Coverage includes—

• Kenneth Finney teaches game design, development, and prototyping at the Art Institute of Toronto where he is Lead Faculty Member in the Game Art & Design program. He began programming in 1974 and remembers that old HP-1000 with its paper tape and punch cards with a perverse fondness. Finney had been a software engineer from the mid-'80s until the late '90s focusing on advanced technology development. He was a recipient of the prestigious Conference Board of Canada ITX (Innovation in Technology Excellence) Award in 1997 for his work on "InScan," a high-speed document scanning system. He has been an Associate Professor at Seneca College at York University in Toronto, teaching technical writers how to survive in a software development environment. Ken is the creator of the popular Tubettiworld "Online Campaign" Mod and the "QuicknDirty" game management tools for the Delta Force 2 game series from NovaLogic. He is currently working on completing a new and unique action/adventure game based on the original Tubettiworld design using the Torque Game Engine.

• A comprehensive guide to free or low-cost telephone service using Internet technologies.

• Suitable for all consumers interested in using this technology.

• Serves as a useful guide to the purchase and setup of Internet phones and the broadband Internet services required to support them.

• Written for consumers in simple language and in a hands-on, step-by-step sequence to help readers install and use their Internet phone service.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 11 Ratings

Not a Beginners Guide? - 2007-02-01
Reviewer Rating:
You will find the on-line documentation at Garage Games more helpful.

A beginners guide it is not. Code is too buggy.
A Torque reference? Not exactly. It tells you what tools you can use with the Torque engine but the Torque parts themselves are to buggy especially if you are new to programming.

The code very seldom works without tweaking. You better have programming knowledge if you want to tweak the bad code.

It is good as a general reference book for people who want to know what kind of tools to use for programming and what are some of the components for developing a game.

Can you go from start to finish and develop a working demo from the book or one of your own? Not unless you are an intermediate to advanced programmer.

Excellent Writing Style - 2007-09-16
Reviewer Rating:
As a retired computer application trainer as well as a programming teacher, I find this book superior to MANY computer books of most ANY genre. Unfortunately many "techies" suffer from some deficits as writers.

First, though they may know their content very well, when they begin writing about their subject, they tend to skip steps that will confound a beginning learner or assume some nebulous prior knowledge or what must seem to them as perfectly "obvious" information or sequences. Mr. Finney doesn't make this all-to-often made error. He also follows the tried-and-true educational practice of - "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them". It allows the reader to feel the scope as well as the details of what's being taught.

Second the writing style is very relaxed. The reader doesn't need to feel that they are learning in a large lecture hall. The style is person-to-person.

Third, He writes in English. That is to say, the writing is grammatical and well organized. That might seem like how things SHOULD be. I've found many technical writers simply don't - or can't do this! It seems to be well edited. Homonyms haven't snuck in because the words could pass by a spell checker. His early English teachers must have cracked his knuckles to develop this trait. (I keep wanting to write publishers to ask them if they would like me to do a final edit before they put their books on the street. It's embarassing to us as a culture. OK, I'll get off my soap-box.) This book is refreshing.

I got both volumes of Mr. Finney's books for my grown son, since he is interested in going into this field. I think he'll get them when I'm done. More than likely, I'll end up getting an addutional set for him. I want to keep these!

Keep up the good work, Ken!!

Vale de teoria, a trabajar. - 2008-09-10
Reviewer Rating:
Me ha parecido un buen complemento a la guia oficial de Torque, da un paso m s alla. Comparando con otros engines (comerciales) en la misma banda de precio/licencia, Torque esta de enhorabuena.

Very Good Book - 2007-08-24
Reviewer Rating:
I think the only thing this book does wrong is clarify it is not for noobs and that you should have read the first book to know what is really going on. This a great book for A. Mid Level Programmers or B. Very Persistent Beginners. :0) It's far better than the forum and helps you pinpoint what you need; else you wouldn't know what to look for.

If you have Torque, get this book

where is my sttuf? - 2007-01-21
Reviewer Rating:
I did not receive the book. I would like to know what is happening.

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