Book Description

If youre interested in jumping into the exciting world of game programming, then youve found the perfect book! "Game Programming for Teens" doesnt expect you to have any experience with programming. Youll learn everything you need to know along the way. Youll use Blitz Basic, an easy-to-learn programming language that the author will teach you. As you work your way through the book, youll learn everything you need to know to create a complete game. Graphics, animation, sound and music, and artificial intelligence are all covered. By the end of the book, you will have created your very first computer game! Game programming doesnt have to be difficult. With a copy of this book and your own curiosity, youre off to the perfect start. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

This is a really amazing book!
If you are interested at all about game programming, this book is perfect. I started learning Java and spent several weeks trying to see where the gaming aspect of it was, but then i wandered down to Boarders and saw this book. I thought basic wouldn't be fast enough to run any games at all, but it's actually a great language for beginners. The author, Maneesh Sethi, is also a teenager that has already mastered programming languages and seems like an absolute genius! BUY THIS BOOK!

Kudos from another author
In my opinion, there are three groups of enthusiasts in the "gamer" market: Game players who want to make their own games for fun; Programmers who take up game dev as a hobby or a diversion; and those aspiring to become professional game developers. I believe this book excels at catering to the first group, is intriguing to the second, and at least mildly interesting for the third. Reviewers in all three groups will therefore vary in their opinion of this book.

I co-authored "Beginner's Guide to DarkBasic...". In early 2002, we considered using BlitzBasic along with DarkBasic, but decided to focus on DarkBasic only, and tailored our book for the "extreme beginner," where it would be useful as a textbook in a "first programming course." I am glad because now there is this excellent BlitzBasic book too, and it nails the subject!

Blitz and DBPro seem to be strong competitors. What you should realize when considering this book is, do you have a compiler? Visual C++ and Visual Basic and other compilers are expensive! But tools like BlitzBasic give you a DirectX game engine AND a compiler in one package. While this could easily cost hundreds of dollars for something like Visual C++ and Torque, you get it all in one package, with an easy-to-use script language. With this book, you get a trial version of the compiler, so you won't need any additional software to get started.

A final point. Its the CONCEPTS that are important, not the language. Anyone who whines about a book not using C or C++ is immature and a novice in the extreme. Because any competent programmer can glean new knowledge from a book of any language and apply it to his/her own. Shoot, I have used Petzold as a reference when writing about Visual Basic.

Maneesh should be congratulated for having written a very accessible book for new programmers and anyone who wants to write their own games without a huge investment of time.

great book
I am a teenager and I have tried to read another book but didn't understand it. I got this book a couple of weeks ago and after reading the first three chapters I made a text based game of pong. Now since I have read the whole thing I have started making a whole game with graphics and everythin I had learned. If this book can teach me and keep my attention it can teach anyone who wants to know how
to make games and is looking for a book to start with I highly recommend this Book

Great for parents as well as teens
I am a software engineer and a parent of an 11-year-old, and I have been looking for a way to teach my son computer programming in a way that would be fun for him. I read this book cover-to-cover, and it's almost perfect for this purpose. I have no doubt that the book would be excellent for a self-starting teen to read on his or her own. But as a parent, this book is invaluable for the parent seeking short, fun, educational programming activities that will be a lot of fun for the learner (and the parent as well). Every kid loves games, and this book does a great job.

I would also recommend this book to an adult who wants to learn the basics of game programming. It's a pretty fast read, very easy to follow. I personally learned a lot from this book. I've been programming computers for 30 years, but I've never written a graphics-based game before, and this book efficiently and easily goes through all the techniques for creating good games very quickly. I think it would also be fairly easily followed by a teen or adult who has never programmed before.

The book uses Blitz Basic, which is optimized for writing computer games and seems to be much easier to use than Visual Basic (the computer language I first tried when teaching my child). A trial version of Blitz Basic is on the CD-ROM included with the book, and the full version (called BlitzPlus) can be purchased online if desired (but is not required). The CD-ROM also includes excellent example artwork, animations, and sounds for the games described in the book, which is a great way to get a teen or pre-teen into programming without getting bogged down with creating art and sounds from the start.

By the way, this book covers creating 2D games (like Pong, Space Invaders, that sort of thing). 3D games are (I am told) much more challenging, and are covered in other books. (Blitz Basic is for 2D games; for 3D games, there is a related programming language called Blitz3D.)

I have one important complaint about this book, which is why I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 stars. There are many errors in this book. It could have used more careful technical editing. For example, in the section on arrays, the author carefully explains how the indexes for a 30-element array range from 0 to 29, and cautions the reader not to try accessing element 30 (which is one past the end of the array), and then proceeds to give a sample program that makes exactly this mistake. There are several errors of this magnitude in the book, and at least a minor mistake every 3 or 4 pages. It's unfortunate, because these mistakes can be very confusing to a beginning programmer.

But having said that, I still very much recommend this book. It's a good one. Congratulations to the teenage author who wrote it, excellent job!

Excellent
I find some of the reviews quite interesting, since they judge the book based on their opinion of BlitzBasic. Firstly, let me assure you that I have learned a "real" language - I've been a professional software developer for 12 years (C/C++/Delphi/C#).

As far as the book goes it is very well written and is aimed at the beginner programmer using BlitzBasic (not Blitz3D but you can still use it). That's it, that's all there is to the book. I still found it useful, however, in quickly picking up BlitzBasic (mostly the language) which allowed me to write 2D games after a day (okay, I've been doing that for years with DX/OpenGL but I'm still impressed that I can write Pong in less than 10 minutes).

Why would I use Blitz instead of DirectX/Direct3D/OpenGL? Actually, I use DirectX - I mainly use Blitz for prototyping but I'm finding that for simple to fairly sophisticated things it's all that is needed. For hobbiests and shareware/single member teams Blitz is an ideal way to actually finish something.

So, before you knock the book or Blitz - read the book from cover to cover and learn Blitz inside and out, you may be surprised at how much you can do with it. Oh, and get a good IDE - I personally like Protean. ... Read more

Book Description

As part of the CyberRookies‘ series this book is written for aspiring programmers, and teaches basic programming skills that can be easily applied to any language including the key concepts of Loops, Strings, Array, Pointers, and more. Written by a high school programming teacher, Learning Computer Programming emphasizes the most relevant topics for beginners and pinpoints the essentials of programming success. There are so many programming languages in use today that it’s difficult to decide which one to learn, especially for beginning programmers. With this in mind, Learning Computer Programming: It’s Not About Languages focuses on "programming" skills instead of specific languages. Languages will always change so to become an effective programmer, it’s important to understand the fundamentals before tackling a specific language. The book is language independent and uses examples from a variety of languages including the most popular C++, JAVA, and HTML, which each have a chapter devoted to them. Using helpful hints, activities, and watchouts, the book gently guides the student through the maze of programming techniques, concepts, and pitfalls.

KEY FEATURES

- Primarily language independent except for the last three chapters, which are devoted to languages of most interest to the reader: C++, JAVA, and HTML
- Introduces key programming concepts while avoiding denser topics of language syntax
- Discusses concepts such as Loops, Strings, Arrays, Pointers, Boolean Types, and more
- Taught by a programming teacher who knows the topics that are relevant for beginners ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Read this one first!
After reading programming for dummies and learning an arcane language I was left wishing for a better book to expose me to the basics of programming. The subtitle of this book is "Its not about languages" and that is the approach of this book. Farrell focuses on the logic of programming and mentions the actual syntax in passing. This makes this book valuable and a helpful tool for all programmers no matter what their language destination is. I wish that I had read this book first!

Good overview for beginners
I bought this book as a refresher, since I had taken a programming class several years ago and wanted to re-learn the basic concepts. This book is good for doing just that. It will help a beginner get familiar with the concepts, and it goes easy on the more complex stuff. Anyone who is interested in programing but gets scared off by books that are hard to read should read this book first. It will lay a good foundation and make other books easier to read.

PROS: easy to read, use simple language.
CONS: author sometimes tries too hard to simplify explanations, some typos (a couple that will stop the code from compiling)

Overall, a good book. The cons, even the typos, are not that bad, you just need to be paying attention when you read. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Flawed
This book poorly explains the concepts needed to understand C++. It is advertised as an introductory book, however, this book will only be useful with one or more semesters of exerpience with C or C++. The books only saving grace is that if you are studying for the AP, this book uses the STL dirived AP classes that you will need to be familar with. If you arn't taking the comp sci AP there is no reason to even consider using this book.

Thorough and Helpful
Far better than any comparable text, this volume presents the concepts of computer science with clarity and much detail. Neither bewildering the novice nor boring the expert, C++ For You++ covers all aspects of the AP C++ Exam. Two notable feature of this book are the clarity of the examples used to illustrate the concepts and the absence of numerous typos found in many of its competitors. The authors quickly respond to any questions you might have and maintain a nice web site with updates. I personally used this book to prepare for the AP Exam my senior year in high school, and found it instrumental to understanding the language. My teacher had selected a different book, but it was so horrible in comparison that several of my friends and I used copies of this book instead and saved ourselves a lot of trouble.

A Baby is just an Abortion Waiting to Happen
Just like this book is a complete waste of time to those who can't read a C++ book. My high school computer science class seemed able to comprehend this book and half of them (myself included) got a 5 on the AB Advanced Placement Computer Science Exam. Those who can't do a binary to hex conversion shouldn't be allowed to program a computer and should stick to their orange iMacs and pretty screen savers. Go learn some ZBASIC and get a coat hanger. SUCKERS!

Doesn't cover meterial properly
I recently purchased this book for a class at school and when i started to read it the first thing it does is launch you into hexidecimal to binary conversions. Then in chapter 2 the first example they give you is a program that takes up THREE pages at a small font. The program is a dictionary that reads from a file on the hardisk (a relitevely hard task in any langauge). And then makes what you type in translate to italian. They don't even consider that someone new to the langauge has no idea what COUT or CIN means.

Confusing explanations, not enough examples
I find the book does not explain the concepts in a straightforward manner. Further, it lacks enough examples to show how the concepts work. Without these, it is very difficult for me to learn. I plan to buy another text to teach myself as this book is totally inadequate.
I use the AP version of this textbook in AP Computer Science. The only way this version is different from the standard is that it includes explanations for a special set of AP classes. ... Read more

Book Description

Get ready to create your first complete 2D-based role-playing game using Visual Basic 6.0. If you have experience using Visual Basic, you already have the essential skills that you need. You will learn, step by step, how to construct each part of an RPG game using DirectX components such as Direct3D. As you work your way through the book, you will write short programs that demonstrate the major topics in each chapter. Dive into the exciting world of game programming, learn how to write your own code, and take complete creative control over how your game operates. Let your imagination loose as you create amazing new adventures! ... Read more

Book Description

Want to create your own web site? Not sure where to begin? Afraid it might be expensive? Dave's book shows how to get free web design software, free internet access, free web server space, and a free web-based e-mail address. Dave takes you step-by-step through the web site creation process. Begin with a simple page. Add links, color, images, a background, sound, animation, and a message banner. Create a professional layout using tables. Convert your simple page to a multi-page web site. Add an image map, a visitor counter, a guest book, and a password-protected area. Convert to a free easy-to-remember web site address. Then register your web site with the key search engines. Dave shares his personal tips and tricks for avoiding pitfalls. Dave's Quick 'n' Easy Web Pages is used by North American educators from fifth grade through college. Great for small business owners too. Practical. Simple. "Quick 'n' Easy." ... Read more

Reviews (6)

HTML Simplified
When I agreed(okay, well, volunteered)to recreate a section of my employer's website I was, perhaps, a bit too confident in my skills. I am by no means computer illiterate, but I had very little experience with HTML and all else that is needed to design a webpage.

I was to be working with a well known web development program and tried as best I could to learn through the tutorials and such. Ha. Let's just say that didn't work out so well. And this program is suppose to make things easy. One of those, "even idiots can use this because this and that are already done for you" type things. But I guess I like doing things the hard way.

And that's where *Dave's Quick 'n' Easy Web Pages* came in. It details in very simple terms HTML coding, showing you what the page would look like in code and also what it would look like in a browser. Things like hyperlinks and how to insert become far less daunting with the instructions in this book.

I don't think that it matters that it was written by a very young man or that the publisher has seen fit to classify it as a young adult text. I found it infinitely more useful and usable than a good deal of the other books I picked up for help.

Wrong approach. Focuses solely on HTML.
I got this book, and was disappointed. It starts out teaching HTML, the language web pages are used for. HTML programming is the wrong way to start learning web page design. Tools like FrontPage and even MS Word will do ALL the HTML programming for you. After starting to read this book with my 8 year old daughter, we went down to the computer, started Microsoft Word, and made a couple web pages. That was a visual way to program, and it lets the tools handle the details. This book is the wrong way to learn web page development and design.

A simple, highly practical guide for web designers
Dave's Quick 'n' Easy Web Pages: An Introductory Guide To Creating Web Sites is a simple, highly practical guide for web designers ranging from beginning to intermediate experience and skill. Individual chapters address hyperlinks, animated images, sound, tables, additional features like counters and message boards, and much more in this superb, "user friendly", compact primer that can teach anyone to get a basic web page up and running in almost no time at all!

Dave's Quick 'n' Easy Web Pages
Although this is listed as a "kid's" book, it is a clear step by step procedural manual for anyone new to HTML and wanting to set up their own website. Dave takes us from a simple text-filled page through adding numbered lists, bulleted lists, colors for text and background, adding tables, adding images, creating hyperlinks with text or images, and creating an image map (an image that has "hot spots" to be clicked as links). He also has listed many websites for downloading free programs, clip art, backgrounds, etc. He shows how to set up, save, and then upload website pages onto the Internet. The procedures are easy to follow if the reader carefully recreates what Dave has written.

Definitely a good book for anyone new to creating personal webpages.

Quick is the Operative Word
Up until recently, web pages held a certain mystique for me. Not any more. One of the reasons for that is this little 116 page book.

Rather than load you up with a bunch of theory and technical jargon, Dave Lindsay gives you just what you need to get started. By the end of the first chapter (which is only nine pages), he has you creating your own basic web page. This all with the most basic of word processors (like Simpletext in MAC or Notepad for your PC)!

With information conveniently contained in the back of the book, he even shows you how to obtain software to upload this basic web page, a server to host your site, and how to upload your page -- all for free.

From there, the author guides you through more advanced techniques like adding sound, message banners and even animated images. This is really a lot more than I expected from a "basic" book, especially one that is just over 100 pages.

For web design "newbies" that just want to get their feet wet, this is a great place to start. It's all written in plain English with the bare minimum of technical codes. As you go through the book and each new technique, they are illustrated to demonstrate how it changes your site.

DAVE'S QUICK 'N' EASY is great for the person intimidated by technology or someone that just wants to dive right in, but doesn't know a lot about HTML (the language used to build web pages). For the complete novice or beginner, this book is like running a 100 meter dash. It gets you designing a web page in no time flat. ... Read more

Book Description

Java Methods introduces the concepts, case studies, and examples relevant to object-oriented programming of applets and applications with graphical user interfaces in Java.The Java 2 platform with swing is used in all examples.This book has been used for introductory computer programming courses and has helped many readers learn Java and OOP concepts on their own. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

My high school AP students really did not like this book.
I am a math teacher who can program (not a programmer) and clearly the Litvins are experts. However, I have some terrific AP students (5's on the AP tests, 91% pass rate for over 6 years) and my kids really do not like the Litvin books, find them terribly confusing. We are trying out the Lewis Loftus book and liking it.

A Method for class Class extends Learning
Wow! What a great book for learning Java! Whether you are a beginner to computer programming, or migrating from another language, this book has so much for everybody. Every chapter ends with a summary and a variety of exercises to test yourself (or your students) on the topics presented. In addition, most chapters have at least one Lab and/or Case Study to extend your understanding and your programming skills. The book however is just the beginning. There are numerous Internet references for support, edification and enrichment as well as a terrific companion web site devoted to enhancing the book. The web site contains sample programs from the book, "student" activities, "teacher" solutions, information on Java compilers and IDE's, appendices, I/O classes, etc. As a high school APCS teacher I believe that this book will be an excellent choice for any high school level programming course. The Litvins gently take the new programmer by the hand and first walk them through samples of code just glancing at the details and eventually exposing the full breadth and power of Java. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Excellent Accompaniment To C++ For You++
While every instructional programming book can at times seem confusing, the C++ For You++ workbook does an excellent job providing challenging and instructive questions to help students familiarize themselves with C++. Constantly under improvement, Maria and Gary Litvin put in a great deal of effort to improve their books. This is a must have instructional aid for anyone using C++ For You++. ... Read more

Book Description

In three months in the fall of 1989, Berners-Lee used the Internet, a discarded defensive weapon of the United States government and its system of sending information over telephone lines, and invented the World Wide Web. Today the World Wide Web exists in every country, reaching tens of millions of homes around the world. People have become friends with other people they will never visit because of it. People conduct business and do shopping without ever leaving their homes. Someday soon elections might be held on it. Every year, it seems, humans find new and better ways to communicate through it.

Berners-Lee remains humble today about his achievement, which he gave away to the world.

"I pieced it together as I pursued my regular work and personal life," he explains in his book Weaving the Web. "But many other people, most of them unknown, contributed essential ingredients, in much the same almost random fashion. A group of individuals holding a common dream and working together at a distance brought about a great change." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Historical Inconsistency in the Synopsis
I take exception whenever there are books written for our children that are factually inaccurate. Reading only the synopsis of the book, I am taken aback, and am curious about the accuracy of the remainder of the work.

"In three months in the fall of 1989, Berners-Lee used the Internet, a discarded defensive weapon of the United States government and its system of sending information over telephone lines, and invented the World Wide Web."

During the fall of 1989, the Internet was a burgeoning research network funded joinly by the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation, as an offshoot of the DoD's ARPANET project. At that time, the NSF had funded the upgrades to dedicated links for 13 regional research and educational networks in the US. It was hardly a "a discarded defensive weapon of the United States government".

Authors need to verify sources and correct material, especially before supplying it to our children. ... Read more

Book Description

Microsoft( Visual Basic( FUNdamentals is a fun, new approach to teaching one of the most widely used programming languages in the world.This book, designed for use in a beginning semester course at the high school level, teaches Visual Basic programming using a problem-solving approach.In each chapter, major programming concepts such as repetition, decision structures, and sequential processing are taught with real world examples. There is a strong emphasis on comments and good programming styleþ throughout the book.The chapter projects, which are a combination of business-related projects (such as checkbook record storage) and entertainment projects (such as tic tac toe), all require knowledge, planning, and testing, and will challenge students' critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.The supplementary Teacher's Manual includes student objectives, teaching suggestions, answers to review questions, as well as teaching suggestions and evaluation strategies for exercises and projects.A Solutions Disk included in the Teacher's Manual provides solutions to all chapter exercises and projects.A test bank is also included on the Solutions Disk. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

If you're looking to build youre own website....
This book is informative for mostly kids if you want to build your own website. IT's not the best on the planet, so that's why it gets 4 out of 5 stars. You can post logos, write articles, Micromedia flash plays, and even advertisement if you want it. You could really do something off of this book. And I really suggest the [$$$] offer for this book and 101 things to do with your computer.

a so-so book
This book was okay but not the best it helped but you would need other resouses to help you.If this were the only thing you used to make your web site you would be lost,but for a person who kinda knows what there doing this is a good book. ... Read more