Game Maker 6.1 help!

[Big J]

What kind of Events and Actions would I use if I wanted to make the main character shoot out a fireball in his direction of movement? (I'm working on a pacman-style Mario game, and instead of just having the ability to BECOME a fireball, I also think it would be good if Mario could shoot a fireball as well.) I have Game Maker 6.1 (Unregistered). Please help! The fireball doesn't have to bounce or anything, just move in a straight line in any one of 4 directions (left, right, up, down,) based on Mario's movement.

I'll probably use collision events to make the fireball disappear when it hits a wall or enemy.

[Julian]

I have unregestered too. It's not very good.

[Julian]

O.K. then. What button will you be using?

[pizza]

when you press 'up' set direction to 90, right 180, down 270, left 0
and when you press the "shoot" button:

if direction is 180 set the fireball hspeed to 5
if direction is 270 set the fireball vspeed to 5
if 90, vspeed -5
if 0, hspeed -5

(maybe that would work)

[Big J]

Thanks for your help, but I already found a simpler answer on the Game Maker Community forum.

select a key board event like: Press [key]

Create instance of object [name of bullet or weapon] with a motion.
for direction, just type the word direction.
Set the horizontal speed. (x)
Set the vertical speed. (y)
put a checkmark in the box labeled "Relative"

(I recommend that the x speed and y speed be the same) I have the speed for the character set to 4, while the bullet moves at 8.