I'm trying to figure out where to go to learn how things are programmed. How programs and graphics cards interact, so that some games only accept some kinds of cards. How programs and OS's interact, so that a game may work on Windows 3.1 but not 7.

Does anyone know? Does anyone have the sources to help figure this out?

I think library would be good place to start digging information :)

I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. It's a closely guarded trade secret.

Now thats classy.

He's Just Not That Into You. Released in 2009.

I...wha? Google, you fail!

Actually, Alice (at alice.org) is free and is used to teach K-12 and university students how to program. It's a nice start as it is a graphical interface and if you pick a lesson book and go through the lessons you should be able to get some kind of neat stuff working.

Honestly there's a ton of different ways to get a game working, a lot of how you might go about it depends on what kind of game you want it to be and on what platform or platforms you'd like it to run.

Its not the best for complete noobs no matter what it says but this free book is good for when you start to get a bit further along

I'm learning how to program Python 3.1 with Pygame and Pyscripter at my new school and I find it quite fun. It's definitely interesting.

Kidding? you've just made the most accurate description of a programmers life that I've ever read.

Hehe . . . I would need to add "Buy plenty of Skittles" for complete accuracy . . . =)

That is a huge subject, computers are really complex machines and even most people who work with them professionally will only understand some parts of how the whole thing works.

Try to find this book in your local library. You don't have to understand everything about this, but you'll get a general idea of how computers work from a computer scientist's point of view:
http://www.amazon.com/Structured-Computer-Organization-Andrew-Tanenbaum/dp/0131485210/

Python is a great first language:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers

If all you want is make games, maybe this won't be so bad. Yes, it's really complex, but programming is complex:
http://unity3d.com/

And if you want to know more about computers, install Linux and use it daily. You are almost guaranteed to learn a lot more about how computers work. Linux is very geared towards technical users (it comes with every development tool you'll ever need included - including Python, C compiler. debuggers, programmer's text editors, and the source code to everything in the system):
http://ubuntu.com/

I'm a big linux user, in fact I only have one Windows PC, but he doesn't want to go linux if he wants to do the Microsoft XNA thing. If he's happy to try Alice or pretty much anything but .NET, then linux is better than Windows.

The question is vague enough to encompass a large chunk of a computer science and engineering degree, yet oddly specific enough to make one suspect that nondeplumage can't get some old game to run because his graphics card wasn't made in 1996.

Subsequent posts have done little to lift the shroud of mystery.

Not that nondeplumage could clear all this up with a few words. He has vanished into the mountains. Like a sage, he will appear once a millennia to speak his cryptic riddles.

I will post only a link to this critical document. Read it. Savor it. Oh, who am I kidding. He's not even going to read this entire post.