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Title: Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with Visual Basic in 21 Days by Clayton Walnum ISBN: 0-672-31987-X Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 04 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (24 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Great for beginners, not for the expert
Comment: It would be very difficult to overstate the role that games have had in the rise of computing. When the first personal computers came out, I am talking TRS-80 Model 1 and Apple 2 here, much of the software that existed was games. Furthermore, I have yet to meet a programmer of that generation who did not program some kind of game on their computer. Back in the days of the now defunct magazine "Creative Computing", we got together and talked a great deal about how to program around the graphics and speed limitations of the processors. Many people purchase upgrades solely for the purpose of being able to run the latest games or program better ones.
With that background, this is a book for all who want to learn the basics of game programming in general and using Visual Basic in particular. Several complete games are built, with full explanations of what every line does, both locally and as a component of the project. Complete source code is available on the CD, so it is easy to load up and try the game as you learn about it. This really helps the process of understanding what is being created.
The games used to describe the programming strategies include:
* Facecatch - a simple game where the graphic image of a face appears at random locations on the screen. The goal is to click on the image before it moves to the next location.
* Life - a slight modification of the classic created by John Horton Conway. In this game, a cell lives or dies in the next generation depending upon the number of neighbors it has. It has been said that before the advent of the Internet, more computer time was wasted playing life than any other thing.
* Battlebricks - a variation of the classic game where a ball bounces up and knocks bricks out of a wall. The goal is to move a reflective paddle back and forth so that the ball bounces back rather than being lost. Two versions are constructed, with and without sound.
* Blackjack - an implementation of the standard card game.
* Pokersquares - the object of this game is to place cards in a five-by-five grid so that you have the best poker hands in both the horizontal and vertical directions.
* Crystals - a version of the ancient Egyptian game Oh-Wa-Ree where objects are placed in holes and the aim is to distribute them. If a hole contains three items, you then win those objects. You play against the computer and the one who captures the most objects wins.
* Dragonland - a dungeons and dragons style adventure game. You also program an editor for the dungeon construction as part of the project.
* Moonlord - a space adventure game with warping and sound effects where you battle alien ships.
These games captured my attention, both when learning how to code them as well as when I played them. The wide variety used as examples will teach you most of the underlying principles of how games are programmed, as well as how to apply those principles in a synergistic way to make a game that will be interesting and attractive. I came away impressed with the combination of gaming and learning strategies used. It does take a great deal of effort to understand the code and how the pieces interact. These are nontrivial games and the code is at times complex. The author has done a very good job modularizing it into pieces that can be understood, the difficulty is that it is sometimes hard to understand the interactions.
This is a book that I recommend for anyone interested in learning the strategies behind game programming and who is not an experienced coder. Just like learning to cook, the nice thing is you get to consume your creations at the end.
Rating: 5
Summary: This is a Wonderful Book... BUY IT!
Comment: This is an outstanding book in every sense of the word. The author is knowledgeable about game programming and writes with panache and clarity. The folks who'll benefit most from this book are those who've just mastered the basics of vb, and are itching to polish up their skills, especially in the area graphics and animations.
I consider myself an advanced-beginner/intermediate vb programmer. I've found this book a pure joy to read. This is probably the only vb game programming book in print today, and thank God it's as good as it can get. It takes you slowly by the hand from simpler games to the ones that are much more complex. Although the title says "Teach yourself in 21 days", if you're thorough like me, you'd take considerably longer. For example, I took more than a coupla days to fully understand and analyse how the codes work for each chapter from Day 7 onwards. You must be prepared to work them out in front of your PC. Trust me, it's very rewarding.
It's rare these days to find authors who can make tough programming topics easy (and game programming IS difficult). Prior to reading this book, I thought it'd be hopeless to learn to write a game in VB by myself. This book bring game programming right to the door-step of junior vb programmers. Great job, Walnum.
PS. By the way, this book is clealy pitched at beginning and intermediate programmers. I've read earlier somewhat negative reviews here which lamented the lack of instructions on DirectX. Come on! The "Teach Yourself" series are NOT for advanced programmers. You can't put a book down just because it didn't meet with your expectations. At best you can ony say that YOUR judgement about the book is wrong; you can't then conclude that the book is bad. You can only do justice to a book's worth by considering its merit vis-a-vis its targetted audience.
Rating: 2
Summary: A Disappointment
Comment: this book just didnt meet my expectations, it focused too much on the authors pre-written programs and how to re-program them rather than teaching how to do things. the author spent the ENTIRE 3rd week on one program and most of the 2nd week on another program. the begging of the book focuses too much on designing graphics for the game rather than programming. the only good part(s) in the book took place over the end of week 1 and beggining of week 2 (6 chapters out of 21 that i liked).
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Title: Windows Game Programming with Visual Basic and DirectX (With CD-ROM) by Wayne S. Freeze ISBN: 0789725924 Publisher: Que Pub. Date: 15 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0: Games Programming by Catherine Dwyer, Jeanine Meyer ISBN: 0619035617 Publisher: Course Technology Pub. Date: 20 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: DirectX 8 and Visual Basic Development by Keith Sink ISBN: 0672322250 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 06 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days by Greg Perry ISBN: 0672313103 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 13 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with DirectX in 21 Days by Clayton Walnum ISBN: 0672324199 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 26 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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