This used to be shareware, but it's now open source. The old website
is cached at [www.tnbasic.com][1] while the sourcecode is at
<
http://github.com/tul/tntbasic>
What is TNT Basic?
TNT Basic allows anyone, regardless of previous experience, to make
games for the Macintosh. Its amazingly easy to use development
environment allows you to compose all your game's graphics, sounds,
music and code with simplicity and ease.
## But I Can't Program!
I suppose this is where you expect us to say "You don't need to - you
just click a few buttons and your game's ready!". Sorry, but not with
TNT Basic.
Games produced with such "click and play" creator kits are extremely
limited in their functionality, there are after all only so many
different games you can make by clicking a few buttons. Games produced
by such tools tend to all have the same look and feel.
You'll never create anything special with your hands tied and we want
you to create something unique and special. TNT Basic gives you
complete freedom to create, and it's so easy to use, that you'll
wonder why anyone would use underpowered point and click game creation
interfaces in the first place.
## You Can Program
In TNT Basic you write in a simplified beginners' programming language
called basic. It's incredibly easy to learn and TNT Basic's on-line
help system will assist you all the way from your first steps to your
finished game. Check out our [Learn To Program Tutorials][2], you'll
be coding in no time!
If you want to see what making a game in TNT Basic entails, why not
take an on-line trip around TNT Basic's editing experience
[here...][3]
## Knowledge Is Power
Making games is a lot of fun, and our philosophy is that is should be
easy enough that everyone can do it. Why not [download][4] TNT Basic
today and experiment with our unique [Game-In-60][5] tutorials? You
can make your first game in under 60 minutes! Or download one of our
free games : [Beans][6] and [Bang On!][7] and follow our [hacking
guides][8] to change the games and add cheats!
Making games is easier than you think, the only limit is your
imagination.
## Technology
Even though we've made it easier than ever to create games, TNT Basic
doesn't hide from you the technology you'll need to make great games.
TNT Basic uses simple terms and commands to give you access to the
following great technologies:
* 16 bit graphics (Over 32,000 colours on screen!)
* Lightning fast sprite engine (supports anti-aliasing and
translucency!)
* Stereo panning sound support
* Advanced music engine (supports MP3 and many tracker music formats
including MOD, MAD, MIDI, SoundTracker and OctaMed)
* TCP/IP and AppleTalk game networking - play your friends over the
internet!
* Build standalone games which don't need TNT Basic to run
* Load and save hi-scores and saved games
* Automatic joystick, mouse, keyboard and speech input support
* Integrated development environment, manage everything from code to
music from one application!
* Syntax colouring, your code is coloured automatically to make it
easier to read
* Integrated help, just highlight a command in your code and hit
cmd-? to find out more about it
* Mac OS X compatible
Compatibility
Architecture: PPC
## System Requirements
Computer
TNT Basic requires a PowerPC Macintosh with at least 64Mb of RAM.
TNT Basic runs on iMacs like a dream!
Mac OS
TNT Basic requires Mac OS 8.6 or higher, we recommend Mac OS 9.21.
Mac OS 8.6 Note
If you run TNT Basic on Mac OS 8.6, you must have CarbonLib 1.25 or
higher installed in your extensions folder. You can download this from
Apple's website.
Please note that integrated help does not work under Mac OS 8.6 and
help is not searchable from the Help Viewer. Sorry, we think it's just
because Help Viewer is too old on Mac OS 8.6.
Mac OS X
TNT Basic does run on Mac OS X, however we have not finished
optimising for Mac OS X yet, meaning that it runs slower under Mac OS
X than it does under Mac OS 9.
TNT Basic input commands do not currently work under Mac OS X,
however, this will be rectified shortly.
Mac OS X compatiblity is a priority for us.
[1]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/
[2]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/learn/index.php#tutorials
[3]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/learn/tour/tour.php
[4]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/download/index.php
[5]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/learn/game-in-60/index.php
[6]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/directory/index.php?onlyshow=Beans
[7]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/directory/index.php?onlyshow=Bang+On%21
[8]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200615204829/http://www.tntbasic.com/learn/index.php#byexample
