Rating: 
Summary: Very detailed and easy to follow.
Review: At first I was hesitant on buying a book on game programming coming from the "Dummies" series since those books usually don't cover much. But since it was written by such an experienced programmer I decided to buy it and I definatly wasn't disappointed. Practically everything of DirectX relevant to game programming is very well explained. The most important parts like Direct Draw for example, are covered in detail and gradually letting you understand each concept of the making of a game.The CD is litterally loaded with goodies, source code, art, sounds...there's even 2 extra bonus chapters that go deeper into AI and general game code structure. As for Direct 3D, I really don't blame him for not including it in his book because its a quite ugly and hard to use 3D API and would take way more space to explain than what he had. Overall, an excellent book definatly worth buying for anyone with C programming experience and with real intentions of building a game.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book to learn the basics of DirectX without Direct3D
Review: I'm a novice programmer and i've been looking for different books to help me learn different aspects of game programming. With what i've read so far has helped me dramatically with understanding DirectX. When I looked at other text about the subject the info looks like it was written for a rocket scientist,but this on explains the basic nature of the DirectX COM system. I believe with the knowledge in the book, you can also learn new features of DirectX when they arrive. One dissappointment is that they're is virtually no text about Direct3D. Probably the next book on his list, there need to be a good book written for that. Also, it says it written for beginners to intermediate, it leans toward the intermediate big time.
Rating:
Summary: Very detailed and easy to follow.
Review: At first I was hesitant on buying a book on game programming coming from the "Dummies" series since those books usually don't cover much. But since it was written by such an experienced programmer I decided to buy it and I definatly wasn't disappointed. Practically everything of DirectX relevant to game programming is very well explained. The most important parts like Direct Draw for example, are covered in detail and gradually letting you understand each concept of the making of a game.The CD is litterally loaded with goodies, source code, art, sounds...there's even 2 extra bonus chapters that go deeper into AI and general game code structure. As for Direct 3D, I really don't blame him for not including it in his book because its a quite ugly and hard to use 3D API and would take way more space to explain than what he had. Overall, an excellent book definatly worth buying for anyone with C programming experience and with real intentions of building a game.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on this subject
Review: This book is one of the best books about game programming. Even as a newbie you have a good and easy way to learn a lot about game programming, you don't need much pre-knowledge. It's a good balance between a simple entry and advanced programming-technics.
The style is nice and the examples are easy to understand and big enough to become a master of game programming. And last but not least: Every $ is a good investment because the structure of this book is very well for learning every other project which the novice want to do for himself or some customers.
Rating:
Summary: Man do it
Review: Just because this is a "...for dummies" book, doesn't mean it's for dummies. This book is what is says: "Windows Game Programming", not "Programming" or even "Game Programming". What I'm getting at is that this book will teach you how to get a simple game going in Windows, not teach you how to program. He states that he will assume that you are at least familiar with the C programming language with no Windows programming experience.That being said, I found this book very informative and easy to follow. Mr. LaMothe approaches each subject as an objective to achieve, instead of just something that must be learned.
Rating:
Summary: Great for new "game programmers" not new "programers"
Review: This book provides a perfect window into game programming. I've written all the boring text applications I'll ever need to and I wanted some insider knowledge on how to turn programming knowledge into game programming knowledge. Andre's book provided the answers. Excellent introduction to Win32 and GDI, excellent explanation of COM, and excellent stuff on DirectDraw. And if you want even more help, use Andre's graphics/sound/input library that he created to wrap around DirectX to make it even easier to use. I've already created a Tetris like puzzle game using Andre's engine. The next step for me is to buy his more advanced book and see how far that will take me. An excellent introduction to game programming.
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