Although the C++ concepts appear to be the same no matter what you''re creating, the steps involved seem to be quite different between making a DOS game and a small console app. I was just wondering, how much "basic" C++ experience do you need (pointers, classes, structures, file I/O, etc.) before you can move into creating small, simple games? What books would you suggest? More importantly, what books would you suggest for getting into games? DOS, Win32, both, whatever?

Simple answer in question form: How are you going to get experience in making games if you don''t make games?

You need a basic idea of how the whole thing works before you start, but the experience of doing it yourself will add to your knowledge quite a bit.

As for books, I say, "Boooks? What are they?"

DOS or Win. Oh God. Um, if you want a hell of alot to learn, go Win. I''m not joking, it is really complex, and if your a beginner, I personally would not recommend it. I''d say go DOS first (I used DJGPP with Allegro) then go on to Win when you''ve made a good foundation of the main C++ concepts. That''s how I did, and look how I turned out! Wait... scratch that....

- IO Fission

Tearing 'em apart for no particular reason...