Part 7: Documentation
Game BASIC came with several pieces of documentation, including two physical books and several electronic documents on the Windows 95 Tools CD. Due to the fact that Game BASIC was only released in Japan, most of its documentation is Japanese-only. Thankfully, modern tools like Google Translate do a reasonable job when translating bits and pieces, so you can find a lot of valuable information with a bit of patience. And since this is just an implementation of the widespread BASIC language, resources that document other flavors of the language generally match well to this one.
Here’s a summary of what’s available:
Physical Documentation
- Tutorial Manual – A 176-page manual with basic tutorials to get you started with Game BASIC. There is no electronic version of this manual available, but most of it is covered in the tutorials in Part 5 of this series. The official manual covers:
- Basic operations
- Programming tutorials covering text, graphics, and sound
- Setting up and using BASTERM
- Reference Manual – A 421-page manual with detailed explanations of every command available in the Game BASIC language, including names, descriptions, parameters, and usage tips. There is an electronic version of this manual, available below.
Electronic Documentation
Game BASIC also has several electronic documents available, either included on the Windows 95 Tools CD or distributed online after release. This documentation includes:
- GAMEBASIC.CHM – A Windows CHM version of the physical Reference Manual. So far as I can tell, this was provided online by a fan after release, as it is not available on the Tools CD. (Japanese)
- English GAMEBASIC.CHM from SegaXtreme (very rough machine translation)
- The above translation is not especially helpful, but I find that Google Translate works quite well for short segments, if you copy/paste sections from the original CHM.
- To get this file to display properly, you will need to enable Japanese support for non-Unicode programs in Windows (see Part 3, Step 3) and update the security for the file. Right-click the file, choose Properties, and check “Unblock” in the security section of the window that appears:
- BASTERM readme.txt – A simple README text file with BASTERM release notes (Japanese)
- English BASTERM readme.txt (Translated by Flyback Labs)
- BASTERM.HLP – A Windows Help file, accessible from the BASTERM Help menu (Japanese)
- English BASTERM.RTF: An RTF version of the HLP file (Coming soon…)
- DXFCONV README.TXT – A README text file with DXFCONV operating instructions and release notes (Japanese)
- English DXFCONV README.TXT (Translated by Flyback Labs)
- Game BASIC FAQ – An online FAQ from Bits Laboratory with basic technical information and corrections/errata from the Tutorial and Reference manuals
Is it possible to use otvdm instead of virtual machine?
Possibly! I never tried. The main problem is the installer application. If you can install the utilities on another system, you can copy paste the .exes to modern Windows and they’ll run. But I remember having stability issues/limitations with that approach (unfortunately, I don’t remember exactly what – it’s been a couple years), so I settled on using a VM as the most reliable method.
Just wanted to say thanks for writing this all up. It was particularly helpful to have the small details for getting the COM port appropriately forwarded in my VM. I got myself a pretty complete setup now.
I’ve been messing a bunch with BASIC Studio on ps2 (I have all the documentation and can read it), and have been shocked at how little it has been explored in the English-speaking spheres. I’m thinking of taking the time to scan it all and translate it, but have been looping around whether its worth the 20 hours it’ll take me. I’d love to talk with you about what motivated you to put this all together – please shoot me an email if you’re willing.