Brief Description

   Finally there is a games book for Director developers! Up until now, Lingo programmers have had to figure it out themselves while Java and C programmers have had dozens of games books to choose from.
   With Advanced Lingo for Games, the new book by Gary Rosenzweig, Lingo programmers can learn from an expert game developer who has created hundreds of games with Macromedia Director. The book contains more than 20 complete games including the source code. You can read about how each of these games was made, and use the source code to create your own games. Check out the table of contents below to see what games you will find in the book.

What Is In This Book?

   This book is full of games. Not just descriptions and theory, but the actual games themselves. This book contains all of the source code for each game. You can read the code, learn from it, and even copy the code to make your own games.
   The first two chapters introduce you to the world of games and making games in Director. They provide you with a background that will help those who prefer to read this book cover-to-cover. The middle 21 chapters each take a specific game and show you how to create it. Every piece of Lingo code is in the book, as well as on the sample movies on the CD-ROM.
   The last two chapters deal with two special topics. The first is how to make an Internet high score board. The last chapter shows you how to make a multiplayer game using the Macromedia Multiuser Server.
   One of the things you will notice about this book if you quickly flip through the pages is the large amount of Lingo on its pages. This is a Lingo book, and you will find more Lingo here than probably in any other book.
   On the CD-ROM, you will find full, open-source examples of each movie in the book. There are 23 complete games representing Chapters 3 through 25.



Table Of Contents
  • Introduction
  • I. Writing Games with Lingo
    • 1. Creating Games with Director and Lingo
    • 2. An Introduction to Games
  • II. Puzzle Games
    • 3. Matching Game
    • 4. Memory Game
    • 5. Jigsaw Puzzle
    • 6. Sliding Puzzle
    • 7. Falling Blocks Puzzle
  • III. Arcade Games
    • 8. Falling Objects
    • 9. Shooting Gallery
    • 10. Sprite Invaders
    • 11. Space Rocks
    • 12. Paddle Bricks
  • IV. Word Games
    • 13. Trivia Game
    • 14. Cryptogram
    • 15. Hangman
    • 16. Word Search
    • 17. Crossword Puzzle
  • V. Card Games
    • 18. Video Poker
    • 19. Blackjack
    • 20. Solitaire
  • VI. Adventure & Strategy Games
    • 21. Adventure Game
    • 22. Maze Game
    • 23. Strategy Game
  • VII. Multi-Player Games
    • 24. High Score Boards
    • 25. The Multi-user Server

What Others Have to Say About the Book

  • "Imagine having the world's expert at Shockwave game development as your personal mentor. Now buy this book and stop imagining! Gary has delivered a timeless book which will have a permanent place in my library." -- Terry R. Schussler, CTO, Trevi Media, Inc.

  • "This book doesn't just show you how to program specific games, it shows the reader how to 'think' about game programming -- weighing play options, the structure of game play, inter-object communication -- so that when you've come up with an original game concept, you'll have a better understanding of how to convert vision into an actual, playable game." -- Darrel Plant

  • "This book really explores and explains the power of Lingo Behaviors. Advanced Lingo for Games will open the eyes of intermediate-level Director programmers to great new possibilities in interactive design . . . . while the game designing pros out there will pick up valuable insights (and powerful scripts) from one of Lingo's true gurus." -- Steve Bullock, @dver@ctive

  • An advanced level book on game development in Lingo has long been needed and Gary Rosenzweig is just the person to write it. I'm sure it will spend more time on my desk than on the bookshelf. -- Roy Pardi

  • "Gary doesn't only write well but his code is also very clean and well written and documented. The 22 games that will be in the book will for certain be a good starting point for every beginning game maker. But even the more experienced game developer will find and learn a lot of new things. In the beginning I was afraid that Gary would "tell everything" but fortunately he still leaves some things to discover by the reader. It is often much more fun to 'invent' things by yourself, and the reward when, after lots of trail and error, things work is much greater. But these well documented chapters and the files on the CD-Rom will certainly be very usefull to kickstart the gamemaking process. There weren't any books on Shockwave and Director games specificly and his book will fill this gap perfectly. I'm really looking forward to it's publication." - Mark Reijnders

  • "Immensely practical. If you want to build games for the web, start here. Nothing is better for learning a programming language than samples of working code. Gary Rosenzweig has assembled an excellent collection of well-annotated examples from real web games that cover the basics of game programming technique, as well as a wide range of game design issues. The examples are big enough to be complete, but small enough to be digestible. Anyone learning to build web games should read this book, even if their language is not Lingo. And anyone learning Lingo will find this book useful, even if they aren't trying to build games." ­ Scott Kim, Puzzle Master

  • "Advanced Lingo for Games really proves that the most effective learning happens when you're having fun! Gary has a great way of explaining things which makes this advanced Lingo lesson easy for any user. -- Pat McClellan, Director Online's "Multimedia Handyman"

  • "Advanced Lingo for Games provides an excellent framework for programmers to learn Lingo programming. Easy to follow code and some great games makes this one of the best ways to teach yourself Lingo programming or expand your skills. -- Zac Belado Technical Editor, Director Online

  • "Having worked with Director for almost seven years, not many books on the subject impress me. As tech editor for Advanced Lingo for Games, I had the honor of being the first Lingo programmer to work through Gary's code. More than once I had the feeling of discovering hidden treasure as I read through the text and source code. I've known Gary (and his code) for almost five years, the code in this book illustratrates he has reached a whole new level in understanding the nuances of Director, Lingo and game programming. I predict this will be one the most talked about Lingo books in 2000." -- John R. Nyquist , Co-author Director 7 and Lingo Bible, the forthcoming Director 8 and Lingo Bible, and 1001 Director and Lingo Tips

    This book is out-of-print, but you can get a PDF and source code here