
Game Engine Black Books Update - _bxg1
http://fabiensanglard.net/gebb/index.html
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hyperman1
These numbers are brutal. We pay 58 dollar, het only gets 0.01 cent, and
things get better if he can sell 1000 books.

I can't believe this site alone doesn't have 1000 doom lovers.

~~~
fermentation
This is absolutely insane. It would be cool to see a service where users could
pledge cash for a book printing, then the number of pledges by the time of
release determines the actual price and quality.

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EamonnMR
[https://unbound.com/](https://unbound.com/)

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fermentation
As it turns out I don't actually have any original ideas

~~~
thaumasiotes
"Anticipatory plagiarism occurs when someone steals your original idea and
publishes it a hundred years before you were born."

~~~
gitgud
I thought I had the original idea of regenerative braking for recovering
energy in cars... But it had been done.

Maybe the reason ideas come around again is because they haven't been fully
exploited and people are unaware that they exist... Which could be another
reason why execution matters more than the idea...

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fossuser
I wonder if Stripe could help with publishing the hardcover.

The other books from Stripe press are really high quality:
[https://press.stripe.com/](https://press.stripe.com/).

Though this may be a bit outside of what they normally publish.

~~~
fabiensanglard
Thanks for the suggestion, I have emailed them.

~~~
hedgehog
No Starch Press ([https://nostarch.com/](https://nostarch.com/)) also may
work, they care a lot about their craft.

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leoc
There are similar problems with uploading to publishers in ePub format. The
last time I was bashing my head against ebook publishing, about a couple of
years ago, many (most? all?) of the sites were validating ePub uploads using
an old version of the ePub suite which rejected some ebooks which were valid
per the up-to-date validator. Which version they were using was ofc not
documented, and you were lucky to even get to see an error message. And of
course tech support was largely unhelpful. (Especially kobo.com 's.) The
people working on the ePub spec seemed to be largely unbothered by the
fragmentation/noncompliance and hideous experience for those authoring and
uploading in the format, too.

Which is a pity, because aside from this and some other bugs and pitfalls EPUB
2.0 has some attractive features and is nice to work with for anyone who
doesn't mind bashing out a good old directory tree of HTML docs by hand.

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enneff
I have said this elsewhere but there is little more satisfying for this 90s
nerd than curling up on the couch and spending the afternoon with one of
Fabien’s books. Nostalgia and tech detail, doesn’t get much better than this.

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thrower123
These are some pretty great books. There isn't much that isn't covered on his
blog, but that sets the bar very high. If you have any interest in software
archaeology and particularly early PC hardware architecture, get them. They
look damned good on the shelf too.

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dca88
Thanks for the updates, Fabien. I purchased a hard copy of the Wolf 3D book
and have found it incredibly insightful. You've got a knack for breaking down
complex subjects into easy to parse gems of information. Looking forward to
the Quake book!

~~~
fabiensanglard
Thanks for your kind words :) !

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cr0sh
I bought the first W3D edition via Amazon and loved it! It had it's quirks and
such (addressed in the errata) but it was enjoyable and educational
nonetheless.

This update comes at a great time; I hadn't known he'd released a DOOM version
of the book and found that out a few weeks ago. But certain situations have
left me to wait on purchasing it.

Now with this update, I'm glad I waited. I can't wait to get my copy!

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Renaud
Amazing content and quality in both books. Got the PDF and donated $40, well
worth it.

I would love to get the dead-tree versions, these books certainly deserve
their own space on a shelf, but I'd rather the content creator get money than
having to pay printer and shipping companies. Lower carbon footprint as well.

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lenkite
Could someone give an overview of what is covered and whether it is still
worth to invest reading these books ? Are any of the techniques still valid ?

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Fiaxhs
You can download the PDFs and look at the table of contents if you'd like

~~~
lenkite
Yes, doing that now. :)

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srikz
Nitpick: The HN link goes to the non-https site and I guess the site doesn’t
force ssl. Maybe the link can be modified?

I was considering buying the old books on amazon but had put it off since
shipping to a different country is expensive. I didn’t know about the free
pdfs before. Might as well donate directly to Fabien for the great amount of
work put into this.

I came across this when I listened to Fabien’s interview on a podcast
[https://www.hanselminutes.com/666/episode-666-game-engine-
bl...](https://www.hanselminutes.com/666/episode-666-game-engine-black-book-
doom-with-fabien-sanglard)

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gambiting
So I wanted to order a print from bookpatch.....cheapest shipping to the UK
is...$76.97. That's....nuts.

~~~
gambiting
Edit: obviously I don't blame the author in the slightest. I'm just saying
that thebookpatch shipping prices are insane - there is no way USPS takes $76
USD to ship a book to UK. I've checked and sending a (very generous for a
book) 2KG parcel from UK to US would cost £15 with DPD and £25 with UPS. £50
gets you guaranteed next day delivery(across the ocean!). No idea where they
get that $76 postage cost from.

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Maro
I wonder if Quake will happen.

~~~
lkj
He is working on that at the moment. I wish he did some crowdfunding.

~~~
fabiensanglard
It is hard to setup. A lot of printer will agree to print a batch of
1000...and ship it all to me. Then i will have to figure out how to ship to
each individual, deal with lost parcels, import taxes, shipping fees and all
that :(.

Ideally i would like a printer which let everybody pre-buy a copy and ship to
each customer when it is ready. I don't think this exist yet.

~~~
gryson
What you want is a fulfillment service. You have the printer print 1000
copies, then ship all of those copies to the fulfillment service's warehouse.
Orders go through the fulfillment service's system and they ship directly to
customers. They take a small cut from each purchase. This is standard
practice, as far as I know.

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packetpirate
I see in the comments that he has been working on a Quake Black Book, but I
hope he plans to eventually do books on other types of games as well, instead
of just Carmack/Romero-centric, raycasted first-person games. Don't get me
wrong, I'd love to see a Commander Keen Black Book, but I'd also love to see a
Morrowind Black Book or a Secret of Mana Black Book. The series could be
really cool if he delved into other game engines and game mechanics.

~~~
packetpirate
For that matter, it would be cool to see a breakdown of how even earlier games
like Elite for the NES achieved their pseudo-3D using wire mesh graphics and
how they packed so much content into such a small cartridge.

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yarosv
I wanted to order, by delivery to Canada is brutal. More expensive than the
book.

~~~
fabiensanglard
Sorry dear compatriot, I wish it was otherwise. If you can find a printer
based in Canada, you can use the pdf and print it yourself.

~~~
yarosv
Don't need to be sorry, it is not your fault but printer's. For you I'm
grateful. Thank you for the amazing material.

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harel
The free DRM free Google Play ebook costs over £11.

~~~
fabiensanglard
Get the PDF? I tried it on an iPad and it looked good.

~~~
harel
I got the PDF. this was a 'side' comment, more about the nature of Google's
play store than about the book.

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rtpg
Still haven't picked up the Doom book but Wolf3D was an amazing read. These
books deserve to be in university libraries everywhere, for people to really
see a proper dissection of real world code.

Awesome stuff and looking forward to the next thing

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wdr1
I just finished Wolf 3D Black Book last week & my copy of Doom arrived
yesterday. Just before the updated version (grah), but they've both been great
reads.

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n4s33r
Thank you Fabien :) Love your work

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panpanna
Will "that other" black book receive a similar update?

Mr. Abrash, are you reading this?

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Newtonip
Merci Fabien!

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sneakernets
Definitely picking up a copy of this when I get the time.

