Author: itvbadmin

  • Free History of Llamasoft Book!

    Via Jeff Minter’s Twitter, I just downloaded the nearly 200 page History of Llamasoft book that is being given away for free. If you had any type of 80’s computer and played games on it, you probably had at least one game filled with Llamasoft Beasties. Here is the link…

  • 16K Game Contest Voting

    Now it is time to vote your favorite game in the 16K contest!  Voting ends in one week (Monday, January 11th) (voting is now closed) Not sure?  Try the Games Again: 16K Lander Axe Quest BattleWire 16K DABOMB The Diabolical Dungeons of Dr. Devil Fate of the Universe Heli Must…

  • 16 K Contest Update : Voting Starts Next Week

    Well the holidays smacked-up hard over here at 8bitrocket.com Towers, but we are preparing for the final voting for the 16K Game contest.  We have decided to wait to start the voting until most pople are back from vacation/holiday on January 4th.  (Note to self: never start a contest near…

  • Last Review Of Our Book For The Year

    I just found this nice little review of our book here at zhione.com . “The essential guide to flash games written by Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton is definitely a noteworthy and pleasant Book that sheds light on how to build flash games. Well, building flash games might sound tricky…

  • PhotonStorm’s Cat Astro Phi an indie game of the week selection at Gamasutra

    Cat Astro Phi, by PhotonStorm’s Richard Davey, is one of the brilliant games selected this week for the Gamasutra “Best Of Indie Games”. Cat Astro Phi is a masterfully crafted, retro-inspired, maze-based exploration-adventure-shooter that should please any game player, especially those who prefer a little retro in their morning game…

  • Play the 8bitrocket 16K Atari Retro-Remake Entries

    The deadline has passed for entering a game into the 8bitrocket Atari Inspired Retro-Remake contest. We have received a number of high-quality entries. You can play each at the links below. Voting will start later in the week and run through the end of the year. Here are the games…

  • 16K Heli

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: Heli (Play it) Game Inspiration: Choplifter (Atari 800) (Atari 7800) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Jacob Schatz

  • 16K Must Destroy Your Heart

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: Must Destroy Your Heart (Play it) Game Inspiration: Berzerk (Atari 2600) (Atari 5200) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Ryan Luce What Ryan has to say about his game: “Here’s my berzerk clone, must destroy… your heart!…

  • 16K Niculus

    6K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: Niculus (Play it) Game Inspiration: Nebulus (Atari ST), Tower Toppler (Atari 7800) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: David Durham What David has to say about his game: ““My entry is inspired the Atari ST (and other…

  • 16K BattleWire16K

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: BattleWire16K (Play It) Play the upgraded, commercial version at Kongregate. Game Inspiration: Battlezone (Atari Arcade) (click scree shot to play) (click scree shot to play) Author: TFernando (Nightflyer Games) What Tony has to say about his game: “BattleWire16K was inspired by Battlezone…

  • 16K DDDD

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: DDDD (The Diabolical Dungeons of Dr. Devil) (Play It) Game Inspiration: Rogue (Mastertonic for Atari 800 / Atari ST) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Ace the Super Villain What Ace has to say about his game:…

  • 16K DABOMB

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: DABOMB (Play it) Game Inspiration: Kaboom (Activision – Atari 2600) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Brad Manderscheid Brad’s words about the game: Here is my entry.  I’m basing it off of the Activision game, KABOOM.  I’m calling…

  • 16K Axe Quest

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: Axe Quest (Play It) Game Inspiration: Golden Axe (Atari ST) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Ace the Super Villain What Ace Has to say about his game: “AxeQuest is mostly based on Golden Axe, but I…

  • 16K Lander

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: 16K Lander (Play it) Game Inspiration: Atari Lunar Lander Arcade Game (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Robert Podgórski of BlackMoon Design Robert says that he chose this game because: “We have a fond for everything ‘retro-space-related’ over at…

  • 16K Fate Of The Universe

    16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest Entry: Game Name: Fate Of The Universe (Play it) Game Inspiration: Pong (and maybe Jedi Arena) (click screen shot to play) (click screen shot to play) Author: Ace the Super Villain Ace’s game description: “The father of all video games returns as an epic duel…

  • 7 hours left to enter the 16K Atari Inspired Retro-Remake Contest

    It is currently 5:00PM PST. We have already received a number of very well made games, so the competition is fierce.   It is so fierce that I have decided to also give a copy of our book, the Essential Guide To Flash Games, to the second place game. Also, each…

  • Atari 16K Retro Remake Contest Nears Final Date

    This Sunday evening, at 11:59 Pacific Standard Time,  is  the deadline for entries into the 16K Atari Retro Inspired Re-make Contest. We have already received a number of very well made entries, so the competition is fierce. Good luck, and here’s to playing some great 16K games on the site…

  • HTML5 Canvas Book: Amazon Pre-Order + ES5 JS API Now Available

    I just saw that our HTML5 Canvas book is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com.  That is the cover (above).  I have to tell you, it’s pretty awesome to see an O’Reilly cover with our names on it. Also, the JavaScript API for Electrotank’s Electro-Server Socket-Server was released today.  I…

  • HTML5 Canvas Book Update : First Draft Delivered!

    Tonight I finally finished the last chapter of the first draft of our book on the HTML5 Canvas. The text has been sent off for tech review, which means we still have a long, probably bumpy road ahead, but it still feels good to have another “product” in the pipeline…

  • How Great Is AtariMania.com? Find out for yourself…

    There are two Atari sites that I visit every day. The first is one that all Atari fans know about, the awesome Atariage.com. The other is just as good, but for some reason not quite as popular. Atarimania.com is a wonderful site, completely dedicated to being what Lemon64 and LemonAmiga.com…

  • Target Now Sells Our Book!

    I was just doing my cursory “search of the internet to see if anyone has written anything about our book, The Essential Guide To Flash Games lately”,  the same search that has become less and less frequent as the months since the release have passed, and I came across this:…

  • 16K Atari Inspired Retro Re-Make Contest Update

    Here is the latest news on the contest: The biggest news is that we are going to extend the contest end date until Sunday 11:59PM Pacific Standard Time December 19th. This will give everyone the entire weekend to find time to optimize and finish their games before we post them…

  • Indie, Web , Flash, Retro Game Development Interweb Mash-up – Dec 5, 2010

    16k Contest Update We added a new Sponsor and prize to the 16K game contest.  There are 10 days left to get your 16K game in. We have already received a couple games from Ace The Super Villain, so he is way out in front in both quality and quantity. Also,…

  • Chrome App Store Coming In December? Plus, Mozilla Has An App Store Too!

    According to Wired.com, the Google Chrome App Store is set to launch is early December.   As well, Mozilla has announced The Open Web App Ecosystem which reads essentially like their own version of Google Chrome App Web Store.    Here is the feature list from the Mozilla Labs blog:…

  • 8bitrocket 16K Contest Update: New Prize Added!

    So we are now 15 days from our 16K contest deadline.  We have had a lot of interest and we are expecting some really neat games to play.   Today we are announcing a new prize to Grand Prize package.    Clint Herron has graciously offered a license for his…

  • Silverlight Apps For The Xbox Live Arcade? They May Come Soon.

    Earlier this year we predicted that Microsoft would start to focus Silverlight on their own platforms as it loses ground to HTML5.  Well, this recent story on Wired.com points to towards that predictions becoming a reality.   Tim Carmody or wired.com says: “It feels like a smart move. Xbox 360…

  • What Can Be Made In 16K? Atari 5200 16K ROM Games

    Here is some 16K inspirations for you.  The following are videos of some Atari 5200 games made in 16K or less.  The ROMs for these games fit on a 16K cart.  the games used the plethora of hardware features available for the Atari 8-bit line of computers (hardware sprites, 4-voice…

  • Indie, Web , Flash, Retro Game Development Interweb Mash-up

    Here is the “mash-up” for this week. I have had a little time to visit some of my favorite blogs, magazine sites, retro message boards and more. There are some reviews of games and our second ever portal review (at the request of the owner, so don’t go thinking I…

  • The Mac / Flash Develop / Parallels decision…sort of

    For the last 30 days (according to the Flash Builder 4 trial countdown) I have been trying to get FB4 on the Mac (in conjunction with Flash CS5) to work as well as my Flash Develop / Flash CS3 in Windows did for years. I have now really given Flash…

  • Announcing the 8bitrocket 16K Retro Re-make Contest ** Small Rule Update

    Note (12/8/2010): The Prize package has been extended and the end date moved to December 19th at 11:59Pm PST. Note (11/19/2010): We have modified the rules slightly to help with file size issues. The HTML wrapper file will not longer count in the 16K total.  See below for details. To…

  • Review: Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 For The Nintendo DS

    Playing retro games is much adu about nuance.   If the little things do not feel “right”, the overall game is usually failure, no matter how much effort went into recreating the past.  Nuances are much more than graphics: they also come in the form  timing,  sound design, responsiveness to…

  • Active.Tutsplus HTML5/RIA Roundup Includes Our Thoughts

    Active.TutsPlus.com recently ran an article about HTML5 that rankled a few feathers among developers.  Their intentions were good, but the result was not what they intended. Instead of crying foul, or simply defending themselves, they went out and asked some industry people to comment on HTML5/Flash/Silverlight.  We were honored be…

  • Microsoft Kinect Day 4: Lightsaber Dreams

    So I have to admit, one of the reasons I bought a Wii on release day was the because I thought it would be a perfect platform to finally play a Star Wars game with a lightsaber. Ever since I flailed aimlessly with my mouse trying to play the PC…

  • Kinect Day 3 : 5:00 AM Workout, plus Detecting All sizes

    So I’m on to day #3 of my Microsoft Kinect adventure (not to be confused with Microsoft’s Kinect Adventures, the pack-in game).    I got up at 5:00 AM this morning to test out my ability to make use of “Fitness Evolved” before the rest of the family woke-up.  …

  • 8bitrocket Flash, Indie Game, Retro Interweb In-Box Round-Up

    I have been sunk deep into a couple projects over the last couple weeks and during that time I have not had time to post. There are some cool new things going on that I have had the pleasure to take a look at and my inbox has been filled…

  • Microsoft Kinect Day 2: Punching And Kicking My Way to 180 lbs With No Excuses.

    Day 2 of Microsoft Kinect has been spent playing Ubi Soft’s “Your Shape Fitness Evolved” which would be the most metrosexual game imaginable if it was not for all concentration on hitting stuff.  There might be all kinds of workouts and training classes in this thing, but I would not…

  • Microsoft Kinect: It Sees My Feet!!!

    I’ve had my microsoft Kinect for excatly 1 hour now, and i’m totally hooked.  All of the things that frusted me about the Wii have been fixed.  Sports games are amazing on this thing, mostly because it can see your feet.   I can now kick balls.  I know that…

  • Kraft NFL Huddle To Fight Hunger Augmented Reality Game Goes Live

    The latest project of mine to go live is a cool little “Augmented Reality” game that I coded in conjunction with Total Immersion and Producto studios.  The game uses the Total Immersion Augmented Reality web-cam technology to control the action rather than simply using the mouse.  This means that you…

  • Help me find a good AS3 IDE On The Mac

    For the last three years I was very happy using the incredible Flash Develop via Parallels and XP on my Mac. I would use Flash CS3 in OSX to create and edit assets and then tie the whole project together with FlashDevelop in XP. Although Flash Develop is free, I…

  • Adobe Max Day 2: Dave Berzack And Filthy Mouthed Puppets

    The Adobe Max day 2 general session was a well produced set of fake TV shows designed to entertain the creative and technical class attending the event.  Most of it went of pretty well, but for me the highlights were: Dave Berzack: Remember Berzack’s video “Killa Appz” that came out…