It is 1933 and the President and First Lady have just settled into the White House to face a nation in the depths of the Depression and a world on the brink of war. When the body of a White House police officer is discovered at the foot of the President's bedroom door ...

Lists the most significant writings on computer games, including works that cover recent advances in gaming and the substantial academic research that goes into devising and improving computer games.

No one has done more to conquer the performance limitations of the PC than Michael Abrash, a software engineer for Microsoft. His complete works are contained in this massive volume, including everything he has written about performance coding and real-time graphics. The CD-ROM contains the entire text in Adobe Acrobat 3.0 format, allowing fast searches for specific facts.

"Side Stories" is an anthology of short stories by game developers. Authors come from both digital and analog game development, computer games to paper games. Contributors include Greg Costikyan (veteran game designer of "Paranoia" and "Star Wars: The Role-Playing Game"), Christopher Mitchell (WGA award nominee for game writing, "Deathspank", "Simpsons Hit and Run"), and Rees Savidis (writer and award winning filmmaker, "SSX", "Driver: San Francisco"), and others. A share of proceeds will be donated to the Child’s Play charity. Included stories: “Sheepdog” by Bren Lynne An armed student defends his classroom from a shooter. “Spaceship and Bicycle” by Greg Costikyan Asteroid prospectors undertake innovative repairs after their spaceship is crippled. “Fizzy Piss Grape Shit” by Rees Savidis The end of the world, from the other perspective. “And The Heart Goes Tick Tick Tick” by Chris Dahlen A matchmaker finds adventure and romance when and where she least expects it. “Buried Legends” by David Dubord Unearthing buried treasure releases unexpected riches. “Paper Cuts” by Peter Walsh A software developer has problems after he reveals the weaknesses in government surveillance systems. “Cultists” by Christopher Mitchell Members of an apocalypse cult, frustrated with the lack of results, take matters into their own hands. “Lucky Malloy and the Cuban Zombie Crisis” by Jason Dozois A washed-up football player turned zombie hunter faces trouble when his cat becomes a zombie boss monster. “The Christmas Trolls” by Andrew Laing A game developer stands trial for creating a game that turns users into Trolls.

"Tricks of the Windows Game Programmin Gurus, 2E" takes the reader through Win32 programming, covering all the major components of DirectX including DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectInput (including Force Feedback), and DirectMusic. Andre teaches the reader 2D graphics and rasterization techniques. Finally, Andre provides the most intense coverage of game algorithms, multithreaded programming, artificial intelligence (including fuzzy logic, neural nets, and genetic algorithms), and physics modeling you have ever seen in a game book.

Companion CD included with Paint Shop Pro 8 evaluation edition!Interfaces strongly affect how an application or game is received by a user, no matter which cutting-edge features it may boast. This unique book presents a comprehensive solution for creating good interfaces using the latest version of DirectX. This involves building an interface library from the ground up. Divided into three sections, the book discusses the foundations of interface design, the construction of a feature-rich interface library, and the creation of a fully functional media player in DirectShow.

Explains how to build a scrolling game engine, play sound effects, manage compressed audio streams, build multiplayer games, construct installation scripts, and distribute games to the Linux community.