I''d recomend the "C++ Black Book". It''s not so good for just learning how to program, but it is awsome for looking stuff up and will answer "how the hell do I (blank)" questions without having to sift through page after page of theoretical garbage. (nah, I love my college textbooks. really.) Just good, straight forward answers that are easy to look up. Like a giant programming FAQ.
Why yes, I will take the "FUSE".
Game Programming "All in one" or "Dummies"?
I have GPAIO and I like it.
Only problem is it doesn''t seem to fully cover either of the two subjects. I can''t prove this seeing as I''m only in Chapter 6 but I don''t think it touches OOP very much or anything really advanced. Pretty much everything it teaches if just what you need to complete your own Breakout clone.
I could be jumping to conclusions so you can disregard that but I really do like it. I only wish it covered Networking. Someone needs to make a book on various Networking APIs and protocols for games.
Anyway, I like it. It comes with some good demos including Paint Shop Pro, Truespace 5, and CoolEDit I think or some kinda of audio editor. It also comes with three classic games and all the source code for the book. As a plus there is the DX8 SDK and all of this on one CD.
NOTE: This post is from an beginning programmer who has not completed the book. Please either disregard or take into questionable consideration before coming to a conclusion.
Only problem is it doesn''t seem to fully cover either of the two subjects. I can''t prove this seeing as I''m only in Chapter 6 but I don''t think it touches OOP very much or anything really advanced. Pretty much everything it teaches if just what you need to complete your own Breakout clone.
I could be jumping to conclusions so you can disregard that but I really do like it. I only wish it covered Networking. Someone needs to make a book on various Networking APIs and protocols for games.
Anyway, I like it. It comes with some good demos including Paint Shop Pro, Truespace 5, and CoolEDit I think or some kinda of audio editor. It also comes with three classic games and all the source code for the book. As a plus there is the DX8 SDK and all of this on one CD.
NOTE: This post is from an beginning programmer who has not completed the book. Please either disregard or take into questionable consideration before coming to a conclusion.
Seriously people,
Please take my word as an experienced and educated programmer that both the Lamothe book, the dummies book and the all in one book are at lot worse than some of the good books out there. Don''t accept subpar books just because that is only those your bookstore have on their shelf. You are much better of buying one or more of the books on either my Amazon list (above) or the one provided by ThomasSauder (above). Those books are extremely well written. If you don''t try those books you won''t know what you are missing out on.
And let me repeat the advice from my Amazon list concerning spotting good books:
--
Finally, here is some tips for finding good computer books:
1. If the book contains many long code listing is usually not good.
2. If the book contains a CD-ROM it is usually not good. It is not that it is bad that the book comes with a CD-ROM - it is just that many books with a CD-ROM for some reason is not very good.
3. Look at the nameof the publisher; this can tell you a lot about the quality of the book.
Publishers that make good computer books: IEEE, ACM, Springer-Verlag, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Morgan Kaufmann, MIT Press, Academic Press.
Average publishers (some good some bad books): Microsoft Press, O''Reilly, Premier Pr., Charles River Media, Wordware.
Bad Publishers: SAMS, M&T, Sybex, AP Professional, IDG.
--
Jacob Marner, M.Sc.
Console Programmer, Deadline Games
Please take my word as an experienced and educated programmer that both the Lamothe book, the dummies book and the all in one book are at lot worse than some of the good books out there. Don''t accept subpar books just because that is only those your bookstore have on their shelf. You are much better of buying one or more of the books on either my Amazon list (above) or the one provided by ThomasSauder (above). Those books are extremely well written. If you don''t try those books you won''t know what you are missing out on.
And let me repeat the advice from my Amazon list concerning spotting good books:
--
Finally, here is some tips for finding good computer books:
1. If the book contains many long code listing is usually not good.
2. If the book contains a CD-ROM it is usually not good. It is not that it is bad that the book comes with a CD-ROM - it is just that many books with a CD-ROM for some reason is not very good.
3. Look at the nameof the publisher; this can tell you a lot about the quality of the book.
Publishers that make good computer books: IEEE, ACM, Springer-Verlag, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Morgan Kaufmann, MIT Press, Academic Press.
Average publishers (some good some bad books): Microsoft Press, O''Reilly, Premier Pr., Charles River Media, Wordware.
Bad Publishers: SAMS, M&T, Sybex, AP Professional, IDG.
--
Jacob Marner, M.Sc.
Console Programmer, Deadline Games
felonius, thanks for that list. I''ve been looking for a good Windows programming book for ages. 
And in response to the Tricks of the.. and Dummies book, I found them not to be so useful, it made an interesting read though.
And in response to the Tricks of the.. and Dummies book, I found them not to be so useful, it made an interesting read though.
I have game programming all in one. It was alright right up until directx then it jumped into some complicated shit. Then I went and looked at the sdk. Ha it comes with a tutorial. It helped me a lot more than the book.
Cory Fisher
Cory Fisher
I chime in to say that I agree with felonius, steer clear from publishers with large ''for beginners'' series. Go for editors that cater to professional programmer. (you want to be a programmer, right ?)
They won''t insult your intelligence by dedicating a whole chapter to if statements (if you don''t get it after a page, you have no business being a programmer), and are more likely to be correct (given their target audience, they''d go out of business if they weren''t).
Keep in mind that the damage done to your programming skills by one single seemingly clear, yet completely wrong book (e.g. anything by Schildt) is hard to recover from.
Additional booklists - check the ACCU link in my signature.
Documents [ GDNet | MSDN | STL | OpenGL | Formats | RTFM | Asking Smart Questions ]
C++ Stuff [ MinGW | Loki | SDL | Boost. | STLport | FLTK | ACCU Recommended Books ]
They won''t insult your intelligence by dedicating a whole chapter to if statements (if you don''t get it after a page, you have no business being a programmer), and are more likely to be correct (given their target audience, they''d go out of business if they weren''t).
Keep in mind that the damage done to your programming skills by one single seemingly clear, yet completely wrong book (e.g. anything by Schildt) is hard to recover from.
Additional booklists - check the ACCU link in my signature.
Documents [ GDNet | MSDN | STL | OpenGL | Formats | RTFM | Asking Smart Questions ]
C++ Stuff [ MinGW | Loki | SDL | Boost. | STLport | FLTK | ACCU Recommended Books ]
I agree.. Most of the newbie books are quite horrible, unfortunately 
But, I''m finding Game Programming All in One to be pretty good, I''ve skimmed through Programming Role Playing games with Direct X and it also looks promising. Lamothes books are horrible. He is a good writer, but when it comes to programming.. Eeeek!
I bought a book by shildt... Too bad you can''t return books to Amazon.ca
To the original Poster, GET GAME PROGRAMMING ALL IN ONE AFTER, and only AFTER, you read atleast 1 C++ book. It will get your noggin going and you''ll understand more concepts
(I find it really hard to be able to read books, because I do get a salary... I''m an old man compared to you young gents)
Well, happy hunting
Thomas Sauder
But, I''m finding Game Programming All in One to be pretty good, I''ve skimmed through Programming Role Playing games with Direct X and it also looks promising. Lamothes books are horrible. He is a good writer, but when it comes to programming.. Eeeek!
I bought a book by shildt... Too bad you can''t return books to Amazon.ca
To the original Poster, GET GAME PROGRAMMING ALL IN ONE AFTER, and only AFTER, you read atleast 1 C++ book. It will get your noggin going and you''ll understand more concepts
(I find it really hard to be able to read books, because I do get a salary... I''m an old man compared to you young gents)
Well, happy hunting
Thomas Sauder
I own many of the prima tech books and i haven´t seen yet any book that gets to the quality of Lamothe´s TOTWGPG
For me, it was hard to understand TOTWPG, but if you have some knowledge in the win32 api, it should go over fine.
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