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Review of "Apple Graphics & Arcade Game Design"

If you are at all interested in Apple graphics, or writing animated hi-res games, this book is for you.  Jeffrey Stanton, the author, may already be known to you.  He is the editor of "The Book of Apple Software, and also has several Apple arcade games on the market.  "Apple Graphics & Arcade Game Design" (AGAG) is 288 pages long, and retails for $19.95.  (I am selling it for $18 plus shipping.)  A coupon in the back enables you to purchase all of the source code shown in the book on diskette for only $15.

There are two parts to the book:  first, a thorough explanation of Apple graphics, with numerous examples in both Applesoft and assembly language; second, design and programming of all the parts of a working arcade game.

AGAG is written for the advanced Applesoft or beginning assembly language programmer.  You learn about both lo-res and hi-res graphics at the assembly language level.  You learn the fundamentals, and then proceed to program scene scrolling, page flipping, laser fire, bomb drops, explosions, scoring, and paddle control routines.  Sorry, nothing much about sound generation.

AGAG's pages are divided into 8 chapters as follows:
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1. ( 25 pages) Applesoft Hi-Res
2. ( 34 pages) Lo-Res Graphics
3. ( 17 pages) Machine Language Access to Applesoft
               Hi-Res Routines
4. ( 23 pages) Hi-Res Screen Architecture
5. ( 36 pages) Bit-Mapped Graphics
6. ( 90 pages) Arcade Graphics
7. ( 44 pages) Games that Scroll
8. (  5 pages) What Makes a Good Game
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I noticed a few errors in the book: on page 149, flow chart lines are incorrectly drawn; on page 284, there is a large block of repeated text, and therefore possibly a missing block which should have been in the space.  The  word "initialize" is always incorrectly spelled "initilize".  The index is very brief, only about 70 lines long; I believe it should be about 3 or 4 times longer to really help in locating items of interest.

Jeff does not seem to know about the existence of the S-C Macro Assembler.  He repeatedly mentions the TED, Big-Mac, Merlin Assemblers, and occasionally refers to Lisa and DOS ToolKit.  All the listings are in the Big-Mac format.  You should have no trouble adapting them to the S-C format.

AGAG is an excellent tutorial, and includes many useful programs and ideas for anyone interested in Apple graphics.  I heartily recommend the book, ranking it just under "Beneath Apple DOS" in importance and utility.
