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About the games/programs in the directory
The programming language.
The games included in the database are compiled with QuickBASIC 4.5 or QBX 7.1(PDS7.1) compiler or are in source code(s) compatible with QBasic 1.1, QuickBASIC 4.5 or QBX 7.1. One game, Netris, was compiled in VBDOS but has a stripped code compatible with QuickBASIC. I don't know. Don't ask, don't tell. In other words, the games in the database are QBasic games.
Not all games featured in the database are compiled. If you don't know what that means please refer to "Running QBasic Games" section to learn all about uncompiled and compiled QBasic games and about running them.
Freeware or shareware?
Almost all the games in the directory are freeware. Some are marked as shareware mainly because the authors of those games don't know what shareware really means and those games don't require registration. Few games were shareware like Lexter but are now freeware. If you don't believe...well, go suck a lemon. Those few really shareware games included are tagged as demos so you won't find them in non-demos section. If you want an example of such game I can name Swarm or MOX Demo. What is most important to say is if any game is limited in content because it's shareware that game is placed in the demos section.
Language in the games?
Almost all the games in the directory are in English. Only few are in German, two in Spanish and one in Italian. All these games can be played without knowing these languages but Uno, some card game on German and Ataque Naval which is in Spanish. Also, Banana Bomber might be a bit confusing(Italian). Don't be afraid to download other non-English games if you know only English since some of them are quite fun to play and some also feature a help file in English(those who need it) written by me that tells you all you need to know about playing that game.
What games and demos are included in the directory?
Most of this is said in the "About QBasic Games Directory" section. All worthy QBasic games are or will be included in the directory. The main objective of this directory is to archive and preserve all worthy(average and above) QBasic games and not all QBasic games ever made.
As you can notice not only worthy games are hosted in the database. Many bad games are included and that's simply because they were already hosted and/or reviewed somewhere. They ended up under my hand. And since I took the time to unpack and start them adding them to the database was a natural and convenient thing to do. Still, few games and many demos were deleted soon after I've tested them. They were so catastrophic or simply so incompatible with today systems that you can't help it. Reviewing and hosting those games would be waste of my time and webspace. Also, some of the games(2-3) I've tested were shareware(give me money for the full game crap), very limited(one level included and similar) and below average or poor so I deleted them immediately.
Game engines(demos without play value) that are included are the ones that have a historical value and/or contain something outstanding, which is almost always the graphics. Walk around RPG demos, 3D engines, stuff like that. Only few of these are or will be included.
Playable demos that are included are the ones that can pass for a finished game. Demos like Lost 2 or Gaia. Demos that feature a portion of the final game, one episode or level. Many RPG demos were cut out because they didn't lead anywhere(just a showcase of the battle system and the game engine and a bit of the story) and because there was an inflation of them during one period of time in the community. I'm not interested to archive so many RPG demos. It would require too much time to review most of them and since they are demos majority of them features poor documentation and poor packing.
I'm always looking for a tip about QBasic games that should be included in the database. Everything will be checked. Just have in mind that I don't have all the time in the world. It is very possible that some very good games were missed. I was not present in the community from it starts and not in all it's corners.
What about the source codes?
This site is not meant to host source codes and tutorials. That's why I didn't took care to categorize which game archives include the source codes and which don't. Uncompiled games obviously do. Yes, many compiled games in the database come with the source code but since coding in QBasic is not much popular today and since more useful things can be learned from tutorials I didn't take the trouble to create another category in the database. I really don't feel this is needed since source codes are not the objective of this directory.
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