Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: this book just didnt meet my expectations, it focused too much on the authors pre-written programs and how to re-program them rather than teaching how to do things. the author spent the ENTIRE 3rd week on one program and most of the 2nd week on another program. the begging of the book focuses too much on designing graphics for the game rather than programming. the only good part(s) in the book took place over the end of week 1 and beggining of week 2 (6 chapters out of 21 that i liked).
Rating:
Summary: Not great for good games
Review: This book shows you the basics for producing very cheesy freeware games. The only real thing I got out of it, is that I should have purchased a more in depth book. If you are just starting out in VB then perhaps this is for you, like I said it covers a few of the basics.
Rating: 
Summary: OK for a frist look into VB game programming..BUT now what!!
Review: This is a great beginner's book to get your feet wet in VB game programming with no experience required. "BUT NOW WHAT??" it can't stop there !!! Aren't we forgetting about Direct X !! There are better books out there. For example Visual Basic Game Programming With DirectX by Jonathan S. Harbour. So I suggest read (if you want) this book and as soon as you get a foot hold jump to another book that deals in Direct X.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for new game programmers
Review: This is a great book if you're just starting to learn about game programming. It doesn't assume that you know anything (except being familiar with Visual Basic) and starts from the basics. By the time you're done with this book, you'll be able to program high-quality games, including even making level editors. In fact, the RPG and strategy games that are included are worth the price of the entire book!
Rating:
Summary: Not great for good games
Review: This is a great book, an easy read, and an excellent start for the VB programmer interested in the basics of video game design. It doesn't touch DirectX, or anything 3d for that matter, but it will give you an idea of what a game is about where the coding is concerned. If you are interested in making the next Quake, this book is not for you. If you are interested in making the next EverQuest, this book is not for you. If you are interested in seeing how basic windows games are made, how video games were written before DirectX, or if you just want to see some alternate styles of Visual Basic programming, this is one cool book.
Rating: 
Summary: I made Pong with what i learned in this book!!
Review: This is a great book, an easy read, and an excellent start for the VB programmer interested in the basics of video game design. It doesn't touch DirectX, or anything 3d for that matter, but it will give you an idea of what a game is about where the coding is concerned. If you are interested in making the next Quake, this book is not for you. If you are interested in making the next EverQuest, this book is not for you. If you are interested in seeing how basic windows games are made, how video games were written before DirectX, or if you just want to see some alternate styles of Visual Basic programming, this is one cool book.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Wonderful Book... BUY IT!
Review: This is an outstanding book in every sense of the word. The author is knowledgeable about game programming and writes with panache and clarity. The folks who'll benefit most from this book are those who've just mastered the basics of vb, and are itching to polish up their skills, especially in the area graphics and animations. I consider myself an advanced-beginner/intermediate vb programmer. I've found this book a pure joy to read. This is probably the only vb game programming book in print today, and thank God it's as good as it can get. It takes you slowly by the hand from simpler games to the ones that are much more complex. Although the title says "Teach yourself in 21 days", if you're thorough like me, you'd take considerably longer. For example, I took more than a coupla days to fully understand and analyse how the codes work for each chapter from Day 7 onwards. You must be prepared to work them out in front of your PC. Trust me, it's very rewarding. It's rare these days to find authors who can make tough programming topics easy (and game programming IS difficult). Prior to reading this book, I thought it'd be hopeless to learn to write a game in VB by myself. This book bring game programming right to the door-step of junior vb programmers. Great job, Walnum. PS. By the way, this book is clealy pitched at beginning and intermediate programmers. I've read earlier somewhat negative reviews here which lamented the lack of instructions on DirectX. Come on! The "Teach Yourself" series are NOT for advanced programmers. You can't put a book down just because it didn't meet with your expectations. At best you can ony say that YOUR judgement about the book is wrong; you can't then conclude that the book is bad. You can only do justice to a book's worth by considering its merit vis-a-vis its targetted audience.
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