Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: I love this book. It is really good, and describes all u need to know to be a game programmer. I don't really agree that a novice can't catch on, although some knowledge of a programming language would be good. I think anyone who wants to program games should add this to their collection.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference book.
Review: UPDATED NOTE (as of 10/03/2001): For folks who may have forgotten: MS Windows(R) operating system has been through several improvements and generations, so has DIRECTX - the function library used to write games discussed in the book. Therefore, some information covered in the book may have been outdated. This is VERY COMMON in the computer world, and none of it is the author's fault (unless he republished it with a new title, such as "THE NEW AND IMPROVED ..." WITHOUT UPDATING the book's contents). So, save your speech!ORIGINAL COMMENT: I wrote this review kind of late (over two years after the book was published), so my rating is probably useless for the readers to decide whether s/he should buy this book (there is quite a number of reviews for this book available here already). However, I strongly recommend it to any game programmers (especially starters) who would like to have a good reference book as well as a good starting point. About the good things about this book, there are a lot. You can read other comments and get the ideas. In my opinion, it is a must-have in your collection of game programming. The reasons are as follow: 1) It is a good introduction to a daunting task: programming Windows. 2) It is a good introduction to a daunting task: programming Windows in C. 3) It is a good introduction to a daunting task: programming games for Windows in C. Just for these daunting tasks, which were introduced nicely by the author, the book is worth reading by starters (the so-called "Dummies"). Yet, there're more: 4) It is a good introduction to daunting tasks: computer graphics, I/O (for games), multimedia, animation, artificial intelligence. 5) It is a good introduction to a daunting task: how to start investing for your career as a game programmer (required software, networking, etc...). And more... Picture this: all those squeezed in 460+ pages, written for complete "dummies" (no offense, simply AKA "starters"). It is a daunting task to do. Yet, the author has done a great job accomplishing what the book was set to do: (note: read the front cover, need I say more). If you are serious about game programming, get this book to start with. If you are a beginner with little knowledge of C/C++/Windows programming, but expect to write breathtaking, addicting, top-notch, best-selling, ..., games, the right attitude would be just read the book and refer to it often. My famous last word: "FIVE-STAR!"
Rating: 
Summary: Definately not for "Dummies"
Review: As a beginning C++ learner, I was anxious to do something besides "cin" and "cout". So I bought this book thinking it would be easy. (When I bought this book I barely knew what a pointer and a struct was). It was easy...until about chapter 3. Chapters 3 and up are really tough, but it was worth it. I can now program a simple 2d game with a little effort. I ran into some problems in Chapter 14 because my Visual C++ 6.0 compiler kept on saying that the DirectInputCreate function was an "undeclared identifier", but then I realied that the book was using an older DirectX version than what I had. I solved this problem by putting in #define DIRECTINPUT_VERSION 0x0500 at the beginning of the program. All in all it is a really good book even though it is also pretty tough for a beginner.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for absolute beginners
Review: This is a great book to get started with if you have no experience programming games. It's also a good book to introduce yourself to DirectX with. LaMothe has a way of wording things that keeps the readers interest and teaches the material quite well. His code is a software engineer's nightmare, but it not written to be perfectly engineered, but rather to teach... and it does a good job at that. My only advise to those who are thinking of purchasing this book is that LaMothe has another book in print called "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus." That book is just a more complete version of this book. It is, in my opinion, better to get "Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" than this book, but this book is cheaper, although less thorough.
Rating:
Summary: Best place to climb the mountain
Review: if you want to start to write games, it is the best place where you can start. With clear english and good explains makes this book valuable. If you want to write games on windows do not hesitate to pay money on that book. You will see that it worth.... Yaskil :o)
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME book...wished it had better 16-bit support though...
Review: This was an absolute awesome book. I typically love Lamothe's books. He really knows how to get the point accross and always puts a little humor into it. His tutorial games (with complete source) are very good (simple 2-D games like DigDug) and use his famous GDUMB engine. Remember though, this book uses DX5 which is outdated. However, it's still a great book to add. My only complaint was the lack of 16-bit color support. While he does cover it and even has some code, most of the book deals with palettes. Of course when this book was written, 16-bit wasn't as common. He also states that most 16-bit cards use the 5-5-5 scheme (which his 16-bit codes uses). Basically, if you don't have this book, BUY IT NOW! -Cecil
Rating:
Summary: This book will walk you through it
Review: If you have a moderate background in C++ (that is to say, you understand up to arrays, and maybe have heard of pointers), this book will take you to a moderate level with DirectX. It handles everything nicely, and I found it extremely well written. If you want to understand a little about how games are programmed, including Finite State Machines, DirectX surfaces, sound, control interface, and all the rest, get this book, I can't stress it enough. Be careful though, as this book does have a couple parts dealing with DirectDraw that are a little hard to grasp, but if you stick with it, and follow the examples, you'll be programming games in less than a week. Using the principles in this book, I programmed the Tile Engine for my 2d RPG (Still working on it), it loads a map from disk and allows you to walk around it, modify it, and save it back to disk. It's pretty much ready to go, and I couldn't have done it without this book. I strongly suggest you get this book and see how YOU can apply the principles within.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Honorable Author
Review: I have heard the experts say the book is stupid, but for the beginners, they said it was the best book for them. Unfortunately, I use MSVC++ 6, which isn't backwards compatible (not much, anyway), and made the correction in the book, but still had problems. None of the code worked, and I thought, "How can I learn to program when none of this stuff works?" I even almost downgraded for 20 bucks to VC++ 4. Then I emailed Andre, and he told me to call him! What a guy, he was going to a meeting while helping me. I fixed the problems, got the programs to work, and now I just need to get my schoolwork done. Not many authors would give you that kind of support. Btw, the problems were: DirectX was set to a lower directory in the Tools-Options-Link menu, so I dragged it to the top (simple). I need to click on Build-Set Active Configuration, and change the WIN32 debug highlighter to highlight WIN32 release. And I needed to drag ddraw.lib (add it to) the "source" subdirectory in the file view. Also, I had to change the error mentioned in the book, which is explained in the book, for all who are wondering. Then, it worked fine, and now I'm on my way to program... oh, soccer, then homework... Well, the point is, I'm 15, and this book makes perfect sense to me. Oh, and I didn't have time to wish good luck to Andre at his meeting, so good luck to your next one!
Rating:
Summary: The Best To Get you started on game programming
Review: If you are beginning game programming,Look no further tis is the book for you. Anyone with knowledge of C can understand the chapters In a month's time you can start writing your own games.Everything that you need to create a 2D game is explained clearly
Rating:
Summary: First and basic step into game programming
Review: I'm the kind of person that wants to program computer games for life. This book gave me the very basics I needed to understand the windows environment used for programming games, and then it starts building on top of that. A basic knowledge of C++ is very helpful. The first five chapters are the basics of how to create and manipulate a window, and after that you get into directdraw(DirectX), etc. Now when I look at a game not only I understand the logic behinde it bu I've made a few of my own. a must have for beginners.
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