Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus:Game Programming Resources

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| Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus by Andre LaMothe Sams, Macmillan Computer Publishing ISBN: 0672313618 Pub Date: 09/27/99

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## Appendix E
Game Programming Resources

The following is a potpourri of resources that you might find useful in your endeavors as a game programmer.

### Game Programming Sites

There are hundreds of great game programming sites, so I can’t list them all here. These are some of my favorites:

  GameDev.Net

  http://www.gamedev.net/

  The Game Programming Megasite

  http://www.perplexed.com/

  The Official MAME Page

  http://mame.retrogames.com/

  The Games Domain

  http://www.gamesdomain.com/

  Top 50 Game Programming Sites

  http://qbrpgt50.hypermart.net/top50/topsites.html

  The Coding Nexus

  http://www.gamesdomain.com/gamedev/gprog.html

  The Computer Game Developers’ Conference

  http://www.cgdc.com

### Download Points

A game programmer needs to have access to cool games, tools, utilities, and stuff like that. Here’s a list of places that I like to download from:

Happy Puppy | http://www.happypuppy.com
Game Pen | http://www.gamepen.com/topten.asp
Ziff Davis Net | http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/games.html
Adrenaline Vault | http://www.avault.com/pcrl/
Download.Com | http://www.download.com/
| `pc/cdoor/0,323,0-17,00.html?`
| `st.dl.fd.cats.cat17`
Jumbo.Com | http://www.jumbo.com/pages/games/windows95/games2/
GT Interactive | http://www.gtgames.com
Apogee | http://www.apogee1.com
Epic Megagames | http://www.epicgames.com
CNet | http://www.cnet.com
WinFiles.com | http://www.winfiles.com
eGames | http://www.egames.com

### 2D/3D Engines

There’s one place on the Web that’s the focal point of all 3D engine development. It’s called The 3D Engine List and contains 3D engines of varying levels of technology. The amazing thing is that many of the authors will let you use their engines for free! Here’s the address:

http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html

In addition, here are some links to some specific 2D/3D engines that rock!

Genesis 3D Engine | http://www.genesis3d.com
DigitalFX Engine | http://www.fastprojects.com
SciTech MGL | http://www.scitechsoft.com
Crystal Space | http://crystal.linuxgames.com/

### Game Programming Books

There are a lot of books on graphics, sound, multimedia, and game development, but buying them all is too expensive. Therefore, here are some sites that review game-related books and give you the lowdown:

  Games Domain Bookstore

  http://www.gamesdomain.com/gamedev/gdevbook.html

  Opifex Bookstore

  http://www.opifex.freeserve.co.uk/bookstore_com.html

  Programmer’s Vault

  http://www.chesworth.com/pv/vault/bookshop/game_programming.htm

### Microsoft DirectX Multimedia Exposition

Undoubtedly, Microsoft has the biggest Web site in the world. There are thousands of pages, sections, FTP sites, and so on. However, the page that you should be interested in is the DirectX Multimedia Expo. It can be found at

http://www.microsoft.com/directx/

On this page you’ll find the latest news and downloads of the latest versions of DirectX, DirectMedia, and any patches to previous versions. You could do worse than to take an hour each week and read through this information. It will definitely keep you up to date with the wonderful world of Microsoft and DirectX.

### Usenet Newsgroups

I’ve never been much into Internet newsgroups because it’s such a slow way to communicate (it’s almost as bad as reading hard copy). But here are a few newsgroups that might be worth checking out:

       alt.games

       rec.games.programmer

       comp.graphics.algorithms

       comp.graphics.animation

       comp.ai.games

If you’ve never read newsgroups before, read on… You’ll need a newsreader that can download the information and allow you to read the message threads. Most Web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, have a built-in newsreader. Just read the Help files and figure out how to set up your browser to read newsgroups. Then log on to any of the newsgroups, such as `alt.games`, download all the messages, and start reading!

### Keeping Up with the Industry: Blues News

About 99.9% of the Internet is a complete waste of bandwidth. It’s mostly a bunch of people babbling back and forth and communicating flights of fantasy. But there are a couple of places that aren’t a total waste of your time. One of them, Blues News, is basically a place where various industry icons and poseurs post their thoughts of the day. Just log on to

http://www.bluesnews.com

and check out what’s happening on a daily basis.

### Game Development Magazines

To my knowledge, there are only two game development magazines in the English language. The first and largest is Game Developer, which is published monthly and contains articles on game programming, art, 3D modeling, market trends, and more. Its Web site is at

http://www.gdmag.com

For a laugh, you can visit its sister site, Gamasutra (the game programmer’s book of sex), at

http://www.gamasutra.com

The second game development magazine is The Cursor, which is a grass-roots, back-to-basics magazine that has more of a free form. The Web site is located at

http://www.thecursor.com

### Game Web Site Developers

The last thing that you may think of when you’re creating a game is its Web site! If you’re trying to sell a game yourself as shareware, having a mini-site that shows off the game is very important. You may know how to use FrontPage or the simple Web editor in Netscape, but if you want a really cool Web site to show off your game and make it look larger than life, you should have it done professionally. I have seen so many really good games that have a horrible Web presence.

The company that I use is the Belm Design Group. They can help you make a site for your game, usually from $500.00-$3,000. Here’s the URL:

http://www.belmdesigngroup.com

### Xtreme Games LLC

The name of my company is Xtreme Games LLC. We develop and publish 2D/3D games for the PC platform. You can check us out on the Web at

http://www.xgames3d.com

You’ll find articles on 3D graphics, artificial intelligence, physics, DirectX, and a lot more. In addition, I’ll be posting any changes or additions to this book.

Xtreme Games LLC publishes games as well as developing them. So if you think you have a good game, log on and check out the information about authoring games through Xtreme. We also provide technical assistance to developers.

And last but not least, here’s my email address once more:

`CEO@xgames3d.com`

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