Author: itvbadmin

  • Building A Generalized Flex Game Control Part 3

    Building A Generalized Flex Game Control Part 3 In part 1, I discussed and mused over what parts of the MVC pattern (if any) to implement in my Flex game control. In part 2, I dug down into my thoughts on the rendering engine and how I was unable to…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Jan 14, 2009

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Jan 14, 2009 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we cover: Sound Classes and Api for As3; The New Flash Developer magazine; A Flash Joystick; Mochi / Facebook integration; Many game design articles and tutorials;…

  • Musical Interlude: Optimus Base Primera By We Are Monsters

    Musical Interlude: Optimus Base Primera By We Are Monsters If you are in the mood for some electronica styled 8-bit music, check out the We Are Monsters blog to download their free 5 track album entitled “Disco Knights”.  My favorite track is Optimus Base Primera, and really, how could you…

  • Awesome Retro Flash Game, Jump!

    I was just trolling around the various portals this morning and I came across an absolutely fantastic retro Flash game called Jump. I have looked around and I can’t actually find the real authors name, so I cannot give true credit where it is due. On the game it says…

  • Flex Game Development: When a blank screen equals success

    Flex Game Development: When a blank screen equals success The is part 2 of my series on designing a generalized game control in Flex. The control is actually in AS3, and will have no MXML, so it can easily be modified to work in the Flash IDE as well as…

  • Silverlight Game Development Interweb Mash-Up, Jan. 11 2009

    Silverlight Game Development Interweb Mash-Up, Jan. 11 2009 Now that we are expanding 8bitrocket.com to more indie game dev technologies, we will also expand our world famous “interweb mash-ups” to those technologies. Don’t worry Flash fans though, Jeff’s regular Flash interweb mash-up will remain unchanged, we are simply adding a…

  • Technical Difficulties (Updated!)

    We are were experiencing some technical difficulties with the hosting of the site. If you try to leave a comment you will get a .net “Yellow Screen Of Beauty” get a new Captcha Control to help prevent nefarious messages, etc. If you have a chance and would like to help…

  • Flash To Silverlight : Guess The Number Game: Part 2 – Silverlight

    Flash To Silverlight : Guess The Number Game: Part 2 – Silverlight For my first foray into Flash->Silverlight Game development, I will create a very simple “Guess The Number” game in Flash and then discuss how to do nearly the exact same thing with Silverlight.  In Part 2 we cover…

  • Flash To Silverlight : Guess The Number Game Part 1: Flash Version

    Flash To Silverlight : Guess The Number Game Part 1 : Flash For my first foray into Flash->Silverlight Game development, I will create a very simple “Guess The Number” game in Flash and then discuss how to do nearly the exact same thing with Silverlight.  In Part 1 we cover…

  • IGN Running Multi-Part Version Of “Once Upon Atari” Video Series

     http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf IGN  is running a series of  short videos from Howard Scott Warshaw’s “Once Upon Atari” DVD series.   If you ever wanted any insight into how it was to develop video games for Atari in the “golden Age” this is NOT TO BE MISSED. Take A look, but don’t blame…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Jan 7, 2009

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Jan 7, 2009 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we cover: New Mochi features; Squize’s X++ as the Zarjaz; The importance of using focus groups; What to do with all the ideas in your head;…

  • iPhone Game Reviews: Fleck And Pseudemys From SurvivorSoft

    iPhone Game Reviews: Fleck And Pseudemys From SurvivorSoft Note: We have recently opened up the Apple/Mac/iPhone/iPod section of 8bitrocket.com. In this section we will be exploring both playing games and making games for these platforms.   Fleck Fleck arrives like a lamb and then slays you like a lion. Underneath…

  • Flash To Silverlight 2 Game Development #1: 26 Hour Install WTF?

    What Do I Need? So I’m working on moving some of my Flash skills to Microsoft Silverlight. Why? Because it’s there and you can make games with it. End of story. The first thing you need to do to create Silverlight Games is to install the proper software to get…

  • Fun action RPG Whiflash added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase

    Whiflash has been added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase. Whiflash is a nice combination of traditional console / computer action rpg combined with s few new, very unique elements. In the developer’s own words (Lauri Hosio):Description: In Whiflash you play as a golem who joins the Stone Guard to…

  • Classic Bomb Blitz added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase

    Classic Bomb Blitz added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase Bomb Blitz is based on an a classic Vic 20 game called Blitz 16 combined with Canyon Bomber (VCS 2600) and the classic keep the helicopter in the air Flash Game. In developer Mitomane’s words: Description: A fast higly addicting…

  • 8bitrocket Micro Chip Maze Game Engine released

    8bitrocket Micro Chip Maze Game Engine released The Micro Chip Maze engine is an xml and tile sheet based pacman style game engine that can easily be re-configured and re-skinned for any site, brand or other use.  It has been built in AS3 using the latest bitmapdata techniques, so the…

  • Everybody’s doing it, so why not do it too…

    Everybody’s doing it, so why not do it too… Getting an Xbox 360 that is. I have been on a “vacation” for the last 2 weeks from my day job. This “vacation” hasn’t equated into much game programming time (although I have started work on a Mac game using TntBasic).…

  • Happy New Year From 8bitrocket!

    We hope you and yours had a great 2008, New Years Eve, and will have a fantastic 2009. Make and keep those resolutions if you can.  2009 will bring a lot of new stuff to 8bitrocket.com as we look to expand our footprint by creating more games and tutorials across…

  • Blast Force added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase

    Blast Force, a 16-bit era Bomberman style game with some unique features and a whole lot of retro atmosphere has been added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade Showcase. Developer Description (By Zir0):Description:Blast your way through 11 levels of action. Battle with drones, tanks, and choppers as you prove your the…

  • 8bitrocket.com Launches Retro Flash Game Hall Of Fame

    8bitrocket.com Launches Retro Flash Game Hall Of Fame Today we launch our newest feature: The 8bitrocket.com The Retro Flash Game Hall Of Fame. We here at 8bitrocket.com love to find and play great retro-inspired Flash games. As we build-out our “Next Generation Retro Game Portal” we wanted to make sure…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 29, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 29, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we have: A new version of Flash Develop; More dev diary and playable demos from Squize; A very informative Zobieland game postmortem; Creating games with Papervision…

  • Diatribe: I’m a crappy drummer and other Christmas revelations

    Diatribe: I’m a crappy drummer and other Christmas revelations Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Two years ago I tried Steve’s Guitar Hero 1 on the PS2 and was hooked. Steve was an actual pioneer with this game, having purchased in a full year (2005) before it became any kind…

  • Xbox 360 Adventures #1: Netflix

    A few months ago I wrote a prediction that the Xbox 360 would soon die an untimely death. Since then the machine has systematically proved me wrong. It has outsold the PS3, and has done very well against the Wii. Microsoft has cut the price and added features that have…

  • Merry Christmas: A Stocking full of guilt free and legal retro game roms

    Merry Christmas: A Stocking full of guilt free and legal retro game roms While I am fully aware of all the places you can obtain nefarious copies of all the best retro games in digitized disk or rom format, but I also know of a great big stocking full of free…

  • 1986 : Atari 7800 Christmas

      “Holy crap!” “What?” Jeff replied. He looked over at me to see that I reading an advertisement in Antic Magazine. “Look at this…Atari 7800’s for sale!” October of 1986 was a trying time for Atari 8-bit nerds like Jeff and I. We had seen the vastly inferior (to us)…

  • Flashkit Game Challenge #8: Game Reviews

    Flashkit Game Challenge #8: Game Reviews Well, this weekend’s game challenge is complete and the brave and talented game developers have submitted entries. The challenge was to make a shoot-em-up style game (in the theme of apocalypse) and all five accomplish this with varying degrees of success. There are a…

  • New Star Soccer 4 Chronicles #3

    New Star Soccer 4 Chronicles #3 Note: New Star Soccer 4 is a great combination of sports simulation and role-playing game. I have some time off from my day job, so instead of actually working on any of my own games, I am feeding my addiction to Simon Read’s indie…

  • Flashkit Game Challenge #8 Has Started!

    Flashkit Game Challenge #8 Has Started! The theme this time is SHOOT ‘EM UP!!!! Now, that is right up my alley, but unfortunately, I never have more than a few hours a day (at the most) to code or work on the site, so would never be able to compete…

  • Well crafted Law Of The West Pinball added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade

    The particularly well  crafted retro pinball game, Law of the West, has been added to the 8bitrocket Retro Arcade. This game was created by the artisan professionals at Gamingyourway.com in the tradition of 70’s and 80’s arcade to pinball cross conversions. Atari and Bally Midway did a number of Pinball…

  • New Site 2.0 Beta Launch

    OK, I just “finished” uploading the new version of the web site.  I’m sure there are some critical/horrible bugs some place, but I have not located any yet.  If  you get any server error messages from the site, please email them to us here: info@8bitrocket.com Thanks, Steve Fulton

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 17, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 17, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we have: How to create heat seeking missiles in AS2; more on the Whiflash game beta; How to make a game in Flex; New games in…

  • 8bitrocket.com 2 Year Anniversary:Stats Plus 2.0 Beta Version Preview

    This week marks the 2 year anniversary of 8bitrocket.com. Last year at this time we reported the following stats: From December 14 2006 until Dec 14 2007: 1. Page Views: 129,911 2.Visits: 64,702 3. Alexa Ranking: 512,183 At that time, Jeff and I set a personal goal to get an…

  • Algorithms For Modern Managers: Calculating Christmas Bonus

    Here is the first in a series of “Managment Sucks” “algorithms for modern managers” (written in ActionScript!) private function getManagerChristmasBonus(mgr:Manager, employees:Array) : Number { var managerBonus:Number = 5000; for (var i=0; i< employees.length; i++) { switch (employee[i].status) { case FIRED: managerBonus += 3000; break; case OUTSOURCED: managerbonus += 2500; break;…

  • Top 10 Most Played Mochi Flash Games of 2008

    Top 10 Most Played Mochi Flash Games of 2008gigaom.com is reporting today a list of the 10 most popular games on the Mochi ad network. All 10 are very well done, addictive games. The list includes 3 of my favorite games of all time:Bloons Cube Crush And Fancy Pants Adventure…

  • Movie Review: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade

    Earlier this year I wrote a very positive review of the movie King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters because I was both fascinated with the content, and with how the film makers turned the story of a Donkey Kong high score rivalry into a universal story about “the outsider…

  • Flash Game Forever Hunted #8 in Time Magazine Top Games For 2008

    The Flash game Forever Hunted, by Canadian university student, Evan Miller, has been named one of the Top Video Games of 2008 by Time Magazine. Most of the other games on the list were developed by teams of people and appeared on major console or PC platforms. Nestled in between…

  • Development Diary – Micro Robot Maze #1

    Development Diary – Micro Robot Maze #1 In my last game development post I wrote a little bit about the generalized game engine that I am fashioning in Flex AS3.  I was stuck as to exactly how to proceed after posting that entry. I spent a few days going over…

  • A Midcore Gamer Reviews PC Gamer Magazine: January 2009 Issue

    A Midcore Gamer Reviews PC Gamer Magazine: January 2009 Issue I recently re-started my subscription to PC Gamer after a 5 year break. Ironically, I now do not own a desktop PC any longer (although I have a couple laptops). I play my PC games on a dual-boot iMac (the…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 10, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: Dec 10, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we cover: The Nov/Dec 25 lines of code contest; Using the factory Design Pattern; Creating the prefect maze with tiles; a $100,000 Flash indie game attempt;…

  • I Literally Have Nothing To Post Right Now…

    I find myself at a complete loss today because I have nothing useful to post .I have is tons of stuff 2/3, 1/2, 1/4 finished, but nothing that is ready to go.   Here is a list of what I’m currently working on for the 8bitrocket.com: 1. Brand New Design.  We have…