Think Visual Basic is just too slow to write a decent game? Think again! This book gives you all of the tricks and techniques that you need to create awesome games using Visual Basic. Offering equal parts theory and hands-on exercises, the chapters in this book begin with a discussion of completing a task using Visual Basic, and then move on to enhancing the code. The final section of the book is devoted to developing complete games, including a 3D arcade game, a multiplayer space combat game, and more. Whether you are new to game programming or new to Visual Basic, this book gives you everything you need to create amazing games by combining the hidden power of Visual Basic with DirectX.

Features

• The CD includes:

• A trial version of JASC Paint Shop Pro 7

• A trial version of Syntrillium Cool Edit 2000

• The Microsoft DirectX 8.0 SDK

• Demos of Mechwarrior 4, Midtown Madness 11, Motocross Madness 11, and Crimson Skies

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 31 Ratings

Needs to be updated to VB .Net - 2005-03-12
Reviewer Rating:
This book was written about the time VB .Net was coming out and the author even mentions that he considered writing some of the code in .Net. I bought the book, realizing it was dated, thinking that it would be a good learning experience to convert the examples to VB .Net. Of course, it's proving to be very frustrating.

This is a good book and well written and if you are determined to stick with VB6 and want to learn game programming. However, if you're moving on to .Net I would suggest looking for a different title. (If you find a good one let me know.)

I really wish they would publish a new edition with re-written examples. That would be ideal.

Good Reference, However... - 2005-01-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book is in fact a good reference, but I hit snags trying to run the sample code. I have Visual Studio .NET and I love it, and thought that this book would be a good starting point for game programming. And it was until I hit the first program "ChunkyPixels" I put the code into the VB.NET IDE and it would not compile. The examples are all writen in VB 6.0 and has no compatibility with VB.NET. So, in conclusion, if you want a good reference and do not have VB.NET, buy this book, but if you have VB.NET you are, as am I, out of luck

PS IF anyone knows of any websites that would have updated code samples, I would be happy to hear where! :)

Visual Basic Direct X - 2008-08-27
Reviewer Rating:
I am a programming insrructor and I new alot about the basics of Visual Basic but not much on the graphic and Direct X side of the house. This book has shown me alot of tricks and I haven't finished it yet.

Good information, however it's a little dated - 2007-09-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book, came out when the original xbox came out. So the information and code are a little dated. Personally, I think they need to come out with a visual basic@net version of the book.

However, I am giving this book a 3, because it has some good ideas. You'll get an idea of the things you can do. One thing I especially like is the multiplayer game in the example section.

Direct x and Direct Visual Basic - 2006-10-21
Reviewer Rating:
First of all I'd like to say that this book is really good because it is step by step in its foundation. It explains how to set up the programs it discusses. What I had problems with were that I understood the code from a template kind of perspective but did not understand exactly what each line of code was doing without a substantial background in Visual Basic 6. I jumped right into learning the game aspects instead of building a solid understanding of the concepts of the language of visual basic 6. Even though I was lacking certain pieces of the puzzle Mr. Harbour did a pretty decent job of explaining things even a novice like myself could grasp. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested but get the foundation in Visual Basic 6.0 first. This book is alot better than some of the books I've read before which stick code snippets throughout but have no semblance of order as to where they fit in. This is a must read!!!! It covers all aspects of creating a game and even gives multiplayer capability. All n all I give this a three thumbs up!!!

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