A First Course in Game ProgrammingMost of today's commercial games are written in C++ and are created using a game engine. Addressing both of these key elements, Programming 2D Games provides a complete, up-to-date introduction to game programming. All of the code in the book was carefully crafted using C++. As game programming techniques are introduced, students learn how to incorporate them into their own game engine and discover how to use the game engine to create a complete game. Enables Students to Create 2D GamesThe text covers sprites, animation, collision detection, sound, text display, game dashboards, special graphic effects, tiled games, and network programming. It systematically explains how to program DirectX applications and emphasizes proper software engineering techniques. Every topic is explained theoretically and with working code examples. The example programs for each chapter are available at www.programming2dgames.com.

As a navigator/bomb aimer in a Hampden bomber, Jack was shot down during a daring low level raid on the "Admiral Sheer" in 1940. This is the story of that raid and of his subsequent internment in Stalag Luft 3 POW camp made famous by the "Great Escape". It includes Jack's own story of his experiences and his time spent on the "Long March" to eventual release, five years later. All profit from the sale of this publication is being donated directly to the 'Help for Heros' military charity.

Includes The Stories Spanish And Mexican Exploration And Trade Northwest From New Mexico Into The Great Basin; Jedediah Smith On The Salt Desert Trail; And American Posts.

We've all met people who made a difference for us, who stepped up at just the right time with advice and wisdom. Finnegan, a mysterious, congenial man who may or may not be British, is just such a person. He's the focus of this life-changing fable: Finnegan's Way: The Secret Power of Doing Things Badly. Finnegan is not dispensing advice on how to grind the last bit of work out of underpaid employees. Instead, he has a life-affirming message for everyone: the manager, the employee, the lonely man seeking a relationship, the stressed-out woman seeking to lose a few pounds, the dispirited person trying to get going again. Finnegan forgives. He understands human failings. He doesn't chide us for complaining that someone moved our cheese. Instead, he shows us a way to use our mistakes to get us where we want to go. Once you meet Finnegan, your life will never be the same again.

Dan J. Marlowe (1914-1986), author of The Name of the Game is Death, was one of the finest paperback suspense novelists of the 1960s and 1970s, so good that Stephen King dedicated a book to him. But Marlowe's life was full of strange drama, some featuring his friendship with bank robber Al Nussbaum, a partner of the murderous sociopath Bobby "One-Eye" Wilcoxson. This biography interweaves the stories of Nussbaum, who became a mystery-story writer, Wilcoxson, who committed a savage murder after being released from prison, and Marlowe, who, stricken with amnesia, was haunted by the ghosts of his past, some of whom roamed the world of kinky sex. Book contains 16 photos.

"Fantastic...This biography is almost as wild, compelling, dark and surprising as one of Marlowe's books...Highly recommended "-Lee Goldberg, author and TV writer/producer who has scripted Diagnosis: Murder, Monk, Hunter and Spenser: For Hire.

"A brilliant biography of the great noir and hardboiled paperbacker Dan J. Marlowe, written with novelistic flair by Charles Kelly."--James Reasoner, celebrated western/mystery writer and author of Texas Wind. Reasoner called Gunshots in Another Room one of his ten favorite books of 2012.

"I still remember buying The Name of the Game is Death on a metal spin rack when I was in college. No novel except They Shoot Horses, Don't They? had ever shocked me to the same degree. Marlowe had created a masterpiece. So has Charles Kelly."--Ed Gorman, legendary mystery writer and editor of The Big Book of Noir.

"Kelly relates (the details of Marlowe's life) with a sharp and sympathetic eye and a hardboiled style. Informative and well-written, Gunshots in Another Room makes for quite a story."--Woody Haut, author of Pulp Culture: Hardboiled Fiction and the Cold War, Neon Noir, and Heartbreak and Vine: The Fate of Hardboiled Writers in Hollywood.

"For anyone interested in the history of crime fiction, or the evolution and devolution of the paperback original industry, Gunshots in Another Room is an indispensable volume."-Cullen Gallagher, in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

"(The book) demonstrates impeccable (and imaginative) research, perhaps not surprisingly since Kelly is an award-winning journalist."-Marvin Lachman, author of A Reader's Guide to the American Novel of Detection.

"Kelly's delight in his subject is so palpable that we feel his excitement as if we're handling the material ourselves...His biography unfolds like the best stories; truth that reads as fiction, containing narrative drive, setups and plenty of payoffs along the way, satisfying and literate."-Jessica Argyle, author of Arrest Me (before I write again), on KeysNews.com.

Decades in the desert have made reporter Michael Callan hard as a sun-bleached skull. But mutilated migrants and his ex-flame keep causing Callan trouble . . . even if they're six feet under. Mix an innocent beauty with a savage one, add an assembly of killers, thugs, and a surgeon. Stir vigorously, and you've got a bloody cocktail-lethal for an Irishman who doesn't drink. This is the first novel by Charles Kelly, an award-winning reporter for the Arizona Republic. His in-depth knowledge of criminals, reporters and the issue of illegal immigration across the Arizona-Mexico border are all perfect fodder for this shocking crime fiction debut.

Decades in the desert have made reporter Michael Callan hard as a sun-bleached skull. But mutilated migrants and his ex-flame keep causing Callan trouble ... even if they're six feet under. Mix an innocent beauty with a savage one, add an assembly of killers, thugs, and a surgeon. Stir vigorously, and you've got a bloody cocktail-lethal for an Irishman who doesn't drink. This is the first novel by Charles Kelly, an award-winning reporter for the Arizona Republic. His in-depth knowledge of criminals, reporters and the issue of illegal immigration across the Arizona-Mexico border are all perfect fodder for this shocking crime fiction debut.