2d game programming

Seems like every Dx9 tutorial out there deal exclusively in 3d ... except for the occasional thing about textured quads ...

Is there like, a magical super place somewhere on the intarweb with 2d game programming resources? ... I'm trying to hack together a shmup ...

Try CDIV - http://cdiv.sourceforge.net

A new programming paradigm based on parallelism, very easy to get used to, and really simplifying 2D games programming. Comes with a full, simple 2D, input, and sound API built over Allegro. And best of all, what you end up writing is good old C.