Rating: 
Summary: Great Book: jsut make sure it is the one you are after
Review: First and foremost: make sure this is what you are looking for,
even the best book will disappoint someone who is looking for something else! If, like myself, you have some knowledge in computer science without being an expert and particularly have no expertise in Game Developping nor in MultiMedia and are yet curious about the topics then definetly go for it. This book unveils pretty much all aspects game programming: graphics, audio, computer "AI", network gaming, etc.
Unveils, not exhausts: be warned. But this is just great when all you are after is understanding what is this about and decide eventually to dig deeper. And everything is done with examples building up until you have developped with the author "your" first game : Penguin Warrior! What would be great is to have a sequel with more advanced topics (3D, Scheme scripting, etc.): be many to buy it and maybe we will someday see it!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I got exactly everything I wanted from the book, had very a simple easy to understand path towards making games for linux, started small and covered all the topics that I was interested in. This is more of a entry book, and a good reference but it doesnt go to deep into some topics 3d gfx, physics but a great book nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: decent but could have been much better
Review: I had high expectations from this book, coming as it was from a
company specialized in porting the most complex games to Linux.
Unfortunately it seems that the fall of Loki has brought down this book with it. As other readers have said it is a good SDL
primer (covering just the basics). Other APIS are mentioned but just ina cursory view. There is a whole chapter dedicated to the code of a sound player software whoch is really out of place here.. it looks more like the author stuffed it in since he for some reason had developed it and he thought it was marginally relevant.. A good point is the book is about a working 2D game, Penguin Warrion ( a spaceship against spaceship typical game ) but the game development is not properly explained.. it loks like the book is an appendix to the game and not the contrary... in short to really learn something you must go and scan the code on your own...
With a little bit more affort and time to give the book more depth and solidity it could have been a great beginner's text..too bad!
Rating: 
Summary: You'll outgrow it quickly
Review: I have some programming experience from the C++ classes I took in college but I am not a pro and I still consider myself a beginner. I'm not really very interested in game programming per se, but after I finished my classes, I was eager to do some "real" programming and game programming is the most challenging kind. Beware, the Editorial Review says this book is the "Complete guide to developing Linux games" - that is totally misleading. It is nothing more than a teeny-tiny, itty-bitty introduction with almost no math or 3D graphics information. This book is basically a simple, easy to learn tutorial that walks you through several example programs in order to teach you how to use some of the API's available under linux. The things I really liked: - The author discusses several important API's. He gives descriptions, pros/cons, and shows you how to use the API's in his tutorials.
- He tells you what you DON'T need to know. If he doesn't like an API he comes straight out and says it's waste of time to learn it. SVGAlib is an example of one he says not to bother with.
- There's a quick description of the following major API's: SVGALib, GGI, SDL (the whole book is about SDL), ClanLib, OpenGL, Plib, Glide, Xlib, GTK+, TK, Fltk, Qt, OSS, ALSA, ESD, OpenAL, Tcl, Guile and MzScheme, Python and Perl, BSD Sockets, Open Play, IPX and SPX, libpng and libjpeg, libaudiofile and linsndfile, Ogg Vorbis, SMPEG, zlib. The things I didn't like: - The programs are in C instead of C++. Nobody programs major games in C anymore, give me a break. Minus one whole star right there, sheesh.
- The book will probably be outdated quicker than most computer books because it talks about so many different API's.
- There's very little room to grow because the bibliography is pretty wimpy. If you're a newbie who's serious about game programming, you'll need MANY other books that are lot more heavy-duty than this one. If you already know the basics of C or C++ and you're interested in programming linux games but you're not sure where to start, you will probably be happy with this book. Just be aware that you won't learn very much and you will outgrow it quickly. I'm 21 years old and I have some experience with advanced math (up to differential equations), and I was just a little bored with it. If you DON'T have much math experience then this book will get you off to a good start. If you want to be a professional game programmer you'll need to learn 3D graphics, advanced math, physics, cryptography, networking, AI and an endless list of other topics. The point is, you'll need more books, lot's of them. The first book you need to buy after this one is Game Programming Gems. I'm not joking, you NEED that book if you want an idea of what you're getting yourself into. Being a game programmer is one of the most extremely challenging jobs in the world, and you should know that from the very beginning.
Rating:
Summary: would be nice
Review: i wish i could review this book... ordered sept 29 and it is now supposed to be sent nov 20- dec 10. still says shipped 2-3 days. dont bother ordering it... unless you have forever to wait
Rating:
Summary: For Linux and beyond!!!
Review: I've been waiting for a book like this for a long time. I can't say that I'm into Linux games per say, but I am definitely into cross platform ones and SDL(Simple Direct Media Layer)which is covered in the book is the ticket to getting there. My only previous gripe with SDL was the documentation or lack thereof, which while the documentation is getting better this book does an excellent job of covering SDL from the ground up. If you want to write cross platform games then this book is for you! If you're new to game programming then get this book too!!! Even if you plan to start out making games on Windows, I suggest reading this book along with Lamothe's as it will help you understand game programming basics without the complexity of Windows' code. The author takes you all the way from initializing the display to a complete game by the end of the book, and even though the game was meant to be for Linux it will compile without too many modifications. Although the game in this book may be rather simple one in today's standards, it does cover all the bases including networking and game scripting, the latter of which I found very helpful. ...
Rating:
Summary: A good overview of Linux game programming
Review: If you would like to write games for Linux, but have no idea where to start, this is the book for you. This book is not going to teach you everything you need to know to work at Loki, but it will help you understand what the possibilities are. This is a good book and well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: A good start but needs more detail
Review: Programming Linux Games is an excellent beginning to Linux and cross platform game development.
Its main deficiencies are:
detail on the libraries suggested,
the use of C instead of C++,
and buggy openAL code which I could not get working. It is a very good reference to basic SDL and OpenAL, and is very handy to have in one place. I still recommend as a basic book on game programming.
Rating:
Summary: Meant to be the ultimate resource
Review: Programming Linux Games: Building Multimedia Applications with SDL, Open AL(tm), and Other APIs is a comprehensive, superbly presented, in-depth guide to creating games that Linux users all over the world can enjoy. Especial focus is concentrated upon the Simple DirectMedia Layer tool. Written by the gaming gurus of Loki Software, Programming Linux Games is meant to be the ultimate resource, containing everything from how to use SDL to build a scrolling game engine with environmental audio and embedded scripting, to building a multiplayer game with TCP/IP sockets, to successfully distributing your game to the Linux user community. Programming Linux Games is an absolute "must" for anyone with an interest in creating or working with brand new Linux games!
Rating: 
Summary: Good into to SDL and Game Scripting. Horrible otherwise
Review: The book starts off ok with a good introduction of the various API's and is ok reading up untill chapter 6 "Programming Linux Audio". This is where the book fails terribly. None of the audio samples will compile and the information about OpenAL is just plain wrong. First the function used to open a WAV file is no the corerct function to use for linux. The author uses the win32 version. This is just the start of the openAL errors. Minus one star!
Second the book's two websites (one of which no longer exists (Loki) ) contains no errata and no way to contact the author. The only information is avalible is a zip file of the books sample files (which do not compile of course). Minus two stars!
Ohter things about the book that did not work for me was the fact that the author uses C instead of C++. While C is still used for game development , most programmers are attempting to migrate to C++ and OOD. Books released about 1950 should reflect that!
Second the author uses Tcl as a game scripting engine. While I can agree to a point (based on the fact of the easy of implementation) the author should have used a common scripting engine such as Lua. (although the author does mention at the end of the book that Tcl was proably a bad idea.
Third the author should have introduced Autoconf very early in the book instead of waiting untill Chapter 10.
The main thing that I liked about the book was the good intro to programming with Linux in general. The topics of linux debugging and Makefiles I thought was good (assuming you have experince in these areas on other platfoms).
Also the coverage of SDL was a pretty good intro.
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