New to the World

I know its the common questions but "Where do I begin?" I've tried the tutorials on this site, and I seem to get suck on every page. I wanted to know A) What book should I start with for C++? and B) After that where should I begin with game programming? I haven't found a book yet that has my needs, I'm trying to learn C++, I have the dev complier and Borland, which one should I use? Not only that but i'm really lost everywhere, can anyplease help? thank you

I would suggest starting simple. Perhaps trying a simple text based role playing game. That'll give you a bit of a start. Then gradually make more complex games. Pretty much anything you program will give you the needed experience.

Is there a game programming book for windows or something?

there are beginner sections on www.flipcode.com and www.gamedev.net that should put you in the right direction.

"Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus" by Andre LaMothe is a good book to read to learn game programming in windows with DirectX.

Good luck
U.

Ok i have had the same problem as you and i got my problem solved by reading endles books about C and C++.*I mean practically read the whole book ". So after you know C good enough then you should move on to a third party API like Direct3D or OpenGL 1.2.I personally prefer OpenGL for graphics and Direct sound, Play, Input for other things.(thats not graphics). you might say but there isnt any books in the library thats about Direct X or OpenGL. well then try reading tutorials on the net or by this 50 dollor book I have haha called "OpenGL game Programming". its a good book and it comes with a CD that has everything on it from program to examples.
And for the compiler i prefer Dev- C++ 4. a free IDE compiler from www.bloodshed.net. I use Dev-C++ 4 for OpenGL programming and C, Win32, DOS and more programming. So get the free Dev-C++ 4 and forget borland biulder 5 besides its hard to set up anyway.

Here are the steps I took to learn game programming:

1) Read Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours by Tony Zhang.
2) Read This Tutorial to learn Win32 programming.
3) Read Introduction to Computer Game Programming with DirectX 8.0 by Ian Parberry.

Thats all there was to it. Two books and one tutorial. Of course I also looked at a lot of sample programs, and played a lot of video games.

Here is some advice:

Don't learn only C++. Many commercial game developers use C rather than C++. It is necessary to know the difference between the two.

Ask youself: Is it worth it to write computer software? Writing code is a very tedious job. You can work on an application for a full work day of 8 hours and accomplish nothing. Or you might write some seriously bad code that has to be rewritten, and you loathed writing it the first time.

Get out of ANSI Console programming as quickly as possible. Win32 programming isn't nearly as hard as it may seem, and it allows easier use of hardware than DOS ever did.

Be sure to learn DirectX, almost all commercial games on the market use it. DirectX requires basic Win32 architecture, but you don't need to know a lot about Win32 programming.

2D programming requires a basic knowledge of Cartesian coordinates, which is relatively easy to understand. 3D programming is much more complicated, and developers of 3D engines have strong backgrounds in mathmatics (if not degrees).

Proffesional game programmers don't get paid a lot of money. They get paid the same as any other office worker, so don't fantasize that learning game programming will make you rich. If you want to be rich, marry someone that is already rich (beleive me this is the easiest path to wealth, and it really isn't that hard to date rich people, you just have to know where to look ).

Here is a copy of my first game that used graphics

Can't open the .bas file. Is that the source code? Can i pls hava look.

The BAS file is the source code. It's written for QuickBasic so it really won't help with C/C++.

I've attached the source as a text file to this post.

If you want to run the source you need QuickBasic. You can find a copy of QBasic 1.0 on Windows 98 and 95 CD's (check the utilities\oldmsdos folder).

What the .......... language is that, its worse than MuttProgrammingLanguage.

If you are just starting with C or C++ and have little or no previous programming experience, then I would pretty much ignore games programming for a while. It is quite possibly the hardest type of programming to do!!!

Start with console programs, look at other peoples work and try to challenge yourself. After a while you'll get used to the language and can try console games like hangman, etc.

Progress will be slow and steady... but it will happen.

avoid at all costs this book: Itroduction to Computer Game Programming with DirectX 8.0 by Ian Parberry, it teaches DirectDraw3 (and is pretty wrong in quite a few places) check out the DirectX7 (yes i mean 7, 8 has holes in it) API Reference trust me DD7 is way better than DX3 (like Parberry teaches) DD7 can restore all surfaces with a single call, it has a lot more features implemented and (according to MS) it is more optimized.

you must decide first which programming language u want to learn for ur game

yeah.. that's key.

I'm making a text based RPG with JAVA and using a C++ game as the basis for it (testing out the RP system i have developed). The Java RPG is going to be using the Swing GUI API that i am currently learning to make it look spiffy and more fun.