Problems finding Blitz to buy it

My dad told me that he'd tried to find Blitz Basic on the net after I'd mentioned it to him but not been able to find it to buy it. I'll be sending him the direct link but found it strange he couldn't find anything. If I google Blitz basic, this is the first site I find. Has anyone else ever been told that Blitz is hard to find?

Blitz Basic is defunct. Blitz Plus is similar. BRL do all their own sales through this site, hence the reason no other sites have their products for sale.

Nope. Did you ask your dad how he was looking for it?
I never underestimate my dad's inability to use technology.

Get Blitzmax - don't even bother with Blitzbasic. Its been obsolete for several years now and the last version is 1.80.

But yeah I reckon the Blitz products are hard to find. I never even hear of them outside of this site.

Even when you type "Blits Basic" in Google you will find it on top.

Maybe site was down when he tried

I use http://www.blitzmax.com myself to get here

I've not used BlitzMax myself. My dad's a beginner really so would he find it easy to use? He's not interested in 3D games, mainly 2D stuff, and he wants GUI tools too.

BlitzMax is bit harder to get into than BlitzBasic, but it really is worth it, as it is much better. It has the fastest 2D engine, and GUI tools!!

Blitzbasic is faster at drawing 2d graphics. But lacks the alpha, blendmode and real time scaling rotationg that comes with 3d graphics.

When you say BlitzBasic is faster at 2D graphics, is this a difference I'll notice when coding with it? I have SpriteCandy for Blitz3D, so maybe would I be better off saving some cash and sticking with what I have?

If you're not interested in x-platform and OOP then B3D and SpriteCandy is super solution. B3D also also has streaming music and use of texture/image buffers which Bmax is missing.
On the other hand I stuck with Bmax even though I have no interest in X-platform simply because the language and oo implementation is so nice and you get the source.

Blitz3D has everything the original BB did in it and some more if you want the fucntionality of Blitzbasic I would go with that.

BlitzMax doesn't have the same ease of use as Blitz3D but does offer multi-platform.

You might also want to look at Purebasic as that offers the some of the advantages of Blitz 3D and BlitzMax and is updated regularly with new features.

Darkheart

I'd say that's very much dependent on where you came from, if you're new to programming, B3D isn't going to be any easier to learn, some of the things I found confusing at first and I'd programmed in other languages prior to it.

I'd say that neither are hard to learn, but BMax is probably harder to master (since there's a lot more you can do with it).

what can you do with bmax that you can't do with Blitz3D+Sprite Candy?

Compile on Linux and Mac, change or read the source code (OK I know SpriteCandy comes with source), use OO techniques (without having to fudge it), create your own modules, use raw DX or OGL if you want.

I still hope they will make a BlitzMax3D so there will be only one good choice :-)

Well I'm not interested in cross platform, and I've not foundany computers that can't run Blitz3D programs, I'm definitly not interested in the source of Blitz and haven't written anything complicated enough to use proper OO programming style. Create my own module, I thought that's what userlibs were for blitz3D?

...include media directly in the executable without the use of a 3rd party product, use double precision numbers.

I like 3rd party image packers. Not sure I need double precision numbers in my casual games and arced remakes.

Sorry for sounding like I'm picking on Max here, I'm just looking for real reasons why I need to upgrade.

i haven't seen one Blitz3D project that could've been done better in Max.

... then you don't need to.
It would be easier for you to post what B3D with SpriteCandy doesn't give you than for people to try and 'sell' you something on features you don't see the benefit in.
P.S. Don't look at it as an upgrade. See Bmax as a different product line altogether.

I have Blitz3D + SpriteCandy, and see it as an all-in-one 2D games creation system. I have Max now as well, but I purchased that for larger game development (and some 3D work). I think for 2D B3D and Candy are a hard combo to beat.

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. Sprites in Max will be just as fast as in Sprite Candy. The only reason they're slower than BB is because they're rotatable, colourable, alpha enabled '3D in 2D', as I presume Sprite Candy is. The main reason to change is if you prefer the language. Some people love Max, some people hate it, just like Marmite I guess.

I think the days of pure2d are kind of gone now, but, i like that you have the option in blitz3d to do that.

But it sounds like blitz3d + a lib will do you fine tbh.