Rating: 
Summary: TRICKS of the Windows Game Programming Gurus,
Review: I bought this book some time ago, and I felt that people should know that you will be required to know C pretty well if you are going to be able to keep up with Lamothe's book.First off, this books covers the basics of DirectX pretty well, at least, better than any other game programming book out so far. However, I see alot of information that has been repeated over and over again from previous books Andre has done. But this only occurs every 80 or 90 pages or so, the information in this book is quite useful and deffinitly worth the price. I would say that if you are an aspiring game programmer and you KNOW C programming where you eat, sleep, breathe, and talk C, then this is the best way for you to learn Game Programming. He does a great job on his coding too, unlike most books out their that have bad complie errors in their code, Andre's code in this book is very well typed and I haven't ran into any errors. This is one book that should be on everybody's shelves.
Rating:
Summary: A few errors, but even the errors educate!
Review: Replace; #define _RGB16BIT565(r,g,b) ((b%32) + ((g%64) << 5) + ((r%32) << 11)) with; #define _RGB16BIT565(r,g,b) ((b>>3) + ((g>>2) << 5) + ((r>>3) << 11)) and this book rocks, I have a job and can afford to buy a book so the fact that it covers *just* DirectDraw is fine by me. I mean you are going to spend a week working through all the code he gives you on the CD, < ;-). Above and beyond DirectDraw you get some DirectSound coverage (not great) and some chapters on AI. I recommend the book, and I recommend the 'do it yourself' attitude the author pushes, if you want it done right, well you know...
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, just a little unorganized.
Review: I just finished reading this book and at its end I found myself torn between whether or not to recommend it. As I was going through the book I had to force myself to continue reading and at many times I was very confused. Lamothe covers a huge amount of information in this book, so I expected to be confused. Even though the book seems thrown together and none of the sample source code on the CD worked, I learned a huge ammount of information about game programming theory, WIN32 programming, and DirectX. I highly recommend this book if you have the patience to figure it out and have a very strong backround in C/C++.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the $
Review: Andre is an excellent programmer, mathmetician and teacher. This book contains clear explainations -- Windows, drawing, input, physics, etc -- and MANY USEFUL EXAMPLES. However, there are some downfalls, and I can't quite give it 5 stars: 1. He creates a VGA pointer and draws images manually, as in the days of DOS. Why do this when there is IDirectDrawSurface :: Blt? Why even use DirectDraw if you don't take advantage of it. Later in the chapter, though, there is a small section that describes Blt. 2. No coverage of Direct3D or DirectPlay. 3. Way too much information on DirectMusic and 3D sound, which a game can do without. Who cares? DirectSound is all you need to load .wavs and play them as sound effects and music (multi-sound).
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely useless if you don't have Assembly Language
Review: I wish this book would have had on the cover "Microsoft Assembly Language Required." If it did, I wouldn't have bought it. The samples looked enough like C when I flipped through it so I bought it. I use a Borland compiler and am a student, and can't afford to even get the Borland assembly language kit. The book is interesting reading, but I can't use any of the samples with my compiler! At least with Game Programming for Dummies, I got some of the Windows programs to work (even though the Direct X ones were useless.)
Rating:
Summary: LaMothe slow down and do a better job next time.....
Review: The book is full of little errors. The sample programs given are filled with little errors! It seems LaMothe had rushed this pile of paper together in a matter of weeks. Although he claims he spent 120hrs per week for about a year on it! There are just too many errors to believe that statement. If I was not already very familar with Win32 and C/C++ programming I would have been beyond fustrated. As it was I've spent a great deal of time tracking down little problems with the samples. It would have been nice if I could have been able to use that time toying with the samples instead of fixing them! He really should release corrected sample programs on his web site! The text itself is filled with tons of little errors. Enough of them to make me wonder what kinds of editors they hire over there. It's very bad. The advance stuff has some glarring etitorial misses. Hint: Lets use the proper symbols for sets! Epsilons, please, give me a break! The Win32 programming is horrid. If you're looking for a book that will get you going in the right direction on Win32 or DirectX pass this one up. Perhaps they have corrected some of this in later printings. One can only hope... Too, much time is spent in the early pages going over material that already exists. Not enough time or energy is devoted to the more advanced ideas about physics, genetic algorithims, AI, etc. He glosses over each case. Fuzzy sets is probably the better treatment of the entire group, but still... The title and cover pages are just false advertising. Can you say bait and switch??? There is NOT a shread of 3D covered in the book. A better title would be "Fundamentals of 2D and 3D game programming using DirectX. Volume I: a gentle introduction to 2D game programming". And correcting the cover to properly explain that there is only a high level treatment of most of the more interesting subjects at the end of the book. The cover should clearly state this is volume one of a two volume set! In summary this is a book on fundamentals. There are few or little tricks of real use. Most are already known and the subject matter does not expand the state of the art in this field or even accuratly presents it! If you're looking for a glossy intro to game programming you've come to the right place. Just don't pay too close attention to the Microsoft APIs or the highly technical material, it's largely incorrect. Go out and get proper reference materials for DirectX and Win32 and C/C++. LaMothe is still playing with stones and kinves in this respect. In a word, Hacked! The book was hacked together.
Rating: 
Summary: Good isn't Good enough..
Review: This is a great book for the newbie programmers who decide to make games and have a certian knowledge of C. Throughout the whole book he would teese you with Direct3d and getting you ready for a big dissappointment at the end when you realize this book has NOTHING on Direct3d or anything 3d!! Furthormore he would include header files that's not even required in the demo's making you think you got to remember including a bunch of stuff you don't even need, not to mention some of the code has errors in it making me look for hours what was wrong with copying it from the demos and book when he had a few typo's. Also andres would get lazy and write functions that you never learned before like the Load_Bitmap functions or function that loaded a file like a wav or a Mid from your computer, he would put all these stuff u never heard of in it and with comments that don't help much. I would load Files on my computer into my demos without even knowing how the function works, he just "Loads" this file into your demo... On the other hand this book got me really far in programming and I can make a 2d game now with alot of AI in it. That's they reason I gave this 3 stars inside of 1 or 2.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for beginners
Review: Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus is a terrific book for beginners. It takes a gentle pace, making sure to explain even the most basic concepts of game programming. As another reviewer said, however, there is NO Direct3D in the book and the docs that can be found on the disc can also be found on the web (and they are not that great in my opinion). So, in short, do NOT buy this book to learn 3D game programming. Also, for those who already own one of Andre LaMothe's other books, Windows Game Programming for Dummies, you may want to think twice about buying this book. This book is the Dummies book, but with a few more chapters and a little more discussion of some of the more important areas of game programming. All-in-all, I would recommend Windows Game Programming for Dummies for the person who wants a brief intro to the basics of game programming and this book to those who want a very thorough intro to the fundamentals of game programming.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, it covers a lot of game programming topics
Review: If you wanna get into GAME'S PROGRAMMING world this book is for you. Lamonthe explains all topics really kindly, nothing is going to get hung. The only problem is that sometimes you'll find some lines of source code surplus so be careful. I think there is nothing else to say about except that the book is amazing.
Rating:
Summary: The best game programming book for beginners
Review: This is the best book I've bought since I started learning game programming. Yes, it has little 3D stuff (which is on the CD, not on paper) but if you want to learn game programming you must begin with the basic stuff (2D, double buffering, game loop logic, etc.). I'm looking forward to volume II, so I can really begin to program efficient 3D stuff. In a few words, this is the book which has taught me more about game programming. Other books focus more on graphics stuff, which is not bad, but this one also covers the game logic itself (fuzzy logic, the main game loop, physics, etc.) At first sight I thought it would be hard to read such a big book, but now I don't regret it.
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