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I am a very seasoned Delphi developer (over 12 years of experience not counting my Turbo Pascal experience) and was wondering does anyone write games in Delphi? I have seen DirectX API wrappers in Delphi that allow you to program against DirectX (even wrote a simple solitaire game with a friend), but haven't seen anything out there that shows me that I should keep up with Delphi. I just hate to walk away from so much knowledge and Object Pascal language, but I am not seeing much as to a reason to keep going with Delphi.

I currently program in C# and thinking about XNA, but it seems to me that the dominating opinion is go C/C++ route with DirectX.

Any other Delphi developers out there struggle with this too?

Thanks, MDV

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  • \$\begingroup\$ its not quite a game in itself but a popular game related program, apprentice was made with delphi. I think the main reason no one has taken it up after it got abandoned was the language. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 19, 2010 at 19:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ Two years later, I have to say: look at MonoGame. Its awesome. Itd be better if they didn't accept pull request that break the build, but overall its great.) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 28, 2012 at 1:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 for reminding me Delphi :) Had a little fun with DelphiX, never made a real game in it, though. Delphi is still a nice environment for me to make some utility rapidly. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 28, 2012 at 20:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ Message from the future: Here at Unity, we've now got HPC#. The performance is amazing,to the point where we're porting significant parts of the platform from C++. It's not really a direct solution to your problem since it has to be used with Unity rather than as a standalone tool (for the moment), but it's a great way to get native performance from a higher level language. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:03

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Okay, I hate to say it, but Delphi is effectively dead. I know, I know - it's depressing. Fear not, however: even better languages have evolved that have 99% of the advantages of Delphi, but are gasp still (REALLY) supported and enjoying widespread industry adoption. You're not doing your career any favors by sticking with Delphi. I worked with Delphi for about six wonderful years before following Anders over to the dark side.

If you're already playing with C#, you've no doubt noticed the incredible similarities between it and Delphi. Your Delphi experience will help a great deal given the similar object models, exception handling, etc.

The only advantage that Delphi has over C# is that it is compiled to native code. The only other game in town for that these days seems to be C and C++.

I'm having fantastic success with C# and XNA. The performance of managed code these days is very near that of native code. If you want to code for multiple platforms (windows, xbox, ps3, etc), you'll need to stick with c++ because it's the only thing that will build for everything.

If you're sticking with Windows and the Xbox, XNA is a great tool.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ David, I unfortunatley have to agree for practical purposes Delphi is dead. And yes, C# is very "similar" to Delphi - I just really like the fast, responsiveness of a Delphi WinApp over C#. There is noticable difference. I guess I just have to suck it up and let Delphi go. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 12:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, I plan to stick with just Windows game development... not sure if I care about making an Xbox game at this time and I don't care about Linux/Mac. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 12:45
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    \$\begingroup\$ Yes, there is a difference, but it's getting smaller. If you find yourself in situation where the performance difference is too great, you can link in C++ libraries to do some of the heavy lifting. I haven't had to resort to that, however. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 15:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Ipsquiggle sure - mono is a nice option to have. If he's ignoring Linux and Mac (and both guys that bought Macs for gaming can kiss my ass), .NET/XNA are a great option. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 20:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ Maybe because it's Delphi was not and is not dead? And that Delphi would evolve beyond a Windows-only desktop app tool into a multi-platform cross-compiler? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Feb 25, 2023 at 18:56
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Soldat is written entirely in Delphi I think.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I should also mention that this isn't necessarily proof that it is a good idea. I know the use of a particular flavor of Delphi has made it impossible to port the game off Windows despite a huge consumer demand. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 20, 2010 at 0:31
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The team I worked in developed quite a few games in the past using Delphi and DirectX wrapper called Asphyre. They were all 2D games developed for payslot machines. We even combined Delphi and Flash through ActiveX, which turned up very satisfying.

Asphyre is one of the best (if not the only) DirectX wrapper for Delphi. We used a lot of particles and stuff there, so those were rather eye-pleasing games. Asphyre features 3D technologies too, but we never went beyond 2D cause we didn't need to.

In my opinion, however, Delphi is just way too old and it appears that C# provides the best alternative for it.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure if that name is supposed to sound like "aspire," but it looks more like "ass fire." I'm just sayin'. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 11, 2011 at 23:37
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Not to dodge the main title of your question, but I can offer some advice in respect to the other aspect (where should you go next, since it seems you've already decided.) C# and XNA are simply an abstraction layer above DirectX. Using C# and XNA will help you decrease time to market, and can reduce some development costs; however, that is at the expence of some performance and control.

C/C++ and raw Direct X is popular because you get maximum performance and control. It really depends on your goals. Personally, I use C# and XNA because its entry level costs are basically zero (especially if you already know C#) and it only costs $99/year to be part of the Creators Club, which is only a requirement if you want to deploy your game to Xbox and or Windows Phone 7. Doing C# and XNA for Windows only is absolutly free, and can produce amazing results. At a minimum, I recommend you check it out before jumping headlong into C++ and raw Direct X.

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It's a wonder, but there is a little game in Hungary, with lots of fans, written in delphi, and still new updates are coming out. It's called Stickman Warfare and it's a 3D MMOFPS.

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SvEngine. It's an advanced 2D game engine for Windows® PC and use Direct3D® for hardware accelerated rendering. It's robust, fully object oriented, designed for easy use and suitable for making all types of 2D games and other graphic simulations. There is support for surfaces, textures, sprites, audio, streams, archives, configuration files, render targets, swap chains, databases and much more.

NOTE: It's our own 2D game engine middleware that we develop and support. We will be using it to make all our upcoming projects.

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    \$\begingroup\$ You're using it, but also writing it and selling it. Please disclose commercial interests when answering questions with links to products. \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 20, 2011 at 13:23

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