Rating: 
Summary: This book makes me want to puke
Review: The title of this book should be: "DarkBasic Syntax". This book is just the DBPro help files written around some poorly written video game history. The first 8 chapters are worthless, as they are not enough for the beginner, and useless for the advanced. There are the chapters about 2D, which I will go into detail on next, and exactly 1 chapter on 3D. Now, other people have went on about the lack of 3D in this book. Well, I didn't want to do 3D, so I bought it figuring at least it would teach me some 2D. There is NO 2D in this book! No 2D game theory, no discussion on isometric viewpoints, or discussion of anything! No 2D animation, no discussion on level creation, or when to do this or that. When a 2D command is presented, an example is given with a short little 5-10 line program. I don't care about using it in a 5 or 10 line program! I want to see how to use it in a GAME. The one crucial chapter, the absolute epitome of 2D video game design, Sprites, is worthless. Here is the title of the chapter: "The Art of Using Animated Sprites for 2D Games". There is NO discussion of how to animate sprites!! The title should have been: "DBPro help-file Sprite Commands with no Documentation and no Discussion on Usage". I kept flipping through the book looking for any examples on animating sprites. None. I kept saying to myself, "Who would make a book on game programming without going over animation?". There is a chapter on animation, but that is about how to load an avi file that you presumably stole from off the web (as there is no discussion on how to actually make them). I can forgive that there is no discussion on level creation, game programming theory, good programming practices, optimal coding techniques, etc., but no sprite animation!!!???? That should be one of the central themes of the entire book! In conclusion, this book was supposed to be on "DARKBASIC GAME PROGRAMMING". There is no discussion on game programming. There is nothing in this book that cannot be found for free on the darkbasic website or help files. In fact, the free tutorials on that website are FAR more informative, because at least they mention optimal ways to take advantage of the darkbasic language, something else that this book fails to do. If you are an absolute beginner to programming, pick up a good book on beginning programming and then come back to DarkBasic. You will need it, because the example code is documented so poorly. I feel that anyone who gave this book a good review was more impressed with the excellent Dark Basic language than the presentation of it by these authors. As a graduate student in engineering, I have read a lot of bad technical writing, but this was by far the worst. I was so disappointed in this book, that I will never buy anything from the authors again, and neither should you.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes me want to puke
Review: The title of this book should be: "DarkBasic Syntax". This book is just the DBPro help files written around some poorly written video game history. The first 8 chapters are worthless, as they are not enough for the beginner, and useless for the advanced. There are the chapters about 2D, which I will go into detail on next, and exactly 1 chapter on 3D. Now, other people have went on about the lack of 3D in this book. Well, I didn't want to do 3D, so I bought it figuring at least it would teach me some 2D. There is NO 2D in this book! No 2D game theory, no discussion on isometric viewpoints, or discussion of anything! No 2D animation, no discussion on level creation, or when to do this or that. When a 2D command is presented, an example is given with a short little 5-10 line program. I don't care about using it in a 5 or 10 line program! I want to see how to use it in a GAME. The one crucial chapter, the absolute epitome of 2D video game design, Sprites, is worthless. Here is the title of the chapter: "The Art of Using Animated Sprites for 2D Games". There is NO discussion of how to animate sprites!! The title should have been: "DBPro help-file Sprite Commands with no Documentation and no Discussion on Usage". I kept flipping through the book looking for any examples on animating sprites. None. I kept saying to myself, "Who would make a book on game programming without going over animation?". There is a chapter on animation, but that is about how to load an avi file that you presumably stole from off the web (as there is no discussion on how to actually make them). I can forgive that there is no discussion on level creation, game programming theory, good programming practices, optimal coding techniques, etc., but no sprite animation!!!???? That should be one of the central themes of the entire book! In conclusion, this book was supposed to be on "DARKBASIC GAME PROGRAMMING". There is no discussion on game programming. There is nothing in this book that cannot be found for free on the darkbasic website or help files. In fact, the free tutorials on that website are FAR more informative, because at least they mention optimal ways to take advantage of the darkbasic language, something else that this book fails to do. If you are an absolute beginner to programming, pick up a good book on beginning programming and then come back to DarkBasic. You will need it, because the example code is documented so poorly. I feel that anyone who gave this book a good review was more impressed with the excellent Dark Basic language than the presentation of it by these authors. As a graduate student in engineering, I have read a lot of bad technical writing, but this was by far the worst. I was so disappointed in this book, that I will never buy anything from the authors again, and neither should you.
Rating: 
Summary: not for those into 3D
Review: This book is GREAT for the very beginner, but if you want to make good 3D games, do not buy this book. it barely touches on terrains and collisions. there is only one chapter on 3D games, and it is not thorough. the majority of the book is dedicated to 2D and basic "hello world" style programs. if you want to make 3D games, visit the DarkBASIC forums and skip this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for a begginer
Review: This book, I believe has been purchased by the wrong people. The book clearly states that it is a begginers guide and never prettended to be anything else. It basicly fills in the huge gaps from the manual. DarkBasic claims to be a very easy programing language for begginers, strange that the manual is designed for people who know what they are doing. If you are already a programer, you should not have purchased this book. I guess many people who got dissapointed are the die hard fans of darkbasic who already knew what they were doing and expecting some advanced tips and tricks for optimising their code. I think that this book is great for what it was made to be, a begginers guide. It teaches good programing habbits, explains things clearly and helps guys like me who have not programed since they left college 6 years ago get their act back together. I heartily recomend this book to anybody who purchased darkbasic or darkbasic pro and had no idea where to start.
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