Rating: 
Summary: Best book ever
Review: This is an exelent book that processes a big subject while giving the reader a litle laught :). It touches subjects as AI and physics while not making it too dificult to understand, even for a teenager like me. It doesn't take for granted that your nether an expert C or C++ programmer, only that you know some of the basics, Is also tells C readers what C++ syntex is like and what the C++ commands does... You haven't done so yet, BUY IT! READ IT! ENJOY IT!
Rating:
Summary: This is great for beginners!
Review: I want to start this review off with a warning: this book does not teach you programming! Unless you already have an intermediate knowledge of C or C++, this book is not for you. What this book does is teach you the fundamentals of game programming. It explains just enough of the Win32 API and DirectX to get you started in making 2D (or text) games. The majority of the book is explaining exactly how 2D game programming works and the process that you must go through. As you progress through the book, you build a 2D rendering engine that you can use as a platform to build off of. As a C++ programmer, I will be starting from scratch (since 99% of his code is C, but he admits to this). The AI and physics sections are extremely well done and useful. There are a few minor issues I have with this book, but nothing that would reduce it's score. 1) The book uses DirectDraw7 (not DirectGraphics which is the newest DirectX API). But you're not doing extremely fancy things, and this book never claimed to be a DirectX guide in the first place. 2) There are many places where C++ would make things a lot cleaner. He admits this to the reader himself. Again, this is not a programming book, and C is the author's natural language, so if you have problems then deal with it. Other than that, this book is great. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to get a foundation in game programming!
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Summary: A teaching aid, not a code dump, thanks Andre'
Review: For people who actually want to learn something and not just for people looking for completed code to copy (which it also provides), this book is an excellent choice. The author mentions something that I think captures the essence of this book perfectly. He says that instead of building a game library (engine) and then writing a book to explain it, he writes the game engine along with the reader as the pages turn (or something like that). Some teachers like to present material for the student to absorb, whether or not they do is almost secondary. Good teachers "teach" material, they present info from the perspective of someone trying to learn and not as though they're speaking to a colleague. The author seems to understand what it is to be a good teacher.
Rating: 
Summary: Let kids learn coding a little...
Review: I cannot understand why so many people judge this scriptum to be good. In my opinion the language is the first annoyance (does the author try to be a teeny?) and furthermore the level of the book - from a computer scientists view - is really low: How can he talk about optimization and running time and afterwards give us an example of recursive functions dealing with fibonaci-numbers, which is absolutely suboptimal?!!! All in all: A book for kids how want to start windows-coding.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong Learning curve!!
Review: A very productive and professional looking book. Easy to grasp the basic concepts but the speed of the book from chapter to chapters has gradually speeded too fast for any beginner that has NEVER done win32 programming. Covers alot of techniques but not very throughly and their are some small mistakes in the book like code, spelling and grammer mistakes. The book has worked for me as a side-book because it'll take ages to read unless you have read soemthing like the first edition! then this! Highly recommended as a reference and side-book to read!! Worst thing about the book for beginners-doesn't break down code very much, you must absorb all the chunks of code when you see them!! but the good analyse and design part was great. The author lied! Doesn't take two years to create a game like asteroids!! only a week or less! that is if your willing to to the work. The order of the chapters weren't layed out in a proper way. Bad style! Get this book with SAMs teach yourself game programming in 24hours and you'll hit the road within three months or less!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book is great! Seriously. It covers all topics very concisely, and also doesn;t rehash the same basic topics over and over like some books do. Because of this, you may be more comforatble reading this if you are a competent programmer, and know some math already. The appendices help with this alot, but you wouldn't want to learn math and programming from an appendice, but they help. Anyway, As the book says it is for intermediate to advanced readers, and there is prorably no better book of this type on the market. Time to read volume 2!
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: Game programming books are a hit-or-miss proposition. There are some really bad ones and some really good ones. This book falls into the latter category.If you already know how to program in C, this will show you enough to get started writing Windows games. Basic Win32 and COM stuff is covered in enough detail to let you understand what's going on without dragging on excessively. The DirectX chapters do an excellent job of telling you what you need to do and why. The game physics and AI chapters provide a strong introduction to the subject without getting bogged down in specifics that can't be generalized. Enough math is covered (trig, vector ops) to get through most common issues. There are some minor flaws. The chapter on game physics, while good, needs some editorial work: some symbols and even a couple of formulas are missing. The chapter on writing text adventures is completely out of place in this book. The DirectSound chapter was strong, but glossing over 16-bit sound was a mistake. All text output is done through the (very slow) GDI functions, so writing a replacement would have made for a logical chapter. On the whole, though, this is an excellent place to start.
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Summary: This book helps out a LOT
Review: Me and a few friends got this book, because we had decided we wanted to program a game. We all loved it, Andre teaches on a very good step by step gradient, making sure you know everything along the way. Me and my friends have a game on its way... thanks to this book.
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Summary: Andre's name is my stamp of approval
Review: Andre LaMothe's name in my humble opinion, has become synonamous with extremely-well-thought-out, action-packed, getting-down-to-business, everything-you-wanted-to-know, fun and excellently explained books that keeps you glued!. This book was no disappointment. Since the nature of the topic is pretty hectic and intense, I would imagine that some people would become frustrated. So I'm gonna express my opinion in 2 parts : for the beginner and for the more experienced programmer : I've read many of the reviews where beginner programmers complain about the intensity of the book. Suffice to say that this book wasnt intended to teach C or C++, the very nature of DirectX programming can be pretty mindblowing. So if youre just learning C or C++ and want to learn game programming concepts, I'd highly.. lemmie rephrase that.. I'd HIGHLY recommend Andre's book "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus"(which is the previous release, meant for DOS programming solely). I rate it even above this excellent book. Granted that the initial book "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus" was designed and explained for DOS games and is now pretty much outdated, the concepts don't really change. Also, a word of advice.... please please I beg you.... try to read the code he gives and understand it ! Its simple to understand, but most people I've spoken to just skips over it. Why, I have no idea.Anyway, the book will give you a firm footing in the basics of video modes, pixel plotting, writing DOS applications to load PCX files, animation, scrolling techniques, sound programming, and my personal favourite - the 3D rendering engine using nothing but C !! Whats more - he writes a full program for almost EVERYTHING he explains, so you can see it in action ! Id recommend that you use a Microsoft compiler though, cos if youre a borland guy and you just begninnning, youre gonna get some headaches. I prefer Borland myself (Microsoft is a pain in the royal behind).If you then feel better about the concepts and understand C and C++, come back to this book. Take my word for it - its excellent ! Whats more, Andre has an amazing simple way of just telling you what you want to hear. Many a time in my undergrad studies, once I figured something out.. I thought to myself "Why couldnt the freaking lecturer just say so". Andre is the say-so guy ! Btw Andre .. did you really have a bra on your head when you started the chapter on AI and fuzzy logic ? ( i think it was that chapter). Anyway .. for the more experienced programmer : If youre a seasoned C++ or C programmer (but dont know much about games)... this book is for you ! The only thing is that Andre tends to use C for everything. Even though its a bit irritating at first, its very easy to see how to port it into C++ (duh). But i can understand why andre uses C - its easier to explain the concepts with and probably cos he likes it more.Andre starts off by explaining some broad concepts on games and what really blew me away was the fact he had a simple complete directX game in teh first chapter. But that was just to get you rolling. Everythign from DirectSound, DirectMusic, DirectDraw , Direct everything is explained. And he gives you Demos for EVERYTHING ! So you can see how it works. He delves into hectic topics like Fuzzy logic, force feedback and much more. This book concentrates on 2D graphics though. His sequel to be released soon covers 3D indepth. Mine is on preorder. In true Andre style he ends off with a full game. If you know nothing about game programming, but you are a seasoned programmer, BUY THIS BOOK ! Bad side ? There are some typos in the book, nothing too serious though. Andres crazy writing style makes up for it. Way to go Andre, another classic.
Rating:
Summary: Fast 1000 Page Read From A Game Expert
Review: It took me about 2 weeks to read this book from cover to cover and I must admit it was well written and kept me hooked. I read it slow to take everything in and the only slow chapter was the one on physics in which I found a mistake in pages 845-846 in which <17, 10> was used instead of <16, 9> as the Vector S2. But apart from that, it was a great read and really brought me up to speed on all the aspects required for making a game. It is definitely worth the money and what you learn from it does not only apply to Windows games but it gives you the background you need to program games in general as well and these skills can be applied to other platforms and languages. I definitely recommend getting this book if you have an interest in programming games. The book assumes a prior knowledge of the C language and the author explains his usage of C++ wherever that occurs, however nothing gets too technical and the author splices in his humor and wit throughout his explanations to keep our attention span so that we are not drowned in any monologue of theory that so many other computer programming books fall into. If you want a crash course into solid game programming skills and techniques and to start programming games right away, this book is for you. Plus, the author includes his professional game libraries for you to use and template programs you can modify so that you do not have to start from scratch, including all the code, on the CD-ROM. That's all my review in a nutshell.
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