OK, I''ll admit it: I''m a newbie. I know programming a little from Q-BASIC, but it''s so much different than C! I am going to go with C as opposed to C++ just to start, FYI. I want to know what to do next though, I am sick of boring text games What I''m really getting at is how can I do basic graphics in a program, or where is a tutorial that teaches this (a GOOD, VERY newbie tutorial ) OK, thanks in advance

My few pennies...

I''d say to start with C++ rather than with C right away.
With C++ you can still use all C features, but all the
''good stuff'' is there, just waiting to be used...

You didn''t specify your environment, so I presume Win32 w/
directx. One more reason to use C++ from day one... With
no C++ experience and understanding how classes work dx
will be really difficult to understand (yes, I know, dx can
be used with plain C, but really...)

So what I would recommend. Familiriaze yourself with C++
and OOP basics first, with some GDI apps or whatever. Then
get DX sdk, and start reading dx docs. The basic consepts
are fairly well explained there, and when you have even
some understanding how win apps work, example programs and
code snippets are fairly easy to understand. (I myself had
absolutely NO win/oo programming experience when I started
with dx, so it took a solid week to get basic initialization
working. you don''t want to take that path, trust me)

When you understand what surface, pitch, blit and some
other weird words mean, try them out. When you have black screen with a pixel on it... Well, you find out how it
feels

For a first project... Pong? Simple gfx, simple gameplay,
simple physics...

And if you were thinking of DOS... Why bother? I only
use DOS apps for simple tasks, converting lbms (yes,
deluxepaint is THE drawing program and pcxs to my own
format, but that''s is. Most programmers probably have
win apps for that, but I was too lazy to rewrite perfectly
functional code...

And I know, I mentioned no tutorials... It''s simple because
they (usually) tell you how to do something, without telling
you how or why it works. And as long as you don''t know what
or how you''re doing it, you''re learning nothing.

Actually I''m using the intro version of Visual C++ with the DirectX SDK, I just had no idea how to use it. I''ll take your advice though Any other thoughts?