Locate 10, 1

DPrint "Now let's see how accurate it is:"



Locate 12, 1

Print "Year"

RecCount = 0



For Year = 1800 To LimitYear

    Locate 12, 5

    Print Year

    Leap = 0

    GoSub GetLeap

    For Month = January To December

        For Day = 1 To MonthDays(Leap, Month)

            GoSub Zeller

            If DOW <> YD(Year, Month, Day) + ZellersOffset Then

                Locate 15, 1

                Color 4

                DPrint "Mismatch on " + MonthNames(Month) + Str$(Day) + ", " + Str$(Year)

                DPrint "Precalc is :" + DayNames(YD(Year, Month, Day) + ZellersOffset) + " but Zeller says " + DayNames(DOW + ZellersOffset)

                Color 15

                I = I + 1

            End If



        Next

    Next

Next

Locate 17, 1

Dim ERCMsg$

If I = 0 Then ERCMsg$ = "NO " Else ERCMsg$ = Str$(I)

DPrint "Completed with " + ERCMsg$ + "errors."



DPrint "There were " + Str$(RecCount) + " date computations."

DPrint ""

If I = 0 Then

    DPrint ""

    DPrint "I believe this certifies the algorhythm is accurate."

Else

    DPrint "Algorhythm fails."

End If



Close

End



GetLeap:

'    Leap Year Calcultions

Leap = 0

' Year mod 4 = 0 for a leap year (in most cases)

If Year Mod 4 = 0 Then ' It is virtually certain it is a leap year with one exception



    ' If it is a century year (year where last two digits are 00)

    If Year Mod 100 <> 0 Then ' Not a century year

        Leap = 1 ' regular leap year

    Else ' It is a century year, it must also be divisible by 400

        If Year Mod 400 = 0 Then Leap = 1 ' Century leap year

    End If

End If

Return





Dim As Integer Zmonth, ZYear

Zeller:

If Month < 3 Then

    Zmonth = Month + 12

    ZYear = Year - 1

Else

    Zmonth = Month

    ZYear = Year

End If

DOW = Day + 2 * Zmonth + Int(.6 * (Zmonth + 1)) + ZYear + Int(ZYear / 4) - Int(ZYear / 100) + Int(ZYear / 400) + 2

DOW = Int((DOW / 7 - Int(DOW / 7)) * 7 + .5)



RecCount = RecCount + 1

Return



' Text output can't be captured off screen through

' mouse or hilighting, so we also print to a file

Sub DPrint (P$)

    Print P$

    Print #1, P$

End Sub

I noticed that when I use the search bar to find something in the forums, 

for example, "read image file into memory", 

that after you click Search and the results are displayed, the search string is nowhere to be seen. 

The URL is no help either, because instead of the search terms, just it contains some ID, for example 

First, I was editing a rather long post, and then something happened and everything reset to the blank editor - I don't know what I did, hit the wrong key on the keyboard or clicked the wrong thing on the browser. Anyway, everything I typed was gone - POOF! 

So my question is, is my draft saved somewhere, and if so, how do I get it back to continue editing? 

And if not, my suggestion is, can we configure the site to auto-save drafts, and if a user exits without posting it, they can go to some page that lists their unfinished posts, where they can continue editing or delete them? 

I have seen that kind of feature on other Web sites so I know it can be done, not sure if it can be done here, but I figure it's worth asking, after losing all that content!

Wouldn't it be nice to have this feature for Data Restore?

On x Restore data1, data2, data3

instead of needing to code...

Select Case x
Case 1: Restore data1
Case 2: Restore data2
Case 3: Restore data3
End Select

data1:
data eof
data2:
data eof
data3:
data eof

Be sure to post your hate comments in a respectful, non-micro-aggressive and culturally appropriate manner. Oh who am I kidding? Comment however the hell you want!

Pete

Steve's $Embed thread (https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3142) got my curiosity going.


But first, an FYI:
For several years now I've been using the 7Zip self-extractor to compress software packages, such as editors or compiler suites, into single-file EXEs for easy transport on a thumbdrive.

7Zip's cleverly designed self-extractor stub (which I will call the .SFX) can extract these files into a temporary folder, and then execute a file of my choice.  Normally the executed file would be a script to copy files into a more permanent installation folder, but I instead run that now unpacked editor or a batch file to perform compilation steps.  The .SFX waits patiently and when all programs in the temp folder have ended, the .SFX conscientiously deletes that temp folder.  No muss, no fuss.

This saves a lot of space on a thumbdrive, compressing a 512 megabyte (after the deletion of some non-essential MinGW files) QB64PE suite down to just 53.48 megs.
It also saves a LOT! of time.  I don't know how long it would take to copy all 6350 (again, fat-trimmed) files of QB64PE to a thumbdrive, but copying MinGW alone can take several HOURS.  (At least, it took that long on the thumbdrives I was using.  I will never buy another SanDisk flash drive.  I own several and those turkeys are all SLOW.)

(If anyone is thinking of trying the .SFX stunt described above I have to warn you that it's not for the faint-of-heart.  It's a manual process that cannot be done from the 7Zip GUI.  It took much time, trial, and error to get it all working the way I envisioned.)

I've been trying to clean up IF statements in the game I'm working on. Would it be hard to have SELECT CASE work not just with variables but also with arrays and UDTs?

Imagine:
            SELECT CASE flag '        (booleans)
                CASE .drawShip: .........
                CASE .explode: .........
                CASE .endRound: .........
             END SELECT
Or:
            SELECT CASE fatArray()
                CASE 0 TO 50: ..............
                CASE 51 TO UBOUND(fatArray): ..........
            END SELECT

Would this be cool / useful?