Review of Microsoft Visual Basic: Game Programming for Teens (Paperback)

I like the concept of the book, but there are a lot of inconsistencies in the code for the projects.Up until the fifth chapter I was fully ready to endorse the book to my district as a textbook for an advance Visual Basic class on game programming. I like the fact that he builds a game one step at a time, starting with an experiment to illustrate the concept, then building and testing a class for the game. However, when he got to the fifth chapter, he changed his naming conventions and added code to the classes with no mention in the book of these changes. This can be frustrating especial to high school students or any new programmer. There are several places though out the book where he made changes to the classes on the CD that he does not mention in the book. Then he adds the class method to the current project and your left wondering where it came from. I felt he needed to make changes in the book, so that the code was consistent though out the book and matched what on the CD.

In my opinion, His editor should have caught this. Thomson as a publisher is starting to get a repetition for there badly coded books. It is obvious that an editor should be reviewing the code in a book along with the grammatical errors in the book and Thompson fails to do that. If you understand visual basic and you are looking for a book on game programming concepts the book is good. However I would not recommend this book if you are new to Visual Basic and I would definitely not recommend it for teenager, it will only frustrate them.


Product Description
If you have basic programming experience, this book is your ideal guide for writing games using Visual Basic .NET and Managed DirectX 9.This Second Edition includes almost entirely new coverage. While coverage of game design and 2D artwork remain, this edition includes more detailed coverage of the DirectX game code and utilizes the free Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition compiler. A true beginner's guide, this book covers each essential step for creating your own complete role playing game, including a character creation screen and a combat system. This book serves as a comprehensive introductory guide for readers who are new to programming or new to programming for games.

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.

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Review of Pocket PC Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development) (Paperback)

If you know how to program and want to try out the Pocket PC then this is a great book to own.It gives you some background, spends just a little time on the "structure of a Windows app", then gets into doing cool things on the PocketPC.The chapters on getting images to the screen faster using the Game Api (DirectX precursor) were great.I've always wanted to do Sockets/Networking programming and this book is where I learned.Btw, I'm not a game programmer!

Only downside is the cd which contains a number of errors in the example code.Since the code is also in the book, its not that big of a deal (just a little shoddy).The cd also comes packed with a ton of games.

Product Description
Pocket PC Game Programming will help you develop the tools and source code needed to write multiplayer games that can be played on wireless devices and the Internet. You will not only learn essential programming skills for the Pocket PC, but you will also create a programming resource that contains routines that will come in handy when writing a variety of games. Pocket PC Game Programming covers the history and future of the Pocket PC platform, essential programming tools, Windows messages, the game loop, loading bitmaps, drawing animated sprites, playing sound effects, advanced programming techniques, and much, much more!

About the Author
Jonathan S. Harbour has been an avid gamer and programmer for 17 years, having started with a Ti-99, Commodore PET, and a Tandy 1000.In 1994, he earned a B.S. in computer science. He has since earned the position of senior programmer with 7 years of formal programming experience. Jonathan is a member of the "Starflight III" team, working with the original designers and other volunteers on a sequel to the first two Starflight games (using Allegro), originally published by Electronic Arts in 1985 and 1989, respectively. He has professional-level experience in graphical user interface design and 2D and 3D graphics programming, as well as TCP/IP socket programming and Internet protocols. In addition, he has released the retail Pocket PC games "Pocket Trivia" and "Perfect Match". Harbour has also authored "Pocket PC Game Programming" (0761530576), "Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX" (193184125X), "Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the Absolute Beginner" (1592000029), and "Beginner's Guide to DarkBASIC Game Programming" (1592000096), and his most recent "Game Programming All In One, 2nd Edition" (1592003834). He maintains a Web site dedicated to game programming and other topics at http://www.jharbour.com. Jonathan lives in Arizona with his wife, Jennifer, and children, Jeremiah and Kayleigh.

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