5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. 
   I have been writing games for a number of years now. While I have published a few "action" games for the AMIGA platform, my experience in the windows environment was more with "static games" such as board games and puzzles. Since I already had the experience with action games and Window programming - my reason for buying the book was to learn "how to do program games the right way" rather then just "how to program games".
   
   For me - the book proves to be a very good book, but I think others will find it not as pleasant - I'll explain that later.
   
   As with other SAMS "learn in 24 hours", there are 24 chapters, which theoretically should be completed in an hour each. I think that is an individual thing - in some areas that I felt knowledgeable in, I skimmed through a chapter in 10 minutes. Yet in some areas, I was fiddling with the example and the source code for hours.
   
   There is also an accompanying CD containing a C++ compiler (Borlands C++ trail version), and source code for all the examples in the book. The installation procedure for the CD was painless - although from previous experiences with compilers - that is not always the case - and if you already have a compiler you might want to stick with it and install only the code examples.
   
   The book starts with a short history of games, a quick introduction to window programming (windows and event handling) and continue to discuss the main driver of a game - the game engine. The book does very well to enhance the engine and add surrounding components: basic graphics (chapter 4), bitmaps (chapter 5), keyboard/mouse/joystick handling (chapters 6/7). It is at the end of chapter seven (the whole of chapter 8 actually) - that you get to write your first game, but not to worry - you get to do some coding well before that. The examples in the chapters leading to chapter 8 should prove intriguing enough for those who are serious about the subject of game programming.
   
   From here on - most of the chapters are dedicated to the main visual aspects of the game - sprites and animations. The book teach how to create them, move them around, animate them, testing for collision, working the background and managing the whole lot (chapters 9-12, 17-22). There is a break for music (chapters 13-16) and some info about creating demos for your application and keeping high score (chapters 23-24) - all accompanied by good solid examples and full working games (about five of them).
   
   The great thing about the book is that is does really teach you how to do it right. It clearly explains the ingredients, build them up logically and provide great code for tinkering. The pace is good and you don't find yourself falling asleep. The examples are relevant, and the source code is explained in the relevant chapter to the right level (not every little detail, but covering all the main points). The book also does not fall into the trap of going into 3D, DirectX or other open libraries - those are important for the serious game programmer, but are a different logical unit, better covered in a purposely written book. This book is to teach you about writing games in the correct manner and about making you WANT to learn more - and in that aspect, "it does what it says on the tin".
   
   So where are the problems? Well - the book states in the introduction that they do expect you to have some background of C++ (true) but they don't expect you to have windows programming knowledge. I guess they were hoping to give the basics of window elements (the event handling routine and the windows creation - as well as the windows data types) in the first two chapters - and that is nonsense. The idea of event handling routine and window register is so fundamental to the way a windows environment concepts are being applied - that anyone not accustomed to SOME window programming will find themselves utterly confused and insecure after the second chapter. The other complaint has to do with the writer. Mr. Morrison is supposedly a competent writer - but when he feels that something is hard to explain - he basically tells you "not to worry about it, you'll get it as we go along" - extremely un-reassuring, and he does it quite a few times in the book. He also sometimes uses the complicated (although more robust) coding - which is important for good programming, but might be utterly confusing (for example, the bitmap class cover loading bitmaps from file, resource etc - using the loadimage command and analysing the bitmap structure, making it a hard read - while a simple loadbitmap and select object commands would have built a shorter, less robust but more reader friendly code) - Last, it must be noted that if you are using a different compiler, the source might need some adjustments - but generally, the more experienced user should find it straightforward.
   
   Overall, I found the book a very good introduction to 2D game programming, and it did left me wanting to explore farther. I would recommend it to those who have some window programming under their belt, but are new to game programming. In that category - this is one of the better books around.



2. As far as I can tell, this book is for the beginner. It teaches game programming using C++ and the Win32 API. However, you need a lot of C++ experience before you start this book, so read up. This book also moves at an odd pace. By chapter 3, you're designing a game engine, but then you spend almost the entire book learning to draw sprites and animate them, with a few breaks for input and sound. This book does manage to make acomplishments in some areas where other books fail. You actually create more than one game, whereas other books simply throw a lot of demos at you and culminate in a game. Some topics that I haven't seen anywhere else yet are also covered here, like basic AI, keeping hi-scores, etc. Summary: good if you have a knowledge of DOS C++ and want to get into game programming with the Win32 API, but you may just want to skip this book all together and go straight for DirectX.



3. As far as I can tell, this book is for the beginner. It teaches game programming using C++ and the Win32 API. However, you need a lot of C++ experience before you start this book, so read up. This book also moves at an odd pace. By chapter 3, you're designing a game engine, but then you spend almost the entire book learning to draw sprites and animate them, with a few breaks for input and sound. This book does manage to make acomplishments in some areas where other books fail. You actually create more than one game, whereas other books simply throw a lot of demos at you and culminate in a game. Some topics that I haven't seen anywhere else yet are also covered here, like basic AI, keeping hi-scores, etc. Summary: good if you have a knowledge of DOS C++ and want to get into game programming with the Win32 API, but you may just want to skip this book all together and go straight for DirectX.



4. As far as I can tell, this book is for the beginner. It teaches game programming using C++ and the Win32 API. However, you need a lot of C++ experience before you start this book, so read up. This book also moves at an odd pace. By chapter 3, you're designing a game engine, but then you spend almost the entire book learning to draw sprites and animate them, with a few breaks for input and sound. This book does manage to make acomplishments in some areas where other books fail. You actually create more than one game, whereas other books simply throw a lot of demos at you and culminate in a game. Some topics that I haven't seen anywhere else yet are also covered here, like basic AI, keeping hi-scores, etc. Summary: good if you have a knowledge of DOS C++ and want to get into game programming with the Win32 API, but you may just want to skip this book all together and go straight for DirectX.



5. I gave this book 2 stars, because it has some good points, mostly really bad points.
   
   The good:
   You will be able to make basic 2D sprite games in Windows using this book and the source code on the CD. It encourages you to learn basic techniques involved with the other aspects of game development (sound, music, etc). The book comes with several games that you can run right off the CD.
   
   The bad:
   This book doesn't really teach you much. In other Sam's Teach Yourself books, you learn each step of what you are doing, and you can put in the source code yourself. In this one, you merely read about PIECES of the source code, and are expected to run it off the disk. So basically, you are paying for a game engine, a bunch of source code examples, and a tutorial on using the game engine.
   
   I would have enjoyed this book much more if it had spent time explaining exactly what the engine does and how to make it do it, not to mention how the code in your program interacts with the engine. It seems to me that this book is mostly for people who want to "cheat" and copy and paste the code to make their games, rather than understanding what they are doing and writing the code themselves. Since I was someone who wanted the latter, I was sorely disappointed.

5 comments about Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX w/CD (The Premier Press Game Development Series).

1. Prima Press has the merit of being the first company to heavily invest only in publications of game-programming books.. I find that game-programming is one of the most fascinating and well, fun
   area of programming and CS in general.. so any effort in this direction is welcome to me.. but I have seen too many titles from this publisher who were too superficial to do any good, or just plain rubbish. This title stands out for the professionality and competence of the author and for the level of detail and completeness of presentation. If you are a programmer with decent C/C++ skills, a curiosity about how games like Diablo work, and a LOT of patience and enthusiasm for game programming by all means get this book. It won't enable you to write the next episode of Diablo or Dungeon Siege but still if you work your way through it studying carefully the text and especially the code presented, in the end you will know enough to create a small
   2D/3D adventure game on the diablo style.

   Beware this book is thick and dense, and will take time to absorb but you cannot help it if you want to learn something interesting and enjoyable about game programming.
   The second edition is coming out, probably updated to the latest
   release of DirectX, so watch out for it!




2. It amazes me that people post reviews stating, "Don't buy this book," or "3 stars (but should be less in my opinion)," among many others, because the book doesn't have the quote un-quote "advanced" information they were looking for. According to one reviewer this "advanced" information he was looking for was "a non-Final Fantasy type combat system." This book TEACHES you the IDEAS behind how game programming works, with an emphasis and examples on ROLE PLAYING GAMES. What's the most popular type of role playing game? Final Fantasy type. If you are an "advanced" game programmer and this book didn't help you, then you should be able to use your own knowledge and program your OWN combat system. It seems like you were looking for a book that offered the solution (combat system) that you wanted to cut and paste into your "advanced and superior code." For those that want a book to help their imagination grow and problem solving nodes start firing away after seeing some real-life examples, this book is for you. If you want to buy a book that contains code you are just going to cut and paste into your own source, then you're right, this book is not "advanced" enough.



3. I had a specific objective in mind when I bought this book. I'm in the process of writing a hobby level multi-user RPG for me and maybe up to a hundred or so other players (not many hundreds or thousands). I have a solid background in C++, less so in DirectX.
   
   I've bought many books on game programing to help me with this process and to my surprise I've found this one simply amazing while most of the others I've found to be little more than expensive doorstops. :)
   
   Like all the books of this nature, I read it in very much a "pick and choose" manner, focussing on chapters I liked and extracted code from the CD for places where it helped me. I found the material covered and, more importantly, the code representation of that material to be extremely helpful in my coding process.
   
   I believe the tips and code the book provides (which all compile and provide very reasonable and practical applications for the ideas demonstrated) saved me (literally) hundreds of hours of research (not to mention trial and error) finding methods that work and work well and covered all of the core componenets I would want in a role-playing game. It covered multi-player over the internet, 2d and 3d rendering in directX, how to construct combat, spells, chat, and inventory systems and a variety of other items.
   
   Naturally, I had to do a lot of customization to make the game do what I wanted it to do and I had to merge several of the ideas discussed into my own framework (for example the multi player network section is covered more or less stand alone where clearly other parts of the book need to be integrated with it to form a real game), but the result is I have a basic game up and running in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken, which no other book has ever really brought me.



4. This book is alright, i bought this book some time ago, but one thing is this. ITS NOT FOR NOOB. you need to know a good amount of C or C++. if not then this is not for you. now that i go back to it, its not so bad BUT!!! code is sloppy and not really that great, i suggest buying something else if you are a noob.



5. I loved how the book explained everything. I have used DirectX books before and just done "what in the world..." because of how the information is organized. You have pieces of code and huge, long-winded explanations that complicate things. This book on the other hand explains everything well. Straight to the point and usually only gives you the history lesson when it's needed.
   
   Problem is... the source code. I tried things as the book explained them into the compiler. Some of the functions do not even work. You get a lot of:
   
   // g_pD3DDevice is a pre-initialized 3-D Device Object
   
   which doesn't help much since it was explained only once.
   
   I got lost quite a few times because the book hardly had any complete sets of code. In a lot of books, there'd be code sections with compilable example code (that works) that shows you an application of the code being explained. There isn't much of that in this book. There are code examples on the CD-Rom, but they don't seem to fit the material in the book. I had to supplement the examples from material from Microsoft's MSDN pages.
   
   If you get this book, be prepared to use supplemental material (other book, online, etc). It explains how to do things well, but the source code inside wasn't very conducive to learning for me.

2 comments about Mechwarrior: Dark Age #21: Principles of Desolation(A BattleTech Novel) (Mechwarrior).

1. I picked up a Jason M. Hardy book once on impulse and have never regretted it. I may not be a good reviewer but I can say that I have now enjoyed three books by this author and find his writing style to be excellent. This fellow can really tell a story. I recommend the book very highly.



2. I really enjoyed Hardy's "The Scorpion Jar" and was really looking forward to this one, but was, unfortunately, really disappointed. Sure, we find out a secret about Danai and two big arrangements are made between Liao and its neighbors, but nothing really happens in this book. Danai, as the primary focus of the book, is supposed to draw us in, but I never really developed any attachments to her. Sure you feel sorry for her misfortune, but she is a less-than-convincing character. She's surrounded by cliches (the serious strategist, the cocky, sex-obsessed guy, the sympathetic relative) and really leaves the reading thinking "um, ok, then what?" Of the last 10 Mechwarrior books, the only ones I have really enjoyed have been the ones relating to the main storyline (i.e. - The Scorpion Jar, The Sword of Sedition, and Fortress Republic), which is really the same way the Battletech series went. I've just started "Wolf Hunters" and I'm really dreading another bust, but I'm trying to keep with the story. Truth be told, you really wouldn't miss anything by skipping any of the tangental novels. Decisions, decisions...

3 comments about Everquest Companion: The Inside Lore of a Gameworld.

1. Everquest has always been a big part of my life. This is a bit strange, as I haven't played the game in over a year and a half. This might give you an idea of how Everquest and its community can become a part of you. I picked up this book to learn more about the game where the motto is "You're in Our World Now".

   This book was a wonderful read. Anyone who has played or hasn't played yet wondered what EQ is all about will gain a thorough understanding of this epic game. It starts out with an introduction of Everquest and how entering its world unveils a whole other life, meeting thousand of other people, from students to housewives to doctors to military people. The game is extremely compelling (understatement perhaps) to play, with its quests, tradeskills, sense of belonging, and sense of accomplishments. You look with pride upon your avatar (your character in the game). You may get to know members of your guild better than your own family. You learn to work with people, to take advantage of their different skills. You learn to cooperate and achieve things that will make you swell with pride for the rest of your life.

   The book covers the history of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), I found this fascinating and had no clue how far back its roots went.

   Along the way you meet key Everquest people, the ones who envisioned the game, built it, drew it, expanded it... You see sketches and concept art and screenshots, complete with a full color layout in the middle section. You hear the stories of its players, as well as the ones who've lost a significant other to the game. The book addresses and clarifies the concept of "Evercrack", addiction to playing. You learn about guilds, raids, "mobs", and possible EQ-coined words like "woot". The book concludes with its venturing into other gaming realms, both in genres (RPG, strategy) and mediums (PocketPC, cellphone, Playstation, tabletop version).

   As I said, I'm a retired Everquest player (I used to play 80 hours a week). Why do I still consider EQ a part of my life? The community and the belief that this game was such an experience in my life, bringing me to build a site about my favorite bard class, EQDiva.com (even mentioned in the book!). So I continue to keep in touch with its community, keep up with its expansions and patches, so I can do my part to provide information to its player base. That said, I must admit that this game was a bit too addicting for me, so I myself stay away and no longer encourage friends to play. But I understand and empathize with those that still play, and I still think it's a wonderful game.

   This is a beautiful book, peppered everywhere with its lore, art, stories, dreams... It is my opinion that this game is the most compelling, intricate and well-thought out game in history, and I'd go so far as to say it's not a "game", it's a virtual life. It's a one-of-a-kind experience, one you will never forget. This book will help you understand...

   ~ Kocho Divah from EQDiva




2. if you like everquest or dont know what is it this book is worth a look it tells you every think about this game how the lord of the rings became the best mmorpg of all you should buy this book



3. Got quite a kick out of seeing the Inns and lands of Everquest made into a story. Would love to see more stories. The writing was somewhat stiff; grammatically in error just enough to be a bit of a pain. Seems like a few words were just looked up in a dictionary for variety - but incorrectly applied in context.
   Women characters, a good guideline for fantasy writing calibre, were boringly stereotyped - either weak, pale nothings or horrible vamps. Kind of funny, it was so bad.
   Plot - High points for this - I thought the ending was well done, wrapped up nicely with just a bit of a surprise. Overall, worth an afternoon just to see Qeynos again.

5 comments about Official Saga Frontier Strategy Guide.

1. this stratagy guide had a lot of stratagy, but all the lists were incorect, it seemed like David cassady (writer) had played the game but he should go back and check how many hit points the bosses have. I recomend it but don't depend on the stats.



2. this stratagy guide had a lot of stratagy, but all the lists were incorect, it seemed like David cassady (writer) had played the game but he should go back and check how many hit points the bosses have. I recomend it but don't depend on the stats.



3. I tried numerous times to finish the game without buying a guide and it was next to impossible (for me) and once the guide arrived I understood what the game wanted from me without telling me what to do word for word. I highly recommend it.



4. Oh man oh MAN! This guide is one of the worst pieces of garbage that I've ever had the misfortune to have picked up. I think I was MORE lost with it in my hand than without it. Poor maps, lousy boss strategy, inaccurate information all help to make this strategy guide bad. Very very VERY bad. This man (David Cassaday) has never played a video game in his life and it shows.

   Another poor effort by Brady Games. I wish there was a half or no-star rating, because this effort certainly deserves them. The only way this guide could be worse is if it was for another game entirely. AVOID this guide at all costs!




5. You need maps? Get this. Don't need maps? GameFAQs has much, much better. The FAQ by Matt Hobbs is literally a million times better than this. It's every bit as good as this guide, but actually useful with an accurate item list. Save your money for the actual game.

5 comments about By Temptations and By War (MechWarrior: Dark Age, No. 7).

1. As the Liao freedom fighter Evan Kurst bursts into the Mechwarrior storyline, it shows us more (key?) players in the battle for the Inner Sphere.

   This book shows how cunning Daoshien Liao is, not even the likes of a business-savvy Jacob Bannson can match.

   What I like most about this book is the epic showdown between Kurst and Michaelson: in their darkest hours, these two people rose to the occassion: Kurst gave it all for the freedom of Liao as Michaelson redeemed himself, for the last time. (it's pretty obvious who this Michaelson is)




2. I'm a huge fan of the battletech novels and the mechwarrior games, but I've been relatively disappointed with the new novels in the Dark Age setting. I was particularly displeased with the Proving Grounds trilogy, which seemed to leave out the most important thing in a BT book.....interesting mechs!

   Fortunately, By Temptations and By War does not suffer from this problem. While it fits in well in the Dark Age setting by not having regiments of Battlemechs stomping around, the author has still managed to put a decent number of mechs in (actual battlemechs, not agromechs). Even better, the author has included a couple of interesting Cappellan mech designs that I hadn't heard of before.

   The storyline is also well written, and provides a perspective that few of the battletech books in the past have shown since it is told mostly from a Cappellan view point, and the Liaos aren't automatically painted as the (somewhat shallow) bad guys as they were in some earlier novels.

   By Temptations and By War is definitely the best book that has been written in the Dark Age setting so far, and is one of the better books that Coleman has written. Even if you don't like the Dark Age timeline, I think I can recommend this book as a good read for battletech fans.




3. the main character evan is what made me enjoy this book, he just seems very likable and i hope to see him impact later cappie novels, the battle at the end is a great climax and the author (coleman is my favorite behind the jade pheaonix author thurston) gives a great immersive description



4. I have read every book in the BattleTech, Mechwarrior, and the Dark Age Series. I not impressed with this book. The story line came out very slow. It can be compared to the very first book in the BattleTech Series: Cloak and Dagger. This book is written by one of my favorite BattleTech/Mechwarrior aurthors so I expected more out of this book. All in all I have not been impressed with this new Dark Age series. It does not seem to have the flare or sepense that the other series has. I can only hope that it gets better in the furture.



5. Loren L. Coleman is, in my opinion, one of the best writers in the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise, so after a number of weak entries in the Dark Age series (The Ruins of Power, the trilogy preceding this book), I was hoping Coleman could get things back on track. Sadly, he left me disappointed.
   
   To begin with, I found the main characters of Mai Uhn Wa and Evan Kurst to be wholly unlikable, so I found myself not caring much at all about their quest for the independence of Liao, and actually rooting against them for the entire book. Kurst was especially bad, as his motivations for certain actions were rather confusing. For example, he openly hates the Betrayer of Liao, who brought about the Capellan attack on Liao that killed Evan's parents...but he joins a movement that encourages violence, and gladly welcomes another violent Capellan invasion. Odd. He also distances himself from his only friends for the majority of the book, so when Coleman tries (poorly) to humanize him near the end, it comes across as a bit too little, too late.
   
   In fact, the only two likable characters I found in the book were Planetary Legate Viktor Ruskoff and Ritter Michaelson, but as they are non-Capellans in a Coleman book, I'm sure you can guess how well they fare. Michaelson seems wasted here, as I saw a hundred different (and more interesting!) ways the character could have been used in the Dark Age universe. Oh well, though.
   
   And, since this a Coleman book...despite being Capellan, everyone's Chinese is absolutely terrible. While this will not bother anyone who doesn't speak the language, it really takes me out of the experience when Mai Uhn Wa uses "rong yi" for the "relax" meaning of the English word "easy". This is a mistake that not even a first-year student would make, Mr. Coleman.
   
   Despite these problems, his writing in general is as good as ever. Scenes, battles, and characters are described well, and his technical knowledge of the Battletech universe is much more sound than some of the other writers in this series. The only minor issue I have tech-wise is that Kurst's Mech seems capable of doing everything and anything, all the time...but since Kurst is a Capellan Mechwarrior in a Coleman book, this is to be expected.
   
   So, overall, an okay book.
   Not great, and certainly not up to the standard that Ghost War set for the Dark Age universe, but it's better than the four books that preceded it.

2 comments about Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This is one of the worst strategy guides Prima has put out in recent memory. The book offers no insight into the different races and does not even aknowledge the unique units produced by the Vinci. There are no tables, no charts, and no tips. No multiplayer tips. You would be better off going onto the website. Don't waste your money.



2. Generally good information on missions and storyline, though would have preferred more in-depth strategy tips.

3 comments about Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light.

1. Deb Todd has been a leading force in game design for 15 years (or so) and this book echoes her profound knowledge of it. The recent explosion in interest in game design has brought many parvenues to the field. This book is the opposite: solid advice from a proven expert. She also interviews many key people whose advice is valid and worthwhile.



2. From the initial blue-sky sessions to pitching for a green light, Deborah Todd's guide uses exercises and examples for all kinds of games to build a working knowledge of the game design process, from brainstorming and character design to content, testing, and flowcharting. Interviews with top game producers supplement the author's position as an award-winning designer and writer, with exercises and a puzzles checklist at book's end for maximum learning and reinforcement. Any college-level collection strong on games development needs this.



3. This book won't teach you how to design games, but what it will do - and what it does very well - is to give you an insight into what the Games Industry is really like. The lifestyle, terminology, how it works, how it's changing with the sudden mainstreamification (yeah, I know that's not a real word!) of Games.
   
   By various measures, the Games Industry has or will soon overtake the Film and TV Industry in terms of turnover. And yet, the infrastructure, the job descriptions, the career paths - all of these are just evolving.
   
   Issues like the increasing age of the average gamer (around 28) and the impact that's having on games design are discussed by a wide variety of experienced Industry veterans.
   
   Appendices include real-world examples of flowcharts, storyboards, case treatments, status reports and other everyday documents that will really help a newcomer to the Industry not feel completely clueless on Day One in the office. For all they teach you in a Games Development course at college, this is the kind of practical information that is often overlooked.
   
   I would highly recommend this book to anyone considering entering the Games Industry. It will give you a really good insight into what it's like to work in this crazy, rapidly growing field. And then, when you hit your first 'crunch' time and end up working 18 hour days and sleeping under your desk - you can't say no-one warned you ;)

1 comments about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Official Strategy Guide (Fantastic 4 (Unnumbered)).

1. Absolute garbage - I purchased this for my son so he could get past a level he was stuck on - the book gave no more insight into the level that what was obvious. Looking through the book, much the same. What a waste of time and money.

No comments about Primal (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).