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                                 Book review
                                 -----------
                               Steve Pullinger
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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               Title:  Amiga Game Makers Manual with AMOS Basic
                             Author: Stephen Hill

                            ISBN:   1-85058-230-0

                          For current price contact:
                           
                                 Sigma Press
                               1 South Oak Lane
                                   Wilmslow
                                   Cheshire
                                   SK9 6AR
                              Tel: (0625) 531035
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Stephen Hill should be a familiar name to Pro users (he wrote the Pro User
Guide with Mel Croucher) and he certainly knows his way around Amos.
I've had a copy of the Amiga Game Makers Manual for a couple of years now,
and the pages are getting a bit dog-eared 'cos it's a book that you keep
going back to for advice; programming manuals that are actually useful are
as rare as chicken's teeth and this one is solid gold!

What makes this book so special is the depth in which the various commands
are explained along with the author's obvious enthusiasm for his subject.
New users are gently introduced to plotting a single point on the screen and
by the end of part 1, graphic text, screens, bobs, and sprites seem second
nature even with Amal. (Do YOU feel comfortable programming Amal routines?)

Part 2 of the manual is dedicated to planning a program helping you to get
it right first time; and if you don't get it quite right, there's a wealth
of information on debugging and optimising your code.

After this basic groundwork, comes some games design. Four broad categories
of game type are covered;

arcade games; player movement, missile management, aliens and collision
detection

adventure games; text adventures, using graphics, a verb/noun parser and
graphical interfaces

role-play; scenarios, character generation, displaying maps, monsters, combat
and magic

simulations; economic sims, resources, transport, combat and computer players

Once again the author examines each type of game in incredible depth; for
example when you read about missiles, you get a run-down on firing and moving
ordinary straight ahead shots, rear shots, side shots, multiple shots,
alien missiles, guided missiles and lasers.

Once you've got all that lot under your belt, it's time for some screen
scrolling which leads in nicely to a chapter that deals entirely with the
Tome extension for creating and displaying game maps. If you haven't got
Tome, then there's a collection of routines that simulate the Tome commands.

So, you've got the scrolling worked out, how about animation techniques for
bobs/sprites as well as colour cycling, and don't forget sound effects; not
just the commands but a list of possible sound sources and advice on
sampling.

OK., you've read the book and designed an amazing game; time to read the
chapter on marketing it; costings, advertising, distribution methods and
tips on disguising your Amos roots (it's a prejudiced world).
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The verdict is this:

If you own an Amiga you need Amos
    If you own Amos you need Stephen Hill's Amiga Game Makers Manual
Buy this book, you won't regret it.
    Endif
Endif
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Steve Pullinger