Customer Reviews

Tricks of the Game-Programming Gurus

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After reading this book cover to cover, I felt confident that I could both grasp and program the essentials of what went into a game from the DOS-era. Though familar with C, it took two months to read the volumous book, but it really is a delight to read. The code is commented superbly (after a while, you almost don't even have to read the code to understand it) and I would recommend running the conveniently provided demo *.exe files for each example to get a better idea of how it works after reading each one.

The first few chapters on I/O and 2D and the later chapters on AI and interrupt handling provide more than enough to begin programming your own games using C in DOS (DJGPP compiler is great for this - the web of course provides the rest).

The chapters on 3d ray-castering, etc, provide a good understanding for how Wolf-3D might have worked, but falls slightly short of Doom. This is not such a bad thing if you are new (as I was) to games programming. Less forgiving though, was the disappointment to find that after reading the whole book, the final chapter does not deliver on coding a 3D game with monsters, etc. I can understand that after the effort of all the previous chapters with their carefully-coded examples, the author may have been keen to finish the book, but it was like a finishing a game without a "Hey you just won now watch this ultra-cool sequence" ending.

That aside though, this is an exceptional book for beginners to game programming. After reading it, you will be able to look at any game and start to see the cogs ticking behind the scenes. If nothing else, it will give you an appreciation of the programming effort put into games. For those seeking instant gratification with Windows/directX games, this book can be skipped. But for those with an interest in learning games programming, I couldn't think of a better place to start.

Although dated now, this book is still one of the books I love the most in my collection.

Lamothe starts in each chapter with a new topic and gradually solves the problems as they arise with summaries and other notes. A basic knowledge of C and how to work computers obviously will stand you in good stead but even an amature, with determination can pick this book up and really learn from it. Lamothe tends to spring little details on you at the last moment so be sure to read every chapter at least twice.

As I said it is a bit old but helps you understand the basics of the VGA card mode 13h, yadda yadda.... Graphics and all other games aspects are covered, even 3D has a little coverage.

The Video Games Industry is an impossible thing to follow as advances are every where and a new book is an old book overnight but Lamothe has made a brilliant stab at this.... and succeeded.

I thought this book was good. It was easy to understand and it didn't bore me. The only problem I had was that before I bought the book I didn't know that you had to know C. So then I had to buy a book to teach me C. Other then that I thought the book was good. But if you don't know C then you should read Absolue Beginner's Guide to C, then Teach Yourself C in 21 Days. Then you should know C good enough to get this book.

I've found a lot of interesting material in this book. It's a great resource for C/C++ programmers. And I don't consider it's out of date. There are still a lot of DOS-based games out there (and they work under Win95 & WinNT).

This book is a great introduction to 2D programming and the basics of the video card (but only in mode 13h, 320X200). It covered numerous 2D topics such as scaling, rotating, translating, scrolling techniques, etc. But, I thought this book would go further into 3D game programming since that is more present in current games. He talkes about 3D programming in the 6th chapter and then never gets back to it. I didn't learn how to make a ray casting engine from this single chapter. It showed some mathematical functions explained some theorys, showed me the source code for a real, functioning ray caster and then got right back into 2D special effects! I didn't learn any 3D game programming techniques from this book and it left me searching for another book that focuses on 3D.

If you are a beginner and know nothing about 2D or 3D graphics, buy this book. But, if you know all you want to know about 2D graphics, go looking for another book that explains 3D graphics in depth like one of the OpenGL or Direct3D books.

Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus is a good introduction to creating 2D games for the PC. The techniques used describe the standard DOS libraries for the C programming language. The demonstrations are very thorough, and the descriptions are well written and easy to understand. New concepts, such as fast-drawn pixels, lines, sprite animation, and sound, are learned with ease. This book isn't a walk in the park for the novice, however. Although the descriptions are thorough, the authors expect the reader to have some understanding of 'C' and general programming concepts. The chapter on artificial intelligence contains more theory than demonstration. For someone designing a standard, DOS 2D game engine, I would recommend another Andre LaMothe book--Teach Yourself Game Programming in 21 Days. If you're more interested in what the concepts mean and how to perform tasks, this book is great. Where "Teach Yourself..." is more of an instruction manual, this book is more of an encyclopedia.

To be honest, I've been programming in many languages since I was in middle school. I have a basic understanding for many programming languages. It was my first time really working with C/C++, and I was able to understand it. The author made everything clear for the reader, yet I do sugguest some programming experience for a better understanding of the code found through out. There are tutorials to be found on the Internet in C/C++. At any rate, I bought this book some time after it was published. It makes for a nice reference to graphics programming in both 2d and 3d graphics. It introduce the reader to some very basic concepts by todays standards. When this book came out, it was and excellent read; nevertheless, there are all sorts of new tricks out today that are not covered. Read this if you want to learn the general make up of a video game. Don't expect design concpets or anything else. These are the graphics, sound, and AI programming routines, which made some games like Id Software's first 1st person shooter popular. Great book for building a foundation. Don't expect to be programming windows when you are through... On the whole, I have no regret in buying this book. Good to have it in my book case. I still pick it up every now and then.

This Book its so Cool!, Teach you everything about game programing, Show you How to Build a game engine like DOOM!.Anyway I want to say that this book is outdate cause its for DOS, like DOOM days,But you can port all to DirectX. If you know C language and want to be a game programmer Buy this Book!!!.

This is the best introduction to DOS games programming there is. And this author knows how to get your attention.
It is a world of discovery into the art of plotting pixels in video memory to create graphics, animation and 2D games. It teaches you to program your sound card, joystick and other I/O devices.
The examples are in C, not C++; so they are easily digestable. No 'hidden' classes to decipher - you get everything straight.
I really enjoy reading the book and I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn to program games.

I don't really understand why people rate this book so high. I'm pretty new at game programming and I knew this book is old but I gave it a try anyway. Now, many portions of this books are useless in windows environment. (But as others stated it's not Andre's fault.) General concept of game programming is good. But, even I know it's not being used now, if there is one thing I should learn from this book, it should be ray casting engine. And I don't feel he was good at explaining that. It's possible becasue I read it traslated into Korean, but I felt I could explain it better and easier. Another gripe is that he basically omitted texture mapping section.(Or is it a matter of version again?) I felt I missed two most important things I wanted know. bottom line : Now, in 1999, you don't have to buy this book. Period. Some good infos the writer have are spreaded in all of his books. So, one book is enough.