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Killer / 101 Killer Apps for Your Pocket PC / Broida & Johnson / 225432-7 / Chapter 4 blind folio 81

Chapter

Fun and Games
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Killer / 101 Killer Apps for your Pocket PC / Broida & Johnson / 225432-7 / Chapter 4
101 Killer Apps for Your Pocket PC
ll work and no play makes, well, Dave. But theres nothing dull about your PDA, which is capable of some truly excellent fun. This includes not only practical fun, like the golf scorecard program that kicks off this chapter, but also classic boardgames like Monopoly, classic computer games like SimCity, and classic parlor games like pool. Whether youve got five minutes to kill while waiting for a taxi or five hours on a coast-to-coast flight, youll find plenty of entertainment on your PDA.

40 IntelliGolf

To the Links, Caddie!
Rick is not a golfer. Dave is not a golfer. So youre probably thinking, Right, like Im going to take golf advice from two guys who dont know a sand wedge from a sandwich. Hey, its okay with us if you dont try IntelliGolfbut youll be missing out on the coolest scorecard program in all of recorded golf history (which goes back more than ten years!).
Calling IntelliGolf a scorecard program belies its capabilities. While it can indeed keep score for up to five players per round, it can also track shots for every club, manage wagering games (such as skins, scramble, and point quota), and show you statistics and graphs based on your performance over time. It also enables you to download course informationhole par, handicap, and lengthfor over 18,000 courses, so you dont have to input all that stuff manually before your round. Just download the course from the IntelliGolf web site, ActiveSync your PDA, and hit the links. The Birdie Edition of IntelliGolf includes a Windows component (see Figure 4-1) that synchronizes with your PDA and gives you a more complete overview of your rounds, statistics, and so on. You can also print your scorecards and post them around the office for bragging rights (or some good-natured ribbingLook, Dave shot a 397!).
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Killer / 101 Killer Apps for Your Pocket PC / Broida & Johnson / 225432-7 / Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4: Fun and Games

FIGURE 4-1
When you ActiveSync, IntelliGolf Birdie Edition transfers all the details of your round from your PDA to your PC, where you can track your progress, print scorecards, and more.

Killer Tip

If you dont need or want the Windows component, you can save $10 by purchasing IntelliGolf Par Edition, which includes only the Pocket PC software. All the other features are the same, and your data still gets backed up when you ActiveSync.
The latest version of IntelliGolf has one particularly advanced feature that merits attention. If you have a GPS receiver that works with your PDA, IntelliGolf can compute the exact distance from your location on the fairway to the green. Armed with that information, you can select the best club for your shot and, hopefully, shave some strokes from your score. To use this IntelliGPS technology, you need two things: a GPS receiver thats compatible with your PDA, and GPS coordinates for the course youre playing. The latter are included with the course info you download from the IntelliGolf web site, though not all courses have been updated with the necessary GPS data. For those that
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arent, you can record the coordinates yourself during your first round of playthen youll have them for all future rounds.

As for the GPS receiver, there are countless choices. If your PDA has a built-in (or even add-on) Bluetooth radio, your best bet is a Bluetooth GPS. Thats because its wireless, meaning you could leave the receiver strapped to your golf bag and still obtain coordinates on your PDA from up to 30 feet away. ALK, Belkin, Delorme, and Socket are among the GPS companies that offer Bluetooth receivers. They also offer wired solutions for non-Bluetooth PDAs.

FIND IT ON THE CD

IntelliGolf 7.0 Birdie Edition, $39.95 Karrier Communications www.IntelliGolf.com

41 SimCity

Manage Your Own City
Daves definition of a fun game is one in which things blow up real good. Rick prefers thinking to carnage, hence his fondness for SimCity 2000a thinking persons game in the truest sense. Youve probably heard of the eponymous desktop classic, which in the late 80s just about ruined personal productivity with its highly addictive mix of city building and management. (City building and management? Sounds about as much fun as a root canal, but trust us when we say its thoroughly engaging. It wouldnt be a classic otherwise.)
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SimCity 2000 for Pocket PC is a licensed version of the original, meaning it looks and plays exactly the same. You start with an empty stretch of land; its up to you to build roads, power plants, residential areas, police and fire departments, and so on. In other words, youre pretty much a deity. Once teeny little sim-citizens start moving into your mini-metropolis, you shift gears from god to mayor (same difference), working overtime to keep everyone happy. That means keeping taxes low while still generating enough revenue for new roads, more power plants, the occasional football stadium get the idea?
If you just cant make ends meet and dont mind a little harmless cheating, type imacheat using the onscreen keyboard. Youll instantly get an extra $500,000 in your citys coffers. Want to see a nuclear meltdown? Type buddamus. Start a fire? Type mrsoleary.
If things are humming along nicely (or even if theyre not), you can put on the god shoes again and see how your city deals with a natural disaster: fire, flood, and maybe a visit from good old Godzilla. Mwa ha ha ha! (Dont be afraid to indulge your god complexyou can always rebuild after a catastrophe.) All this should come as good news to SimCity fans (and simulation fans in general). Now for the bad news. Because the game has to squish into your PDAs relatively small screen, you dont get to see as much of your city at a time, so you wind up scrolling around quite a bitwhich kills some of the fun. Even so, SimCity 2000 looks great and remains just as fun today as it was a decade ago.

SimCity 2000, $29.95 Zio Interactive www.ziointeractive.com
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42 Merriam-Webster Crossword Challenge
Big Book of CrosswordsIn Your Little PDA
One of the reasons were so fond of reading books on our PDAs (see Chapter 3) is convenience: its a lot easier to fit a PDA in your pocket than a copy of Stephen Kings latest hardcover. Same goes for crossword puzzles: we love doing them, but who wants to carry around a big book of em? (Sure, theres always the newspaper, but it gives you just one puzzle, and then you wind up with ink on your fingers, plus theyre impossible to open when youre packed into a coach seat, and theres never a pen around when you need onesigh. Oh, dont get us wrong, we love newspapers, especially ones with Dave Barry, butwhere were we?) Merriam-Webster Crossword Challenge packs several hundred puzzles into your PDA and wraps them in an attractive, easy-to-use interface. Tap any square to see the across clue for that word; tap it again to see the down clue. You enter letters using an in-game keyboard, not the same one you use to enter other data.
The game lets you play at three different skill levels. The puzzles themselves dont change; rather, each level includes a different number of hints (tap the question-mark icon to reveal the highlighted letter) and verifies (used to see if the letter in the selected square is correctif not, it gets erased). The Easy level gives you ten verifies and five hints, Medium gives you five verifies and three hints, and Hard makes you figure out the puzzle the old-fashioned way.
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We normally advise people to stay away from software that comes on memory cards, as you usually get less than what you pay for. One exception is Mobile Digital Medias Merriam-Webster Crossword Puzzles & Word Challenges (www.gomdm.com), which includes not only Crossword Challenge, but also three other great word games: Link Letters, Text Twist (one of Ricks personal favoritessee A Game That Boggles the Mind, later in this chapter), and WhatWord. This foursome would cost you about $60 if purchased separatelythe card sells for $30 and keeps your PDAs memory free for other stuff. Such a deal!
Until Crossword Challenge came along, wed forgotten how much fun crossword puzzles can be. In fact, wed be remiss if we didnt mention another terrific title: Stand Alones Crossword Puzzles for Pocket PC (www.standalone.com). It costs $5 more than Crossword Challenge, but it has one important additional feature: it works with puzzles you can download from newspaper web sites across the country. Thus, you not only get a bunch of crosswords from the guy who writes them for the Washington Post, you get access to a virtually unlimited supply of extras. Check out the demoits on the CD!

Merriam-Webster Crossword Challenge, $14.95 Hexacto www.hexacto.com
Find More Software Online
This book is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are thousands of programs available for Pocket PC handhelds, and many of them can be found at Handango (www.handango.com). This site sells Pocket PC software directly, meaning you use a credit card to pay for a program, download it to your PC, and then install it on your PDA. We also recommend visiting PocketGear (www.pocketgear.com), another vast repository of Pocket PC software. If youre looking for something thats not in this book (impossible, we know!), youre likely to find it at one of these two online stores.

43 The Emperors Mahjong

Cant We All Just Get Mahjong?
The traditional game of mahjong is played with four people seated around a square table, with dozens of ceramic tiles in the middle. Okay, how do you turn that into something you play on your PDA? In the case of The Emperors Mahjong, you change the rules a bit. (Hey, hes the Emperor, he can do what he wants!)
The game works like this: youre presented with a board containing dozens of tiles. You have six minutes in which to clear at least 100 tiles from the board, which is done by tapping identical pairs (or pairs belonging to like families). Needless to say, this is a bit different from traditional mahjong, which has more in common with gin rummy. Okay, so maybe the Emperor had a little too much sake in classifying this a mahjong game. Its still pretty funtry the demo and see for yourself.
Interested in a more traditional mahjong game? Check out Four Winds Mah Jong (www.4windsmj.com), in which you play against three computer opponents and utilize standard mahjong rules. Try the demoits on the CD!
The Emperors Mahjong, $14.95 Hexacto www.hexacto.com
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44 Trivial Pursuit

Honey, I Shrunk Trivial Pursuit!
Most people have a love/hate relationship with Trivial Pursuit, the 1980s trivia game that once and for all separated the smart people from, well, Dave. Actually, Ricks no champ when it comes to trivia, either, but hell blow you off the tennis court, so there. Handmarks Trivial Pursuit re-creates the beloved game on your PDA, allowing you to play it anywhere, anytime, with up to five other players. This version includes over 1,600 multiple-choice and true-false questions (some covering very recent events, such as the SARS epidemic) in six familiar categories: Arts and Entertainment, History, Sports and Leisure, Science and Nature, People and Places, and Wildcard. The goal remains the same: answer questions correctly to fill your game piece with wedges and prove youre the smartest one in the group.

If youd rather dispense with the game board and just test your trivia knowledge, Trivial Pursuit offers a Flash mode in which you answer questions in order to move up the rungs of a ladder. The first player to reach the top and answer the final question correctly wins the game. Regardless of which mode you choose, Trivial Pursuit serves up the occasional trivia fact, an informative bit of info related to the question you just answered.
Tap the magnifying-glass icon to zoom in on the game board. Tap it again to zoom out and see the entire board. Tap the little dancing-i icons to see additional gameplay tips.
Trivial Pursuit, $29.99 Handmark www.handmark.com
45 Battleship, Scrabble, and Yahtzee
Scrabble, Yahtzee, BattleshipIts Like the 70s All Over Again
Back in the 70s, cable TV didnt exist, VCRs were an expensive luxury item, and the Internet wasnt even known as the Internet. (It was called the Arpanet, and it was used primarily to connect government and university mainframe computers. Theres your trivia for the day.) Small wonder boardgames were so popularthere was nothing else to do! Fortunately, many of these games are just as fun today as they were decades ago and now you dont need a kitchen table (or even other players) to play them. Classics like Scrabble, Yahtzee, and Battleship are available for your PDA, and theyre not just clones, eithertheyre licensed versions of the originals, so they look and play just like you remember. Take a look:
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You can play any of these games solo (with one or more computer opponents, depending on the game) or with other people. In fact, all three games support play via infrared, meaning if you have, say, Battleship on your PDA and youre sitting across from someone who has Battleship on his PDA, you can play head-to-head on your respective devices. After you complete your turn, you tap a button to beam your move to the other person, where its reflected on his screen. He makes his move, beams it to you, and so the game progresses. Of course, you can also take turns on the same PDAits just not as cool and geeky.

These three games are great diversions for kids old enough to understand the rules. Each one requires at least a little bit of brain power (Scrabble in particular), as opposed to the usual blast-everythingin-sight games kids usually play. And because theyre fun for adults as well, theyre ideal for the whole family. This message brought to you by Parker Brothers. (Just kidding.)
Battleship, $19.99 Scrabble, $29.99 Yahtzee, $19.99 Handmark www.handmark.com

46 All Mobile Casino

Get Ready for Vegas, Baby
Hey, is that a casino in your pocket? It is if youre carrying All Mobile Casino in your pocket. This collection of 11 gambling gamesAmerican Roulette, European Roulette, Baccarat (Welcome back, Mr. Bond), Blackjack, 6:5 Blackjack, Caribbean Poker, Video Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Casino War, Sic Bo (a popular Chinese dice game), and Slots features beautiful graphics and nifty sound effects. Best of all, youll never lose more than $15. Lets see Caesars Palace match that bet!
Speaking of Vegas, theres nothing like a little blackjack practice before you hit the tables. All Mobile Casinos version is gorgeous, allowing you to play up to three hands simultaneously from a six-deck chute (perfect for practicing your card counting). It also has a voice feature that announces your card total and says things like bust and blackjack. (If you get tired of the voice feature, turn it off by tapping Tools | Options, then unchecking the Voices box.)
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Whats interesting about All Mobile Casino is the way it simulates the Vegas experience. At the outset, you create a player and give yourself a monetary stake. This can be as much or as little as you like, but your virtual wallet stays with you as you move from one game to another. When you go broke, thats ityoure done. You can always create another player, of course, but having a set limit makes you a more careful gambler and makes the game seem more realistic. All Mobile Casino also includes built-in help screens for all the games, so fear not if youre not up to speed on the rules of Sic Bo or Pai Gow Poker. The only lemon in the bunch is slots. All Mobile Casino includes three spiffy-looking machines, but they all seem to have the same problem: you never, ever win. The first slot always comes up the same, and the third one frequently does. Obviously, theres a bug in the software. Weve alerted the developers, so hopefully it will be fixed by the time you read this. Thats us, always looking out for you, our beloved reader.
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Free Pocket PC games are few and far between, and free ones of the caliber of Drive-Thru Poker (www.portable-games.com) are rare indeed. This polished, colorful video-poker variant stakes you with $100 and gives you 20 hands in which to break the bank or go bust. After you place your bet, youre dealt five cards, any of which can be kept or discarded. You need to end up with at least a pair of jacks to push, better to win. Before you toss your discards, you can halve your bet (if your hand is looking particularly weak) or double it (if its a strong one). A wild card helps keep things interesting. You can find Drive-Thru Poker on the CD!
All Mobile Casino, $14.95 BinaryFish www.binaryfish.com

47 ChessGenius

Hone Your Chess Skills
Whether youre serious about chess or you just enjoy the occasional casual game, theres no better Pocket PC simulation than ChessGenius. The game caters to novices and experts alike and includes 40 different play levels. You can play solo against the computer, play against another person (either on the same PDA or via infrared, assuming your opponent also has ChessGenius installed on his or her PDA), or sit back and watch the computer play itself.
If youre an utter novice like Rick, youll appreciate ChessGeniuss ten beginner levels, in which the game makes deliberate mistakes. It can offer hints regarding your
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next move and, in Tutor mode, warn you if youve made a bad move. You can even take it back and try to make a better move. Once your skills improve, you can switch to the blitz levelstimed games in which you have anywhere from 1 to 120 minutes to play the entire match.
Keep to the center of the board. Occupy it if you can, attack it if your opponent has it. Pawns make excellent soldiers in the war for the center.
In short, ChessGenius has just about every feature you could want in a chess game, and then some. On the other hand, if youve always found chess a bit dull or slow-moving, have we got an alternative for you. Rooks Revenge (www.astraware.com) presents you with a colorful, but fairly traditional-looking, chess board. Instead of making moves one at a time, your goal is to make them as quickly as possible. Youre still limited to the legal moves of each piece, but you dont have to wait for your opponent to make a move before you make your next one. Its like chess on steroidsterrific, addicting, fast-paced fun. Check out the demo on the CD!
ChessGenius, $25 Lang Software www.chessgenius.com

48 Backgammon

Ever Wonder Why Theres No Frontgammon?
We love backgammon. Its like checkers for grownups. Handmarks Backgammon offers just about everything you could want in a PDA version of the game, including one- and two-player competition, a doubling cube, hints and statistics, and a choice of board designs (wooden, marble, and classic). In case youre not familiar with the finer points of backgammon, Handmark includes a thorough instruction manual thats accessible right in the game (tap Info | Instructions). If you want to take back a bad move, tap Game | Undo Move. Need a hint? Tap Game | Hint. Yes, Backgammon is pretty easy to operate. Our work here is done. Go forth and gammon.

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Moving your pieces in Backgammon can seem a little confusing at first. After you roll the dice, the one on the left represents your first move. If you want your first move to be the die on the right, tap either die to swap their positions. Now tap the piece you want to move.
Backgammon, $14.99 Handmark www.handmark.com

49 Billiard Master

Shoot Some Stick
You dont have to be a big fan of poolor even billiardsto enjoy Billiard Master, a way-cool game that lets you play rounds of 8-ball and 9-ball against a human or computer opponent. Sure, your PDAs stylus makes for an awfully small cue stick, but at least you dont have to stand around a smoky bar waiting for a table (unless you enjoy that sort of thing).
Raise/lower stick Cue aim Precise cue movement Show/hide ball numbers

Power meter

Shot button
Billiard Master includes a practice mode so you can get a feel for the controls, which are generally quite easy. For your break, you can tap and drag the cue ball anywhere below the scratch line (or just leave it in the center). Now its time to line up your shot. By default, Billiard Masters hint mode is on (visit the Options menu if you want to turn it off), meaning you see a line representing the exact trajectory of your ball based on the position of the cue stick. Tap and drag the stick to line up your shot.
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Use the white left/right arrows to finesse the aim. You can also adjust where you strike the balljust tap and drag the crosshairs inside the green circle, located above the aim arrows. You can even change the angle at which you strike the cue ball. Tap and drag the little line to the right of the white ball. Finally, decide how hard you want to hit the ball. Tap anywhere inside the power meter (just above the Shot button), then drag up and down until its set at the desired strength. Tap Shot and watch the balls dance! Needless to say, youll probably want to spend some time practicing before you challenge the computeror that surly looking guy with a tattooto a game. Not familiar with the rules of 8-ball and/or 9-ball? Tap Billiard Masters Help option for instructions on both. Now youre ready to rack em up!
Dragging the cue stick is fine for lining up the basic direction of your shot, but youll notice you cant always position it precisely where you want. Thus, take full advantage of the aiming arrows, which make hairline adjustments to the shot angle. And theres no shame in leaving the hint line on. You have to make some concessions to the fact that this isnt a real tableyou cant lean down to make sure you have the perfect angle.

Billiard Master, $19.95 DigYs www.digys.com

50 Text Twist

A Game That Boggles the Mind
If you look at the letters GEVAAS and immediately see savage, youre sure to enjoy Text Twist, an elegant variation on Boggle and one of Ricks all-time favorite games. The premise is simple: youre given six scrambled letters and two minutes in which to build as many words as possible. To score the maximum number of points and move on to the next level, you have to unscramble the six-letter word.
Text Twist has over 10,000 words in its dictionary, so youre not likely to run out anytime soon. If you get stuck while trying to build your words, you can tap the Twist button to reshuffle the letters. If youre really good, youll get all the possible words before time runs out, and earn bonus points (and bragging rights) in the process.
Astraware is responsible for some of the most popular PDA games on the planet. Ever heard of Bejeweled? The PDA version comes from Astraware. We also highly recommend BookWorm, Bounce Out, Insaniquarium, and especially Word Mojo, which is like Scrabble with a twist. You can download demos of these and other excellent Astraware games from the companys web site.
Text Twist, $14.95 Astraware www.astraware.com

51 PocketConquest

Whats Life Without a Little Risk?
What family doesnt have fond memories of sitting around the Risk board, vying for global domination and ultimately getting into a huge fight? The only fight you can get into with PocketConquest is with your Pocket PC, but that doesnt make it any less satisfying. This Risk clone captures all the fun of the boardgame. Just try not to whip your PDA at a brick wall if you get frustrated by unfriendly dice.
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At the outset, you and up to seven computer players (only one human can participate, alas) divvy up the worlds countries, then place your troops as strategically as possible. While theres strength in numbers, theres also the random element that comes from rolling the dice. If you have eight troops and youre attacking a country with three, youre likely to capture itbut theres always the possibility youll lose. Let the insanity begin.
Want to play PocketConquest on your PC? You can, only its called Conquest for Windows. It sells for $20, just like the Pocket PC version, but you can buy the two together for $30. Visit the developers web site for details.
PocketConquest, $20 Sean OConnors Windows Games www.windowsgames.co.uk

52 Chopper Alley

Indulge Your Inner Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincentstar of the cheesy 80s action show Airwolfremember? The souped-up helicopter? The feathered hair? Ernest Borgnine? Dave still has posters taped to the walls of his bedroom. Anyway, Chopper Alley is a helicoptercombat simulation reminiscent of the PC classic Comanche. (See, Jan-Michael Vincent flew a helicopter in the show, and Chopper Alley is a helicopter simget it? Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch. Daves idea. Bad Dave!) You get to pilot six different choppers in 25 different missionsand the graphics must be seen to be believed.
These grayscale screenshots dont do the game justice, but check em out anyway:
Helicopters arent the easiest aircraft to control, whether youre in the cockpit of a real one or at the helm of a computer (or, natch, PDA) simulation. Fortunately, Chopper Alley makes it reasonably simple, relying on your Pocket PCs d-pad to move your copter left, right, forward, and back. To fire your selected weapon, press the d-pad. (If your PDAs d-pad doesnt have this action button capability, meaning you cant press it, you wont be able to play the game. Doh!) Tap Help from the main menu to see a complete illustration of Chopper Alleys controls.
In the games Options menu, you can adjust various graphics settings that make a big difference in how the game looks. For instance, we prefer the landscape screen orientation, which rotates the game 90 degrees for widescreen play. (When you do this, the d-pad controls change accordingly. What was previously left is now up, and so on.) And if your Pocket PC has a relatively fast processor, set the Draw Distance and Image Quality levels to Very High. (If these actions cause the game to slow down too much, you may have to drop them down again. Experiment until you find the ideal settings.)
When you start the game, youll need to select which helicopter you want to fly each model has different attributes that can affect mission successand your weapons loadout. The number of weapons you can carry depends on the number of pylons attached to the helicopter. This number ranges from two to eightand theres one chopper that has no pylons at all. Instead, it carries passengersuseful for those search-and-rescue missions. Once in flight, tap the bar at the right-hand side of the screen to adjust your altitude. You can also tap the Strafe control to move your aircraft left and right while still facing the same direction (unlike the standard left/right controls, which rotate the helicopter). Happy carpet-bombing!
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At press time, Handango (www.handango.com) was offering a special bundleChopper Alley Classic Collectionfor just $4.99. Youre probably thinking its a stripped-down version or something, but it actually comes with four more missions than the Zio version.

Chopper Alley, $19 Zio Interactive www.ziointeractive.com

53 Darxide EMP

Outer Space Adventures
As Chopper Alley proves, a Game Boy has nothing on your Pocket PC when it comes to action games. Of course, Chopper Alley is all about helicopters. If you prefer to blow things up in space rather than on the ground, dont miss Darxide EMP. It reminds us of the classic PC games Elite and X-Wing, shoehorned into a Pocket PC.
The game is a pretty straightforward arcade shooter. Blast everything in sight asteroids, alien ships, and so onwhile collecting weapons upgrades and energy crystals and rescuing stranded miners. Your Pocket PCs d-pad is used to control your shipthe voice-record button fires your selected weapon, though you can change any of the button settings in the games Options menu.
If you enjoy this kind of outer-space adventure, we also recommend Anthelion (www.pdamill.com), Interstellar Flames (www.xengames.com), and RocketElite (www.rocketelite.com). Theyre not only fun, theyre ideal for making your non-PDA-carrying friends jealous.
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Darxide EMP, $7 Frontier Developments www.frontier.co.uk

54 PDA Playground

Keep the Kids Entertained
As ideas go, PDA Playground cant be beat. It turns your handheld into a miniature game room, complete with six minigames and activities for kids aged 37. Weve long been fans of this idea, as a PDA can be the perfect diversion for long car rides and other patience-draining situations. The software cleverly locks out all buttons and icons, so theres no way your kids can accidentally erase data or switch to another program. In fact, you can add other third-party programs to PDA Playgrounds kid-friendly interface, so the little ones arent limited to the softwares six modules. Speaking of which, PDA Playgrounds games are a mixed bagbut in a good way. Draw provides a paintbrush, color palette, eraser, fill tool, and spray paint, all for use on blank paper. Paint (see Figure 4-2) sports the same tools, but offers 26 coloring-book pages with things like cats and teddy bears. ScratchOff requires kids to scribble all over the screen, thereby revealing one of the aforementioned pictures.

FIGURE 4-2

No crayons required for Paint, one of PDA Playgrounds six kid games. It lets your little one play with a digital coloring book.
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FollowMe is a nice Simon-like memory game that uses animals, while PuzzlePath is a clever take on those old arrange-the-tiles games, except that here theres an animated little person you have to guide around a path. Finally, theres Match, a Concentration-style memory game we didnt think much of at first, but Ricks daughter Sarah has fun with it.

Hatton In this chapter we created our first game,.Nettrix, and explored some important concepts that will be used Apress 2003 (696 pages) even in sophisticated games, including the following:
Basic concepts about GDI+ and the new graphics objects used on Visual Basic.NET interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and
Basic concepts about collision detectionStudio. version of Microsoft's Visual and some suggestions on how to implement fast collision algorithms in our games
Table of Contents Creation of simple classes and structured error handling in Visual Basic.NET.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0
Basic Foreword game engine creation, based on a game proposal and with the support of a game project
In the next chapter, we'll look at the concept of artificial intelligence, how to create a game with computercontrolled characters, and how to create faster graphics routines with GDI+. We'll also examine some Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: concerning object-oriented programming. additional concepts GDI+ and Collision Detection
Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Nonmanaged Code
Chapter.NET.Netterpillars: DirectX 9.0 ISBN:1590590511 2: Game Programming with Artificial Intelligence and by Alexandre Santos Lobo and Ellen Sprites Hatton 2003 (696 pages) Apress
The authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest version of the concepts of Studio. In this chapter we'll exploreMicrosoft's Visual artificial intelligence (AI) and sprites. We'll also extend our

.Netterpillars. Here are some details about the game:
Table of Contents.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 with other caterpillars or any obstacles. If you collide, you are dead. Foreword
The game objective is to control a caterpillar-like character around the game field, trying not to collide
The game field must be filled with mushrooms and every time a netterpillar eats a mushroom, he gets Preface bigger. Introduction
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
The game is over when all the players die (computer or human ones), or when the last mushroom is -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites eaten.
Chapter 4 -must be a configuration screen where the and DirectAudio There River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, player can choose the field size, how many Chapter 5 - River there'll be in the game, and the number of computer-controlled opponents (from 0 to 3). mushrooms Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen Chapter 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow
The - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API Chapter 7 game must allow the smooth inclusion of multiplayer routines in future versions, so all the project
and coding must be II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay done with this goal in mind. -.Netterpillars
D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, is to add endurance to the game. That The basic idea in creating different configurations for a game and Access to Chapter 9 Nonmanaged Code Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC
means that the game will interest the player for a longer time. It's a common approach to add many different ways of playing in order to keep the player's attention. A good example of this approach is Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming Microsoft's Age of Empires: Players can start a new game and go on building from the ground up, or Appendix can Motivations in Games players B - choose a quest, where a previously created status quo is presented and they must solve some Appendix problems toI win the game. specific C - How Do Make Games?
In our Index sample, the player can choose, for example, a small and mushroom-crowded game field, and try to eat them all List of Figures without getting trapped by his or her own tail; or choose a big field with fewer mushrooms and more opponents, in order to try to be the longest one, eating as many mushrooms as possible while trying List of Tables to kill the enemies, trapping them with his or her tail. Many intermediary combinations would be possible, making the game more interesting to play. With the basic game plan set, it's time to start thinking about the technical details: creating a project for the game.

Note Notice that we have put the netterpillars a distance apart from each other, and set their initial direction to be different, so they won't hit each other just after the game starts. OurMove method is ready to move the netterpillar using the direction dictated by the game engine, so we'll create a simple MoveNetterpillars method in the clsGameEngine class that will update the x or y position of each of the netterpillars, based on their current direction. Sub MoveNetterpillars() Dim i As Integer Dim incX As Integer = 0, incY As Integer = 0 For i = 0 To NetterpillarNumber - 1 ' Moves all the Netterpillars Select Case objNetterpillars(i).Direction Case clsSprite.enDirection.East

incX = 1

.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 incY = 0
ISBN:1590590511 by AlexandreclsSprite.enDirection.West Case Santos Lobo and Ellen Hatton incX = -1 Apress 2003 (696 pages)

incY = 0

The authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce Case clsSprite.enDirection.North interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and incX Visual programming with = 0 Basic.NET on Everett, the latest incY = Visual Studio. version of Microsoft's -1
Case clsSprite.enDirection.South incX = 0 Table of Contents incY = 1.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 End Select
objNetterpillars(i).Move(_ objNetterpillars(i).Location.X + incX, _ objNetterpillars(i).Location.Y + incY, ScreenWinHandle) Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection Next Chapter 2 -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites End Sub Chapter 3 - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+
Introduction Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen
To finish the second draft of the GameField class, we need to call the MoveNetterpillars method from Chapter 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow theRender procedure, as follows:
- Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay
Sub Render() D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 MoveNetterpillars() Nonmanaged Code Redraw() Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC End Sub
Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming Appendix B - Motivations in Games Appendix C - HowRedraw method to include the lines that will draw the netterpillars: and update the Do I Make Games? Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games Index

For i = 0 To 3

Table Public Const FVF_CUSTOMVERTEX As VertexFormats = VertexFormats.Position Or _ of Contents.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 VertexFormats.Texture1 Foreword
Dim NUM_VERTS = 36 Preface
Private Structure CUSTOMVERTEX Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection
Chapter 2 Public X As Artificial Intelligence and Sprites -.Netterpillars: Single Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Public Y DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ As Single - Managed Public Z As Single - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio Public tu As Single - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen Public tv As Single - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow Structure
- Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to
Nonmanaged Code CreateFlexVertex will be simpler:
Function CreateFlexVertex(X As Single, Y As Single, Z As Single, _
Appendix B - Motivations in Games Single, tv As Single) As CUSTOMVERTEX tu As Appendix C -CreateFlexVertex.X = X How Do I Make Games? Appendix D -CreateFlexVertex.Y Successful Games Guidelines for Developing = Y Index

CreateFlexVertex.Z = Z

List of Figures CreateFlexVertex.tu = tu List of TablesCreateFlexVertex.tv = tv

End Function

Returning to our first example, note that we have an initialization function and a finalization function, which creates the objects we need and destroys them when the window is being closed. Although the DisposeD3D finalization procedure needs no modifications (it just disposes every object), the InitD3D procedure for this sample deserves a closer look, because we have some significant modifications, which appear in bold in the subsequent code: Public Function InitD3D(WinHandle As IntPtr) As Boolean Dim DispMode As DisplayMode Dim ObjDirect3Dpp As PresentParameters
DispMode = Manager.Adapters(_ Manager.Adapters.Default.Adapter).CurrentDisplayMode ' Define the presentation parameters ObjDirect3Dpp = New PresentParameters() ObjDirect3Dpp.Windowed = True ObjDirect3Dpp.SwapEffect = SwapEffect.Discard ObjDirect3Dpp.BackBufferFormat = DispMode.Format ObjDirect3Dpp.EnableAutoDepthStencil = True
ObjDirect3Dpp.AutoDepthStencilFormat = DepthFormat.D16.NET create the device ' Try to Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 ISBN:1590590511 Try by Alexandre Santos Lobo and Ellen Hatton objDirect3DDevice = New Device(_ Apress 2003 (696 pages) Manager.Adapters.Default.Adapter, _ The DeviceType.Hardware, WinHandle, to produce authors of this text show how easy it can be _ interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and CreateFlags.SoftwareVertexProcessing, programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest objDirect3Dpp) ' Turnofoff culling => front and back of the triangles are visible version Microsoft's Visual Studio. ObjDirect3DDevice.RenderState.CullMode = Cull.NONE ' Turn off D3D lighting Table of Contents ObjDirect3DDevice.RenderState.Lighting = False.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 ' Turn on ZBuffer Foreword ObjDirect3DDevice.RenderState.ZBufferEnable = TRUE Preface ObjDirect3DDevice.VertexFormat = FVF_CUSTOMVERTEX Introduction ' Set the Projection Matrix to use a orthogonal view Chapter 1 ObjDirect3DDevice.Transform.Projection = _ -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection Matrix.OrthoLH(300, 200, 0, 0) Chapter 2 -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites Chapter 3 -InitD3D DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ Managed = True Catch Chapter 4 - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio Chapter 5 -InitD3D = II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen River Pla.Net False End -Try KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow Chapter 6 Magic ' Dispose the used objects Chapter 7 - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API DispMode = Nothing Chapter 8 -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay ObjDirect3Dpp = Nothing D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 End Function Nonmanaged Code

Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC Appendix A - The Statein aPC Gaming now, we need to instruct Direct3D to calculate which drawing primitives are Since we're working of 3-D world Appendix B - which are not.Games made by setting the EnableAutoDepthStencil member of the shown and Motivations in This is Appendix C - How Do I Make True (yes, we want a depth stencil to be used) and setting the presentation parameter to Games? Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games (16 bits will be used in the calculation, because this AutoDepthStencilFormat to DepthFormat.D16 Index is the most commonly supported by the current 3-D boards). We'll also need to turn on the z-buffer value List of Figures (another name for depth buffer or depth stencil) calculation for the device. List of Tables
There are two other important settings here: the one that disables the drawing primitives culling (so the textures will be drawn in the front face) and the one that turns off the lighting for our 3-D world (in other words, the one that tells the device to light everything equally, since we are NOT providing any light in our vertices). A nice test is to comment out each of these lines and see the resulting effects. The last bold line defines an orthogonal projection matrix to be used when converting the world coordinates to screen ones, with a viewport of 300 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall. This is the simplest projection type, but the zaxis translation will have no effect (we won't see the cube getting smaller when it's far from the screen). After initializing the objects, we need to start the drawing primitives and load the textures. Based on the CreateSquare function in the last samples, we can create a CreateCube function that will initialize and lock the vertex buffer, call a CubeVertices function that creates all the vertices, and unlock the vertex buffer. There's no difference (except for the name) between the CreateCube and the CreateSquare functions, but let's take a look at the code behind these functions once more to refresh our memories and compose the complete code for this sample: Public Function CreateCube() As Boolean Try Dim i As Integer For i = 1 To 10 Textures(i - 1) = TextureLoader.FromFile(ObjDirect3DDevice, _ Application.StartupPath + "\.\Walk" & CStr(i) & ".bmp")
ISBN:1590590511 by Alexandre = New VertexBuffer(GetType(CustomVertex), NUM_VERTS, _ vertBufferSantos Lobo and Ellen Hatton objDirect3DDevice, Usage.WriteOnly, _ Apress 2003 (696 pages) fvf_CUSTOMVERTEX, Pool.Default) The authors of vertex buffer (which be to return ' Lock the this text show how easy it can will produce the allocated memory) interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and Dim verts As CUSTOMVERTEX() Everett, the latest programming with Visual Basic.NET on = vertBuffer.Lock(0, 0) ' Set of Microsoft's Visual Studio. cube version the vertices for our CubeVertices(verts) ' Unlocking the buffer commits the data to the array Table of Contents vertBuffer.Unlock().NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 Return True Foreword Catch Preface Return False Introduction End Try End Function Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection

objDirect3DDevice.RenderState.AlphaBlendEnable = False End If.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 ISBN:1590590511 by Alexandre Santos Lobo and Ellen End Sub
The authors of Now we want to create the player produce That's all for the Player class.this text show how easy it can be to object on the GameEngine class, and code theMovePlayerinteresting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and described in the next sections. method, which will move the player across the screen, as
Creating the Player Object
We'll create the Table of Contentsplayer object inside the Initialize method of the GameEngine class. Since the New method of the Player with DirectX 9.0.NET Game Programming class takes no parameters, all we need to do is create the object and check if this has been done correctly. Foreword
Player = New ClsPlayer() If Player Is Nothing Then Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection Initialize Intelligence Chapter 2 -.Netterpillars: Artificial = False and Sprites Exit Function Chapter 3 - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ End If
Introduction Chapter 4 Chapter 5 - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen Chapternext-sectionKindergarteN.:the code for the GameEngine class that will call the Draw method of the Magic we'll include Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow In the 6 Chapter 7 class, allowing us to see the player's plane on the screen and move it. Player - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API Chapter 8 -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay
Coding the MovePlayer Method D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 concepts - The State transformations to objects. Appendix A for applyingof PC Gaming
Nonmanaged Code Before coding the keyboard to Pocket PC Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix control and the MovePlayer procedure, let's take a step back and review the
As we were reminded when coding the scrolling feature of the game, to perform transformations on an object defined by its vertices stored in the vertex buffer, all we need to do is set the Transform.World property of the Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games device object.
Appendix C - How Do I Make Games? Index List of Figures want to apply different transformations to a certain object? In our specific case, we want the But what if we List of Tablesto scroll and the player's plane to move according to the keys pressed by the player. game field

Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow - Magic The methods that KindergarteN.the data acquired with Current<device>State are unique, because they will will process II: Animation Techniques and Speech API -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay be totally related to the data structures read; we'll see every method in detail in the coming sections. D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to
Nonmanaged Code The last common method for our input device classes is Dispose, shown here, which will release the Bonus Chapter Porting free the to Pocket PC resources used and.Nettrix objects created in the class: Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming Appendix B Sub Dispose() Implements System.IDisposable.Dispose Public - Motivations in Games Appendix C - How Do I Make Games? ' Unacquire and destroy all Dinput objects. Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games InputDevice.Unacquire() Index InputDevice.Dispose() List of Figures End Sub List of Tables
We'll see now the specific details about processing the data gathered from each input device, starting with the keyboard, in the next section.
Processing the Keyboard Input
In the GetKeyBoardState method, we'll have to translate the KeyboardState byte array into keycodes from the Keys enumeration. When a key is pressed, its corresponding array element returns with the seventh bit (128, or 80 in hexadecimal notation) set; so all we have to do is to loop through all elements in the array and check the bits of each element. Since the array position has no relation at all with the ASCII values or any other character table (they just start with 1 for the Esc key, and go on sequentially left to right and then up to down), we'll have to create a Select Case command to translate it into keycodes, as shown in the subsequent code: Public Sub GetKeyboardState() Dim i As Integer = 0 Dim keyCode As System.Windows.Forms.Keys SyncLock (Me) ' Get the keys pressed from the keyboard For i = 0 To keyboardState.Length - 1 If (keyboardState(i) And &H80) <> 0 Then Select Case i

Case 208

.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 keyCode = Keys.Down ISBN:1590590511 by Alexandre Santos Lobo and Ellen Case 203 Hatton keyCode = Keys.Left Apress 2003 (696 pages)

Case 205

The authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce keyCode = Keys.Right interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and Case Visual programming with 200 Basic.NET on Everett, the latest keyCode = Keys.Up version of Microsoft's Visual Studio.
Case 57 keyCode = Keys.Space Table of Contents Case 128.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 keyCode = Keys.Escape Foreword End Select Preface RaiseEvent Keypress(keyCode) Introduction End If Chapter 1 -Next.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection End.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites Chapter 2 -SyncLock End Sub Chapter 3 - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+

Second Draft: Implementing Moving Enemies
As we said in the game project, we'll "promote" our enemies from tiles to active objects.
Loading the Active Objects
After creating an array to hold these objects (identical to the tiles array), we'll need to change the LoadGameMap and LoadLine procedures to load both the Tiles array and the ActiveObjects array, as shown in the next piece of code:
Private tiles As Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 ClsTile(,).NET Private ActiveObjects As ClsTile(,)
Function LoadGameMap(ByValtext show how easy it can be As produce strGameMapFileName to String) As Boolean The authors of this. interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and ReDim tiles(Width,with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest programming GameMapSize) version of Microsoft's Visual Studio. ReDim ActiveObjects(Width, GameMapSize). ' Load all the game map lines from the GameMap Table of Contents ' into the Tiles array and the ActiveObjects Array.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 For i = 0 To GameMapSize - 1 Foreword If Not LoadLine(GameMap(i)) Then Preface LoadGameMap = False Introduction Exit Function Chapter 1 -End If GDI+ and Collision Detection.Nettrix: Chapter 2 -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites Next Chapter 3 - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+. Chapter 4 - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio End Function
Function LoadLine(ByVal strLine As String) As Boolean Chapter 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow Dim Magic Integer Chapter 7 -x As KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API Dim -strSpriteFileName AsGames and Directplay Chapter 8.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer String Dim Type As Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to D-iNfEcT: ClsTile.enType Chapter 9 Static LineNumber As Integer = 0 Nonmanaged Code
LoadLine = of PC Appendix A - The StateTrue Gaming For Motivations Width Appendix B -x = 0 To in Games- 1
Appendix C -Select I Case Games? How Do Make strLine.Chars(x) Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games Index List of List of
Case "1" strSpriteFileName = "borderN" Type = ClsTile.enType.Land Figures Case "2" Tables strSpriteFileName = "borderNE1" Type = ClsTile.enType.Land. (all other tiles) Case "." ' Green background ' Do nothing strSpriteFileName = "" Type = ClsTile.enType.Background Case "_" strSpriteFileName = "water" Type = ClsTile.enType.Water Case Else ' Should never happen strSpriteFileName = "InvalidTile" Type = ClsTile.enType.Land End Select Try Select Case Type Case ClsTile.enType.Background tiles(x, LineNumber) = Nothing ActiveObjects(x, LineNumber) = Nothing Case ClsTile.enType.Water To ClsTile.enType.Land tiles(x, LineNumber) = New ClsTile(strSpriteFileName & _ ".bmp", New POINT(x, LineNumber), Type)

Tip C - How Do I Make simplify Appendix This approach will Games? our treatment of collisions, too. If the player collides with an active object, we can simply destroy the object in the array, so Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Gamesit won't be drawn anymore. In the previous chapter, we needed to destroy the object and create a new water tile in the position previously occupied by the object. List of Figures
Moving the Planes and Ships on Screen
If we now run our code, we'll see everything looking just like the version in the last chapter, but without the enemies, bridges, and gas barrels. Only the tiles are being drawn. We'll have to code a new method, MoveActiveObjects, that will move and draw the elements from the ActiveObjects array. This method will present no new concepts, but it will stretch your knowledge of transformation matrices. Let's look at it step by step, so that we can get the most out of the concepts being used. A quick way to start is to copy the code from the Scroll and Draw methods and adapt it to draw our active objects, scrolling with the same speed as the tiles but not yet moving. Since the scrolling has already been applied to the Transform.World matrix, we can use this by simply calling the MoveActiveObjects before theScroll and Draw procedures: Public Sub MoveActiveObjects() Dim x As Integer, y As Integer Dim LineCount As Integer = 0 ' Draw the game field y = CurrentLineNumber - 1 If y < 0 Then y = GameMapSize ' We will move the objects a line below the current line number and a line
' above the last line on screen (CurrentLineNumber + Height) Do While.NET Game Programming + 2 DirectX 9.0 LineCount < Height with ISBN:1590590511 by = 0 To Width Lobo and Ellen For x Alexandre Santos - 1 Hatton If Not (ActiveObjects(x, y) Is Nothing) Then Apress 2003 (696 pages) ActiveObjects(x, y).Draw() The If End authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and Next programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest LineCount of Microsoft's Visual Studio. version += 1 y += 1 If y > GameMapSize Then y = 0 Table of Contents Loop.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 End Sub

Hatton When coding a game, a lot of ideas come to mind about how to make it better. As we stated before, although Apress implement all it's not always possible to 2003 (696 pages) the new suggestions that arise, we must write them down for later use. Maybe a suggestion will be implemented in a how easy it canof the game, or even in other related games. The authors of this text show future version be to produce interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and
As for our game, programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett,pause" key, and support for force-feedback we'll implement two new featuresa "game the latest version of Microsoft'sto consider other extra features for your version of the game, such as joysticks. In addition, you might want Visual Studio. building a high scores table, implementing animation for when the enemy explodes, and improving the collision detection algorithm to produce more accurate results. Table of Contents
Including a Pause Feature
We included a pause feature to our sample games in Chapters 1 and 2, but these are very simple games compared to River Pla.Net. In this game, we'll have to take into account many things, like ignoring the input Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection from DirectInput and stopping the music and the scrolling, as well as enemy and bullet movements.
Introduction Chapter 2 -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites Chapter 3 start coding our pause feature by changing the and DirectX vs. method, in order to display a "Game We can - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics DrawStatus GDI+ Chapter 4 message if the game Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio Paused" - River Pla.Net: Tiled is paused. To do this, we'll have to include the next lines in the method: Chapter 5 - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen Chapter 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow Dim PauseText As ClsGameFont Chapter 7 - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation TechniquesMS", 20, _ PauseText = New ClsGameFont("Comic Sans and Speech API Chapter 8 -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay Continue ", New POINT(100, 220)) "Game Paused - Move or Shoot to D-iNfEcT: If Paused Then Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 Nonmanaged Code PauseText.Color = Color.FromARGB(255, 255, 255, 0) Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC PauseText.Draw() Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming End If Appendix B - Motivations in Games Appendix C - How Do I Make Games?
To avoid re-creating a font object every time we are in Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games pause mode, we can define the PauseText variable as
a class property, and initialize it in the Initializemethod.
List of Figures As for the music, we must know when the paused status has changed so that we call the StopPlaying and List of Tables Play methods only once. The following code lising must be included in the RiverEngine'sPlayMotifs

Hatton When creating an effect, we can define the following properties:
Magnitude: The strength of the force to using Managed DirectX by the joystick, ranging from 0 (no force) interesting multimedia games be applied generated 9.0 and to 10,000 (maximum forcewith the device),.NET on Everett, the latest programming for Visual Basic growing linearly.
Direction: The direction from which the force comes. The default behavior is to use polar coordinates,
Table of Contents where the direction is measure by hundreds of degrees from the north direction (the negative y axis); but.NET Game Programming with use Cartesian coordinates. For example, while the left direction is represented by x this can be changed to DirectX 9.0
= -1, Foreword y = 0 in Cartesian coordinates, it will be represented by degrees = 27,000 in polar coordinates.
Preface Introduction Duration: The amount of time the effect lasts in microseconds. Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection
We can -.Netterpillars: effect will be a ramp force or Chapter 2 also specify if theArtificial Intelligence and Spritesperiodic effect. A ramp force is a steady rising or decreasing Managed DirectX First and a maximum magnitude. A periodic effect will repeat the force effect at Chapter 3 - force with a minimumSteps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ specific - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio Chapter 4time intervals.

Chapter 5

To create a new effect in our code, we must set the parameters of an Effect data structure and call the Chapter 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow CreateEffect function. The object returned by the function will be a reference to the feedback effect and Chapter 7 - Magicby calling the Start method. can be triggered KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API
The next code listing shows a function to be included in our Joystick class, which will generate a simple D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 Nonmanaged Code effect that pulls the joystick away from the center, according to the direction specified as a parameter.
Bonus Chapter Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming Sub ForceEffect(ByVal Direction As enDirection) Appendix B -EffectData Games Dim Motivations in As New Effect() Appendix C -effDirection(1) As Integer Dim How Do I Make Games? Appendix D -effAxes(1) Developing Successful Games Dim Guidelines for As Integer Index List of Figures EffectData With List of Tables' We are using the default value for these members
'.StartDelay = 0 '.TriggerRepeatInterval = DI.Infinite '.UsesEnvelope = False '.SamplePeriod = 0 ' Set the effect type and flags that will control the effect.EffType = EffectType.ConstantForce.Flags = EffectFlags.Cartesian Or EffectFlags.ObjectOffsets ' Set the magnitude and the gain.Constant.Magnitude = DI.NominalMax.Gain = DI.NominalMax ' Set the duration (in microseconds). For infinite time use DI.Infinite;.Duration = 100000 ' One tenth of a second ' Set the trigger button - No trigger button.TriggerButton = Button.NoTrigger ' Set the axes we will be working on effAxes(0) = JoystickOffset.X effAxes(1) = JoystickOffset.Y.SetAxes(effAxes) ' Finally, set the direction Select Case Direction Case clsGameEngine.enDirection.South

Table of Contents.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 Foreword Preface Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow - Magic KindergarteN. II: Animation Techniques and Speech API -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Nonmanaged Code programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest
failure of artificialThe authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce intelligence, 7374
programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest familiarity, consumer, 609
fast sprite drawing, 8182.See alsoperformance features, project. Seeproposals

feedback, player, 610

females, Foreword 628
Preface game. Seegame fields fields, Introduction and sound, 234 files, music Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Collision Detection Chapter 2

fill modes, 55556

FillRectangle method, 5 Chapter 3 - Managed DirectX First Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ Finalize - River GameMusic Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio Chapter 4 method, Pla.Net: Tiled class, 24849
Chapter 5 - River 58 Finally keyword, Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

FindHosts method, 5068

finishing games, 62226,634 -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay FireTeam game, 484 Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to D-iNfEcT: Chapter 9 FiringSquadNonmanaged Code site, 595

fixed paths, 79

flashy effects, 612,614 Appendix B - Motivations in Games
Appendix parts, animation and, 427 flexible C - How Do I Make Games? Appendix vertex formats for Developing Successful19394, 19798, 219, 39697. See alsovertex collections flexible D - Guidelines (FVF), 16366,18183, Games Index List of Figures
Flight Simulator game, 608 Force Editor, 341
Font Tables List of object, 293, 337 force-feed joysticks, 317,34146 foreground access to input devices, 303 forms.See alsoscreens;windows game engines in, 6063 Visual Basic.NET and, 109,129 FPU_Preserve flag, 148 frame rates Direct3D animation and, 179,2057 multiplayer game start, 54445 River Pla.Net, 272,275 frames, animation, 42425 franchise games building upon, 6023 creating commercial, 631 (see alsocommercial games) industry expectations and, 6014 realistic game development goals and, 617 sales data, 6089 successful,6034 Frankenstein syndrome, 53

Pocket PC The authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce interesting 576-77 creating applications for,multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest DirectX,580-81 version of Microsoft's Visual Studio. emulator, 577-80 GDI+ and, 208,580 porting games Table of Contents to (see.Nettrix II game)
.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 point-and-click adventure games, 351-52 Foreword Preface
pointer, mouse. See alsomouse pointer PointList type, Direct3D, 160
polishing -.Nettrix: GDI+ and Chapter 1 games, 621-25, 634 Collision Detection
Chapter 2input device, 306-8 polling, -.Netterpillars: Artificial Intelligence and Sprites Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 - Managed DirectX First porting games to mobile devices. Steps: Direct3D Basics and DirectX vs. GDI+ See mobile devices;.Nettrix II game - River Pla.Net: Tiled Game Fields, Scrolling, and DirectAudio - River Pla.Net II: DirectInput and Writing Text to Screen
posture, revealing emotions by animating, 429-30
power 6 - Magic KindergarteN.: Adventure Games, ADO.NET, and DirectShow Chapter operator (^), 56 Chapter 7 - vs. originality, 601 II: Animation Techniques and Speech API practicality Magic KindergarteN.
Chapter 8 -.Netterpillars II: Multiplayer Games and Directplay predicting player moves, 74 D-iNfEcT: Multithreading, Nonrectangular Windows, and Access to Chapter 9 work, 630 pre-play - Nonmanaged Code Bonus Chapter parameters, DirectX, 148-50, 180, 186, 199 presentation Porting.Nettrix to Pocket PC Appendix A - The State of PC Gaming Present method, 151 Appendix B - Motivations in Games Appendix C - How Do I Make Games?
pride, game development and, 622-25
primitives, Direct3D drawing, 159-63 Appendix D - Guidelines for Developing Successful Games PrimitiveType enumeration, 160-62 Index
List of Figures Private keyword, 222 List of Tables
procedures, property, 99,125-26.See alsomethods processes, threads and, 548-49 production values, 631,634 programming.See.NET game programming;Visual Basic.NET Project-Entropia game, 611 projections, Direct3D, 152-55.See alsocoordinate systems, 3-D projects adventure game, 353 Direct3D application, 167-69 Magic KindergarteN, 362-82 multiplayer game, 485.Netterpillars,88-101.Netterpillars II, 482-85,520-24.Nettrix, 24-30.Nettrix II, 581-83 purpose of, 250 River Pla.Net, 250-57 River Pla.Net II, 316-18 promotional hype, 595-96 properties.See alsoclass interfaces property procedures, 99,125-26
Hatton Property statement, (696 pages) Apress
read-only and write-only, 126.NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 shared,35 by sprite,80,82-83 Alexandre Santos Lobo and Ellen
proposals The authors of this text show how easy it can be to produce interesting multimedia games using Managed DirectX 9.0 and Direct3D application, 167 programming with Visual Basic.NET on Everett, the latest Magic KindergarteN, 361-62 version of Microsoft's Visual Studio.Netterpillars,87.Netterpillars II, 519-20.Nettrix, 23-24 Table of Contents.NET.NettrixProgramming with DirectX 9.0 Game II, 581 purpose of, 23,250 Foreword River Pla.Net, 249-50 Preface River Pla.Net II, 315-16 Introduction Protected keyword, GDI+ Chapter 1 -.Nettrix: 222 and Collision Detection