   Advice for what books to learn from in what order.
  I am semi new to programing having done 3 years of pascal in highschool and am currently halfway though 2 books on beginning C++.The 2 books i currently have are: Beginning C++ Game Programing, and Beginning Microsoft visual C++ 6.0.What I am trying to figure out is what books do I move onto once I am done with these.My goals are to first write a tetris type of game, followed by breakout, pac-man, a top view scroller and a side view scroller. Then some work with 3D enviorments.So what books should I be looking to buy in what order as i work though my goals?Thank you for your time and input :)   
  If your just starting with 2d games a great one that I really liked is "Beginning Game Programming" by Jonathan S. Harbour. It shows you how to use DirectX9 and how to organize your game (though somewhat proceduraly). but it's great for gettiing into DirectX.Another that's mainly a refrence guide, I keep this one next to my keyboard at all times, Object Oriented Programming in C++, It's seriously a 1,000 page refrence to pretty much every built in feature of C++ that would come with MVC++. Ranging from simple intergers to how to implament templates.;  I have numerous books at home about game programming, but for simple 2D games the big bible from Andre LaMothe 'Tricks of the Windows programming Gurus' was the best of them. It teaches you a lot, from graphics to more advanced stuff like simple physics, etc.But you should also look a lot at the internet, which is the best place to find information. As books are mostly general, the tutorials/forums can be used to learn the more practical tricks (this is just my opinion).   ;  Game Programming All In One 2nd editon had pretty much everything you described in one book!You can check out the table of contents and sample chapter here:GPAIOMake sure it's the 2nd edition since the first version is a completely different book!  ;  Thank you for your input is there any other books that other people feel would help? Also does Object Oriented Programming in C++ cover all the various possible STL commands and how to implement them?   ;  I'm a big fan of Game Coding Complete. It covers so many great little tricks and the author is extremely competent. It's by far one of the best.Edit: I guess I should mention, it's not for beginners as he gets very technical, very early on. Still a great book though!   ;  It never hurts to have a good language reference book also. I use The Complete Reference C++ from Herbert Schildt