Rating: 
Summary: Awesome?
Review: What I cannot believe is how unfair recent reviews of this book have been. If you're a beginner hobbyist, then maybe this book isn't for you?
Let's mention instance modelling, advanced collision detection, triple-buffered animation, quad trees, hardware acceleration and framerate syncing.
Maybe this book is ideal for a Mathematician interested in game development using Java. But as a newbie Java developer that just did part of a training diploma, in one word: Terrific!I just got an invaluable introduction to linked lists and hash trees - and even better, their applications in todays professional game programming industry.
Just please don't mention Vector Geometry for now (lol).
You also get to look at implementing abstract classes -- that surely sets the programming standard? And there's a bonus for people that either do C++ or have had a long look at it. There's great looking boxes that delineate Java limitations and advantages by comparison. On the down side, a few examples don't seem to compile straight away and probably need to be revised -- mostly the networking section which seems outdated.
Based on this I'd give this book four stars only, except for wanting to boost this books terrible review ratings! I personally really really wish there was a home page for the included professional level Java engine - where it could be maintained and updated.
Also it could be fully documented, so newbies like me could just use the whole thing more easily.
But it was worth it even if only for the custom controls library -- Swing is SLOW! (note for Sun developers) I think that without having a full grasp of everything that's covered (and its a lot) I'm now better equipped than ever to get those Java game applets up and running.
And now i can realistically gauge myself against the real professionals. Oh, and I loved the style too. I shan't discourage!!
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