The following books and links are references that I've used to help in the creation of much of my work.
After I bought a computer for myself, I wanted some way to learn C. The language reference manuals at the community college was no good for a beginner so I decided to buy this book. I think the main reason for choosing this book was that it came with Turbo C++ Lite compiler so I could try out the examples without having to purchase Turbo C++. I eventually did buy a copy of Turbo C++ 3.0 for DOS and is what I use to write my DOS Game Library files today.
In the beginning, I used Microsoft Basic on a TRS-80 Color Computer 2. Later, I learned 6809 Assembly language programming to write some extremely fast and tight code for the CoCo. Later, I moved on to using PC's. Since I new only BASIC and Assembler from the CoCo, I naturally took to QBasic for MS-DOS. Finding it limiting, I knew that I needed to learn something else. C was the most popular, I thought, and since our campus used Turbo C, I decided to learn that. This book was helpful for people, like me, that knew a lot of QBasic and very little C. It's out of print now, but you may still be able to find a copy somewhere.
After a while trying to trek out on my own writing games for the PC, I realized that I needed some help. When I saw that this book was available as a part of an introductory package to join the Small Computer Book Club, I bought it. Overall, this book is mainly a manual to using the FastGraph library written by Ted and Diana Gruber. However, at the request of one of the people that has looked at my pages, I decided to give it another look. The source code is real good and the library is very helpful for people who wish to write video games in a hurry. The book is currently out of print, but Diana has graciously posted her manuscript on the web at http://www.makegames.com/sidescroller/.
This book was also a part of the introductory package to Small Computer Books Club. This is a fair book for explaining Mode X and Y programming. Diana Gruber says that her library uses Mode X graphics, but according to this book and according to the screen resolution she mentions in her book, she really uses Mode Y. This book gives more technical details to Mode X and Y programming not found in Diana's book. The explanation, though, is very hard to follow, especially for a beginner. It covers a little bit of linear mode (Mode 13H) programming but concentrates on Mode X.
By and far the best game programming book I have read so far. It teaches how to use the linear mode (Mode 13H) to write fast action games. It's a must have for anybody who wishes to learn the basics of game programming. Too bad it's out of print.
As good as the previous books that I mentioned are, they are unfortunately out-of-date (not to mention out of print).
What? My page is out-of-date too?!! Well, you're right, but I do enjoy using C++
more than C and Turbo C++ does support C++ programming. So why not use it to its full
power? In order to do that, I need a good reference on C++ programming. This book is
it. This book proved very useful for using FSTREAM.H and IOSTREAM.H
classes for file I/O access used in the Picture class of the Game Library on this page.
This book is a beginner's reference to 8088 assembly language programming. Very good for a reference, I think, which is why I bought it. Helpful for when I come across some old assembler code and when I need to add some assembler code to my own programs. This book is out of print, but I am sure that you can find some reference to assembly somewhere if you really need it. In most cases, now-a-days, you don't.
Don't forget to check out my links page for links to some helpful web sites.
Getting Started | Assumed Knowledge | References | Acknowledgements