Game Design Books

This is the best lego mindstorms book ever printed it is in-depth in the theory behind the robots.

This is the book of the greatest, most complex Lego pieces to date, and I highly recommend it to anyone thoroughly engrossed in the area of Lego programming. It is an invaluable resource with amazing graphics, and very creative new inventions which serve as a wonderful catalyst for my own ideas. Great guide.

This book has gathered together "Masterpieces" from some of the the world's greatest LEGO creators. Builders from the US, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, and Japan have brought you their passions, the theories behind each masterpiece, and detailed building and programming techniques. "LEGO Mindstorms Masterpieces" is truly at the zenith of all related books and I believe it will become a true masterpiece both in name and in reality.

This book began in July of 2002. And, while the the creation, writing and editing was extremely difficult, the authors fought mightily to accomplish our goal: to build LEGO robots both suitable for Master Builders and worthy of this book's title! Amazing PneumADDic II and Synchropillar by Kevin as a computer processor specialist and creator of LPub and LSynth. Splendid Stair-Climber by Doug who is a well known creator of several Omni Drive Vehicles. And, two awesome works - Learning Brick Sorter and The LEGO Turing Machine that were invented by the famous Ferrari brothers - they are co-authors of the best selling "Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms" and have been called the "DaVincis of LEGO". Biped robot expert Miguel created complex SSCT faithfully based on the real robot that was active for life search and explore in WTC, New York. Lastly, a robotic arm driven by 10 motors and feedback system - CyberArm IV that I have created as a series in four years. All of these are the real robots that are backed by real robotics - only the materials are LEGO! We are very pleased that we could explore a new frontier in LEGO Mindstorms, and be able to offer it in book form.

As the one of pioneers of LEGO robots, I have had my experience of the results in the MIT Media Lab fortunately in the middle of the 80s, and the result of my writing of over half year keeping is included in bundle CD-ROM as a over 50 pages bonus chapter. I have tried to write about a lot of topics to explain the world of robots and LEGO Mindstorms - history of LEGO robot or their philosophy of the LEGO Group, precious list and description of early LEGO educational sets for control learning, personal robot boom in the 80s, from a more than 300-year-old Japanese automata (the Karakuri) to the latest state-of-the-art robotics. I believe that my discussion and description about the way of thinking and creation - included building, programming, CAD and even about Art - are useful in particular.

We hope that this book will never lose its value and that it will become loved by people of all generations.

From Tokyo
Hideaki Yabuki
Media Activist

Included are complete building instructions for some truly amazing robots/machines. You'll need LOTS of Lego to build them though. Even if you haven't you'll be inspired by the authors imagination and ingenuity. The writing is good, and the descriptions/instructions detailed and clear.
The best reason though for buying the book is the included CD which contains no less than ten other Mindstorms books in PDF format,including the most excellent 'Building Robots with Lego Mindstorms'. I had expected to find software and sample programs, but their absence is more than made up for by the books.

After building many of the robots presented in Lego Mindstorms Masterpieces published by Syngress, I feel I am now qualified to give a fair personal assessment of this book. I have purchased many Lego Mindstorms books and each one has great ideas and a lot to offer. All books have shortcomings and room for improvement. How good a book is depends on how well it address the readers needs. My needs center on my use of Lego Mindstorms to teach mechanical engineering, logic, programming and robotics to my 13-year-old daughter. Lego Mindstorms Masterpieces is the newest addition to our Lego toolbox. There are so many positive things to say about this publication I'll place the very few items I would have preferred done differently at the end of this review.

A few key benefits this book offers to anyone involved with Lego Mindstorms are complete, well illustrated assembly instructions, detailed commentary by the authors with additional tips to aid in the construction, explanations of where the inspirations for the creation came from with historical references, web site listings for additional information and a e-book CD-ROM with program files. Many of the authors have active web sites of their own and are available to generously help people stuck during construction.

Lego Masterpieces not only expand the reader's knowledge of Lego Mindstorms applications, but engineering and robots in general. The concepts presented can be applied anywhere the logic, computers, or machines are designed and built. The book shows that the construction of a machine must go hand in hand with the programming to best fit an application. Giulio Ferrari explores basic Artificial Intelligence and the foundations of modern computers with the Turing Machine. Another chapter presents the mechanics and theory of creating logic cells amazingly through the use of pneumatics and then combining them into the synchronous PneumADDic II calculating machine by Kevin Clague. And again by Kevin, the building of an asynchronous artificial muscle using Autonomous Pneumatic Circuits in the Synchropillar without RCX programmed control. An all terrain wheeled vehicle by Doug Carlson uses his Tri-Star drive design called the Stair Climber and will crawl over and out of almost anything. A spy robot by Miguel Aguilio called The Shape-Shifting Camera Tank utilizes Vision Command's camera, can increase or decrease it's height and you may control it with it's own Lego parts constructed joystick. The Learning Brick Sorter by Mario Ferrari, which combines a robotic arm with an automated task, blends the machine with excellent basic AI programming, which can learn new tasks. And finally, the most advance Lego robotic arm I've ever seen is in the chapter on CyberArm IV by Hideaki Yabuki. Not only does this arm have five Degrees of Freedom and 180-degree rotation, but you can also build the optional Power Glove to operate the robotic arm from your own hand movements!

The few complaints I have of this book are that the Bill Of Materials on some of the chapters are printed so small and illegible that I couldn't read them with a magnifying glass! Adding a page and printing the illustrations larger and clearer would have better represented the quality of the overall material. The other complaint is found in most books. Someone should proof read it before publication. Spell checkers don't think!

My final message about this book is BUY IT and start collecting the parts you'll need. It expands the frontiers of Lego Mindstorms and you'll need all the parts you can get your hands on!

I got this book at a local Linux talk given by the author about a week ago. This book really opens my eyes to see how much resource there is for multimedia on the Linux platform. It's a must-have if you are serious about multimedia, even if you are not a heavy Linux user. As you see, a software dies on Windows PC when the software company (or Microsoft) stops supporting it (or the software company goes under), because you only have the binary code. But the Linux software lives on because you can always pick up the source code from the open source (that is if it's an open source project, of course. Fortunately, most of the Linux software are). Bottom line: this book does what it says ! I am very happy with it !

Kyle Rankin's Linux Multimedia Hacks: Tips & Tools For Taming Images, Audio, And Video covers a program which typically disappoints multimedia fans with what seems like shortcomings in playing DVDs or MP3 files. Overcome these seeming detriments with a book which tells how to tweak and build Linux multimedia entertainment systems. Both newcomers and advanced users of Linux learn how to edit images, audio and video, manage music, burn DVDs and VCDs, and much more. Linux Multimedia Hacks isn't just one developer's knowledge base: it reflects contributions from many Linux experts - even the software creators themselves.

I've spent the last few days going over this book and experimenting with the different hacks on my Fedora Core 4 workstation. I use Fedora Core 4 almost 100% of the time at home, and I've felt the need to manipulate and use multimedia objects for a long time now, but didn't have the practical knowledge at my fingertips to do so. For example, how do I take a screenshot? This book answers this and other questions.

Now I understand how to use ImageMagick, take screenshots, and work with mplayer. I've implemented some hacks with gratifying results and experimented with bits and pieces of other hacks. For example I installed mplayer and the software bits needed to import video from a camcorder with a Firewire (1394) port. Mplayer is now running smoothly, and I'm waiting for a convenient camcorder to come my way so I can plug it into my 1394 port and let it rip. These hacks really seem to work, and they are quickly implemented. The authors of the various hacks give brief explanations that help build multimedia skills. Each hack is written with great clarity.

This book will gently introduce you to the power of scripting in Linux. Simple 1- or 2-line scripts pepper the book, and by using them you can quickly get the effects you want without having to spend long periods of time learning how to do the same thing on a GUI interface. Now, I can dump all 300+ photos from my 1 Gb flash card into a new folder and then use a script to resize them to a size small enough for a web page and for sharing with other folks. Try doing that to hundreds of photos on a GUI interface! With the suggested scripts, you can let the computer do the work, not you, and you can congratulate yourself on your smarts. Each script is carefully explained in plain language. I especially like Rankin's discussion of how to set up a digital camera and download all the photos from it automagically.

Today the Linux desktop is every more GUI-friendly. It is very easy to use; some of my friends have used it without realizing they were on Linux. I can see thumbnails of all my imported photos on Gnome -- it just works. I can expand the thumbnails into new windows with the actual photo. I can plug a compact flash card into my card reader and Gnome will recognize that, too, and offer to download the photos in the card. I can and often do edit photos with the Gimp and email them to my relatives. This books discusses all these things except possibly the emailing bit.

I began to realize that my hard drive is way too small for all the media I hope to work with. I recently ordered a 400 Gb drive to solve this problem.

This book shows you how to work with your media at no cost to you. It rolls up a lot of useful knowledge right at your fingertips. I can't think of another source of well-thought out media hacks either on the internet or in the documentation that comes with your Linux distribution. Every person wanting to work with media on Linux ought to have this book. Rankin and the other hack contributors have done a superb job.

Do you want to master the entertainment possibilities of Linux? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Kyle Rankin, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that takes the best of Linux's multimedia tools and shows you step by step how to use these tools to do cool things you would not have thought possible with images, audio, and video.

Rankin, begins by defining hacks that are specifically for images. Then, the author describes hacks for all things video. Next, the author shows you how to get the most out of video tools under Linux, which are some of the best in the industry. The author then gives you tips for accessing and creating your own web broadcasts. Finally, he shows you hacks to help you tweak your web browser under Linux so it can get the most out of the multimedia Web.

For the most part, this most excellent book allows you to look for hacks based on the multimedia type. More importantly, with this book, you'll be able to move quickly beyond anything you previously thought was possible, without spending a small fortune on commercial software.

Most versions of Linux have minimal multimedia abilities without the installation of additional software. Of course there is a lot of Linux software out there that can be used to change your Linux installation into a powerful multimedia computer with amazing capabilities. And, since it is Linux, it can be done at minimal or no cost for the software. Author Kyle Rankin details how to install and configure these products in this book. To keep the information organized he breaks it up into chapters on Images, Audio, Video, Broadcast Media, and Web. Working through the hacks you soon discover everything from how to rip a CD, convert file types, and edit a sound file to how to build a MythTV system where you can record television, watch videos, listen to music, and play arcade games from one system. There's even a tip for automatically removing commercials from digitally recorded television shows. When you are trying to figure out how to get your Linux system to do something special in the area of multimedia this is the first book you will want to turn to for answers. Linux Multimedia Hacks is highly recommended.

I bought this book for my son (6 years old) and he like it so much. good present to motive his imagination.

I love this book for being simple and yet smart enough to bring up an animation from static images. Low price also makes it very affordable. Could be a great gift to one who likes optical illusions.

A fascinating concept. The illusion is very real and deceptively simple. This book does a good job of presenting a very clever idea. Everybody who sees it is flabbergasted.

this is the coolest book i've ever seen. it should entertain kids that come to visit for a long time...and you know how hard that can be...

If you're one of those who loves the zoetrope at the local museum, this book makes you feel like you took a piece of it home with you! My whole family enjoyed it. I think it will make a great birthday present for some of our young friends.

This book is stuffed with detailed information on the Mod culture of the early 60's. The author goes on and on telling whatever he can on what was going on, how they dressed, what they liked, the drugs, the scooters...everything! That's not all of it. That book contians thousands of black and white photographs of the scene (images of the kids danceing, riding and strutin' themselves across the beaches). This book tells the history of mod from it's humble begings to it's sad end in the mid-sixties. I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in Mod. I would also suggest viewing the movie "Quadrophenia" for more of an idea of what Mod was.

Well, I used to get mad trying to look cute like them, me and my mates spent hours reading it! I translated it into Italian and photocopied my translation handing it out at the mod meetings held in Rimini each easter. Now I'm past those days but sweet memories still keep coming back.
A reportage from the past with fresh and amazing photos, but you'll find that style is not a fashion!
Five stars is my rating, but is not an impartial one!

Richard Barnes has written a fine book about the Mod sub culture of the early 1960's. This book tells all about the different fashions, types of music, scooters, dances and even amphetamines. It is the defifnative book on Mods and every 'face' ought to have it

This book has become the acknowledged starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about the 1960's Mod youth movement. The book is filled with photographs and articles from the time. Thoroughly recommended for Mods or anyone wishing to find out about this most important of subcultures.

An in-depth look at the destinctively British sub-culture commonly known as "Mod". This book takes you there in black and white with remarkable photos and descriptive text. Take a trip back in time; back to the summer of '64 on the beaches of Brighton. See original mods dressed to kill- literally! Mods, in their uniforms of three-button tonik suits and military parkas, fighting Rockers, marching into beachside towns to terrorize small businesses and vacationers, throwing deck chairs, and chanting, "We are the Mods!, We are the Mods!, We are, We are, We are the Mods!" Afterwards, it's off with the mods on their Vespas and Lambrettas, adorned with chrome mirrors and lights to the local night club to pop a few leapers and dance till dawn with that special bird.

I ordered a book before Christmas and it came in a few days and was in excellent condition. No problems at all I highly recommend this site.

A very thorough and detail book with great pictures, ads and company product literature. I never realized so many famous decoy factories operated in Pascagoula over a 50+ year period. Highly recommend to collectors and anyone interested in the outdoor sporting industry.

Finally, a duck decoy book on the Pascagoula Factories. Highly recommend.

Excellent history of the numerous factories from Pascagoula. Great pictures, and ads. Highly recommend.

Excellent photography, chock full of details and trivia, enough to satisfy any decoy enthusiast. Pascagoula's decoy makers contributed greatly to the industry and this much-needed book tells their story.

Wonderful book - lots of new-to-me techniques and fun projects. Can't wait to get started!

This book is so great because the author makes you feel as though each quilt you are making from her well-written and easy-to-follow instructions is a big game, so it removes a lot of that feeling of intimidation that beginning quilt artists often experience. Each exercise builds on the prevous one so that by the time you get to the end, you can take some of each lesson and make your own unique quilt. The quilts are playful and happy and very encouraging to help you get going.

I bought this book in preparation for taking a class with the author. It is a great, structured way to let yourself be free and have fun. By playing the games listed in the book, you can end up with all the components of a great new quilt, that will look nothing like that made by anyone else. We each play our own games, in our own way, with our own fabric. Be warned, this is not for beginners. The beginner in my class left in tears after about the first hour. A beginner, who needs more direction, would probably never start. This book is for a quilter who wants to create her own fiber art, but needs something more than a great pile of fabric and a blank slate.

I am a quilter who absolutely loves playing with fabric and hates measuring. Dianne's book is my dream workbook--it's full of ways to play with your fabrics and learn new approaches to creating a beautiful quilt, and encourages a playful, risk-taking spirit.

The book is divided into different "games," like Hopscotch, where you create a series of narrow, then wide, then narrow pieces that really do look like the hopscotch boards of our childhood; Tiddlywinks, with multicolored concentric ovals and circles arranged in patterns; Musical Chairs, with colors shifting from skewed block to skewed block in an orderly progression (until you throw in a Wild Card), and lots more. The best part is, Dianne shows you how to do each kind of improvisational piecing and then sets you free with lots of ideas and examples, so you can create something that is totally your own. The photos in the book are of wonderfully free-spirited quilts by several different quilters, and are in a lot of color schemes, though most are bright. Dianne encourages experimentation and ornamentation--there are plenty of beads, buttons, dangles and whirligigs here--and helps you get over your fear of cutting into big pieces of beautiful yardage by suggesting you "sneak up on them" and whack them into pieces, which then can go into a gloriously jumbled scrap basket that will trigger new ideas and combinations.
I just wish Amazon would post a cover photo and a "Take A Look Inside" section of the book. If you have any interest at all in improvisational quilting, you MUST get this book.

If you're more of a creative than a quilter, like I am, this is the book for you. In successive chapters, Hire takes the participant through eleven "games" with your fabric stash -- each which develops your skills and leaves you with an amazing set of non-traditional, contemporary quilts. From a Hopscotch block (a modified Courthouse Steps pattern) that is so easy it's beyond exciting, to a Toybox quilt which employs circles and spirals -- if you play these "games" in succession, you'll find your quilting creativity engage while your skills build and your stash shrinks. (And anything that shrinks your stash is just a good excuse to go shopping for more, right?)

If you're one of those perfect-corners and traditional blocks type of quilters, this book may drive you insane. But if you're a free spirit or a risk taker or someone coming to quilting by the way of other creative arts, this is a perfect book. It's easily the favorite in my collection that I can see myself going back to again and again.

Depending on how you choose to color these you may fall off your chair. Just kidding but they can make you look twice. These are very fun and unique different designs.

I have a collection of these dover coloring books and cannot say enough good about them. Great for adults to relax with and be creative. I recommend good colored pencils like Primsacolor regular and Verithins both right here on Amazon. They last forever I have some in my collection from the 1960's, they are short but still work.

5 Star product!

After I finished this book I was looking at tapestry designs...like those middle eastern wowen carpets...a unique blend of stupendous creative designs...full page designs though(with few exceptions), that require a long time to finish... this guy(the author) is good indeed with the complex side and detailing in building symetrical structures...too bad I haven't seen more of his work publised...excellent coloring book for adults and also for those inclined towards exercising patience.

If so, you may enjoy coloring these designs. It is easy to make errors and many of the designs are so detailed and fine that you'll be best off with a pencil or pen, no crayons! Each design in the 30 pages took me a few days to color so plan to do it to relax and enjoy time with yourself. Likely to be frustrating to young children or the impatient.

This coloring book is the best pattern-based coloring book I have seen. It is far too complex for children to color well, but for young adults and adults with an eye for pattern and a steady hand it is great. There are many great pattern coloring books but this one is the most intricate and carefully drawn of the tens of them I have owned. Pens, sharp colored pencils, and (very) fine point markers all work well, crayons and heavy ink or paint markers would NOT work well.

The only drawback to this book is that the pages are double-sided, but the pages are thicker than in some, so unless you use a marker with a heavy ink (which I don't recommend anyway), it will mostly be fine.

My mother had bought all nine volumns of The Saga for a person we knew who was struggling with peer pressure and drugs. She used these Christian comics as a tool to reach him and save him. The day she brought them home I sat down to read volumn 1. After that I couldn't stop until I read them all. I spend the entire evening reading them to my daughter as well. Soon I was at the book store buying all nine volumns for myself to keep as a collection. Some of the pictures are graphic and scary but the reality is that it's TRUE, not only are we at war in the Middle East but there is a closer war right here among us all. It's a spiritual WarFare. These comics explain in scripture and how we have a choice not to be victimized by evil. These comics are an excellent tool to express how much you care about someone by sharing this colorful illustrations and true to life story line with them. Highly recommended.

really enjoyed these comic books. Would love to see more!!!! Great for teenagers and adults alike. Hurry with the next issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think archangels is great. It show the lives of many teenagers who have difficult times in their lives and they usually turn away from everything even God! Then angels come in from god to help them. I recommend this book to teenagers.

These comic books have good Messages and morals for teenagers,and adults alike.A great comic series!

I'm enjoying Jesse Schell's THE ART OF GAME DESIGN--A DECK OF LENSES.
They are useful for much more than game design. For example, my husband , a professional square dance caller, says he can use them to design square dance arrangements/dances. They will be helpful to me as I create picture books. Obviously they are splendid for game design! And frankly, I enjoy "looking at the pictures" and reading the text and just thinking about it all.
Diana Patton artist/writer

While specifically designed to complement the book, "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses" I have found that these cards are of value for projects beyond game design as well. Any product development or creative process can benefit from this toolkit in that the cards succinctly outline what the issues may be, and provide direction via leading questions on how the issues may be resolved in a remarkably straightforward manner. This deck enables well defined problem statements and solutions.

This product is brilliant on any number of levels. The idea of applying "lenses", or different ways of looking at design issues is wonderful all by itself, but it is very clear that Professor Schell has given a great deal of thought to each of the lenses in the deck, and designed approaches and questions that really force the designer to look hard at her/his work, probably in a way that never occured to him/her before. I am VERY impressed.

this deck of cards goes with _the art of game design_ book. the book does a great job discussing how each lens helps you consider the design of a game, but the cards actually enable you to apply these ideas while you're designing your game. definitely worth getting both the book and this deck of cards.

The most complete and innovative book on bird houses I've seen yet. Not only that, it has houses and other structures for bats, butterflies, squirrels, bees and toads. I especially like the variety and creativity of the "abodes" -- natural looking, not cutesy. The section on what each type of wildlife needs is especially welcome. I read this book in the library and had to make it part of my permanent collection.

This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever had. There are lots of fun projects with detailed instructions. If you enjoy your animal neighbors, you should get this book.

This book provides serveral varieties of houses for different animals. The instructions are well written and easy to do. Also, the book provides information about where to place the completed houses and why the houses will attract animals.

This book has good, clear instructions for many projects, from bird houses to toad houses, from woodworking to working with gourds and reeds. It also has helpful information about placement of houses and the ecology of selected species. We've already made 4 houses from it, all of which we were able to build quickly and successfully. There were one or two places where the directions lacked certain details, but in general the instructions had the right amount of specificity. The book has beautiful pictures of every project, and has inspired us to do more to attract backyard wildlife.