Shippou

I follow sports so closely, that I didn't know there was a lockout until a couple weeks ago.

When will they bring back "Battle Bots" back? There was a sport !

For me - some games are really "interesting" for a while, and than become very boring.

Did any one ever read the different stories about Second Life "addicts" that completely shut down their real lives ... just to play ?

I'm running an Intel 512 ( Dell N5010 ) ... displays bluray movies in HD .... and can handle games like Skyrim just fine ... you can not judge the new generation of laptop cards, based off of the old gen performance.

1.8 Gh .... most modern programs WILL NOT run that good on that, however for a programming computer, it'll work just fine.

I personally do not like Gateways, they end up having quite a few hardware problems right after the warranty expires... maybe you'll have better luck.

Edit: Walmart has similar laptops for $250 +- USD http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=laptop&_refineresult=true&search_constraint=0&ic=16_0&search_sort=4&cat_id=3944_3951

Java

1 What programs do i need for programming, modeling, art, music, etc.?
2 What skills do i need?
3 If someone could give me basic method setups i'd be grateful.
4 How do i compile .java files?
5 Why is it that when i try to compile the files, i click execute and the game doesn't even start?

C++

6 What's an easy way to learn this language?
7 What programs do i need for programming, modeling, art, music, etc.?

8 How do i get my games onto the Android App store (aka Google Play?)

There are plenty of good free options out there for what you desire - however it takes time to learn. There are no "fly by night" options that will make you an overnight game dev genius .... ((I apologize for the way my post looks - this forum is still mostly broken))

* 1: The Java JDK for starters http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Next you need a good IDE such as Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org
Modeling and animations can be done in blender 3D http://www.blender.org/
Art can be done in Gimp http://www.gimp.org
Music can be done in Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net
* 2: You need a lot of patients and the willingness to learn. Game dev work can take years for larger projects.
* 3: I do not know what you are referring to. If you need code examples Google is your friend https://www.google.com/
* 4: Once you have the JDK installed you can do it the old fashion way http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~newhall/unixhelp/debuggingtips_Java.html
OR you can auto compile in the Eclipse IDE
* 5: You need to install the Java Jdk
Every executable java file must have a main class, declared as such

public class Some_Class{
  public static void main(String[] args){
    # Do stuff
}}

All executable .jar files must be compiled as executable jars
* 6: There is no easy way to learn C++, however reading a good tutorial and practicing helps a lot http://greenteapress.com/thinkcpp/index.html
* 7:Qt Creator is a popular IDE for C++ http://qt-project.org/wiki/Category:Tools::QtCreator
As far as modeling, art, music, e.t.c. see #1
* 8: http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/publish/preparing.html