Customer Reviews

Advanced Lingo for Games

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What a great book! Intermediate and advanced Lingo programmers get ready to take your skill level up a few notches. Gary has been doing this for awhile and it shows. His code is some of the most concise and clearly written I have ever seen. A little code goes a long way in his examples.

He shows you how and why you should be using behaviors to organize your code into discreet, reusable and easy to understand elements that speed development. If you're not using behaviors now, you will after reading this book.

Beginners don't be put off by the `Advanced' in the title if you're interested in game development. I wouldn't want to learn Lingo with this book but you will have a great resource to guide you through proper style and organization of your Lingo scripts.

Although the book is about game programming, any Lingo programmer will benefit from it. If you want be become a better Lingo programmer, get this book!

Happy coding.

Having worked with Director for almost seven years, not many books on the subject impress me. As tech editor for "Advanced Lingo for Games", I had the honor of being the first Lingo programmer to work through Gary's code. More than once I had the feeling of discovering hidden treasure as I read through the text and source code. I've known Gary (and his code) for almost five years, the code in this book illustratrates he has reached a whole new level in understanding the nuances of Director, Lingo and game programming. I predict this will be one the most talked about Lingo books in 2000.

I was very excited to see this book on the market and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It has examples and full code of over 23 different games including Puzzle, Arcade, Card, Adventure, Strategy, and Multiplayer.

The Author does a good job of describing concepts. Much of the Lingo, however, is complex and should only be modified by Intermediate or Advanced programmers. It is also important to note that this is not a reference-type book like Director Demystified.

The coolest thing about the examples on the included CD-ROM is that they can be easily modified to fit your particular application. Once you get the hang of what's going on you can then apply the concepts to greater things. For example, included is a Director file for the classic game "Asteroids". In minutes I was able to replace the graphics and sounds with my own and even add a few features (I'd say I'm an Intermediate programmer). Using concepts described later in the book I hope to make a multiplayer version of the game.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn about game programming for the web or simply add some cool games to their site. Beginners will be able to easily modify graphics and sounds. Intermediate and advanced Lingo people will be able to take these games further by modifying the code.

Have fun!

I consider myself to be a fairly advanced Lingo programmer. I bought this book to learn about games, since most of my work had been cd rom presentations. Gary has an excellent writing style, with well written and structured code that hardly needs explanation. Trust me, you WILL understand this book if you have a general Lingo knowledge. You WILL be able to do things you thought were too complicated to go near! It is a fantastic book and should be on every Director programmers bookshelf.

I've been writing Lingo for some time now, and I probably own upwards of 15 books on the subject. Of all of those books, the two that I find the most helpful every step of the way are undoubtedly Gary's most recent 2 books (this one and "Director 8.5 Special Edition"). Lots of Lingo authors know Director inside and out, but what sets Gary's books on the subject apart is his colorful writing style and an uncanny ability to break down ultra-complex scripts into palatable bite-sized chunks that even a newbie will understand. Highly recommended!

Gary has done the Lingo community an amazing service. With code and logic examples that illustrate nearly every variety of game you can create to be played on a computer, this book is an incredible resource.

The examples in this book made it possible to deliver a game-rich CD project with an incredibly tight timeline.

Thanks Gary!

I have a programming background and am learning Director to make professional CD products. Gary has taught me how to do this with his Using Director 8.5 book and this Advanced Lingo for Games book. He writes very well, doesn't treat you like an idiot, and is very practical. Well done Gary and I recommend this book to all people who really want to make interactive games using Director.

I am a Lingo programmer for 4 years and this book helped me advance to the next level in Lingo Programming. Using this book helped me to understand writing my own 'behaviors' and took my understanding of 'lists' to a higher level. I owe alot of my success to this book.

Rich
Multimedia Programmer
Motorola

I've been developping applications and amateur games for a few years using C++... I bought this book along with the Director Bible... And guess what? I made a shoot'em up game in a couple of days - with the help of my brother (graphic designer - thanks for your beautiful sprites, dud! ;) )... Director + Lingo are the best way for quick games... and this book just show me how!!!
Thanks!

I'm hooked up to games. I'd like to create them myself as well. Lingo in Director is a great way to experiance the development of your own games. If I'm going for something, I buy all the books on that subject untill I find the right book. It took me about 5 or 6 Lingo/Director books untill I found this book. To me it was just what I was looking for. Not another 'crappy' reference, but clear examples with open source code that is completely described. I'm hoping for a followup with a bit more spectaculair types of games. The games in this book are classic games. A good read for all Lingo coders in my opinion..