A Little Off Topic -- C and Game Programming

If I need to use C, NOT C++ and develop games for Windows.

I know DirectX and OpenGL are options

But what if I wanted something "easier" for newbies?

what game wrappers / engines are out there that support "C" and easy to get work done quick

dont even mention Torque; its C++ and scripting and its horrible in my opinion.

you could use gdi,for small 2d games,it does the job! i built a breakout game years ago with it,and was surprised it played really smooth.

im a sucker for c++ and find it easier than plain old C,as it helped me build classes around the game (bitmaps,sound etc)

Allegro... http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/ It doesn't get much simpler...

@Evamp, any chance of a copy of your source ? I'm dabblibg with 'C' amongst other things and I'd appreciate the chance to view an arkanoid ilk in 'C' , regards, BP.

so Allegro and GDI for standard "C"

any others with good experience?

@Blitzplotter: I lost the source a couple of years ago I'm afraid,but I did learn the gdi stuff by reading a book (and ive read a few),if i recall, it was this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-Programming-Hours/dp/067232461X

it shows you how to create an engine using GDI,i was on a C++/WinAPI learning drive and picked out stuff from the engine for use in the breakout game, i had a pretty good set of classes going with fonts, particles, BASIC like drawing/graphic commands (Cls,DrawImage,SetBuffer,GetPixel etc)

id go far as say it was one of them 'beginners' books i really enjoyed learning from, and confidently expand upon and thats rare.

thanks Evamp, welcome to the forums.

I wrote my fist game in C with Allegro - it was an Arkanoid close called Balls32!

Many many years ago as an avid games player and as a way to really polish my C programming skills I decided to write a full blown game.

Took a year in development and 8,000 lines of code.

balls!32 was written (and tested) on a 486 DX2 16m RAM and built for a 32 bit DOS environment using Watcom C v11. balls!32 used Rational Systems DOS4GW DOS extender allowing access to all available RAM (EMS memory is NOT required). 95% of the code was C, the rest inline ASSEMBLER. The graphics were created using a heady mixture of Autodesk's 3d Studio&Animator Pro.

Source sadly lost.

Can't resist asking the question - why do you need to use C rather than Blitz? Blitz is undoubtedly easier.

sdl is free and cross platform. Does the job.

http://www.libsdl.org/

@Boiled Sweets - respect, @ nomen - given the choice it'd be blitz for me, however 'work' requires C, however developing it there to a useful extent is impossible.

Developing a game in C would make the honerous task more appealing.