Author: itvbadmin

  • Review: “Carnival Games” For The Nintendo Wii (7.5 out of 10)

    “Carnival Games” from Global Star software for the Nintendo Wii is the best game ever made about, umm, Carnival Games. This is certainly a game that would have been a minor failure on any other platform, but on the Wii is an entertaining success. You enter the carnival where you…

  • Electroserver 4 Announced! Supports 200,000 Concurrent User Multiplayer Flash Games!

    The guys over at Electrotank have finally announced the released of ElectroServer 4.0, (ES4)their massive update to their already impressive Electroserver 3 multi-player socket-server.   ES4 is more than just a simple version upgrade.  New features for ES4 include: 200,000 concurrent users.  Site like Webkins now get about 30,000 concurrent users using…

  • “Free Jigsaw”, A Free, Configurable, Animated Jigsaw Puzzle Engine For Flash.

    Free Jigsaw is free-to-use, configurable, simple, Jigsaw Puzzle engine written in Flash. “Free Jigsaw” can support any number of images, and supports “animated” puzzles using .swf files. You can re-skin the the presentation of “Free Jigsaw” by editing the included .xml file and providing your own background and button images.…

  • Flash CS3: Actionscript 3 (AS3) Game Primer #1: Tile Maps, XML, and bitmapData

    One of the most useful advances in Flash 8 and CS3 for game developers has been the use of raw bitmap data to render on screen images. The CS3 / AS3 implementation has been changed from AS2, so this tutorial will go through the basics of creating, loading, and displaying…

  • A Tribute To Larry Snyder From The Midnight Coders, makers of WebOrb for Flash

    (Larry Snyder: 1940-2007) I was very upset to learn today that Larry Snyder has passed away., The 67 year-old was head of sales for Midnight Coders, the developers of WebOrb, an ASP.NET 2.0 replacement for Flash Remoting.   I’d been in negotiations with Larry for the past 7 months to purchase…

  • Where is the great, all-encompassing history of Atari?

    OK, now that I’ve suffered through the Atari bashing in the well-written but overly biased Commodore love-fest On The Edge, and complete disregard for Atari history in books like Fire In The Valley and Accidental Empires, I’m ready to ask the question: Where is the great, all-encompassing history of Atari?…

  • Wii.HotWheels.com Arena Launches! Includes Multi-player Game For Wii Opera Users

    Over at http://www.hotwheels.com they have just launched the Wii Arena (http://wii.hotwheels.com), a section of the site dedicated to users coming to the site with the Wii Opera Browser.  Among the games offered (including simplified version of very popular TrackMod Game) is the brand new Multi-Player on-line Collectible Card Racing Game: Finish…

  • Flash CS3: Actionscript 3 (AS3) Primer: Where does my code go?

    Actionscript 3 is complete re-write of the Actionscript language that fuels Flash’s ability to create dynamic content and games. It could be said that AS3 is such a departure that many designers and some programmers will be left in the dark by this new version. I for one, think AS3…

  • Creating Custom Events In Flash AS3 (ActionScript 3)

    I’ve only been working with Flash AS3 for a very short time, but I’m already very happy with it. Even though it is not as accessible as AS2, the power of the new language features are unmistakable. One very powerful feature of AS3 is the built-in event handling. Event handing…

  • Required Reading: Classic Computer Magazine Archive

    The Classic Computer Magazine Archive (http://www.atarimagazines.com) boasts several complete or nearly complete magazine archives, mostly from the 1980’s. The archive concentrates on Atari Computer magazines. It was once called AtariMagzines.com (and still holds that particular URL). However, it now contains archives for other magazines as well, including a very comprehensive…

  • An 16-bit road less traveled: Atari ST (and Amiga) Games – 16-bit degrees of separation #1.

    I started with 8-bit degrees of separation last week where I investigated some rare/forgotten Atari 800 games. This week I’ll take my investigation up to the 16-bit level. Here is how the game is played. First I choose a random Atari ST game, then I search out related games, developers…

  • Required Reading: “On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise And Fall Of Commodore” by Brian Bagnall

    I have to admit, when I avoided reading On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise And Fall Of Commodore by Brian Bagnall for about 12 months for one reason: Commodore. The name makes me throw-up in mouth a little. Being an ardent and fastidious Atari fan, a book about Commodore seemed…

  • Retro Blaster Update: A new high score has been obtained in Retro Blaster.

    A player who goes by the name of Stephen Allen has sent in a picture of his score and a successful completion of the game: 101,773,150 points! This is the current recorded high score by someone other than me! Thanks, Stephen (if that’s your real name), for taking the time…

  • 10 Ways To Help Get Traffic To Your Flash Game

    We at 8bitrocket.com have been trying promote our games at a grassroots level for the past few months.  In that time, we have met with some marginal success getting our games seen and played.   If making your game is hard enough, getting people to see it and play it is…

  • An 8-bit road less traveled: Atari 800 Games – 8-bit degrees of separation.

    I have loads and loads of Atari 800 games to play via emulation. I have tried nearly 1100 in my quest to try every game available. Today I decided to play Atari 8-bit degrees of separation. I will start with one random 8-bit Atari 800 game, play it, review it,…

  • Midnight Flash Game Design #5: Perfect Coding Can’t Fix A Bad Game Design

    Well, I completely blew my quest to finish Fireworks Blast Challenege in one month.  Part if it was time, but of it was, honestly, a bit of depression that set-in as I was trying to build the game.  It’s a difficult situation when you realize that the game you are…

  • Retro Blaster

    Blast through 35 levels of pixelated, retroblasting goodness! Keep shooting, buy extra weapons, and prepare to fight the ultimate evil. Game design, game engine, game programming, audio, and music by Jeff Fulton. Art direction, character designer,and illustration by Marc Manalli. Additional programming by Steve Fulton.

  • Bob Cringely Finally Discovers Flash!

    I don’t know how I missed this.  I’ve been reading Bob Cringely’s column at pbs.org for the past 10 years or so, and I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with it.  Bob was one of the first people to embrace “Geek” culture. His book “Accidental Empires” is a must-read for anyone…

  • Space Eggs Cracked Open!

    A new game, called Space Eggs, has launched on 8bitrocket.com.We want more games on this site, so I have been going back and finishing up ideas of games I started a while back. The first was a game called Gradient Asteroids Optimized. It was the beginnings of the first game…

  • 3 Flash “Fireworks” Activities For The 4th Of July

    Here are 3 different interactive Flash activities for the the 4th of July: Raindown Fireworks Show This activitiy was designed to promote The Alarm’s single “Raindown” last year.  It is an interactive show.  The fireworks will got automatically, but it you press the [space bar] you can configure the color…

  • Free Fireworks – Game Engine (2007)

    Free License Game Engine

  • An 8-bit road less traveled: Great Atari 800 Games Part I

    Great 8-bit home computer games didn’t start and end with the C=64 in the 80’s. Classic 8-bit computer games were enjoyed on many other computers, the Atari 800 being arguably the premier computer gaming platform in the USA for about 3 years (1980-1982). This dominance ended when the low cost…

  • Sploder Game: Fantastic Journey

    OK, here is my last Sploder game with the current engine.  It’s called “Fantastic Journey”.  Travel through a human body to fight of disease and infaction in the legs, arms, heart, brain, etc. Play Below:   http://www.sploder.com/player.php?s=7ntjxvst Make Your Own Game

  • Hilarious “History Of Flash ActionScript” Video

    Legendary Flash developer Scott Delamater produced this video last year for Flash’s 10th anniversary.   If you were there from the beginning, you’ll understand just how much Flash has grown in the past 10 years. Check out the video here.

  • My Second Sploder Game: Sploder Pac-Man

    For my second Sploder game, I decided to try to make something that was not necessarilly a full-on shooter.  Since Sploder has a “collectible” object, I decided to try to create a game as close to Pac-Man as possible.  The result is below.   http://www.sploder.com/player.php?s=uq9zx991 Make Your Own Game   As you…

  • Sploder: Making My First Game : Death Cavern X1

    I just finished my first “game” using Sploder.  I suppose it is almost identical to most “first” Sploder games.  It includes a massive, intricate playfield, and some randomly placed obstacles and pick-ups.  You can play it below: http://www.sploder.com/player.php?s=6g9n55ng Make Your Own Game Making a game in Sploder is very easy. …

  • Sploder: A Cool New “Game Construction Set” Site

    I just followed a banner ad from our site to this new Web 2.0 style “user created content” site named Sploder .   Sploder is a site that allows users to create their own “games” and share them with people, embed them on other sites, etc.   It’s a really cool application that…

  • Midnight Flash Game Design #4: The Cold, Clammy Grip Of Reality

    Well, my plans for working an hour a night on a game in June were completely thwarted by reality.  After 3 days of development, a friend of Jeff and mine requested help to finish a project.  We spent nearly 7 days helping to build this game for the Bridezillas TV…

  • Commodork vs. Atari Nerds : Common Ground?

    A few days ago we received a nice message from Rob O’Hara, the author of the the book Commodork.  Rob had written in response to this blog entry, the first one that I wrote when starting this site last December.   I mentioned then that while I liked his book, and…

  • Commercial Gaming Sites Start Adding Wii Browser Game Support

    Most internet savvy Wii owners know that the instant start-up, Wiicade.com has been around as long as the Wii has been around, offering simple to semi-complex games designed to work well with the Wii opera browser. However, Wiicade.com is not the only site that has games targeted for the Wii…

  • Midnight Flash Game Design #3: Calculating Distance And Handling Keyboard Input

    As I continue this project of creating a game in 27 days (hours), I have realized that my “one hour a night” estimate is almost perfectly on target. The first night of programming all about trying to fix the obvious problems with the original “Fireworks Blast” demo. My first task…

  • Opera Guide To The Wii Web Browser: Highlights

    The Opera Web Site has posted an in-depth article on formatting web sites to work with the Wii.   A few months back I was a bit disappointed in the Wii web broweser and wondered aloud how many people actually connect their Wii to the internet.   Well, I read a few days…

  • The Punk Rock Group’s Retro Madness

    In a bloglines.com search for Atari 800 (yes, I have THAT much free time tonight), I came across this very interesting band called The Punk Rock Group. Check out their music section for some Devo inspired retro-low-fi music hilarity in songs like Atari 800, Video Games and Toby Keith. Also,…

  • Midnight Flash Game Design #2: Public Domain Music For Flash, And A Challenge

    To continue from my last entry , I am trying to finish a Flash game in 27 days. This probably does not sound very hard, but these “days” actually equate to about 27 hours of programming time. Subtract all the time I take to write these blog entries, and time…

  • Midnight Flash Game Design #1: Taking Stock And Narrowing Scope

    So I just finished my latest installment of of a ridiculously long history of Atari, and it ended with predictable results.   It went over with a resounding ‘thud’, and not only that, but I got a bunch of facts wrong.  I could go back and fix them, but I’ve decided not…

  • Flash Game Programming: Game Programming Blogs

    One of the best things about game development is the plethora of great resources on the web at your disposal. From free sound and sprite libraries to tutorials on almost every subject, the internet is a great place to start your search when you need a new idea, are stuck…

  • Advanced Flash 8 Game Programming: A Finite State Machine Game Loop.

    One of the most unorganized things in my games are the actual game loops. The game loop is the meat of the game and although it usually starts off to be a pretty simple select case statement running inside of an interval, once I get fully involved in a game,…

  • Atari Timeline: 1975

    1975: Atari releases Compugraph Foto Machine Atari, Inc. introduces the COMPUGRAPH FOTO, a coin-operated machine that printed life-sized pictures on computer paper for customers. .The machined weighed-in at an astronomical 950 pounds! It contained a combination of an impact line printer, a computer, and a closed-circuit TV. Advertised as Durastress’ 1975: January 31: Atari/Kee Games…

  • Guitar Hero : Air Guitar Stance Poll

    I’m very curious.  How do you others play “Guitar Hero”?  Do you playing sitting down like Keith Richards,  standing up swinging your arm like Pete Townsend,  “machine gunning” like Nigel Tufnel, or do you just feel like an idiot while playing?  Take the public poll here: http://www.8bitrocket.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&m=30&#30 (no need to log-in to…

  • Space Eggs

    The Space Eggs are multiplying! Destroy them all before they return! A fast action Asteroids inspired shooter.