Author: itvbadmin

  • Geo Blaster Basic on the HTML5 Canvas

    Steve and I are currently working on an HTML5 Canvas book for O’Reilly (in our spare time). It is giving us a chance to investigate the Canvas in detail and we are applying our game development skills to small and medium sized projects as examples for the book. Geo Blaster…

  • Adobe Max Flash Game Update: 3D, Controllers & Terry Paton!

    We just got out of the Adobe Max 2010 general session.  There was a lot of information about where Adobe is taking Flash.  They showed Google TV working with Air apps, and some really nice looking e-magazines developed with their HTML tools.  However, we are here because of Flash games,…

  • Adobe Max 2010

    8bitsteve will be @ Adobe Max next week in L.A., so we will try to report any public news in real-time from the conference.   This year, there is a lot of emphasis on Android, multi-player, and HTML5 tools.   Things are moving fast in our world. We’ll try to…

  • Atari Haunted House – Wii Contest Winner

    We’d like to congratulate Syd Lexia for his winning entry in our “Wii Atari Haunted House  Contest”.  We asked readers to describe an Atari 2600 game that they wouls like to see remade in the 21st century by Atari.  Here is Syd’s Idea: Syd Lexia :Without a doubt, Swordquest 2011,…

  • Mac Steam: A Bonus!

    So here is something really cool I just discovered.  I decided to install the Mac version of Steam, so I could look at some downloadable games.  When I got it installed, I logged-in with the Steam account I made nearly 6 years ago when I first bought Half-Life 2 for…

  • PBS Kids Dr Seuss Flower Finder Goes Live

    The first project of mine (from this new venture) to actually go live is The PBS Kids Dr. Seuss Flower Finder. No, it is not an arcade game like I am used to, but I was able to complete the entire build with Flash Develop, using the CS5 IDE to…

  • “Yes On 21” Video Contest Entry

    This is little off-topic diatribe for a Sunday Morning.  My wife and I created a video entry for a “Yes On 21 Video contest“.  Proposition 21 is a California State initiative to help save the nearly 300 state parks in the state that are threatening with closure if money can’t…

  • Intellivision Lives DS (2010): Signed And Numbered for $19.99

    Honestly, while I played the Intellivision 100’s of times at my friend Eric’ Barth’s house back in 5th and 6th grade, I’ve never owned one.  At the same time, most of the retro collections of Intellivision games have not been implemented properly because it is very hard to replicate the…

  • A Completely Biased Opinion Of Our Book

    I’m not sure if this makes sense,  but it’s not easy for me to recall everything that we wrote about in The Essential Guide To Flash Games.  Like any long-term project, the minute it was complete, I took a deep breath and then dove into something else.  At this point,…

  • Simply Brilliant: Dulldudegames

    One of our super-brilliant readers, “AndyGoesToHollywood”, sent over link to Dulldudegames because he wanted us to take a look at Iain Lobb’s simply brilliant game design tool. I am very impressed, especially with the platformer widget. I don’t think there is any way to have it show you the code…

  • Porting a DOS Game To Windows: A Development Story

    I thought this story might be of interest to some of the visitors to our site. Steve and I spent a lot of time playing DOS games in the 90’s and also our share of time writing a few of our own. In this article (originally in he April 2010…

  • Retro Gaming Round Up Atari Edition Podcast with Ted Dabney Interview

    Listen To The Podcast Being self avowed Atari Nerds for more than 33 years now, Steve and I are always game to hear information on the controversial start-up, on-going business, and eventual crash of the original video game giant. In this edition of the Retro Gaming Roundup the team uncovers some interesting…

  • Simply Brilliant: XKCD New Map Of Online Communities

    Take a look at the map. We definitely fit into the “Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions”, and are nearly entrenched in “Niche Market Mountains” while actually drowning in the “Bay of Drama”, clinging to a life raft floating passed “Tech Blogs” our our way to in the giant “Sea Of Opinions”. At…

  • Games I’ll Play Again: Retro-styled Flash Game Micro Reviews

    Again I find myself with a few minutes between asset delivery and code re-writes and instead of doing something practical like working on Solar Fortress or Lunch Battle (or any of the 100 other games I have started and not finished), I am playing other people’s games. Here are a…

  • 8bitrocket.com Milestone: 1000 Posts!

    I just wanted to note that, with yesterday’s content updates, we have reached a cool 1000 updates.  I hope you have enjoyed our  nearly four years of  games,  videos, podcasts, news items, blog posts, interviews, stories, memories, tutorials, reviews, gossip pieces, emotional responses, link baiting, alarmist warnings, and outright pandering.…

  • Simply Brilliant: Keanu Is Sad / Sad Keanu Meme

    This is not game related so I created an entire new category on the blog for things that I feel are “simply brilliant” and need to be shared. I would have just “liked” this to my Facebook page, but there is no like button on the page. My favorite part…

  • Review : Atari Haunted House – Wii : Plus Win A Copy!

    Note: This is the first a new series of articles where we review new games from a retro/viral/indie/web game developer/technical writer perspective.  Since we are not a game review site, we don’t want to review every game out there, but games that fit our perspective (retro evolved, retro remakes, indie…

  • Going Solo #7: The bright spots

    It has been a little over two full months since I left my cushy corporate job and decided to make my own schedule, manage my own projects and “make my own shit”. The schedule and project part is going great. I have two good projects in the can with two…

  • In-App Buyer’s Remorse : Will It Kill Mobile Games?

    My friend told me a story yesterday about an iPhone app that his young son loves to play.  It’s a virtual fish-tank.  You must use credits to feed your fish, and those are obtained by downloading “free” apps or by paying real money.  Some of those “free” apps have very…

  • 10 Reasons Why Flash Is Still My Favorite Game Development Platform

    Yes, we have been dabbling in HTML5 and even in Silverlight.  We have touched on Unity, Java FX and worked in Xcode for the iPhone.  However, after I tried the Flash CS5 IDE a few weeks ago, I realized that nothing has changed.  I still love Flash, and I can’t…

  • Google Chrome App Store Will Open Soon..

    The Chromium Blog has a new story today about the Chrome App Store.    Here are the highlights: Developers can (and should) sign-up for a Google Web Store Payments Account (USA only right now) App Preview is now available so you can see how you app will look when the…

  • SPIL Games Thinks HTML5 Will Overtake Flash by 2012: An Interview

    “SPIL GAMES expect that by the end of 2012 at least 50% of all new games to be HTML5.“ -Scott Johnson, SPIL Games SPIL runs some of the biggest game portals on the planet (e.g. gamesgame.com).  As far as online web games go (mostly Flash) , their operation is MASSIVE:…

  • Atari 7800 Expansion Module + An Interview With Kurt Vendel

    Yesterday, Legacy Engineering announced a pre-order for their newest product, The Atari 7800 Expansion Module.  Pre-orders receive a  10% discount (for a limited time).  The Atari 7800 Expansion Module includes: Built in High Score keeping capability (compatible with approx 20 existing titles and any HSC coded games/programs in the future)…

  • An Interview With Electrotank’s Jobe Makar

    Jobe Makar is is one of the people who inspired 8bitrocket.com the most in the past 10 years.  From his multiple Flash game books, to his 100’s of games,  Jobe has reached a level of success matched only by a very few.   We caught-up with Jobe last week and…

  • AtariMania.com has full PDF editions of all Atari User Magazines

    The awesome, though seemingly under-appreciated site, Atari Mania, has hand-scanned (a lot of f***ing work I might add)  versions of the entire 43 issue series of the UK-based Atari User magazine. This is of special interest to USA-Based Atari 8-bit computer fans because just as the 8-bit range was dying here, it…

  • Top-10 Game Predictions for 2010-2011

    It’s prediction time again.  First, we need to run-down our 2009-2010 predictions and see how we did.  Here they are: 10. Microtransactions In Flash Games Will Struggle. Too many games, too few people willing to pay. The most successful service will be Mochicoins, but it will still struggle with quality…

  • A look at the IE 9 HTML5 Canvas Spec

    With much curiosity I took a look at the recently published IE 9 HTML5/CSS3 spec specifically to find Canvas support information. Its no secret that Steve and I are deep into a book for O’Reilly on the Canvas and IE has been a major sticking point as we progress through…

  • What ever happened to Steve Moraff?

    His name might not spark wild-eyed fascination with many retro gaming enthusiasts, but Steve Moraff was a little bit of a legend in his own time. When we first got a PC (non-Atari machine) in the early 1990’s, we jumped on the early CD-Rom craze.  The best use of CDs…

  • Flash CS5 + Project Panel + Developer View = Pretty good way to code

    I have been a Flash Develop devotee for that last 3 years. Even after I bought my Mac I made sure to install and keep Parallels updated as to not lose the feature-set I love so – Flex asset compile-time embedding, custom class and package recognition,  a unified project work…

  • One Last Flash On The iPhone Update…

    An Apple rep called Jeff today to confirm Jeff’s business’s license and his participation in the iPhone developer program. Jeff asked him flat-out if they were “accepting Flash made apps” for the iPhone, and the rep told him “absolutely, yes”. So there you go.

  • 8bitrocket Indie Game Interweb Mashup – Monday, September 13, 2010

    Here is the old 8bitrocket Flash Indie Game Interweb Mashup reborn (ever so slightly) as an all-encompassing Indie-Game mashup. The focus is on Flash games development, but I will cover and will continue to cover all of the subjects that I am interested in: retro games, HTML5 and other game…

  • 10 Good Things For Game Developers About Flash Being Allowed On The iPhone.

    Adobe has restarted  working on their iPhone packager for Flash…again for CS5.  This pretty much confirms that Flash->iPhone conversions are allowed.    One wonders, why Apple made the change.  Was it because they could not single out Flash and allow other tech like Unity?  Was it because Flash apps performed…

  • Update: Flash Exported Apps Being Approved In The iTunes Store

    Word has come through that Flash exported apps using the CS5  iPhone packager are now being approved by Apple for the iTunes store.  Many of the apps have been waiting in the queue for months. This is good news for Flash devs, but maybe not so good news for iPhone…

  • Apple Appears To Have Relaxed Their Rules On The Flash iPhone Packager

    It appears that Apple has relaxed their rules on iPhone apps developed with Flash.  You still can’t run the apps in Mobile Safari, but it looks like apps made with the CS5  iPhone packager are now OK. The Wall Street Journal has the news. So what does this mean for…

  • The Forums Are On Fire!

    OK, maybe not “fire”, but we are getting as steady stream of posts now, which is really cool.  Thanks to all the new users who have come around and started participating.  It’s really starting to get fun. In case you have not looked, here isa run-down of all the forums…

  • Poll: What do you Think Of Google TV?

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  • Beta Forums Testing

    We are testing the new forums here: http://www.8bitrocket.com/forum/ Please test them out and tell us about any problems you might have. thanks, – Management

  • 8bitrocket.com Video Podcast Returns!!

    The 8bitrocket.com Video Podcast Returns!!  We cover the new 8bitrocket.com, The Game Ray Quest, the Flash version of The Great Giana Sisters, the Flash game Chain the pixel, plus the retro music stylings of The Icarus Kid!

  • Mobile Web Games In HTML5 – Hit and Miss

    I have spent the first three days of this week working on a couple HTML5 games that will eventually make it into our book on the Canvas and will also probably show up here in some form or another (and maybe even in the various App Stores). I chose to…

  • Spil Launches $50K HTML5 Game Contest

    The Spil Group thinks HTML5 will surpass Flash on the web very soon, and they are willing to put money where their mouth is: specifically $50K! Here is a link the the article: HTML5 Mobile Game Sites and an HTML5 Developer Contest. Here is what you need to know: HTML5…