Program Arcade Games

It all started in 1983 when my dad, who was also a teacher, bought an Apple //e computer for our use at home. Since it was to be “dad’s computer” for educational purposes only, my brother and I were not allowed to purchase any games. So, at the local library I found two programming books by David H. Ahl: BASIC Computer Games and More BASIC Computer Games. These books had code I could use to type in and run my own games. This was the beginning of my creative outlet with computers. As a computer science professor, I have found getting other people to program their own games as a great way to foster interest in computer science. Unfortunately, back when I started teaching students this way, the type of book I started with in the 1980s did not seem to be available any longer. I wanted to help others learn to program the same way I started. To provide a textbook for my students, I began to write my own programming book. I started the website ProgramArcadeGames.com in 2009. The book you have in your hand morphed from the materials on that website and from student input from my beginning computer programming classes. I would like to acknowledge and thank everyone who took time to give feedback, no matter how large or small. This book is the product of hundreds of students I have worked with personally, and the feedback of hundreds of people on-line. I continue to develop the website and use this book to share my love of programming with others.