heh, i can bet most of the people that come here have a very similar story to that. there are great resources here on this site, including a beginners section.

other gamedev sites you might want to try:
www.flipcode.com -- a little more advanced, but still good
all the gamedev.net hosted sites
the gdse -- game developer''s search engine
and of course the irc channel, #gamedev on irc.afternet.org

i do emphasize what others have been saying about learning basic languages, stay away from them. c/c++ is the mainstream standard right now. in my opinion once you understand c/c++, all other languages will come relativly easy (except for assembly )

just remember, persistance is the key

By the way i just got Accelerated C++ it looks like a great book. I dont think it was a bad idea that i learned VB.NET. VB was very simple. I learned very complex OOP programming techniques that im porting to C++. C++ is not hard once you already know how to program and already know OOP. All i need to know is the basic C++ synthax(and the STL). VB.NET was great i learned all about COM, Database programming, ASP.NET, ADO, Web programming, and even basic game programming with the windows API. I also learned some really usefull programming practices. i learned to use classes and stuctures to organize my code. All of the books i read where awesome. I created reusable objects too. C++ is a piece of cake now. VB.NET is a very powerful and efficient language and becouse its a member of Visual Studio.NET it comes with the same optimizer as Visual C++. So i could create really fast and small code. By the way i also learned C# athough i think its quite useless.

Well I just downloaded Dev-C++ and the first 4 tutorials for C++ from gametutorials.com. Going over the basics of variables and loops, i see some stuff that is exactly or almost the same as VB6. I also like how you dont have to Decalare Variables. I hope to get some books maybe later today or in a week or so. One of the tutorails made a Counter in that come out in a dos type window. I have been having fun seeing how long it takes my comp to count . Well gotta get back to the tutorials.

well what i did is i did the tutorials at cprogramming.com(really good) and the ones at About.com. Also its a good idea to read C++ in 21 days(just google it and you can read it for free on the internet) now im reading Accelerated C++ its a really awesome book but not for absolute begginers. The book puts all the C++ consepts into practice and teaches you how to use the STL. I really advice you to read it. its quite good.

As long as you find a book or resource you like, you are in good hands. Find the computer section at your local bookstore and look for a beginning C++ book. Flip through the first chapter or so and see if you like the author''s style. For under $100, you can get all you need to program in C++. A lot of people insist on Visual BASIC.NET instead, but C++ is the most popular language right now. And lots of programmers tell me VB.NET programmers make a little less then C++ programmers.

Scott Simontis
If it wasn''t for C, we''d be using BASI, PASAL and OBOL