Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days/Book and Cd-Rom (Sams Teach Yourself) [Paperback]

Andre Lamothe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994 | Series: Sams Teach Yourself

The author takes even the most complicated issues of game programming and breaks them down into understandable lessons in the familiar 21 day format.

Editorial Reviews

Review

As the only beginning-level book on game programming, this step-by-step tutorial takes readers through the entire game development process, teaching them how to design and create their own game software. "CD-ROM includes sample source code from the book. Teaches the basics of DOS game programming. Includes several programming techniques, such as joystick control and the use of graphics". Covers IBM & Compatibles. -- Sams Pub.

Product Details

• Paperback: 948 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; Pap/Cdr edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672305623
• ISBN-13: 978-0672305627
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,589,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You have to want to learn, November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days/Book and Cd-Rom (Sams Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

Reading the reviews, they look mixed. The book is outdated by most standards, but gives the foundations for game design. Don't expect the book to teach you C, C++, assembly, or how to work your compiler, that's not what the book is about. But, don't expect a good book on C to tell you how to do anything more than text input and output. That is where this book comes in, it takes the basics of C, and gives the knowledge needed to move to graphical game programming. The author is very enjoyable to read, and if you find the tone too playful, maybe you shouldn't be wanting to develop games anyway. Anyway, as far as the criticisms of the book being outdated, how would one expect to be able to develop a professional level game if one can't first make a space invaders type game in a most basic video mode. If one wants 3-D games, I have 3 books just on OpenGL alone, and they don't teach any game programming concepts. But, I've had this book for years, and am here mostly looking for newer game programming books by this author. Also, I was kind of curious about seeing the results of the contest mentioned in the book. Final point, this book with a book on C programming is a great intro to game programming, but I would look to newer titles by this author first. Either way, there is still a great deal you can learn from this book. No matter what book you get, though, know the language you are using, know your compiler, and don't expect EVERYTHING from one book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is excellent!, November 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days/Book and Cd-Rom (Sams Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

I bought this book a while ago, but I still find it to be a very good book. Because this book covers a lof of gameprogramming topics such as: gfx, sound, ai, input, and even more. And there are also some advance topics such as multitasking, making your own ISR's, and that's very good to know. This book is great :)

I would also like to recommend: "Black Art of 3D gameprogramming", and "Tricks of the gameprogramming gurus"

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good concepts, not very useful source code, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days/Book and Cd-Rom (Sams Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

I enjoyed LaMothe's earlier "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus," so I thought this might be a simpler book on the subject, since Gurus was a very comprehensive, complicated book on many different aspects of game programming. I was right at one point: this book is simpler, much simpler...too much. The source code was not very useful, because Borland ruled the compiler market at the time, and that's the compiler that I used. LaMothe's code was all Microsoft, but I suppose that was a lack on my own part.

This book was the precursor to LaMothe's popular "Black Art 3D" book, because the code presented was almost the same! It became clear to me what was going on later when I discovered that Macmillan acquired both SAMS and Waite Group Press, the publishers of both LaMothe titles! So what we have here is an enhanced reproduction of the same basic material by LaMothe, presumably by a different publisher, when all along these books were being published by parent company Macmillan. However, the books do stand well on their own. It is simply funny that the source code was so similar. It's pretty clear that LaMothe was a money-making author, and Macmillan wanted to maximize the profit off of LaMothe. In retrospect, I would have simply bought "Black Art 3D" and not bothered with LaMothe's two earlier titles.