Game Programming All in One

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.

There's a new version of Allegro coming out (5.x series already in Beta) that's going to make this book somewhat obsolete.The author's forums are okay. There is a good section on how to get your IDE and compiler setup, but because the book is old it doesn't cover the latest tools or operating systems.If you still want to buy then I'd recommend getting the book used and downloading the free tools yourself.It's not really the book's fault that it is outdated, though, so for what it is - it's a good book. Check out the author's other (newer) listings first.

The book has all of the concepts needed to understand what the computer is doing, and all of the components you need for a successful video game, both on the conceptual sense and implementation sense. The problem with trying to use this book now is that you need a legacy system to utilize the graphical library. The new version of the library is more confusing than the books, and the old library was designed for Windows XP and earlier.I would suggest modern books if you want to learn specific libraries that will help you, but this book will help if you need or want more conceptual understanding.

A nice book to keep around for the tips and info., this book can really help the person trying to make game programming part of their computer skills.

Excellent book, nicely written in a language easy to understand for beginners. Lot of examples well design and easy to understand. Is a "Must" for those who wants to start in this art as a hobby.

great book

Is really an All in One book, really I do not guess that this book should contain too information about it.

I bought this book recentily and it is amazing. Its a good book for learning and teaching game programming.I am a programming teacher at Brazil and I got this book to help me at my classes. And its helping a lot.Best regards, Andre.

I always wanted to write my own games, but I was put down by intricate guides and libraries. After a bit of research, I learned about the Allegro 4 library and someone recommended me this book: I wasn't disappointed! After 2 days, I was already writing my game, even If I didn't did any programming for the last 7 years! This book explains everything you need on an entertaining and efficient way, so it totally surpassed my expectations!I saw some really bad reviews as this book explains how to write using the Allegro library instead of DirectX or OpenGL. Let me be clear about something. Do you have already a concept on what do you want? Are you starting with to program?. I did choose Allegro because I want my games to run on any computer, and this library will allow it to run on any computer from Ms-Dos to modern Linux and Windows, and where with OpenGl or DirectX (Close source, Windows only) will requite 30-40 cryptic lines of code, here you can do the same with just 1.Of course, maybe you want to do a 3D game, and spend the next 5 years trying to make something which doesn't look like someone drank too much and is showing to the world what dinner he/she had by vomiting it on the street; then, you'll might need hardware acceleration and other features. Then go for OpenGl, or Allegro 5, but if you are looking for a simple manual which will make you to start to write 2D games in days, even if you had 0 experience, and regardless that you want a simple pac-man clone or a complex city building sim, this is your book!

If you're looking at this book because of COMP369 course at Athabasca - let me start by saying, don't take that course!At best, it will teach you some very basic C programming (that's right, not even C++). I'm quite literally sitting here doing one of the COMP369 assignments and thinking to myself, how much better everything could be done, if only I wasn't locked into using the archaic Allegro library.I'm sure the book was fine 10 years ago, back when Unreal and Unity were not a popular choice for hobby and start-up development.