Microsoft Visual Basic is a leader among high-level languages in support-ing the event-driven paradigm and Rapid Application Development(RAD). More specifically, Visual Basic’s acceptance and popularity can be seen in many facets of application development such as database access, Graphical User Interface (GUI) prototyping, building distributable com-ponents, Internet scripting, desktop and client/server design, and even game development.Because of its common commercial uses and ease of learning, Visual Basic has also become popular with higher education institutions all over the world for teaching people how to program.While this book’s primary objective is to teach you the Visual Basic language, I

will also cover some relevant computer science principals in a palatable form suitable for beginning programmers.What makes this book unique from other programming texts is its ability to replace the sometimes-boring scientific, business, and financial programming examples with games. It is this approach that should make your learning experience engaging and enjoyable.Although there are no prerequisites for this book (math or otherwise), you will learn concepts, procedures, and techniques that are rooted in math. This book does, however, assume that you are familiar with at least one Microsoft operating system, such as Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000.