Customer Reviews

Game Programming All in One (The Premier Press Game Development Series)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Please note: Amazon combined all of the reviews from the 1st and 2nd editions of this book when the 1st edition went out of print. These are essentially two totally different books. The first was a tutorial on C++ and DirectX. The second covers C and Allegro and game development.

This book is the second edition to the bestselling Game Programming All In One. This new second edition is a complete rewrite of Game Programming All In One with a completely new direction, new goals, new assumptions, and new development tools. All In One 2E has done away with the C++ tutorials, Windows programming tutorials, and DirectX tutorials. In fact, this book does not cover Windows or DirectX at all. Instead this book focuses on game programming using a cross-platform game library called Allegro. This library is extremely powerful and versatile. Allegro opens up a world of possibilities that are ignored when focusing specifically on Windows and DirectX. A full quarter of the first edition was devoted to a C++ language primer, while another fourth of the book focused on Windows and DirectX basics. I decided that for this second edition we did not need to cover those subjects again, and thus this book uses the standard C language and the sample programs will compile on multiple platforms.

The Windows version of Allegro uses DirectX, as a matter of fact, but it is completely abstracted and hidden inside the internals of the Allegro Game Library. What we are provided instead is a basic C program that includes the Allegro library and is capable of running in fullscreen DirectDraw mode using any supported resolution and color depth.

Additionally, Allegro provides a uniform interface for sound effects, music, device input, which are implemented on the Windows platform with DirectSound, DirectMusic, and DirectInput. Specifically, Allegro supports DirectX 8. Imagine writing a high-speed arcade game using DirectX, and then being able to recompile that program (without changing a single line of code!) under Linux, Mac, Solaris, FreeBSD, Irix, and other operating systems? Allegro is a cross-platform game library that will double or triple the user base for your games with the help of this book.

This book will teach you to write complete games that will run on just about any operating system. Specifically, we focus on three compilers: Visual C++, Dev-C++, and KDevelop, and the sample programs will be written using both Windows and Linux, with screenshots taken from both operating systems.

You will have the opportunity to use your favorite development tool in all likelihood since Allegro supports several C compilers, including Borland C++, Borland C++Builder, Apple Development Tools 2002, and several other compilers on various platforms.

The target audience are beginning to intermediate programmers who already have some experience with C or C++, or someone who wants to learn to develop with a C or C++ compiler, and will use this book as an entry-level guide. The material is not for someone new to programming, but just to game programming. I must assume the reader has already learned C or C++, because there is too much to cover in the game libraries, interfaces, and so on, to focus on the basic syntax of the actual language. It was difficult enough to support three different compilers and integrated development environments without also explaining every line of code. Intermediate-level experience is assumed, while extreme beginners will definitely struggle.

This book is not extremely advanced--the source code is straightforward, with no difficult libraries to learn, per se, but I do not explain every detail. I do cover the entire function library built into Allegro, since that is the focus of this book, but do not explain any standard C functions. The goal is to get up and running as quickly as possible with some game code! In fact, you will be writing your first graphics programs in chapter 3, and your first game in chapter 4. You DO need a basic understanding of C or you will quickly get lost.

Someone who has done some programming in Visual C++, CodeWarrior, Watcom C, Borland C++, GNU C++, or even Java or C# will understand the programs in this book. Those with little or no coding experience will benefit from a C primer before delving into these chapters. The emphasis of this book is on a cross-platform, open-source compiler, integrated development environment, and game library. The reader will not need to learn Windows or DirectX programming, and these subjects are not covered.

The primary IDE is an open-source (freeware) program called Dev-C++, and is included on the CD-ROM. The game library is called Allegro; it is also freeware, open-source, and included on CD-ROM that accompanies this book. The reader has all the free tools needed to run the programs in the book. This book is highly accessible to all C programmers, regardless of their platform of choice.

This book's source code and sample programs will run, without modification, on all of the following systems: Windows 9x/2k/ME/XP/2003, Apple MacOS X, Linux (any version), BeOS, QNX, Unix (Irix, Solaris, Darwin, FreeBSD), and believe it or not, these programs will also run under MS-DOS (DJGPP, Watcom C). So, that is just about every computer system out there.

At the same time, the Windows version supports DirectX, so it is future-proof as well. The programs will run in fullscreen or windowed mode with full support for the latest video cards. As you can see from the table of contents below, this is a very 2D-oriented book, with many chapters devoted to sprite programming. There is no coverage of 3D--none. But these chapters are perhaps some of the best you will find on the subject of 2D sprite programming and background scrolling anywhere.

Part I: Introduction To Cross-Platform Game Programming
1: Demystifying Game Development
2: Getting Started with Dev-C++ and Allegro
3: Basic 2D Graphics Programming with Allegro
4: Writing Your First Allegro Game
5: Programming The Keyboard, Mouse, and Joystick

Part II: 2D Game Theory, Design, and Programming
6: Introduction To Game Design
7: Basic Bitmap Handling and Blitting
8: Basic Sprite Programming: Drawing Scaled, Flipped, Rotated, Pivoted, and Translucent Sprites
9: Advanced Sprite Programming: Compiled Sprites, Collision Detection, and Animation
10: Programming Tile-Based Backgrounds with Scrolling
11: Timers, Interrupt Handlers, and Multi-threading
12: Creating A Game World: Editing Tiles and Levels
13: Vertical Scrolling "Arcade Games"
14: Horizontal Scrolling "Platform Games"

Part III: Taking It To The Next Level
15: Mastering The Audible Realm: Allegro's Sound Support
16: Using Data Files To Store Game Resources
17: Playing FLIC Movies
18: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
19: The Mathematical Side of Games
21: Publishing Your Game

Part IV: Appendices
Appendix A: Chapter Quiz Answers
Appendix B: Useful Tables
Appendix C: Numbering Systems: Binary and Hexadecimal
Appendix D: Recommended Books and Web Sites
Appendix E: Configuring Allegro for Visual C++ and Other Compilers
Appendix F: Compiling The Allegro Source Code
Appendix G: Using the CD-ROM

I admit I am excited about this book, which covers game programming with the open source, multi-platform allegro library. Much easier to use than Direct X, Allegro and this book get you up and going pretty quick. Topics include sprites, sound and AI for your games. The code examples are written in C (not C++), and a copy of Dev-C++ and Allegro come on the enclosed CD.

My only complaint is no coverage of 1st person 3D topics, but as the author states, the reason is 3D engines and games built on that engine are difficult for a single programmer to create alone in a reasonable amount of time, if at all. The focus of the book is on a single developer creating quality 2D shareware and freeware games with good game play. Emphasis on incorporating other freely available tools and libraries to help an individual programmer or small team reduce the amount of coding and resources and to get the title completed is another theme, and he discusses the issues surrounding getting the game published in a small chapter at the end.

Game Programming All in One, by Jonathan Harbour. (This is NOT 3D Game Programming All in One, which is a Torque tutorial.) It uses C to program the Allegro game library (a multi-platform library). Even a VB.Net programmer will find the C language easily understandable in its listings. It comes with a CD that contains the Dev-C++ C compiler (much easier to use than Visual C++), the open-source Allegro game engine, the MappyAL game map designer, and a load of royalty-free sprites.

The book explores horizontal and vertical scrollers, animated sprites, collision detection and gravity effects, as well as sound functions. As far as learning C, a programmer of just about any language will find that a non-issue with this book. At most, you might need to refer to Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 10 Minutes, to clarify some of the funny C symbology, such as

myobject->length

Since Allegro is open source, its comprehensive documentation is somewhat disorganized (~120 pages with no TOC or index), and is mainly useful for looking up some particular syntax. The Harbour book, on the other hand, is well organized, and covers all of the essential aspects (except 3D) in a systematic way, with admirably clear demo code (most of which is presented in the context of a functional game). Allegro does 3D as well as 2D, but that is beyond the scope of the book. After reading the book, you would have to dig the 3D functions out of the Allegro documentation, or go on-line to the numerous Allegro user sites for tutorials. The book provides a number of URLs for these sites.

Now about Allegro. It supports the following operating systems (and more): Mac OS X, Windows, MS-DOS, IRIX, Linux, Darwin, FreeBSD, BeOS and QNX. It does 2D and 3D functions, and for Windows compilers generates specific calls to DirectX 8.

Some specifics:
Raster operations - lines, geometric shapes, Beziers, etc.
Filling
2D Sprites - masks, run-length encoding, compiled sprites, translucency, lighting
Bitmaps - blitting, rotation, scaling, clipping
3D Polygons - wireframe, flat-shaded, gouraud-shaded, texture-mapped, z-buffered
Scrolling - double or triple-buffered, hardware-scrolling
Animation - flip-book animated bitmaps, FLI/FLC playback
Windows Drivers - Direct X windowed and full-screen, GDI device contexts
DOS Drivers - Bunches of drivers for DOS as well as for all supported OSs

Sound:
Wavetable MIDI - volume, pitch, pan, blend, drum mappings
Digital Sound - 64 channels, forward, reverse, pitch, pan
Windows & DOS Drivers - WaveOut Direct Sound, Windows Sound System, AdLib, SB, SBPro, SB16, AWE32, MPU-401, ESS Audio drive, Ensoniq

Other Features:
Device Input - mouse, keyboard, joystick
Timers - Hi-res timers, interrupts, vertical-retrace
Compression - read/write LZSS compression files
Data Files - Multi-object data files, encryption, compression
Math Functions - Fixed Point arithmetic, trigonometric lookup tables
3D Functions - vector, matrix, quaternion manipulation
Text Output - Proportional fonts, UTF-8, UTF-16, Unicode

Oh! Did I mention that Allegro is free and royalty-free? It doesn't have a physics engine, but since gravity and momentum are easy computations, and collision can be easily handled with bounding spheres and boxes, I think Allegro is an amazing bargain. But I don't think I would have the patience to learn it from scratch by using just its own documentation.

The MappyAL map editor, which also comes with the book, allows you to import a set of tile bitmaps as a source pallet of tiles and draw them onto a map of just about any size, in up to 5 layers. Each drawn tile can hold up to 7 embedded data values, and can be toggled for collision. Among the many output options is a CSV list of the entire map containing the tile indexes. MappyAL is also free and royalty-free. When referenced into an Allegro-based C program, MappyAL is tightly integrated, automating many of its features.

FOR TEACHING A CLASS?
Since this is a Thomson/Course Technology book, college instructors may wonder if it is suitable for teaching a class on game programming. It certainly is. (Appropriate prerequisites would be either a semester of C or C++, or two semesters of VB.Net.) This would allow each student to build several complete games for his or her portfolio during the span of a single semester. Attempting to include meaningful 3D game development in this first semester course would up the ante of prerequisites to an unacceptable level. Make 3D a second semester of game development.

Also for would-be instructors, all the required software comes FREE with the book. One down-side for an instructor is that there is little course support accompanying this book. Yes, there are end-of-chapter questions, but they are not particularly exam material. There is no syllabus, no teaching notes, and no PowerPoint slides. As a teacher, I just say, "so what." Standard course support is probably meaningless for this particular subject area.

BIGGEST COMPLAINT:
Getting the Allegro libraries properly installed and compiled, so you can begin the book, is quite troublesome. Unfortunately, the comfortable narrative style of the main body of the text is continued in the two appendixes that explain the excruciating process of setting up Allegro. A numbered, step-by-step list would remove much of the present ambiguity in the instructions. Contributing to the confusion is the merging of steps among the several compilers explicitly supported: "It's exactly the same, except for these differences." Boo! Present separate, step-by-step lists in the next edition.

CONCLUSION: This is a great book for new game developers. The writing is lucid, and should be easily understandable to a programmer with moderate experience in just about any language. VB guys, have no fear. College instructors will have as much fun as their students. Since the Allegro game library also includes support for 3D game development, none of the material learned here will go to waste.

I been searching for a book like this ever since i started learning how to do C++. My goal is to create a really fun text adventure and all the other books i bought were good for learning the basics but this book had exactly what i needed. here's a short list of my pro's and con's.

Pros:

- easy playback for .wav files
- easy function to display a .bmp picture
- tells me how to insert text in any graphics mode to any part of the screen.
- book is based mainly in use with DEV-C++
- shows easy way to make side-scrolling games and animate sprites.
- easy way to do collision detection.
- easy way of stretching your animations giving it a 3d effect based on distance.
- you can really make the old Doom from scratch with this book.
- screenshots made easy.
- all the stuff is royalty free.
- no major header writing headaches when playing with the graphics and sound.

Cons:

- I couldn't find anything on how to store data in a separate file to be read from, like a database of weapon names, item names and monster stats to be read from a file to be used in the main program.
- couldn't find any easy way of making words scroll upwards for my text adventure game. I may need to create a routine for that. luckily this book shows even how to make screenshots really easy and i can just use that principal to make it work.

Summary:

I highly recommend this book to any newbie game developer. even experienced developer will find this book a great asset.

The problem I have with most books that describe themselves as being for complete novice programmers is that they always forget the fundamentals. For example, how For loops work. Or explaining the more technical vernacular that tends to accompany these books. While I think that de Sousa has made a great attempt at covering these bases (better than most), there may be some rough spots for new programmers who arent familiar with the lingo.

That having been said (and I've been coding for quite some time), I am finding GPAIO to be a pretty fun read for INTERMEDIATE programmers; at minimum, someone who knows the basic fundamentals of any other language. My work has mostly been with VB with some C, Java, and Perl peppered in, but it was time for me to lose the handholding that VB provides, even with dotNet, and I'm working through the exercises doing something that I love, which is gaming. I've found the errors that others have discussed, along with the mismatched screen shots, but overall, I find the code to be well written and readable. I cant deal with dry deliveries - de Sousa is snappy, sometimes funny, but always keeps your attention to the next detail.

I love the idea of having projects to build on. There are some interesting C++ lesson omissions, though (noting that the language is gigantic) -

- no discussion of TCPIP/Net protocols (which is a must in gaming in my opinion)
- I wanted a meatier Win32 programming section, with a discussion about the registry (another must, in my opinion)

but I'm a tough critic. New to programming, but want to game? Dont get this one first. C++ is a tough language to start with! Get either a Step by Step book (C# is the move nowadays, and this is a great first step toward C# syntax), then pick this one up. As long as you dont want to deal with stuff like COM, STL, or advanced MFC's, you'll have enough in your C++ arsenal to call yourself a C++ coder. And the book is damn fun too.

Being a VB programmer myself, with very little exposure to C++, I found this book to be a wonderful read and a great help in getting me started on the road to programming my own games (which, by the way, is the reason I became a programmer to begin with).

Sousa offers great lessons on C++, which any newbie can clearly understand, with excellent examples and a marvelous teaching style. There are, however, some problems with the book (hence the 4 star rating). Most of the screen shots aren't anywhere near the code they are supposed to support, and a lot of the notes and side tips don't seem to belong to the text they are paraphrasing/helping.

Also, in some code examples he tends to go about things the round-about way, instead of attacking the problem directly.

All in all, I can look past the problems this book has and say that if you want to be a game programmer, buy and read this book before you get anything else. This book will definitely get you on your way!

Yes, this is a kid reveiw, and I figured it out. Acually I'm 13, but that is about the minimum age for intelect that you would need to get this book. You could try it if you where younger, but it would be harder for you. I got through it with minimum amount of strugle, but some parts of the book is hard to make the programs run...

The only thing holding me back from giving this book 5 stars is 2 things: (1) There are some obvious typos and mixups that should of been caought in the editing process, and(2) Some of the programs(acually alomost ALL the programs) require some tweaking to run. I wont elaborate on the first problem, but I will on the second. I would not advise you to buy this book if you are a beginner in programming(when I say beginner I mean NO experience in programming, and little experience with computers). If you try to read this book without some prior experience with programming, you have to realize that you will have dificulteis, and you will have problems. Read up on your C programming before you read this book. You could figure out this book if you read "Begginging C++ Game Programming", thats what I did. You will fare fine. But back to the matter at hand. The programs on the CD dont run fine without tweaking. Such as messing with the project options, doing some other includes, etc...

But, if you do have experience in any C programming, are a near expert in computers, love computers and video games, and have an uncontrolable urdge of wanting to see the final product of your game, this my freind is the book for you. With some sweat, twiching eyes, and un countable hours on the computer, you too will have a fun game that you can share with the world. Who knows, maybe your game will be the next "Super Mario Bros." or "Sim City", or even the next"Super Smash Bros.". Have fun with it. Dont be afraid to try this book if you have the urdge to make games. See ya.

This book will be a good introduction for anyone who is interested in programming computer games and knows very basic C++. It does give you a tutorial on C++, but there are a fair amount of errors that would bewilder a complete newbie. One of the things I noticed right away was that many of the screenshots are in the wrong spots, and many times in different sections! This would definetely have confused me had I not had basic skills in C++.

I also thought that it was strange that the author teaches about Direct3D BEFORE he teaches about DirectX. Another issue is that some of the programs on the CD from later chapters will not run, but rather will give you a run-time error. A few programs have syntax issues as well.

The content of the book and the teaching style makes up for these errors however. The author writes with a style that explains the details, not giving you the "You don't need to know how it works, just that it does" line LaMothe is famous for. I found the "pointers" section to be very well-explained and it gave examples of situations where they would be useful, which is something I have not seen in other C++ books. The book also gives you complete game examples throughout the book, utilizing many of the covered topics, which I found to be a plus compared to other books which teach you the techniques, but leave you clueless as how to use them. The author also lists his e-mail address and invites you to contact him with any questions you may have, which I thought was a nice gesture.

Overall, I would recommend that you get this book if you have competent enough computer skills to overlook these basic problems. I would also recommend that you have BASIC C++ skills, or that you at least be able to recognize where there is a mistake and be able to work through it.

When I purchased this book a year ago, I thought to myself, "Finally, I will learn how to create games under Windows using DirectX"; I still wish that I had that thought. This book is hefty, and you would think that it would contain information which you can use. The reason why I gave it 2 stars instead of one is because there is some information which I found useful, but it had nothing to do with programming at all.

I know C++ already, and his very brief primer would leave much for the casual gamer to desire. Here is a hint: Pick up a "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days" book and study it before attempting to understand this book. You get to build ConLib, which is a library for making a Console-based game. While this is interesting, you learn absolutely nothing. By nothing, I mean, he throws code at you without explaining why you want to do something, and it's all Object Oriented. The OOP is not bad in itself, that's a very sound technique, but if you did not understand his brief tour of C++ and classes, then you would do well to stop and take my suggestion as stated above.

Leading up to actual windows programming starts smoothly, but then again the author, manages to bungle things. You get code tossed in your face, with barely any explanations as to why you want to do something a certain way. This certainly does not help me learn or teach me anything. Since I already knew the basics about creating a Win32 Application (just not wrapping it in a class), I pushed on to begin to develop "Mirus."

This is a joke if ever I have seen one. The author states that you will build this game engine, and yet, he leaves too much out to understand what you are doing. Again more code explodes before your eyes, and you learn...nothing, at least I did not. The author does not explain anything (yet again, am I repeating myself?) and does not stop for questions or much of a review. You are shown example code; however he does not tell you where to place it in your files, let alone why you want to do a certain thing this way. He defines methods, and then tells you to complete them. I hardly consider this helpful. He provides no guidance. I thought I was going to build "Mirus" step by step, so I might learn how; instead he gives you a few lines, and skips onto the next topic. Thankfully, that inane process of coding comes to an end, but not quite completely.

After finishing "Mirus" (which I never actually made), he talked about (yet again briefly), Nodes, Trees, and Linked Lists, Math, and Physics. This is probably the BEST part of the entire book. Why? It has several useful equations. Even though he uses the same type of presentation as before, you don't need to read his comments to understand the formulas, not too much at least. Most of his explanations are perplexing, and I had to look up things on the web to better understand them. He does at least mention how to do basic Artificial Intelligence for a guard, by giving them a pattern to walk, and then how to "listen" and "see" you and how to react. That part was all very well done.

Near the end of the book (just about) you build some arkanoid/bricks type game using the now finished "Mirus" engine. Of course his method of teaching is still as spotty as ever, and if you have learned anything from my book, then you have my deepest respect.

He does mention how to get into the gaming industry, and how difficult it is. You will have to use the "Try and try again" method. So, there is hope for me yet!

Overall, this book taught me nothing. The only reason I keep it is because there are some formulas in there that I just know will come in handy some day. There are Formulas relating to how to add gravity, and where the center of mass of a given body is. Other functions like Velocity and rotations. My biggest complaint and I probably sound like a broken record by now, is that as many others have said he just gives you code, and expects you to understand it. This entire book feels rushed. I would have waited another year or two for it to have been completed. Everything just feels as if he hurriedly would work on something, and then has to stop that abruptly and work on something else. It feels more like I am reading his notes, than a real book. The typographical errors do not help either, and they also prevent you from learning. Maybe this book is too advanced for me, but I am not unintelligent person when it comes to programming.

Avoid this book if you can help it, if you bought it and like it then I am happy for you, but I cannot like a book that I spent $$$ on and failed to learn a shred of programming. I prefer the "How and Why" method over the "Monkey see, Monkey do". In this world where code is supposed to be reusable, I can understand that, but if you don't understand how or why something works, then you will not understand what happens when something breaks. Simply showing some code and expecting me to learn, does not happen. I have to know why I do something, why do I have to do this. Why is this better than that? How does this work? Those questions were never answered to my satisfaction in this book at least.

The Bottom Line: You are better off finding FREE tutorials on DirectX 8.x/9 from places like Drunken Hyena, and others if you do a Google search.

I bought this book in hopes that I would be able to program 2d games using DirectX. I was only partially correct. The author spends more than half of the book developing a library called Mirus, which is just portable classes to impliment in games, while completely masking all directx functions. you would think creating a sprite would be easy? or not! it takes him 4 classes, AND a text file just to successfuly create an image you can display on the screen. using directdraw you could do it with 1! With the way he has this set up, you would have to create a text file for every type of sprite you would want to make. even in the end, you only know how to use this Mirus library, as he wizzes through the directx functions so fast you cant comprehend them.

HE TEACHES HIS WRAPPER CLASSES, NOT DIRECTX GAME PROGRAMMING.

Algorythums and AI, physics etc are probably all good, but i havent gotten there yet. im looking for a better source for 2d programming. i do not advise this book if you believe it is going to quell all of your needs. buy this book only if you want to develop games specifically the way the author wanted. very few universal ideas are taught. too specific.

i advise you stay away from this book if you only want to create 2d games, directx 8.0 when used with his 348967349867 classes is needlessly complicated.