Game Programming All in One (Paperback)

by Jonathan S. Harbour (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Game Programming All in One, Third Edition gives aspiring game programmers the skills that are needed to create professional-quality games. If you have a working knowledge of C or C++ and are ready to expand your skills into the field of game programming, then get ready to begin your journey with this latest edition! You won't cover the topic of programming in general, but rather the specifics of programming for games. Using the cross-platform Allegro game library, you'll learn how to write complete games that will run on almost any operating system. Both Windows® and Linux® screenshots are displayed throughout. Using the techniques taught within this book and the tools included on the CD-ROM, you'll be able to write standard Windows and DirectX® programs without the cost of an expensive compiler.

About the Author
Jonathan S. Harbour is an Associate Professor of Game Development at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. His current game project is Starflight: The Lost Colony (www.starflightgame.com). He lives in Arizona with his wife, Jennifer, four children (Jeremiah, Kayleigh, Kaitlyn, Kourtney), a dog (Lucy), a cat (Missy), and six temperamental computers (ages 1 to 8). He can be reached at www.jharbour.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 832 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 3 edition (October 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598632892
• ISBN-13: 978-1598632897
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #135,250 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very impressed, January 13, 2008

By	G B - See all my reviews

I tend to shy away from game programming books with the phrase "All in One." And not without good reason. Most of them are utter garbage. They simply try to do too much. Take the 1st edition of GPAIO for example--it was just awful. It had diagrams on the wrong page, tons of errors, etc. And it wastes way too much time going through the technical stuff. Very little on game programming.

Not so with this book.

While there is some technical stuff, the author utilizes it almost instantaneously to form a simple tank game along the way. Towards the end of the book, he covers horizontal scrolling (i.e., Super Mario Bros.) and vertical scrolling (i.e., 1942). While neither example is a complete game, both really explain the mechanics well enough that making a game of either type should be fairly easy.

I was a bit reluctant to buy the book because it uses Allegro, rather than the more mainstream options of DirectX and OpenGL. But I really think Allegro was a great choice. It allows him to focus on the meaty stuff, you know, actual game programming stuff. I have way too many books that waste upwards of 150 pages on setting up a window with DirectX.

My only criticism is that the book is more for hobbyists than professionals, but then again I have never seen nor heard of any such book. Anyone who wants to program games, albeit simple games should definitely check this book out.

As for the reviewer who gave GPAIO one star, I'm really doubtful that s/he is serious. But if so, my advice to you is this: If you can't get Allegro up and running, then you shouldn't be programming games. It's that simple. Really. It's not any harder or easier to set up than DX, OpenGL or even SDL.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Idea, dubious Implementation, November 19, 2007

By	Alvaro Barbeira "full-time wannabe" (argentina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is intended for the ABSOLUTE BEGINNER. It assumes the reader has a very basic knowledge of C, and understands the basics of pointers, arrays and structs. No experience with other multimedia library/GUI toolkit/etc required, although it helps.

From that point on, it will get you up and running really fast; in quite a few chapters this book will cover simple 2D game programming, teaching all the basics neededed for programming more complex games. Trough the use of Allegro library, the topics of handling input (keyboard, mice, joystick) and output (sound, graphics, sprites) are covered effectively.

The later chapters, however, did not appeal to me at all; they deal with horizontal scrolling (classic mario-like games) and vertical scrolling (1942-like shoot'em up's), AI, multithreading... which is very cool stuff, but I don't think the approach chosen is very effective.

It is read REALLY fast however, with very big fonts, and clear and neat writing. It dissapointed me a bit because although it seemed very nicely edited, one of the examples was misplaced.

If you plan to work under linux, the code will work (most of the time), but compiling can become somewhat cumbersome. Under windows, it works fine.

To wrap up, I quite liked what the author says about gaming and game design in general, and teaches very effectively what he intends, having the "All In One" covered; but examples are overall too simplistic or superficial.

I'm rating four out of five because I expect a book on the subject to be a little more high-end; however, if you are new to programming in general, this book will prove quite helpful. And, Allegro can take you really far (it even has the bonus of being open source!).

P.S.: as a side note, reading other reviews, the second edition looks better than third.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not too many flaws., September 23, 2007

By	Jonathan S. Leder (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had to figure out by my self how to compile the codes under linux. The book doesn't go over compiling under Linux, other than using kdevelop.



1 star: Readability. It was easy to read. While I found some typos, it wasn't such a big deal.

2 star: There aren't many books out there on Allegro Library, and that deserves some recognition.

2 star: I own another book written by Jonathan S. Harbor, which was also a good read. Beginning JAVA ... I forget the title but it was a JAVA book. Anyways, the 2 stars are for the author, and his experience in game programming.

It's a nice book to have.