Author: itvbadmin

  • Mochi Game Review Mash-up:’Monday July 27, 2009

    Mochi Game Review Mash-up:  Monday July 27, 2009 Mochi "First Look" game reviews. Every day brings a new crop from the Mochi gods, let’s hope yours is there and its not crap. I have now added my own designation to each game as a FLASH game or a Game Made…

  • Mochi Game Review Mash-up: Sunday July 26, 2009

    Mochi Game Review Mash-up:  Sunday July 26, 2009 It’s Sunday, a day I normally leave for TV shows on the DVR and playing with my kids outside. But,  I’m trying to get a good handle on the quality of Mochi Games, so I am reviewing the latest 9 games on…

  • Expressing An Emotional State Of Mind In A Game

    There are games I’d like to create, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to approach them. Many of these games have to do with true emotions that are difficult to describe in game form, however, I still feel the need to make them. Games are…

  • Play the new free Atari STE Game rOx in Windows with a single mouse click!

    Play the new free Atari STE Game rOx in Windows with a single mouse click! The guys over are RGCD UK have out done themselves with a brand new, FREE Atari STE game that can be played in Windows with a single mouse click! rOx, is a modern scrolling “avoid-em-up”…

  • Mochi Game Review Mash-up: Saturday, July 25, 2009

    Mochi Game Review Mash-up: Saturday, July 25, 2009 Nine more Mochi Games Reviewed Based In Initial Impressions I need to pick up the slack a little bit. Here are my capsule reviews on the 9 games currently on the “Latest” game page in the Mochi Publishers section. if I can, I…

  • Flash Game Interweb Mash-Up July 24, 2009

    Flash Game Interweb Mash-Up July 24, 2009 I have been working on part one of a very large (Flash Game relegated) project over the last couple weeks. I just sent the first version of the first set of deliverables off for judgment. That, coupled with my spotty Internet connection has forced…

  • Random Game Design Notes From Chris Crawford

    A few years ago I hosted an all-day game design session with Chris Crawford. After the session, I took some notes and shared them with my colleagues. These notes were geared-towards “Kid’s” games, but many of them hold true for any kind of indie/Flash/Retro/etc. game that you might be building…

  • Great Free Online Book On Eary Computer Games: Let’s Tell a Story Together

    I’ve always wondered how long it would take to create a text adventure/graphical text adventure engine for Flash.   I *know* the marketability of text adventures is not great, and I know the audience is limited, but for someone like me who played the original Infocom and Scott Adams adventurs games…

  • They Used Our Kung Fu: GameNutz Podcast

    GameNutz is a video game “news” podcast that originates from Sherrill, NY. The podcast includes Rob “StickyNugget” Feddersen and Andrew “Boter” Hookway, who are employees at GameNutz store, also is Sherrill, NY, plus Justin “FearTheClaw” Clough. All three are very knowledgeable about current and classic games. Since the GameNutz store…

  • More Algorithms For Modern Managers

    I’ve been looking for these for a very long time, and I finally found them. We came up with these many years ago, and I think they still hold-true today.  The following are 21st Century “algorithms” that modern managers can use to figure out their daily evil. Figuring Out Who…

  • Flash Indie Game Interweb Mashup – Mochiads Games Edition July 10, 2009

    Flash Indie Game Interweb Mashup – Mochiads Games Edition July 10, 2009 Since I did a Mash-Up last week on blog entries, I thought it would be fun to take an entire mash-up to focus on my favorite subject – actual games! Since GameJacket’s demise has come to pass, there…

  • Silverlight 3 Released And Ready For You To Make Some Awesome Games – Maybe

    Microsoft has finally released their new version of Silverlight, Silverlight 3.  All the dev tools are now available here:  http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/ . However, if you want to develop on a Mac, you  will need to use something like Eclipse4SL, which, when we tested it a few months back, was stil la…

  • Atari 2600 Game Quiz: Name The Games From The Manual Excerpts

    Atari 2600 Game Quiz: Name The Games From The Manual Excerpt Many Atari 2600 games had manuals that were nothing short of…bizarre.  Some of the descriptions and back-stories created, even for some of the most well-known games of the time, were astonishingly, wonderfully odd.  Below are clues to 10 different…

  • RESULTS! Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Computer Games From Their Old-School Reviews (#1)

    A Couple weeks ago I posted the following quiz.  It takes parts of old-school game reviews and challenges you to name the game.  I thought this one was EASY.  However, it was not, it was really hard and I have learned my lesson.  Here is the quiz again, with the…

  • Top-10 Alternative Ideas for The Universal “Asteroids” Movie

    Last week, Universal announced that they had won a “bidding war” for the rights to turn Atari’s Asteroids coin-op into a feature film. Almost immediately, game pundits  and art critics alike pounced on the news, and scoffed at the idea of a Hollywood version of Atari’s classic game. Many of…

  • Absolutely Brilliant Lost Garden Article On Flash Game Monetization

    Absolutely Brilliant Lost Garden Article On Flash Game Monetization If you have even a passing interest in making games full time, you have to read Flash Love Letter Part One by Danc on the Lost Garden blog. He ever so eloquently describes in detail the current revenue streams for Flash…

  • Flash indie game interweb-mash-up : July 3, 2009

    Flash indie game interweb-mash-up : July 3, 2009 I was sick this past week (it’s still lingering on), and today (actually July 4)  is a USA holiday – a couple hundred years ago some dudes in funky white wigs decided they didn’t want to pay taxes to an island, I…

  • New Retrogaming Times Monthly article on ST game developer Michtron

    New Retrogaming Times Monthly (free online magazine) features my first Atari Playfield article on ST game developer Michtron . Richard Davey (www.atari.st and www.photonstorm.com) was invaluable help on this article. I have been reading this splendid on-line magazine every month for a long time, but over the last year, Atari…

  • Hackers and the Beautiful System

    Hackers and the Beautiful System On the heels of Steve’s wonderful post on the joys of being a creative programmer, we get an idiotic Infoworld post on why American programmers are so bad…because they are hackers? I like to think that the Hacker Ethic (creative, open exploring of systems and…

  • Time Warner Interactive , Midway: The Soul Of Atari Might Still Be Alive…

    I just read this news story that Time Warner Interactive is planning to buy Midway Games. This would stand as just another boring game industry story for me, if it was not for the “Atari” connection. You see Atari was bought by Warner Communications in 1976.  When Warner “sold” Atari in…

  • R.I.P. Michael Jackson: Remember His Video Game

    I suppose you could call this “gallows humor”.  I actually liked much of Michael Jackson’s early 80’s output, so I’m fairly sad to see that he could not turn himself around.  Anyway, this “Moonwalker” Game came out at just about the time Jackson took his final turn into “Neverland”.  Commercial For…

  • Favorite Video / Computer Soccer (Football) game of all time

    Favorite Video / Computer Soccer (Football) game of all time In support of the USA’s remarkable 2-0 win over the vaunted powerful Spanish side in today’s Confederation Cup semifinal, I wanted to up the quiz anti with a poll of sorts.   I have played a number of Soccer (Association Football)…

  • Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Computer Games From Their Old-School Reviews (#1)

    Quiz: Can You Name These Classic Computer Games From Their Old-School Reviews (#1) In this quiz we will give you a few lines of a review from a classic computer and/or video game. Your job: Name The Game.  Leave a comment with your answers below.  The first person to get…

  • Kyobi added to the 8bitrocket Arcade Showcase as Hall Of Fame Gold Medal Recipient

    Kyobi added to the 8bitrocket Arcade Showcase as Hall Of Fame Gold Medal Recipient Richard Davey(Photonstorm)’s retro-remixed, physics based puzzler, Kyobi, has been added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase as a Gold Medal Winner. It joins just 6 other titles with the honor, including Richard’s previous game, Abominaball. Kyobi…

  • Interview with PhotonStorm’s Richard Davey

    Interview with PhotonStorm’s Richard Davey Richard Davey has created some excellent games for the freelance Flash portal market in the past year including (but not limited to) Kyobi and Abominaball. Both has been featured in our Hall of Fame Arcade Showcase as Gold Medal winners. The combination of modern game-play,…

  • …palindromes… re-revisited or I love mindjolt.com

    So, just as I have given-up on …palidromes…, mindjolt.com put it up a couple days ago, and the game plays have gone through the roof.  It has averaged 45,000 each of the past few days.  I knew the old girl had some life in her yet!  I know 45,000 plays…

  • Interview With Simon From Game Jacket

    A short interview with Simon from GameJacket was recently posted by FlashGameMontezation Very interesting: Badim: 1k$ Advance – it was good or bad thing? at least in short-term(few months-1 year) Simon: When GameJacket first went live in February ’08, we had no developers and no games and only a small…

  • Cool Stop-Motion Video Game Tribute That You Probably Have Seen But I Have Not (until today)

    I was searching the Indiecade Web site for some kind of interesting story, and I came across this awesome stop-motion film by Pez. Watch Centipede, Frogger, Asteroids, Space invaders and Pac-Man all re-made with household objects. Brilliant! I may be a bit late on this, but it’s still awesome.

  • Post-Retro: Have We Entered The Era After “Retro Games”?

    There is a sense these days that the concept of “Retro” games is disappearing. This does not mean that there are no retro inspired games being made, but it means that “retro” has been enveloped into the mainstream, and “retro” does not really exist any longer as it’s own genre..…

  • Flash indie game interweb-mash-up : June 17, 2009

    Flash indie game interweb-mash-up : June 17, 2009 I was on vacation last week, so I missed doing one of these (well, I wouldn’t say I missed it, but I didn’t get a chance to do one). I was on vacation, so I must have had more time than usual…

  • .+.palindromes.+. launches on Mochi, first entry in Dictionary.com word game contest

    Last week I noticed that Mochi is running a new contest in partnership with dictionary.com for “word games”.  Since I just released “…palindromes…” two months ago, I thought hat maybe I could get it into the contest.  I emailed Andrew Shen at Mochimedia, and he told me that to enter the contest I would have…

  • E3: Gaming Cameras For Motion Control: Have They Really Thought This Through?

    Both Microsoft and Sony announced camera-based game control solutions at E3 2009.  At the same time, Nintendo has said they rejected this kind of technology years ago in favor of the Wii-mote. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President said recently: “Until they say when they’re releasing it, how much it costs and what…

  • Game Jacket Goes Under

    Game Jacket Goes Under I am sad to report that Game Jacket has gone under and all games will cease being hosted today. It seems they were not able to get a new round of funding and had to close their doors. Gone are the $1000 up fronts and .50…

  • Mad Avenue Blues: The eCPM Is Low For Everyone!

    This video has been making the rounds of people in the advertising industry since it was posted last week. It’s focus is the Madison Avenue advertising industry, but many of the topics included should be very familar to viral Flash Game developers. So you think games are getting bad eCPM…

  • Book Review: American Nerd, The Story Of My People by Benjamin Nugent

    I did not think that I would write a review of this book.   I start reading dozens of books like “American Nerd” ,but in all honestly, it is the rare one that I actually finish.  Even though I am a huge fan of non-fiction, I’m really not a fan of…

  • 1984 Computer Chronicles TV Show Video on Computer Games

    1984 Computer Chronicles TV Show Video on Computer Games This rare video from USA public television chronicles the state of home computer games in 1984. Games included – Steve Kitchen’s Atari 2600 game Space Shuttle (Activision) + Interview with Steve. – Chris Crawford’s Atari 800 game Excalibur (Atari Program Exchange)…

  • E3 2009 Indie Game Report #3 – Indiecade 2009

    E3 2009 Indie Game Report #3 – Indiecade 2009 One of the best things at this years’ E3 was Indiecade 2009 preview.  Indiecade is a group that puts on events to showcase and promote independent games and indie game developers. It accomplishes this by staging a series on international events…

  • E3 2009 Flash Game Developmwent Report #1: GP32X Wiz Flash Support

    Possibly, the coolest thing we saw at E3 this year was in a tiny booth manned by single person, tucked away in the corner of the South Hall at the Los Angeles Convention center.  In that booth, we saw the latest iteration of the (now defunct) Game Park hand-held console,…

  • E3 Retro / Indie Report #2

    E3 Retro / Indie Report #2 What can I say? So far, E3 2009 has been a little underwhelming. Most of the big companies are here except Atari (other than the Ghost Busters car and some people dressed up in Ghost Busters costumes), but the web / indie / and…

  • E3 Retro Report #1: Watch Steve Wiebe Try To Break The Donkey Kong World Record

    You can keep-up on Steve Wiebe attempt to break the donkey Kong World Record with the video feed below. http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_player.swfWatch live video from G4TV – Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong Cam on Justin.tv