Mark Collins, Linux Game Programming (Prima, 2001)



The main problem with reading computer books that are six years old is that, well, they're six years old. This is not a huge problem in the Windows world; as we have seen, sometimes the most current Windows technology will stay around a lot longer than the service contracts mandate. That, however, is almost never the case with Linux, where a massive pool of developers pretty much ensures that things will grow and change on a monthly, if not daily, basis. Still, the basics of the necessary knowledge to get under the hood and tinker with Linux will hold true, so it's not like there's absolutely nothing to gain from a book like this if you're a total newb. (Sorry, I despise that spelling, but if I use the correct one, Amazon filters it for being one letter off from a certain slang term they don't seem to like.)



I am, in fact, that newb. Having finally thrown Microsoft over for good in every aspect of my life I can (I still keep a Windows box around for games, and I have to use it at work), all those database and game projects I was working on will have to be Linux projects now. So I started with what I could get at the library, Collins' six-year-old treatise on Linux game programming. First, let me say that if you're looking for hands-on tutorial stuff, this is not the book for you. Collins is more interested in getting you to understand the concepts--why you want to do something, rather than what it is you want to do. While this is obviously a good thing and leads to programmers who understand more of what they're on about, it's probably worth a caveat emptor for the people who are just looking for shortcuts, or answers to a specific problem. The second thing to be said, then, is that game design itself is the most portable part of any game project. While Collins does delve into some things that are more applicable to Linux development than any other sort (an entire chapter, for example, is devoted to the OpenSource debate), many of the specific tools Collins talks about, and all of the high-level concepts, are applicable to game designers who program for any platform. Thus, I could go two ways here; criticize the book for not really being about Linux specifically, or praise it for being universal?



The problem is, I can't do one or the other. How valuable you'll find it will likely depend on how much reading you've already done on designing games and developing games with C++. If you've done a good deal, you will get the most worth out of the chapters on SDL and openGL/openAL; otherwise, read the whole thing. ***

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