Game Engine Black Book: Doom

[Arno]

Fabien Sanglard announced on his Twitter page that his new book will ship on December 10th. In the "Game Engine Black Book: Doom" he describes in detail how the Doom engine was designed to run well within the boundaries and limitations of the 486 micro processor. It includes a foreword by John Carmack.

 

I'm pretty excited about this announcement. I thought his previous book on the Wolfenstein 3D engine and the 386 was an interesting read. I know that the doom wiki and other websites already offer tons and tons of good information on the technological aspects of the Doom engine. But it's still nice to have a paper book on the topic as well.

 

 

Order information, as of December 9:

 

Game Engine Black Book: Doom, 1st Edition (blog)

• Digital: Play Store
• Paper: via Amazon: USA, UK, FR, CA, etc.

 

Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D, 2nd Edition (blog)

• Digital: Play Store
• Paper: via Amazon: USA, UK, FR, CA, etc.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Arno
Added order information

[fraggle]

Just want to say that I've had the honour of being one of the proofreaders for this book and I really love what Fabien has put together. If you have an interest in history (of either video games or technology in general), or if you're a programmer who's curious to learn more about the internals of the Doom engine, you'll find this a fascinating read. You can get something of a flavour of what to expect by looking at the free sample for his Wolfenstein 3D book, but there's a lot more with the Doom one.

[SaladBadger]

man check the thickness between the two, really looking forward to the Doom one. The wolf3d one was a pretty nice read.

Edited November 25, 2018 by InsanityBringer

[Nevander]

Where is the official place to buy these? I am interested in both.

[Dark Pulse]

You can preorder it on Google Play, if you want a digital edition.

 

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Fabien_Sanglard_Game_Engine_Black_Book_DOOM?id=wel6DwAAQBAJ

 

His others are available there as well.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Dark Pulse

[exl]

Absolutely looking forward to it! I read through Wolfenstein 3D book in one go and it was fascinating.

[Nevander]

On 11/25/2018 at 12:45 AM, Dark Pulse said:

You can preorder it on Google Play, if you want a digital edition.

What about the physical versions like in the picture in the tweet? I'd like those.

[SaladBadger]

physical preorders aren't available yet, according to fabien. they should be soonish, hopefully.

[Ledillman]

Ooooh boy, this is a must get, not sure if I should pre order or wait until physical copies.... hopefully they ship over here.

[Dragonfly]

Commenting here so I get notifications later - I'm definitely interested in a physical copy. :)

[Jon]

Really looking forward to this. I'm buying a physical copy for sure. I wish Amazon would do a physical + ebook bundle but alas they don't seem to.

 

Bizarrely it may even have come in useful for my day job. 

[DoomNoob]

I want.

 

Can't get the digital version any earlier?

[StevieWolfe]

Wow, I'd really love to thumb through this one.

[kb1]

I'll be getting a copy for sure. I don't have access to Twitter, though, so I might ask someone to post the purchase details here, if that's ok. Looks very interesting!

[Jon]

 

7 hours ago, kb1 said:

I'll be getting a copy for sure. I don't have access to Twitter, though, so I might ask someone to post the purchase details here, if that's ok. Looks very interesting!

 

On 11/25/2018 at 5:45 AM, Dark Pulse said:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Fabien_Sanglard_Game_Engine_Black_Book_DOOM?id=wel6DwAAQBAJ

 

That's the only available version at the moment, and only as a pre-order. The amazon link (for a physical or kindle copy) is not yet live.

[Arno]

On ‎11‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 10:57 PM, Jon said:

Bizarrely it may even have come in useful for my day job. 

 

Judging from the Wolfenstein 3D book, I think this book series is a useful read for any professional (embedded) software engineer. It demonstrates that thinking out-of-the-box helps a lot when programming for environments with limited CPU and memory resources.

 

By the way, there is now a second edition available of the Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D. The second edition adds some new content, some fixes and a foreword by John Romero and Tom Hall. It is already available in digital form and printed copies will come later.

[kb1]

On 11/26/2018 at 4:57 PM, Jon said:

Really looking forward to this. I'm buying a physical copy for sure. I wish Amazon would do a physical + ebook bundle but alas they don't seem to.

 

Bizarrely it may even have come in useful for my day job. 

Yeah, ironically some software houses frown on game development. The reality is that game programming requires the most knowledge of all: Super efficient video, audio, data management, state management, tight networking, multitasking (real or simulated), and much more. This type of expertise is useful for all aspects of computer science.

 

So, yeah, if this book is what I think it is, it should be very interesting and informative to a lot of people, gamers or not.

[DoomNoob]

Bought wolf 3d second edition and pre-ordered Doom... really wish I could get Doom sooner.

 

If you buy one edition and a new one comes out with fixes do you get an upgrade to the new? E.g. in case Doom gets a second edition too.

Edited November 29, 2018 by DoomNoob

[Jon]

6 hours ago, DoomNoob said:

Bought wolf 3d second edition and pre-ordered Doom... really wish I could get Doom sooner.

 

If you buy one edition and a new one comes out with fixes do you get an upgrade to the new? E.g. in case Doom gets a second edition too.

 

I suspect so for ebooks but can't confirm. I have the physical copy of wolf3d 1st edition only. 

[SaladBadger]

in his twitter replies fab remarked that google play doesn't let him upgrade the books like that. I have the wolf3d first edition on google play books and it wasn't upgraded. rip.

[Jon]

23 hours ago, InsanityBringer said:

in his twitter replies fab remarked that google play doesn't let him upgrade the books like that. I have the wolf3d first edition on google play books and it wasn't upgraded. rip.

 

That's disappointing. 

[Tango]

I didn't even know the Wolf3d book existed, I'm really looking forward to this though. very excited to be able to get a physical copy in my hands

[Linguica]

I was asked to proofread the Doom black book and there is a great deal of stuff in there that even I had no idea about. I think people will like it.

[kb1]

1 hour ago, Linguica said:

I was asked to proofread the Doom black book and there is a great deal of stuff in there that even I had no idea about. I think people will like it.

Must. Own. Now! This is encouraging. Have you read the Wolf3D book too? I think the pair will make a nice early Christmas present...for myself!

[Linguica]

I see there is a Google Books page for it now: https://books.google.com/books?id=wel6DwAAQBAJ

[SYS]

I might have to check this one out. While I'm not a programmer, I do love me some Doom. The sample was encouraging enough for a deep dive. 

[Arno]

The second edition of the Wolfenstein 3D book is now available as a paper version via Amazon. I've updated the first post with some links. Fabien wrote a blog post about this new edition, in which he also spends a few words on pricing. Apparently the author profits very little from each book sold.

 

I'm still waiting patiently for the paper version of the Doom book to be released...

[Jon]

15 hours ago, Arno said:

The second edition of the Wolfenstein 3D book is now available as a paper version via Amazon. I've updated the first post with some links. Fabien wrote a blog post about this new edition, in which he also spends a few words on pricing. Apparently the author profits very little from each book sold.

 

I'm still waiting patiently for the paper version of the Doom book to be released...

That is really interesting.

I'd really like to buy the 2nd ed of wolf3d but I can't really justify it, especially since I'm obviously going to buy the doom one, and I already have wolf3d vol 1.

 

Maybe Fab should do a book signing tour ;)

[Jon]

And the paper version is available to order on Amazon UK at least; a shade under £42

[Arno]

Blog post from Fabien about the release: http://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/

 

The book is available on many Amazon sites. I just ordered my paper copy at amazon.de for just under EUR 51.