Game Programming All in One [With CDROM]

I was a Computer Science major in college, and wanted to get into game programming. Never did it before, and had a lot of difficulty just being able to create a programming environment so that I could do basic C graphics programming. Well, I found this book, and wrote a complete version of Tetris from scratch, and then a complete version of Pac-Man, which includes all the original ghost algorithm logic. I've also written numerous other graphics programs and games (Arkanoid, asteroids, etc) using it and all the tools included with the book. It is very easy to read and follow. Great examples. All the sample code works. It gives you all the basic skills to program anything to do with 2D graphics. The Allegro toolset is quite powerful. Anyway, I highly recommend it as a novice.

This is a excellent book on game programming. Harbour does a good job staying on topic. He doesn't spend any time trying to teach you C programming or anything like that. Harbour takes a measured approach and tries to teach you the Allegro API which is easier to use over straight Direct X.

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.

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.

First off, this book is VERY well written and easy to follow. It is one of the only game programming books that I actually had a blast reading. What really strikes me about this book is that it is the only one (that I know of) that concretely discuses cross-platform game programming with Allegro, a library more powerful and easier to use than DirectX. It's almost hilarious how fast Harbor gets into the 'good stuff' without losing the reader.My only question is, why hasn't someone written a book like this before???