Can you think of a good book concerning DirectPlay? I've heard one can write network applications with it.
Something different:
When using graphics in my programs I use this:
HBITMAP hbm=(HBITMAP) LoadImage(0,"filename.bmp",
IMAGE_BITMAP,0,0,LR_LOADFROMFILE);
This works fine. But professional applications do not have a bunch of bitmap files in the same folder as the executable. They seem to have the graphics 'included' in the binary code. Which function did they use? (I don't think they filled the used surfaces pixel-to-pixel, did they?)