The sometimes very complex topics are attenuated with the addition of some gaming history and fun personal anecdotes, making these topics more enjoyable and digestible for the reader. The author clearly shows his passion for game development and gaming in general and the desire to share his knowledge to the readers.

2d & 3D Bitmap handling, sprites, vertical scrolling, sound effects, background music, basic AI (Artificial Intelligence), control input, even multiplayer network programming using DirectPlay are covered with detail. My primary interest was to create 2d games using sprites, but soon I realized reading further along the wealth of new and interesting concepts I didn't have an idea existed in the first place.

Deep down in more advanced chapters it is apparent that in practice game development is a very complex process. But then again the author effectively provides a means of removing the complexities of DirectX and the Windows Application Programming Interface (API) by devoting an entire chapter for building a solid game library, with a set of classes that make it much easier to code your software.

With the addition of several games developed by the author throughout the book, all the concepts are nicely put into practice. Game projects include Block Attack (a classic "Breakout" arcade game), War birds 1944 (a scrolling game), Stellar War (a multiplayer game), and pong 3d (a 3d classic).

The book is not intended for inexperienced Visual Basic programmers and its scope is not to teach you the language for gaming purposes. It assumes knowledge of the interface and language structure as well as VB class instancing, functions, procedure and variable scoping, which are used extensively throughout the book; object oriented programming style is the focus in every chapter.

Minimum requirements for coding and running the programs in this book:
Visual Basic 5.0
DirectX 8
Direct X 8.0 SDK (available on the bundled CD)
Video accelerator 32MB

It is highly recommend having the following to obtain a better overall benefit from this book and the sample code:
Visual Studio or Visual Basic 6 (any edition), SP5
MSDN Library (highly recommended although not strictly necessary)
PC with 512MB and a 32MB video accelerator or better

Most of the sample code is included in the book for the benefit of readers who prefer learning by typing. Those who are in a hurry have a convenient bundled CD. In addition to all the code from the book, the CD includes trial versions of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 7 and Syntrillium Cool Edit 2000 as well as demos of Mechwarrior 4, Crimson Skies and Motown/Motocross Madness 11

In summary, a very effective, well written, entertaining textbook and a valuable tool for future game developers and enthusiasts.

5 stars