Assassin, if you really need a menu right now, then make it really simple. Just text, and a bitmap background - because there's no point investing time on a front end when the game itself is just smoke.
As the game develops, you'll have to learn any skill you would need to make a nice front end, so you shouldn't be worrying about that now.
Most front ends however work in a seperate loop or function from the main loop, so you might have a MENU() function that sets up the visuals then goes into a loop until the menu is no longer needed, the game starts, or whatever.
So to start out with a simple menu, you should get a backdrip image, you might want to spend some time on it then use it on the final menu as well. So to load an image and stick it onto the backdrop:
Load image "back.bmp",1,1
texture backdrop 1
Now until you change the backdrop, your back.bmp image will be displayed, and text, even 3D objects will render on top of it.
For the menu system itself, well I'm assuming that you want to use the cursor keys to move between options, and have different nests of options:
menu_sel=0
menu_page=0
Do
lmv=mv
mv=downkey()-upkey()
if lmv=0 and mv<>0 then inc menu_sel,mv
ty=100
text 75,ty+(menu_sel*20),">"
lsel=sel
sel=spacekey()
if menu_page=0
text 100,ty,"Start Game" : inc ty,20
text 100,ty,"Options" : inc ty,20
text 100,ty,"Exit" : inc ty,20
if lsel=0 and sel=1
if menu_sel<0 then menu_sel=0
if menu_sel=0 then start()
if menu_sel=1 then menu_page=1
if menu_sel=2 then end
if menu_sel>2 then menu_sel=2
endif
endif
if menu_page=1
text 100,ty,"Display Mode" : inc ty,20
text 100,ty,"Sound Volume" : inc ty,20
text 100,ty,"Back" : inc ty,20
if lsel=0 and sel=1
if menu_sel<0 then menu_sel=0
if menu_sel=0 then setdisplay()
if menu_sel=1 then soundvolume()
if menu_sel=2 then menu_page=0
if menu_sel>2 then menu_sel=2
endif
endif
Sync
Loop
Untested, ramble-code of course, but it might give you an idea on how to quickly tackle a menu. For more complex front ends, like with drop down menus and stuff, using arrays to track the options etc is much neater - like having an array for your main menu. It's best to start very simple, and add things as and when you understand them enough.
