I just finished reading Simon Carless's Gaming Hacks, one of the latest O'Reilly Hacks books, and I can't remember when I've had more engrossing fun with a technical book.
Like all the hacks books, Gaming Hacks is arranged around 100 "hacks" — tricks you can use to get more from gaming. They proceed from the simple to the hellishly complex, so there's something here for everyone.
That's even more true than is usual in the Hacks series, though, because of Carless's incredible, comprehensive, eclectic view of the kinds of hacks that might interest a gamer. Here are some of my favorites:
- How to hack an old Atari 2600 controller: rehabilitate your old paddles without WD40, then splice them into a modern PC (also: how to download, play and write "homebrew" games for the 2600 and other boat-anchor platforms that are produced by console aficionados who enjoy the challenge of programming for 8-bit, minimal-RAM game environments)
- Roll your own "machinima" — movies made by recording the action taking place in a game environment, then dubbing in studio-recorded voices
- Learn to read enough Japanese to play grey-market games imported from Japan
- Create your own scripts for automating repetitive "grinding" tasks in massively multiplayer games
- Etiquette for joining adventuring parties in MMOs
- Detect and foil cheaters in networked first-person shooter games
- Build a killer home theatre audio setup to maximize your game platform's 3D sound
- Build a portable device out of an old console, like the NES
- Overclock your console
This gives you a flavor for the book's subject-matter, but it doesn't convey wonderful prose style: Carless writes like a great, fetishistic geek, like the Car Talk guys or the folks on The Screensavers, like someone who's really, really enthusiastic about his subject matter and wants to wise you up to all the truly awesome wonders awaiting you.
Combine that with a stupendous introduction by sf-writer-turned-game-writer Marc Laidlaw, who wrote the Half-Life series for Valve, and a slew of highly knowledgeable co-authors who contributed various tips, and you've got the perfect mix of informative, enjoyable and fascinating. This book is staying on my shelf.