BadCoder Consolation

Video-Games Development Books and Mags

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Console Specific Books

Atari Jaguar: Official Gamer's Guide
This excellent book is a must-have for any Atari Jaguar game developer, enthusiast, or collector, it features hints and tips for many games, and lots of valuable information about the system.
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The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Paperback)
The Game Maker's Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle games--complete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to making games that are more fun to play.
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Basic Game Design and Creation (Paperback)
"Basic Game Design and Creation" teaches novices (8-80) how to create ten different games - no programming required. The book portrays two different but interconnected technologies - game design, which teaches game enthusiasts simple techniques (players, sound, animation, scoring, scenery, etc) and object technology, a new natural paradigm for creating software that is revolutionizing the software industry. Through the step-by-step projects and creation of numerous games, readers actually become game designers, creating different kinds of objects and environments. Every chapter helps readers to create a new two dimensional and isometric game using GameMaker, a rapid-application development tool for beginning game programmers. Using many "drag and drop" tools and video tutorials, users are able to learn object technology, and can create and publish games very quickly. This is a must-have resource for anyone who is looking to master introductory game design!
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Make Amazing Games in Minutes (Paperback)
Many game enthusiasts have aspirations to make games but don't know where to start. Make Amazing Games in Minutes introduces the game creation process to the aspiring game developer with no experience or programming ability. Taking the reader step-by-step through the various stages of developing a game and using the "drag and drop" game creation software included with the book, the reader can build his very own game. Using the tutorials and step-by-step methods, the reader will complete a fully playable Retro game, as well as platform, bat & ball, and side scrolling shoot-em ups. Other chapters cover more complex game features such as adding effects and scoreboards, putting the game on the Web, and installation script building. This must-have book is the essential resource for anyone interested in learning game creation and the Retro style.
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Revolutionaries at Sony: The Making of the Sony Playstation and The Visionaries Who Conquered The World of Video Games
Whether you like Sony and their Playstation, there is no denying that they took the console market by storm, pushing Nintendo, Sega and Atari into also rans. This books talks about why! Must have reading for Sony fans and opponents alike.
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Video Gaming History Books

Game Over Press Start To Continue
The riveting story of Nintendo's conquest of the interactive entertainment industry offering true tales filled with cocky arrogance, confidence and international intrigue that rival any novel. Also an excellent insight into how Nintendo brought the once mighty Atari to its knees.
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The First Quarter : A 25-year History of Video Games
The First Quarter: A 25-year History of Video Games is an insider's look at the entertainment novelty that drove the evolution of high-technology. The book was compiled from more than 500 first-hand interviews with such people as Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari), Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Donkey Kong), Toru Iwatani (designer of Pac-Man), etc.
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Easter Eggs-Software Surprises
Easter Eggs are secrets hidden in many pieces of software, from operating systems and applications to games on PCs and consoles. This book provides an excellent insight into why programmers add these unofficial features, and how to access them.
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Video Game Industry Books

Digital Illusion : Entertaining the Future With High Technology (Siggraph Series)
Siggraph is an annual video games graphics conference which invariably includes outstanding content by major video game industry figures. Contributors from the computer and entertainment industries describe the design and implementation of computer-based entertainment applications. Topics include the infrastructure required for new applications, advances in creative tools and networking, interface- design techniques, and practical hardware issues.
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The Playful World : How Technology Is Transforming Our Imagination
As you read these words, the architects of the new virtual reality are inventing a world you never imagined: call it the playful world. It's a world of interactive Web-based toys that instantly collapse the gulf between wish and existence, space and time, animate and inanimate. Sounds like hype, but provides a good read!
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Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution
Videogames first came on the market thirty years ago as a marginal technological curiosity. Now they are virtually everywhere. Videogame sales have equaled movie sales. They are played by more adults than children, and game design can even be studied in college. Yet videogames are still often viewed as a minor form of entertainment, at best shallow, or at worst harmful.
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Playing for Profit : How Digital Entertainment Is Making Big Business Out of Child's Play
Inventions like the phonograph, television, radio, and motion pictures sparked a revolution in entertainment that captured the hearts--and the wallets--of the average consumer. With the exciting emergence of digital interactivity, we're about to take a huge leap forward, reshaping and reinventing virtually every form of entertainment we know.
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Video Game Programming Books

Action Arcade Adventure Set by Diana Gruber
This book was published back in 1994, when games on the PC were limited in size and resources. It is thus an ideal introduction for programmers who want to develop for the older consoles too, as the same resource issues very much still apply there. Although source is in 'C', the techniques and lessons to be learned are totally portable and you will be better prepared to write for consoles than after reading any other book I've encountered!
What makes it SO SPECIAL, is that it's now FREE!
Game Programming Gems
Aimed at the working (or aspiring) C/C++ game programmer, Game Programming Gems contains over 60 programming tips that have been gathered from more than 40 working game gurus. It you want to build your own games or are interested simply in how games work, this text provides an intriguing glimpse into how the pros create games.
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Black Art of Java Game Programming
A book/CD-ROM package on the mysteries of sound, animation, color, networking, advanced graphics, and multiplayer gaming. Although Java is used throughout as the language, the techniques are applicable to any platform, and any language. The book covers the fundamentals of game development, and advanced game and graphics techniques, as well as the development of a number of useful Java based projects.
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Java Game Programming For Dummies
Online game design just got easier with Java Game Programming For Dummies, your all-in-one reference guide to writing cool, cutting-edge Internet games. Java Game Programming For Dummies guides new and veteran game designers alike through the nuts and bolts of creating fun, user-friendly games that can be played across the World Wide Web. From your first basic Java applets to sophisticated techniques for advanced 3-D texture-mapping, animation, maze generation, and collision detection, this handy, plain-speaking reference book gives you the tools and tricks you need in order to write professional-quality Java-based games.
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Game Architecture and Design
Addressing itself to industry programmers and managers, makes a compelling case that game developers should manage software the same way the other computer companies do it--even though they may not want to hear it. This book's real-world perspective on the video game business makes it a standout, and its dozens of case studies and anecdotes from the field, including behind-the-scenes details on some well-known recent titles, are particularly valuable.
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PC Game Development Kits

Game Programming Starter Kit 4.0
The package is a virtual compendium of resources for creating your own games and is designed for those with some previous knowledge of gaming, animation, and C++ programming. The package comes with gamer Marc Saltzman's book, Game Design: Secrets of the Sages, Second Edition, Genesis 3D SDK world generator and editor, Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Introductory Edition, Shadow Realm Model Animator, and Microsoft DirectX 7.0, plus two e-books from the Sams Teach Yourself series: Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days and DirectX 7 in 24 Hours.
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