Download Basic4GL

Current released version

Basic4GL v2.5.3 (Installer, 5.0MB)
Basic4GL v2.5.3 (zipped, 4.8MB)

Older version

This is the most recent version that supports creating standalone executables on Windows 98, Windows ME and possibly Windows 95.
Please note that it lacks a lot of features and that the standalone executables run somewhat slower (due to technical reasons I wont go into here).
If at all possible you are encouraged to use the most recent version of Basic4GL and find a Windows 2000/XP PC on which to build your standalone executables. Once created, the standalone executables should work on Windows 98/ME (and possibly Windows 95).

Basic4GL v2.3.0 (Installer, 4.4MB)

 

Plugins

Plugins are DLLs that add new commands and features to Basic4GL. They are created in C++ with the plugin SDK (see below).
Be warned that plugins execute native machine code on your computer and are written by other people than the author of Basic4GL (which is kinda the point of plugins...). Use at your own risk.
To use a plugin, download and unzip it into your Basic4GL folder (usually c:\Program Files\Basic4GL). To use it in a program, click "File->Plug-in Libraries...", then place a tick next to the plugin in the list. Now you have new commands that you can use inside your Basic4GL programs. Look in the "Functions", "Constants" and "Structures" tabs to see what they are.

If you have written a plugin that you would like to share with the rest of the Basic4GL community, please email me.

Free-Sound v0.3 ALPHA by djlinux An alternative sound and music engine.
Supports:
  • Fast mixing using MMX and SSE (if available)
  • Sample loops
  • Set speed, volume and panning (even during sound playback)
  • Realtime MP3 stream decoder for background music
  • Supports .wav and .mp3 files (more formats are planned)
Comes with a number of examples and sound files.
This is an ALPHA version (still in development).
See this forum thread for more information.
Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) by djlinux ODE is "A free, industrial quality library for simulating articulated rigid body dynamics - for example ground vehicles, legged creatures, and moving objects in VR environments. It's fast, flexible & robust. Built-in collision detection.", created by Russel Smith (I believe.. The ODE website is down at the time of writing.)
This plugin lets you use ODE in your Basic4GL programs.
Comes with a couple of examples to get you started.
See this forum thread for more information.

You can find more plugins at the Basic4GL wiki.

Plugin SDK

Plugin SDK

Includes project files for Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 and CodeBlocks.
Should also work with any decent C++ compiler capable of creating a Windows DLL, however you will need to configure project files manually for other compilers.

Basic4GL plugin SDK (Zip file, 54KB)

 

Translations

Here you can download Basic4GL documentation translated into different languages:

Russian Thanks to Popov Evgeniy Alekseevich

Utilities

TTF2B4GL

Cool utility by "David" (aka dw817) to take a Windows True Type Font and convert it to an image that can be used as a Basic4GL font.
You need to be sure to read the instructions first, but once you get the hang of it it's quite straight-forward.

I did notice that when you save the file you need to choose a filename of 8 characters or less (not including the .bmp extension), otherwise it wont save. (You can always rename the file after it's created.)

To use a different font in Basic4GL:

dim myFont: myFont = LoadTexture("My Font.bmp")
Font(myFont): printr "This is the new font"
Font(DefaultFont()): printr "This is the default font"
TTF2B4GL

 

Basic4GL source code

Download Basic4GL source code

Basic4GL is released under a custom license similar to GPL. (I will probably switch it to GPL eventually..)
Note: I generally update the source code release when people ask for it, so it often lags behind the main release.

Basic4GL source code v2.5.0 (Zip file, 4.8MB)