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Blast Em is a game design that started in 2005. On paper, the game’s concept would take form combining the popular match-style game play found in other games, like Bejeweled and AstroPop, while remaining somewhat true to a classic game known as Super Breakout. The results are an original game that attempts to bring to a new generation an arcade-style game experience that once graced arcades across the nation.

The year this project started development from paper was 2011; some 6 years later. At one point during the design, the game was to originally appear on the Atari 7800 as a home-brewed cartridge. Over 8 different programming languages have been attempted including Atari BASIC, GW-BASIC (ST), QBASIC, and QuickBASIC 4.5. Not a single one of them could handle the game’s development requirements.

By 2010, a new programming language was discovered called DarkBASIC Professional. This allowed the BASIC language to harness the power behind Windows’ Direct X capabilities in both 2D and 3D gaming applications. Thanks to this remarkable development environment, Blast Em was finally able to see the light of day.

It is understandable that everyone who plays this game will either like or dislike it. While the game attempts to bring something original to newer technology, the game was originally designed with the concept it would be played on older technology. And because of this reason, the game was based around the limits of those consoles and computers. It was also designed using the same methods and guidelines that previous game pioneers followed. If a single player has as much fun playing BLAST EM as I had fun creating it, then the game has done what it set out to do. Thank you, enjoy the game, and see you next game!

Kamakazi
Blast Em Designer/Developer

Well, it seems very basic to me, but it looks good tho'. I'd like to see multiplayer in it

UPDATE:

I worked on this project until 7 in the morning. I could no longer keep my eyes open. What I got is playable, but still needs work to reach my design idea. The graphics have also changed and hopefully for the better.

The game uses the computer keyboard at this point; mouse and joystick are not supported. It is also a one-player game. The controls used are below and mentioned in the "readme.txt" file.

LEFT CURSOR KEY - Move Paddle Left
RIGHT CURSOR KEY - Move Paddle Right
SPACE BAR - Start the game/Place Block
ESC will exit the program.

The program only registers matches of 3 blocks vertically and any blocks the game adds that would create a match are not counted. The project has been sort of rushed to meet an assignment due date, but now that has come to pass. This freed up some extra time that can now be used to learn DBPRO better and clean up the code.

I know this game won't please all, but it is my first DBPRO application. Feedback and critiques are welcomed.

I forgot to mention that this application is still in the works. I'm giving myself a break from it for a few days before I go back to working on it. In this post is a PDF of the instructions. Hopefully this will help with learning how to play the game and what to expect.

@kamac

Multiplayer? That could be possible. Not sure how that could be done, but when I learn more about DBPRO I'll try to work on that addition.