1 comments about Internet Hold'em Poker: Plus 7-card stud, Omaha, and other games.

1. I'm fairly new to poker, being more of a blackjack guy, so I figured I should try out some reading material before going online and losing all my money. I read a few books that weren't very good and then in the bookstore I found this one. Right now on Amazon the cover is wrong, I know because that's what drew me to the book. It's a great cover (hands coming out of a laptop holding poker chips, you have to see it). I flipped through the book and saw that it actually had some good advice, starting from the basics of poker, which was very helpful. There's also a lot of stuff in the book geared toward experienced and advanced players but I'm not going to get into those parts.
   
   The book showed me how to play the game and what differences there are online. Even online tells! I didn't think those existed but now I seem to have a pretty great advantage everytime I play. It even has diagrams to show you exactly what to do. It has so many example plays and tells you what to do for specific hands, flops, and opponents. The book is easy to read and navigate through and the writing is very clear and concise (the book is short but has a lot of information). It also has some information on non-hold'em games, like omaha and 7-card stud.
   
   I've read a lot of poker books now that I started playing and this one was definitely one of the most thorough and helpful. I now win money almost every time I play hold'em online. I'm really glad I found this book.

5 comments about Metroid? Prime Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides).

1. This is supposed to be a cheat book right? I mean, come on if your going to help me finish this game, at least give me coherant pictures of the game. The words don't make any sense either. Come on Doug Walsh!!!



2. Just because it is a "statagy guide" I would give this one star, but if you are looking for cheats, this is a very good book, it does give away a bit too much though.However, This does diserve four stars, not three, so I'm going to counteract the three. now it's four.



3. Since it is a guide I have to give it 3 stars. But do you really need a guide??? I have found this out myself, there are 250 missiles in this game which means 50 expansions. I have personally counted the number of rooms to be 115. So if you take the number of rooms in the game(115) divided by(/) The number of missle expansions(50) 115/50 you get 2.3 so in about every other room there is a missle expansions. Of course there is the occasional room that has more than one expansion it so just look everywhere. But the missle expansions make a slight humming noise if you are any where near them. So with that in mind you don't really need a guide because Energy Tanks stick out like a sore thumb and every thing else (wave and ice beam etc.) sets out in the middle of the room in plain sight.and to get 100% in the log book you just have to put on the scan visor and look around in every room. Simple, no??



4. This isn't a bad selection for a Metroid Prime guide. It has all the essentials of the guide. A complete walkthrough with complete coverage of the game and even tells you about Samus' abilities. I don't like that they don't cover all the cheats. Not only that, but the fact that there is no other Metroid Prime guide out there besides VERSUS BOOKS that will give me an Original Metroid walkthrough! A players guide for that is hard to find. This guide only gives tips to playing Metroid but nothing more.

   Also, the guide could've used more screens in a few areas to better detail everything. There is a lot of text in this guide and not enough screens. The layout isn't bad and at least if I need some help I can quickly refer to the guide for advice. I'm still peeved that there isn't any other guide other than VERSUS BOOKS (which is already out of print by the way) that would give me an Original Metroid walkthrough.

   What I have to say to this...it's almost impossible to find a guide to Metroid Prime that won't help you through the game. This one is a great find for Metroid Prime but if you can find it, I'd highly recommend the VERSUS guide as opposed to this.




5. I finally found this guide book! i've been to 5 book stores, 4 game stores, 3 wal-marts, 2 targets, and 3 different online buying sites and ive finally found it! I think this guide book is awsome.

4 comments about MegaMan(tm) Battle Network 4: Red Sun & Blue Moon Official Strategy Guid (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

1. WOW!!! This book does a good job of presenting the game, the only thing that keeps it from the fifth star is the fact that both stories are intertwined in the book instead of being separated. The p.a (program advance) list is extensive and the battle chip list is great along with the soul unison list. Everything you need is in this book.



2. This is a great strategy guide but the game isn't that good. Enough said.



3. This guide gave me the tools I needed to beat the 'final' boss, Duo. And since I hadn't played any of the other Battle Network games, it provided good explanations for the Program Advances and how all of that worked, which definitely was a big help. By the way, my name is in the end credits--I'm the guy who won the contest from Washington, DC, but they left the 'o' out of my first name. That's okay, Capcom, I forgive you... I highly recommend the guide. Absolutely.



4. This strategy guide is very specific, and very helpful. It helps explain the whole game, even after you pass the final boss. It helps alot with both games, Red Sun and Blue Moon. One should really get it.

1 comments about Gauntlet?: Seven Sorrows(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Official Strategy Guide).

1. If you loved the older Gauntlet games, you'll HATE this one.
   
   If you miss something on a level, you can not go back and replay the level once it is done. There are only limited upgrades to armor and weapons. You can only see what level your character is once you complete a level. You can only purchase attack combinations (and only a few at that) with your gold. We were able to complete the game in 4.5 hours. For $50 I expect a lot more game play.
   
   A message to true gamers: DO NOT BUY

No comments about Conversation Starters : 52 Personal Questions to Help You Get to Know Each Other.

5 comments about Building a 3d Game Engine in C++.

1. I purchased this book in 1995 when I was migrating from C to C++. Stepped through the code in the debugger, and put it aside, as it was for DOS, and I wanted to have a real Window, not DOS screen. Later, with Charles Petzold's "Programming Windows" help, I ported 3D engine DOS code to Windows31 and it worked, but I have to adapt it to the Windows events/kbd/mouse processing. Now in 6 years I recompiled the Windows 31 version on Windows 2000 Advanced Server in VS.NET Beta1 - it compiles and runs(!). I am learning C# these days, and will try to re-write Brian's engine in C#. My point is that the ideas of 3D engine experssed in this book are fundamental, as they are absorbed from the knowledge of many talented people named in the book. The bulk of engine design and the code is solid, it just takes time and patience to gain necessary experience to understand the engine, adopt it to the event-driven model, and move it to the platform of your choice. Overall book is worth the money spent for those who want to learn the core of 3D programming.



2. Tell you 3d thory and 3d texture mapping.
   you must use BC++4.5(under windows98 ME)to compile and link it.
   The whole code can help you building your own 3d system.
   If you are 3d programmer ,must buy it...



3. Back when I was a lot younger I had just enough money to buy a single programming book. That didn't happen very often. Long story short ... I bought this completely worthless book. This is absolutely the worst programming book I've ever seen.
   
   Brian Hook decided to print out his retarded cousin of a "game engine" and sell it to the unsuspecting. After all, how else was he supposed to make any money from this Cleveland Steamer of an engine.
   
   Only buy this book if you intend to coat it in dog feces and fling it through Brian Hook's living room window.
   
   This guy makes Andre Lamothe looks like the kind of guy that DOESN'T walk around all day in a Blade outfit.
   
   [...]
   All of the articles written by Brian Hook are rated the lowest of any on the page.



4. I bought this book many years ago because a friend of mine was going to buy it and asked if he should order one for me too. Yeah sure, why not. At that point even 2D game programming was a challenge for me, so I never read the book.
   
   Now about 5 years later, and after reading "3D Math Primer for graphics and game Development", I wanted to apply some of my new knowledge, to show a simple filled cube on screen.
   
   I started reading the book. Brian Hook at the time had a 486 and the OS was dos. The book does not explain OpenGL or Direct3D. It is completely software 3D. I like this fact. I don't expect to use the result for anyting other than knowledge. I want to know how 3D works under the hood, before I try OpenGL or Direct3D.
   
   The examples are very easy to follow. I have now achieved to show a spinning cube on the screen which was my goal and I'm looking forward to read on and apply texture mapping.
   
   Conclusion:
   Great book if you know matrices and vectors but have no clue about how to apply it to programming.
   
   Great if you only expect the book to help you with the first few steps into 3D programming. Don't expect to create Unreal engine or something like that.
   
   I give it 3 stars. Maybe it deserves more but still, it IS dated and I'm taking this into consideration as well.



5. This is a very old book using very old technology. The author is using raw C++ code and some assembly language to demonstrate a 3D game engine which he calls AST3D. At this point in time, you should not buy the book expecting to extract the code intact and have a state of the art 3D game engine. However, since the code is not wrapped up as part of a larger more complex programming library, the code snippets in the book are very readable and therefore useful as pseudocode to understand the components of a game engine at a building block level, and some of the more basic algorithm information is still useful too. The problem is that modern in-print books on 3D game engine architecture are usually so wrapped up in some very complex code library that it is hard to get a good handle on how to write an engine and the design decisions involved. That is why this book is still useful. The most useful chapter in the book is chapter 16, "The View from the Top", in which the structure of the 3D game engine is explained in text and in block diagram form, referring back to topics in previous chapters. There is a complete code listing in the back of the book, so even if the diskette is missing from your used copy, you can still go through the code and get an idea of what you would need to have in your own game engine. Just don't pay any more than a used-book price. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents so I do that here:
   1. An Approach to Games Programming - Designing Real-Time Interactive Games;The Main Loop; Real-Time Interactivity; Fun: The Golden Rule of Programming
   2 Graphics in Two Dimensions - Basic Raster Graphics Theory; Basic VGA Theory; The VGA Class; The ASTPallette Class; Debugging with Dual Monitors;
   3. Fixed Point Math - Why Fixed Point Math?; What is Fixed Point Math?; The ASTFixedPoint Data Type; Mathematical Operations; Function Call Overhead and Borland C++; Why not a C++ Class?;Cumulative Error;
   4. 3D Graphics Primer - 3D Coordinates; Coordinate Systems; Math Classes; Transformations; Trigonometry; Projections;
   5. Optimizing By Design - The Main Loop; Event Driven Programming; The Graphics Pipeline;
   6. Organizing Your Data - The C++ Language; The AstObject Class; Object Definitions; The AstWorld Class;
   7. Input Devices - The Generic Input Device Class; 2D Input Devices; The Thrustmaster Cockpit System; Keyboard;
   8. Hidden Surface Removal - Types of HSR; Backface Culling; Depth Sorting; The Z-Buffer;
   9. Drawing and Object - Transforming from LCS to CCS; Projecting the Vertices; Drawing the Triangles;
   10. Shading - Fundamentals; Flat Shading; Gouraud Shading; Flat versus Gouraud;
   11. Texture Mapping - Linear Interpolation; What is a Texture Map?; Drawing a Texture Mapped Triangle; Loading Textures from a Disk; Room for Improvement;
   12. Environmental Effects - Depth Cuing;
   13. Simplifying for Speed - Object Culling; Distance Abstraction;
   14. Collision and Boundary Detection - Object Collisions; Boundary Collisions;
   15. Automatons - Implementing Automation; Timing and DoSomething(); Automatons in AST3D;
   16. The View From the Top - Overall Structure of AST3D;
   17. Advanced Topics - Custom Hardware; Multiplayer Games;

No comments about Dungeons & Dragons Heroes (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

No comments about Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour (Prima Official Game Guide).

4 comments about Quest for Glory: The Authorized Strategy Guide.

1. It has most of the important information needed to beat the games. However, it doesn't have good game-aids such as maps or point lists.



2. One of the best Strategy Guide books out there, the fantasty story only makes it better. Definatly a book for the Quest for Glory enthusiast. The only drawback is the lack of maps, but it is still great! I give it 4 1/2 stars.



3. This is the hint book to the greatest series of games ever, the Quest For Glory series from Sierra On-Line. Each section has a story perspective, to let your know how your character would feel fro experience to experience. Then, for games 1-3, there is a more traditional walkthrough.

   However, there is no maps, and no guide telling you what you must do to get various game points. The fact that there is no traditional walkthrough of QFG4 is glaring. Worst of all, there is no mentions of the infamous bugs in the games and how to avoid or overcome them. There are worst guidebooks, but you can not be faulted for feeling that this book is lacking.




4. This book rocks, it makes the game interesting... well more interesting.

No comments about Banjo-Tooie (Bradygames Take Your Games Further).