Rating: 
Summary: Sunday Too Far Away ...
Review: ** The Anticipation : I purchased this book in order to get into serious games development. By the description of this book (on Amazon) it covered all sorts of games programming using Delphi and Direct/X. I ordered the book before the book was even released / printed, and after 3.5 months of waiting, it finally arrived at my home in Australia.** Wrong Level : So far, I am reading it from cover to cover, and am in Chapter 3, but the book does seem to start off extremely basic indeed. The level indicator on the back suggested that the book was for "intermediate to advanced" programmers, but this doesn't seem to be the case so far, and I was expecting something much more meaty and detailed. An indicator level of "begineer to intermediate" might be more accurate. Also, now that I have started reading the book, it is suddenly clear that the book is only for 2D sprite games - not "all types of games" that it previously suggested. ** Bad Examples : Also, the first real example in the book "Shoot Em" (Chapter 2) refuses to run on my Windows NT machine at work (with Direct/X installed), or on my Windows 98 machine at home (with Direct/X 5 installed). The error messages I get are completely unhelpful : "The specified interface is not supported by the object. This value is equal to E_NOINTERFACE standard COM return value". What a patheric, useless error message. The error is reported from the ExceptionHandler. Why, or what is wrong, I haven't had a chance to look yet. Expecting readers to fix the sloppy or bad code included with books is rotten ! ** Delphi 4 Autorisation : Also, installing Delphi 4 is a nightmare. I already own full versions of Delphi 1, 2, and 3, and I was glad to obtain the FULL version of Delphi 4 with the book. However, where the hell is the Serial Number and Authorisation Keys for the installation - there not in the book, on the CD, or in any text or pdf files on the CD. I went to Borland's site to register thinking I might get them following registration, but to register I need to type the codes in there as well. What a mess ! ** CD Errors : To top this all off, the CD included with my book seems to be bad, and my brand new 40x CD-ROM here at work is having extreme problems with it. ** Conclusion : I am a very experienced developer (20+ years of eating, sleeping, and breathing computers so far), and have a very good knowledge of Delphi and a reasonably good knowledge of Windows API. I was expecting some real meaty examples with lots of good code and descriptions to really kick off my games programming big time. I can't help feeling badly let down by this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: I almost didn't buy this book after reading all of the bad reviews on it. After looking at it in a bookstore I decided to pitch in the 60 bucks to see if I could get anything out of it. All of the people having problems apparently don't have much experience with delphi's ide. I had no problems getting any of the examples to compile and work. I think it had more to do with readers skipping the first few chapters which happened to have a paragraph explaining how to add the directx header files to your delphi environment so it would compile. Also you can't expect to pick up a programming language and start writing games in it. I wonder how much experience some of the reviewers had with delphi itself. You should have a decent amount of experience using delphi before trying to tackle this book. The book covers 2d games, sound, input, and basic force feedback. If you are an intermediate delphi programmer looking to design 2d games with delphi this book is a very good place to start. Nothing 3d is covered in this book but if you don't know how do write a 2d game why would you even attempt to design a 3d game?
Also this book includes the retail version of delphi 4, the directx headers, and all of the book's examples on cd. Thank you John Ayres!
Rating: 
Summary: Read and digested
Review: I am relatively new to games programming, but an intermediateDelphi user. I have found the book useful, but feel the descriptionon the cover, that it is for intermediate to advanced users, slightly ( ). With the best will in the world, this book is no more than reasonable text for beginners. How anyone, other than those trying to make a fast buck, would describe it otherwise, is beyond me. We need good books on this subject, by skilled authors and honest publishers. This publication, and the manner of its publicity, does little to convince me that Wordware and John Ayres are capable of producing a professional tome as described. I will use the book and accept it for what it is. Hopefully someone else will produce something more suitable, for intermediate and advanced users. Regards Tim END
Rating:
Summary: Turbo Pascal upgrade
Review: I don't know what it is about this book but I liked it a lot.
The book has a special vibe; it is casual but it leaves no detail out in what it's aimed at.
Unlike other technical books where you would skip sections this book keeps you reading from begin to end.
Sure it's not sophisticated, no 3D for instance.
But it's great for example for people who're coming from Turbo Pascal like me and want to explore Delphi and games(using DirectX). So it is a good primer presented clear and understandable. And no no not beneath beginners.
And great 2D games can be made with this book as a background.
2D games still have their place in the entertainment world.
I'm not saying that you should necessarily learn how to make 2D games to be able to make 3D games but it's an asset. You people shouldn't ignore the "gamemaking thinking" that comes with 2D game manufacturing. But as the author points out in the book if you really wanna make 'em big, you hafta have artists involved in your project. ps: if you notice that im from Belgium: I have the same edition and in English.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is LAME
Review: I got this book thinking that I'd learn the secrets of games programming in Delphi from it. Boy, was I let down. The information contained in the book is quite dated -- some of it dating to DirectX 2 (!) Also, the examples given are too basic -- I was expecting hardcore stuff. Worse yet, the lame content is framed within mediocre writing rife with spelling and grammar errors. Definitely a big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A pathetic excuse for an advanced book
Review: I have nothing good to say about this book and recommend you avoid wasting your money on it. It's not an advanced book, it would really only work for beginners. Then again, I don't think beginners should use it, either, becuase the Delphi techiques it shows are error-prone and amateurish. The author doesn't seem to be a very good Delphi developer. Also, the book doesn't read well. It's hard to follow. I didn't find the author's prose to be an easy read. His explanations often left me wondering what the heck he just said. Last, the examples don't work. Most of them seem to be geared toward DirectX 2.0 and don't work consistently on the later versions. I tried them on DirectX 5 and 7 and had mixed results. Get Jon Jacobs' book instead. It's much better.
Rating:
Summary: More of a Primer
Review: I own the John Ayres "Tomes" titles and they aresuperb. That proved to me that John is an excellent author. However,this book falls short of its title of "Exposed." It is written very well, explained very well, and the CD is what it should be, but this is not a book for the serious game programmer. It is a good start but other than that, shop the Delphi web pages for code samples and look to C++ code for help. This book is a primer for beginning programmers and NOT for the advanced or intermediate like the back of the book says. END
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I really looked forward to getting this book, partly because of how long it took to publish and partly because there is a real shortage of technical Delphi books on the less common topics. While there is some useful information for a beginner, I was sorely disappointed. This book certainly does not live up to the hype - here is an extract from the Wordware site regarding this title: "() from the most basic sprite movement through tile-based scrolling map engines, voxel engines, texture mapping, and 3-D first-person shooter engines." Voxel engines? 3D engine? If mentioning it makes a book, I'm becoming an author. The book is so basic that it isn't even worthwhile for a beginner - rather buy the excellent books by Andre LaMothe and learn a little C so that you can translate it. The chapters in Charlie Calvert's Delphi Unleashed books are more than adequate to get you started with DirectX and Delphi. One thing that concerns me about some of the reviews is that some people that claim (not that I dispute it) to be professional game developers dropped Delphi as a result of this poor book. I don't get it! Why do you need a "Delphi" book? Can't you apply your C/C++ knowledge, after learning Delphi? To those people, my only suggestion is that you read a couple of general Delphi books (and there are a number of excellent ones), dabble with the JEDI DirectX translation and get going - you certainly don't need a book to teach you what you already know just because you changed language. And a last request - someone please write a decent game programming book for Delphi.
Rating: 
Summary: You have to start somewhere...
Review: I too thought there would be a little 3D in this book, but I can understand why there isn't. 3D Game programming is absurdly complex. You need to get the basic concepts and feel of game programming down in 2D (well, it's a good idea anyway). Many complain about not finding the CD Key... it's on a card that sticks out like a sore thumb in the back of the book. Look a little harder. This book is not a comprehensive guide to game or direct x programming (or Delphi). However, what it can do is provide you with the means to jump right in and make a game. What I'm talking about is ready-made basic 2D game engine's that can be modified to do just about anything. The book gets you the basics on graphics, sound, sprites, controls (even force feedback), special effects and a bit more. I was introduced to this book by taking a graphics class in my 4th year of college. We barely used the book (because we only touched a little direct x at the end), but I spent the end of that winter break and much of the following months making a Tetris style puzzle game. If you can get the example programs to compile/run, you should be able to modify them to do your bidding.
Rating:
Summary: You have to start somewhere...
Review: I too thought there would be a little 3D in this book, but I can understand why there isn't. 3D Game programming is absurdly complex. You need to get the basic concepts and feel of game programming down in 2D (well, it's a good idea anyway). Many complain about not finding the CD Key... it's on a card that sticks out like a sore thumb in the back of the book. Look a little harder. This book is not a comprehensive guide to game or direct x programming (or Delphi). However, what it can do is provide you with the means to jump right in and make a game. What I'm talking about is ready-made basic 2D game engine's that can be modified to do just about anything. The book gets you the basics on graphics, sound, sprites, controls (even force feedback), special effects and a bit more. I was introduced to this book by taking a graphics class in my 4th year of college. We barely used the book (because we only touched a little direct x at the end), but I spent the end of that winter break and much of the following months making a Tetris style puzzle game. If you can get the example programs to compile/run, you should be able to modify them to do your bidding.
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