Rating: 
Summary: If you know the basics, you don't need the book.
Review: If you have already programmed a complete game using DirectX then you don't need this book.If you know the VC++ compiler so well that you know just exactly all of the dozen or so switches that you need to set to get DirectX 7 to compile for you, the you don't need Chapter 1. [LaMothe's otherwise very useful book preaches instead of covering this vital detail, so I was only able to follow him as far as some earlier version of DircetX went.] If you know how to read in a bitmap and show it, then you do not need Chapter 2. [I found a bug or two in LaMothe's code for this, but Parberry treats those points correctly.] If you know how to use back buffers and page flipping for smooth animation then you do not need Chapter 3. If you know how to control the timing of an animation, then you do not need Chapter 4. If you have dealt with the multiple images on one bitmap that make up a moving sprite then you do not need Chapter 5. If you know how to clip sprites then you do not need Chapter 6. If you know how to scroll horizontally with the foreground moving by faster than the background (parallax scrolling), then you do not need Chapter 7. If you know some basics of AI such as having objects in various states, moving in intelligent looking ways, and if you know how to implement a rule based system to give a higher level language for programming the intelligent objects, then clearly you have no need for Chapter 8. If you know how to use one program to act entirely differently in different phases of a game, then you do not need Chapter 9. If you know how to load sounds for Direct Sound, can mix, and play the sounds, then you do not need Chapter 10. If you know how to integrate the button functions into a DirectX program that is using the whole screen, then you do not need Chapter 11. Of course you know how to read the mouse, so this part of the chapter is a complete waste. If you know how to have your game work with either a mouse or a joystick, then you have no need for Chapter 12. If you have written even one game with multiple levels, bonuses for the levels, and scores based on partial completion of the game, you really will find Chapter 13 useless. If you have written a game with a high score list, and know how to collect the player's name in a DirectX program, then you will have no need for Chapter 14. If you know how to pause game action and sound, and if you know how to give credit where it is due, and help when requested, then you will just find Chapter 15 a waste of time. If you have done all this, and done it in very clean code that you can use as a base for building further games, and are really ready to go on to the extra difficulties of three D programs, then you will certainly find this book disappointing. But I haven't, and I'm delighted to see such a thorough treatment of the basics of a DirectX game.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, Basic Game Programming Book
Review: Learn Computer Game Programming with DirectX 7.0 is a good book if you are starting off in Game Programming. It teaches you to make a simple Game, included on the CD that comes with the book, that includes animations, sounds, and menus. I found that some code,at least on my machine, was incorrect, the Game ran fine that was on the CD, and the book does have good tutorials to teach 2D Game Programming.
Rating:
Summary: If your new this is the book for you!
Review: Let me guess? Your new to game programming? If so then search no further, this is the book for you! As long as you know some basic C++ stuff then you can game program! Dont expect to crush starcraft or diablo or quake but this is a great start! The author has a great style and he explains everything that is new, down to the letter, he has a great example for developing what he is teaching! Just to finish of, if you are new and you know C++ and you want to game program then buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners, but code is bad and little insight
Review: Let's start off with what's good about this book: 1. It's very good for beginners - you can quickly get your environment set up and easily see how DX handles some stuff like page flipping for you and understand what DX is 2. The step-by-step method is very effective 3. No game engine creation - you don't get bogged down in creating and learning to use some proprietary game engine; you just focus on DX Bad Stuff: 1. The code is VERY poorly written and badly designed. The APIs the author came up with make no sense, and while this isn't a book on good coding style, it should at least demonstrate how to make a somewhat intuitive UI. The most infuriating thing is that the author doesn't think to name his source files the same as his classes. Plus he perpetuates the hungarian notation, which I find unreadable. The examples DO all work, however, so I'll give him that. 2. Because of the bad coding style, it's hard to tell what code is intentional. The problem is that he doesn't give good explanation of why he's doing things the way he is, or why DX requires things be done a certain way 3. The game: The game is a scroller, and while it affords good experience with stuff, it would've been cool to see an example of start/stop movement instead of constant scrolling. Something like "move 10 pixels left over the next 500 ms". It's not hard to figure out, but seems more like what you would need than constant scrolling. 4. Input handling: Why didn't he use DirectInput??? The mess with the Joystick is from the DOS age. Don't teach people that, or at least tell them WHY you aren't using DirectInput! 5. Packaging your game - A section that would be nice is how to package up and deliver your game; what issues you run into with needed libraries, detecting DX versions, etc. 6. non-8-bit graphics. It's cool that he explains the more difficult 8-bit graphics stuff, but it's so different from 16/24/32 bit, that it's not obvious how to do it! At least have a sidebar showing the difference. 7. Debugging - Someone new to game programming is going to have a hell of time debugging, I know I did. You just can't debug a fullscreen app with any reliability. Spend some time mentioning things like debugging and win9x flakiness (e.g. "If your system acts wierd, reboot"). Despite my crticisms, I liked this book a hell of a lot better than "Windows Game Programming for Dummies". To challenge myself, I basically redesigned and re-implemented each chapter because I couldn't stand reading his code and dealing with it any longer. So, it was worth my money, but could be a lot better.
Rating: 
Summary: Still trying to make this book useful
Review: OK I got this book thinking it would teach me how to use DirectX to make my own games but it still hasn't helped. The first thing I noticed right away is that he doesn't include all the code that has been coverd in one big group (Its only coverd in little groups with explanation, which is good for learning what it does but slow for writing), and most of all he skips some parts occassionally and never comes back to them. I did however learn how to setup DirectX for Visual C++ :)
Rating:
Summary: Good Direct Draw Tutorial For Those Well Versed In C++
Review: The author has obviously spent a good deal of time and effort organizing the material. Concepts are presented clearly and in a logical progression with each chapter building on the next. The sample project provides a visual aid to help the reader understand what code presented in each chapter actually does. The author has done a great job of avoiding binding in the example project. Each class and implementation file is a clearly defined stand-alone unit. I found it very easy to apply what I learned from this book to other game projects.
Before you purchase this book you should consider a couple of things:
First, Direct Draw is a dated technology. As other reviewers have pointed out, Direct Draw is being phased out by Microsoft. Second, this is not a C++ how-to book. You MUST have at least 2 years of C++ programming experience (or equivalent) to get anything out of this book. If the code samples are not at least 95% clear to you on first reading then you're not ready for this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The cover looks cute, but the inside is horror.
Review: The book does not cover DirectX in a good general ways, like books "DirectX 7.0 in 24 Hours" do. The code is explained, but as soon as you want to make a game which is different from the game explained in the book, you will have to seek a lot of tutorials. The directdraw techniques are the worsed, I could not even get my code to show me good 24 bits graphics instead of the 16 bits used in the book. Others books explain how DirectX functions work, what you can do with it. This book is not a good start for DirectX understanding, there are much better books out there. If you want to learn game programming, use general DirectX books, they will explain what you can need to know. You will understand yourself how to put your DirectX knowledge to game programming use. This book just looks cute on the bookshell. -- Words of some one who is programming DirectX for a few years, and has read the right books on it.
Rating:
Summary: average book
Review: This book could be a great help if you want start learning game programming with direct X. You start from te beginning and every chapter improves the game a bit. There are working source's of every chapter which is great. The reason I gave this book only 3 stars is that it explains how some direct X stuff works but not why this direct X stuff is the best way is to get the desired result. In other words you learn a way of programming in direct X of which you can't explain why it is best.
Rating:
Summary: Average book
Review: This book describe's step by step how to program your own game in c++ with direct X. Every chapter improves the game a bit and on the cd you can find working source of all chapter's. The reason that I give this book 3 stars is that it describes only some basics of direct X but the direct X SDK (SDK stand for software development kit) describes these things just as well. This book can help you with writing your first 'direct X game' but most of the information you get when you buy this book is also available on the direct X SDK which you can download free on microsoft.com.
Rating:
Summary: Game Design
Review: This book is a great book on creating your very first game(s). IT teaches some pretty interesting techniques, but the code in the book is pretty straight forward and isn't explanatory. Basicly you read what the chapter is about, then you will go onto type in the code and see it execute there isn't much explanation abuot what is going on in the code. If you are looking for a good DirectDraw book dont get this one, it sues DirectDraw but doesnt explain the features of it. If you are looking for a good book on how to design a simple game this is a great book for the job.
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