Customer comments on this selection.
 Teaching "Real" Game Programming
This is a excellent book on game programming. Harbour does a good job staying on topic. He doesn't spend any time trying to teach you C programming or anything like that. Harbour takes a measured approach and tries to teach you the Allegro API which is easier to use over straight Direct X.
Very impressed
I tend to shy away from game programming books with the phrase "All in One." And not without good reason. Most of them are utter garbage. They simply try to do too much. Take the 1st edition of GPAIO for example--it was just awful. It had diagrams on the wrong page, tons of errors, etc. And it wastes way too much time going through the technical stuff. Very little on game programming.
Not so with this book.
While there is some technical stuff, the author utilizes it almost instantaneously to form a simple tank game along the way. Towards the end of the book, he covers horizontal scrolling (i.e., Super Mario Bros.) and vertical scrolling (i.e., 1942). While neither example is a complete game, both really explain the mechanics well enough that making a game of either type should be fairly easy.
I was a bit reluctant to buy the book because it uses Allegro, rather than the more mainstream options of DirectX and OpenGL. But I really think Allegro was a great choice. It allows him to focus on the meaty stuff, you know, actual game programming stuff. I have way too many books that waste upwards of 150 pages on setting up a window with DirectX.
My only criticism is that the book is more for hobbyists than professionals, but then again I have never seen nor heard of any such book. Anyone who wants to program games, albeit simple games should definitely check this book out.
As for the reviewer who gave GPAIO one star, I'm really doubtful that s/he is serious. But if so, my advice to you is this: If you can't get Allegro up and running, then you shouldn't be programming games. It's that simple. Really. It's not any harder or easier to set up than DX, OpenGL or even SDL.
 Good Idea, dubious Implementation
This book is intended for the ABSOLUTE BEGINNER. It assumes the reader has a very basic knowledge of C, and understands the basics of pointers, arrays and structs. No experience with other multimedia library/GUI toolkit/etc required, although it helps.
From that point on, it will get you up and running really fast; in quite a few chapters this book will cover simple 2D game programming, teaching all the basics neededed for programming more complex games. Trough the use of Allegro library, the topics of handling input (keyboard, mice, joystick) and output (sound, graphics, sprites) are covered effectively.
The later chapters, however, did not appeal to me at all; they deal with horizontal scrolling (classic mario-like games) and vertical scrolling (1942-like shoot'em up's), AI, multithreading... which is very cool stuff, but I don't think the approach chosen is very effective.
It is read REALLY fast however, with very big fonts, and clear and neat writing. It dissapointed me a bit because although it seemed very nicely edited, one of the examples was misplaced.
If you plan to work under linux, the code will work (most of the time), but compiling can become somewhat cumbersome. Under windows, it works fine.
To wrap up, I quite liked what the author says about gaming and game design in general, and teaches very effectively what he intends, having the "All In One" covered; but examples are overall too simplistic or superficial.
I'm rating four out of five because I expect a book on the subject to be a little more high-end; however, if you are new to programming in general, this book will prove quite helpful. And, Allegro can take you really far (it even has the bonus of being open source!).
P.S.: as a side note, reading other reviews, the second edition looks better than third.
Not too many flaws.
I had to figure out by my self how to compile the codes under linux. The book doesn't go over compiling under Linux, other than using kdevelop.
1 star: Readability. It was easy to read. While I found some typos, it wasn't such a big deal.
2 star: There aren't many books out there on Allegro Library, and that deserves some recognition.
2 star: I own another book written by Jonathan S. Harbor, which was also a good read. Beginning JAVA ... I forget the title but it was a JAVA book. Anyways, the 2 stars are for the author, and his experience in game programming.
It's a nice book to have.
 big book, bigger problem
I will never know if this book is worth squat.
You see, it relies on the open-source Allegro game programming library.
The problem is, it's nearly impossible to get it installed and working!
The catch-22 is, I can't return the book because I opened the seal on the packaged CD that supposedly includes all the stuff you need for the book.
the book looks promising, but for now it's a big paper-weight made of paper.
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