I just picked up the bundle too. I've tinkered around with various languages before, but only got anywhere with Python. Except I did not like the challenges in properly distributing your work with all dependencies, in a compiled form (EXE w/pack kind of like DarkBASIC does).. Plus my first project is going to be a text game and although I got the renderer and a basic parser built and working how I wanted w/an SQLite Database I then hit the problem of non blocking input.
Pretty much the only reason I picked up DBPro was because all the examples I've seen make NBI look real easy to work with. I've followed DarkBASIC from a distance almost since its inception (I think I came across it when I was in my late teens, in the late 90's) but I could never bring myself to invest in it, and was never really impressed with DarkBASIC produced games, until I came across Evochron a couple years ago... Although its a mix of DB/C++ but still very nice.. But for $55 I decided it was not a bad investment for trying to accomplish my Text RPG goal.. Although I hope I can move on to other styles of RPG's in the future (SNES Final Fantasy's, FF7 / Tactics, Front Mission 3, etc).
I recommend you check out the book, "DarkBASIC Programming for the absolute beginner", by Jerry Lee Ford Jr. It's based around DBPro from what I can tell, and also its where I found the non blocking input example I liked. It'll pretty much teach you everything from the ground up, how to work with the basics, explain stuff like Variables, Arrays, Loops and all the usual stuff. You also build several different games as you progress through the book, each teaching you how to handle different types of design.
It's mostly basic stuff, and stuff like 2D. But it seems like a very good starting point, and should also be a good quick reference when you want to look something up. I have it in PDF form. It's about $20 dollars on
Amazon.
It is from 2008, but I think its a solid foundation for novices who are just getting their feet wet. Hopefully it'll help me out quite a bit as I transition into DBPro, especially since I'm more used to Object Oriented Language concepts, and DBPro is Procedural. Maybe it'll help you out too.
There's really no "be all end all" manual for programming languages.. The only way to get anywhere is to consult reference material (the documentation of the language) and find books that appeal to you and allow you to learn and pickup the concepts you will need as a programmer.
