Category: 8bitrocket
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Kid Grid Atari ST Port Part 2: Algorithms: Make a Thing!
Join me as I start to code a new #atarist game – a port of the #c64 and #atari 8bit game called #KidGrid by Tronix from 1982. In this part 2, we continue to work through some difficult algorithms for the game and discuss some features, options and limitations of…
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Get to Know: Atari ST One on One Beat ‘em Ups in 10 games
Today we begin a new series for the Atari ST and possibly other Platforms. This series will choose 10 games in a specific genre from the machine’s library and examine it’s evolution over the life of the platform Today we will look at one on one fighters, a genre commonly…
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#111: Overscan: Atari 8bit Sierra Action Game Tier List, News, Book Club and more!
In this episode we cover Atari SA’s 7800 product shipping dates; The possibility of new Atarisoft games; Fixing Activision Labels by Silicon Underground; Atari 2600 Coleco Tarzan ROM Found. Book Club featuring Katie Hafner’s Cyberpunk; How bad is Phantasmagoria?; Evercade Alpha; Open a New Package Feedback and the Sierra Atari…
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How to Play Atari 8bit VBXE Missile Command Arcade in Altirra
Today we are going to test the new Missile Command Arcade for the Atari 8bit.It was designed to be played with the VB XE Addon board First, what is VBXE Video Board XE (VBXE) is an add-on board that piggybacks in the ANTIC socket that works in XE class machines…
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#109 Should Atari Own Golden Age American Retro?
The third episode of our weekly live recorded by edited podcast concerning mostly Atari retro, but other topics as well. This time we discuss whether or not Atari SHOULD own Golden Age American Retro. #atari #neosprint #intellivision #atari7800 #superproracers #atari8bit #vbxe #missilecommand #atarist #amiga Notes: NeoSprint Atari Buys Intellivision https://atari.com/blogs/newsroom/atari-acquires-intellivision-brand…
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Countdown! Atari ST Action Platform Run and Gun Top: 50 Part 3: Numbers 30-21
In this series we are exploring and continuing to countdown the 50 best scrolling platform games on the Atari ST that use guns as their primary weapon. Even if a game contains no platforms other than the ground, we are still going to consider it for this list. Some of…
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107: Overscan: Is it possible to be bored in 2024? + Retro News!
Into the veritable blank Weekly Overscan : Our new Weekly Retro / Classic gaming and nostalgia show Coming up next: ITVB – Retro – Overscan. Featuring This weeks possibly below the radar retro and classic gaming news as well as the discussion topic is it possible to really be bored…
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Zeppelin Games Budget Gems for the Atari8bit Computers and Atari400mini
Zeppelin Games released 19 titles for the Atari 8bit computers from 1988 through 1991, yet another budget software hose, like Atlantis in the previous video, that catered to the new market opened by Atari’s successful promotion of the XE and especially the XEGS in Christmas 1987. Zeppelin budget games were…
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8bit Rocket Review: Polono PL 420 Thermal Label Printer. Perfect for Amazon and EBAY Sellers
I use the #Polonoi#PL420 Thermal Label every day with the standard 4 by 6 labels daily for both #Ebay and #Amazon#USPS and #UPS mailing and it has really streamlined my process. Also, the smaller Polono 2 by 1 Labels are really nice for Amazon #FBA#FBM#AISN#Barcodes. Polono PL420 4×6 Label Printer…
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8bit Rocket How to: How to Remove Vocals with Cyberlink Audio Director 365
How to #RemoveVocals with #Cyberlink #AudioDirector 365 Have you ever wanted to remove vocals from a song to create a karaoke track or remix? With Cyberlink Audio Director 365, it’s easier than you think. We use Cyberlink 365 Video, Photo and Audio Software https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-101120177-13728120?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyberlink.com%2Fproducts%2Fdirector-suite%2Foverview_en_US.html%3Fitem%3D1%26r%3D1%26affid%3D2581_-1_37_CJaffiliate&cjsku=230110
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Atari 8bit + C64 LA Swat and Panther 2 on One pack
Atari 8bit + C64 LA Swat and Panther 2 on One pack This #Atari #8bit #Computers and #Commodore64 Double game pack 2-sided multi-format disk was developed by sculptured software and released in 1988 by Mastertronic. We go through history, open my boxed version, play all 4 games, and compare these…
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S5:e6 Atari ST Halcyon Days of 1989 Part 3: Atari ST Gaming Gems
Our favorite 1989 Console Style Games for the ST We had an ST when most of the other kids near us had various consoles. We knew our machine could play superior RPGs, Simulations, and Adventure titles, but how did it hold up against the 8 and 16 bit console games…
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Final Mochi Comments and Flash Game License
Jeff Fulton (8bitjeff) In about 2005 I started this blog with help from 8bitsteve purely to experiment with game development and design. Many of the older posts are gone or missing after many transitions between various blogging software, but many still exist. When I first started to make a few…
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! Play our old Flash Game Mission Leprechaun
Happy St Patrick’s Day!!! In honor of this day (and my Scotch Irish roots) plus the demise of Mochi (where this game was initially published), I present to everyone who is NOT on mobile, a game I created about 7 years ago (with my sister Mari and Steve Fulton helping…
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Goodbye and Thanks Mochi Media
On March 14th Mochiland, the blog that has been the mouthpiece for Machi Media since 2006, announced that the array of Mochi Media services for Flash game developers will go offline on March 31st. Josh Larson wrote a logn detailed message to describe the situtation. Here is the most important part…
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Torrents are killing the technical book industry.
Torrents are killing the technical book industry and making it really difficult for me to provide a decent holiday season for my family. I know times are tough all over, but the number of stolen copies of our three books compared to the numbers sold is almost 1000 to 1.…
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HTML5 Canvas (2nd Edition) Is Out, Goes Chinese!
Our new edition of HTML5 Canvas is out, and it’s getting some good reviews. We poured a lot of effort into this one to make sure it was updated for 2013. We just heard from O’Reilly that they there will be a Chinese translation of this one too (there…
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Coding By Google – AS3 to PHP with Simple MYSQL DB Query and Data Return Tutorial (Free Code)
By Jeff Fulton (@8bitrocket on twitter) Coding By Google – AS3 to PHP with Simple MYSQL DB Query and Data Return Tutorial (Free Code) Here at Producto Studios, I use Google to look up code all day long. Yes, I have written books on Javascript, Flash, Actionscript, and HTML5, but…
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HTML5 Canvas Book Example Files
HTML5 Canvas Book Example Files Just in case these are not just available yet on the O’Reilly Site http://www.8bitrocket.com/html5canvas/2nd_edition_examples_2_4_8_9_10.zip http://www.8bitrocket.com/html5canvas/2nd_edition_examples_1_3_5_6_7_11.zip
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Corona: Updating Mobile Game Content in Runtime
The Corona Labs Site has put up a tutorial I wrote on the basics of updating mobile content at run-time: Updating Mobile Game Content in Runtime Here is a brief summary: We take the green tank tile sheet. And use it to place and animation on the screen: Next we use ad…
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HTML5 Canvas + Web Cam + Chrome = HTML5 Video Puzzle Of You! (Demo)
We are finishing up an update to our HTML5 Canvas book, and I wanted to share one of new examples. This one takes the Video Puzzle app from the first edition of the book, and adds web cam support. It only works in Chrome right now. You also…
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Friday was a Tough Day for a Deadline, but HTML5 Canvas 2nd Edition Is Nearly Complete
By Jeff Fulton (8bitjeff) Tough Day for a Deadline, but HTML5 Canvas 2nd Edition Is Nearly Complete There will be no Atari video game retrospectives this weekend on 8bitrocket. Far too many little ones will not get to experience their own version of the same thing, never have a chance…
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We are looking for Paid Technical Reviewers for the 2nd Edition of The HTML5 Canvas book on O’Reilly
By Jeff D. Fulton (8bitjeff) We are looking for Paid Technical Reviewers for the 2nd Edition of The HTML5 Canvas book on O’Reilly press. We have added about 150 new pages that need to be reviewed by 2-3 people with knowledge of Javascript and or the HTML5 Canvas. We’ll offer…
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Full Versions Of Professor Palindrome! And Professor Zombie! Now Available In The Amazon Android Store
Last week we implemented the the new Amazon in-app payment system into the Android and Kindle versions of Professor Palindrome! and Professor Zombie! Each now include ways to remove adds, purchase extra “Instant Solves” and add extra time. The Amazon In-App Payment system uses Amazon.com accounts to…
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Professor Zombie! Released For iOS, Kindle Fire, Android – Plus Professor Palindrome! now On Kindle Fire!
For Immediate Release : 9/25/2012 Producto Studios Releases Professor Zombie! For iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire Redondo Beach, CA: Today Producto Studios released their newest game for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire: Professor Zombie Unscramble! Just in time for Halloween – a sequel to the hit iOS game Professor Palindromes!…
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What Is A Game Box Worth?
I have a new blog over at Gamasutra named “What Is a Game Box Worth“: “… when I finally went “indie”, thrust into a world where everything is digitally delivered, you would think that I would feel at home, right? The truth is , I still longed for that…
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Announcing Professor Zombie! For Android Devices! (Plus a new Free Version of Professor Palindrome!)
Today we launched Professor Zombie!, a reworking of Professor Palindrome! with new puzzles and a mock-horror theme. In this version of the game, you must unscramble the words as fast as possible before the Zombie eats the professor’s brain. Here is our promo video: [iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/1-p5ChGWHgc”…
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Christmas Bytes Film Kick Starter Campaign
Christmas Bytes Kick Starter Campaign. Steve and I are involved in a Kick Starter Campaign to get a movie developed. It is NOT our movie, but we have been asked to help out. It is set in the 80’s and the goal of the protagonist in the film is to…
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Bob Cringely Says His Web Site Is Not Viable Any Longer, He Needs To Evolve : We Understand Bob!
Over at Cingely.com, Bob Cringely has finally has explained why he is “quitting”. Basically, a web writer trying to create a destination blog does not pay the bills any longer. In his story Facebook, Cringely and the devolution of the web Bob says : “I could do a lot better…
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Professor Palindrome! Now For Android Devices
Professor Palindrome! in now available for Android devices. the Android version cost $.99 and has no ads. You can get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.producto.prefssorpalidonromesmobile
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Professor Palindromes! First Dollar Earned As an Indie Studio Partnered With Producto Studios
We put this on our bulletin board. It represents the first dollar we earned from our first game as an indie game studio (partnered with Producto Studios). It’s folded to 70% to represent the cut Apple took. You can see the game here: http://itunes.apple.com/ua/app/professor-palindromes-unscramble/id543642119?mt=8
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box2dweb for the HTML5 Canvas: Converting MTS Units To Pixels To Apply To The Canvas
I’m starting to love box2dweb. I’ve been working on a revisions for the new edition of our O’Reilly book on the HTML5 Canvas, and I thought it would be nice to add some coverage of box2d to chapter 5 (Math and Physics). There are two box2d implementations for JavaScript. The…
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Professor Palindromes! Press Release
Here is the new press release for out newest iOS game, Professor Palindromes Game: Professor Palindrome! Description: Unscramble the palindromes! Palindromes are words and phrases spelled the same way backwards and forwards. Professor Palindromes challenges you to the ultimate word challenge. Can you form all the palindromes before you run…
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Professor Palindromes, Our First iOS Game Is Now Available
Our first iOS game is now live in the iTunes store. “Professor Palindromes” is a free game for word nerds. The object is to unscramble the palindromes as fast as possible. Watch the video below, or go download it from iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/professor-palindromes-unscramble/id543642119?ls=1&mt=8 [iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/YqTtRvGiNho” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen][/iframe]
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See You At DevCon5, New York, Next Week!
I will be speaking about the HTML5 Canvas at 3 sessions of DevCon5 in New York next Monday, July 23rd. If anyone is near NYU, DevCon5 is a great way to learn all sorts of cool stuff about HTML5. Unfortunately, Jeff can’t make it this time, which means I’m twin-less…
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Flash CS6 + Our Book On Flash + iOS = Surprisingly Good Performance. I Feel Vindicated
A couple years ago, Jeff and I published The Essential Guide To Flash Games through Friends Of Ed. At nearly the EXACT moment the book went into print, the whole Apple/Flash/iPad flap blew-up the Flash world. What we thought would be the culmination of 10 years of…
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HTML5 Canvas On The 4th Of July : Atari 2600 Inspired Fireworks Demo And (Short) Tutorial
For the 4th of July, here is an Atari 2600 inspired fireworks demo in HTML5. Click the mouse button to explode a firework shell. This demo was originally designed to test our particle FX engine for the HTML Canvas with an object pool. While I don’t have enough…
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HTML5 Canvas : Animating Gradients To Create A Retro Atari Style Color Cycle
We just finished our semi-final run into the Atari Pong Developer Contest last week, but I’m still feeling a little “retro”. This weekend I decided to see if I could replicate an old-style Atari color-cycle in HTML5 using the Canvas API alone: no bitmaps or anything other helpers. The…
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Thing’s We’ve Learned The Hard Way #7: Development Contests
Things We’ve Learned The Hard Way #7: Development Contests
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Pong Developer Challenge : Reality Bites
I’ve searched for the past few days to find comments on the Atari Pong Developer Challenge, and most everything I’ve read gives us a very small chance of getting any further in the contest. The only positive comments I have seen are for AR Pong and Pong World, both…
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Atari Pong Developer Challenge : 15 Semi-Finalist Videos Posted, Ours Included
Atari has posted the finalist videos for the Pong Developer Challenge, ours included. Only 15 of 20 videos made the cut, so either some were not up to snuff, or five of the 20 semi-finalists did not made the deadline. By the way, the competition looks TOUGH. Our approach…
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Canvas-A-Go-Go: Lessons Learned From Teaching HTML5 Canvas at One Of Top Tech Companies On Earth
This week I spent a couple days on-site at “a very large technology company in the Silicon Valley”, working for a technical education company named Marakana, teaching a class on the HTML5 Canvas. Before I visited, I knew very little about the company. I knew they were an I.T. company. I…
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Atari Pong Developer Challenge : Crossing The Finish Line, Dreams Intact
A couple days ago was the deadline to have our demo and video submission for the Atari Pong Developer challenge . However, since I was travelling to San Jose teach a class on the HTML5 Canvas at Cisco this week, there is no way I could upload our submission…
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Atari Pong Development Challenge Diary #3: On The Shoulders Of Giants
By Steve Fulton We spent the last day of our short trip to Yosemite visiting the Mariposa Grove, an expansive area with a collection of giant Sequoia trees in the southern part of the National park. As we walked through the grove, crunching through the spring snow in our water-proof…
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Atari Pong Developement Challenge Diary #2: Inspiration In Yosemite Valley
I’m still on my little trip with my family, trying to recharge my batteries after a year of turmoil, and hoping to find inspiration for my entry into Atari’s Pong Development Challenge. As I described in entry #1, I had already discovered I wanted to make game that played fast.…
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Atari Pong Developement Challenge Diary #1: A Trip To Sierra Online Ground Zero
I’ve been planning my entry for Atari’s Pong Development Challenge for past few weeks, the but I’ve hit a brick wall with a few elements. I still hope to have my working prototype done for submission on April 15th, even though the rules only require a design document. I…
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Nolan Bushnell Speaks About The Atari PongDevChallenge (video)
By Jeff Fulton [iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/x2u6YFtSaXE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen][/iframe] Atari’s PongDevChallenge is still moving along. Atari sent us this press release yesterday, and it alludes to the video above. “The #PongDevChallenge is in full swing. With one month left to go for developers to submit their ideas for a chance…
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Atari Clarifies Pong Indie Developer Challenge Royalties
We received this from Atari’s PR Team today to clarify royalties on winning games: “Pong Indie Developer Challenge was conceived as a way for the gaming community to celebrate Atari’s and Pong’s upcoming 40th anniversary. It is a great opportunity for indie developers to have a successful launch on a…
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Instead Of Lighting Up The Indie Game Dev Community, Atari Pong Contest Raises Familar Questions About Ownership And Intellectual Property
“Enter Game Development Contests At Your Own Risk!” We’ve written about this in the past, both online and in our book The Essential Guide To Flash Games. “Game Contests” are not always what they seem. Not “all” mind you, but many “contests” are simple ways for sites and publishers…
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While iOS Builds, we play Atari 800 Games
(Jeff Fulton) The History of Apple (early at least) and Atari are linked together in many ways, so it is fitting that while we compile iOS apps, we play Atari 800 games on the machine next to the Mac. Thought it would be fun and nostalgic to post these today.
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Up Atari’s Sleeve: An $100,000 iOS Game Contest To Reimagine Pong!
So, what Atari had up it’s sleeve was a $100,000 contest to re-imagine Pong. While this might appear to be a let-down for fans angling for something new (i.e Roller Coaster Tycoon 4, Food Fight 2012), for indie developers it’s an AMAZING CHANCE to help redefine the quintessential…
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Atari has something up its’ sleeve…
So Atari has something special to announce tomorrow. We are hoping it is something classic…
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Flash Gaming Summit Coming up Fast! (March 4th)
The Flash Gaming Summit returns again this year as the première event for Flash game developers. We were honored to both be invited to speak (we could not sync up our plans unfortunately) and to be judges in the game competition. We LOVED the first one we attended, and…
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Interesting notes on External Interface JavaScript Call-Backs To Flash
This week we had a big project due for a new Movie that is coming out in a few weeks time. The majority of the site was built-in Flash but I needed to use an External Interface call to JavaScript in order to display dynamic content…
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Atari Nerd Fantasy: What If Our Games Had Been Released As Cartridges For A Classic Console (photo)
We were thinking over the weekend that it would be nice to have some kind of physical way to represent the many games we have made over the years. Since most of them have been web games, they are fleeting digital objects to everyone (except us that is!). We decided…
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Italian Review of HTML5 Canvas : fantastico!
Here is a review of our book HTML5 Canvas in Italian. The English translation appears to be pretty positive, however, the Italian looks better…so here is a quote in Italian: L’esempio che viene discusso e realizzato è veramente fantastico: un video puzzle. Si tratta di un video che viene diviso…
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8bitrocket 5 Year Anniversary : Throwing Up the Past and Top-10 Of Everything We could Think Of
Today is our 5 year anniversary. It’s been a roller-coaster-ride-kinda-year here at 8bitrocket Towers, with many ups and downs, sharp turns and thrills, but at the end of the ride, we just feel like throwing up. When we started 5 years ago, there were almost no sites talking about making…
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8bitrocket Blows The Roof Off DevCon5! :)
Well, maybe the roof stayed on, but our presentations were a quite bit more successful than we imagined. We’ve received tons of feedback, and it’s all been great. Maybe we should do this kind thing more often… We met some awesome people and had a great time spending some book…
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DevCon5 Santa Clara Live Blog
7:59 : 8bitsteve: Sending last Skype messages to colleagues at Electrotank. Finished the presentation last night. Actually, 2 presentations. Spent tons of free time in past 2 weeks creating demos for the conference. My actual fear right now: no one will show-up. 9:10 : 8bitsteve :Just arrived at the gate…
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Steve and I will be presenting on the HTML5 Canvas at Devcon5 on Wedensday
The conference is in Santa Clara on Wednesday and Thursday. We have a three hour block from 2-5PM on Wednesday to present. The first half will be an introduction to the Canvas and some actual code examples to get everyone familiar with the basics. The second half will be a demonstration of quite…
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Cerebral Fix CEO Ben Dellaca Says They Just “Discovered” Mid-Core Gaming. We Beg To Differ.
In an article at games.blog.com Cerebral Fix CEO Ben Dellaca says they just discovered “Mid-core Gaming”: Is Zynga dominating social games on Facebook so much, that it’s, in a way, killing it? I go to all of the conferences and I’m forever seeing developers who are actually looking at the likes of…
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Who Cares! Well, actually, Producto Studios and The Who Do!
8bitrocket in conjunction Producto Studios is proud to be a small part to a big cause. Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, and Dave Grohl rocked an amazing fundraiser to benefit the UCLA Daltrey/Townshend Teen Cancer Program and Producto rocked the website design. Long time “bandmate” of Producto’s Simon Hinchliffe designed the site and…
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Happy Thanksgiving From 8bitrocket.com
(turkey image borrowed from here, turned into ASCII here)
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Press Release: 8bitrocket.com’s Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton to Discuss the Emerging Role of Canvas Development At DevCon5 in Santa Clara, Dec. 7-8, 2011
8bitrocket.com’s Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton to Discuss the Emerging Role of the Canvas Development Environment At DevCon5 in Santa Clara, California, December 7-8, 2011 Norwalk, CT, November 10, 2011— TMC and Crossfire Media announced that Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton, co-founders of 8bitrocket.com and authors of the best-selling…
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Now Don’t Get Cocky “Web Standards” Dudes, HTML5 Still Has A Looooooooong Way To Go.
Two days ago Adobe announced that were were ceasing development of the Flash player for the mobile web, in favor of HTML5. They will focus on the air packagers and PC/Mac browser plugins. Technologically speaking, nothing has really changed, as Adobe already had an issue with Flash not being…
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One Day After Adobe Retreats Flash From The Mobile Web: Our HTML5 Canvas Book Hits #1 On The Game Programming Chart At Amazon.com
Also, it has the lowest ranking it has ever achieved too.
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Adobe Drops Mobile Browser Flash Support : Are You Ready To Stop Thinking We Are Crazy And Learn About The HTML5 Canvas ?
So, we’ve heard “through the grapevine” that many of our old readers and Flash Game colleagues were pretty skeptical about our choice to tackle the HTML5 Canvas. Jeff and I have always tried to figure out new trends early, and most of the time we are Too Early (i.e we…
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Flash Is Dead? Games Volume Grows And Multi-player Pays Off: An Interview With Mochi Media
Recently we caught-up with Alexander Shen from Mochi Media to ask him about the state of Mochi and viral Flash Games. His responses are truly enlightening. Far from Flash being dead and buried, it appears that both the volume of Flash games, and the success stories of Flash game developers…
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And the Man on the Hill said HTML5, build it and they will come…
This really is just a “state of the union” for 8bitrocket (8bitsteve and 8bitjeff) to go over some of the events that have transpired over the first 9 months of the year. We like to keep these brief (this one is anything but), and put them in the…
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Our HTML5 Canvas Book Already Made a Profit
Less than 5 months after being published and in spite of one Amazon reviewer that was angry because the book was too long (?) and targeted at beginners (not entirely correct, by way) we received a modest royalty check for Q2 2011 this week. This means that we have already covered our advance and are now…
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Literally, there would be no 8bitrocket without Steve Jobs
8bitSteve , Eric Barth, and I literally created our first “8bitrockets” by programming long basic programs on Eric’s Apple IIe. The programs used the Print statement and ASCII character set to slowly scroll our Star Wars inspired creations on the Apple green screen monitor. Sitting around in our…
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A small case study in a Flash to iPad HTML5 Conversion
The Project A few weeks ago, John and I over here at Producto Studios were asked to create an interactive, single-page, Power-Point style application for a small company (in Flash). The app was to contain multiple drop-down box syle animations that revealed bullet points and a screen filled with “touch”…
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On to…Electrotank
8bitsteve here. So I’ve just finished a stint at the company “that shall not be named” after an experience that I can only describe with the words “no comment“. After a week of trying to figure out my next move, some friends from the gaming technology company Electrotank have asked…
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How Adobe Can Win The Flash War
We here at 8bitrocket.com love Flash. Sure we also have a fondness for the HTML5 Canvas, but we still love Flash and have no desire to see it disappear. We also have not seen a real change in how much Flash development we are asked to do, in fact, if…
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Why I love The Flash Platform
The simple answer is that it is just as fun as using my Atari 800 or Atari ST. I assume the same goes for you Apple IIe/ IIGS / Mac Classic folks as well as the C64 / Amiga, and Tandy, Speccy, BBC Micro, MSX, and Amstrad crowds. Making your computer…
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Dear Large Game Development Company Engineering Job. It’s not you, it’s me. Thanks for the memories. We can still be linked in buddies if you want to.
Dear Large Game Company Engineering Job. It all seemed so great at the beginning (don’t they all?). Our courtship was a whirlwind romance of travel, interviews with interesting people, deep thoughtful discussions on game design, and veiled promises of the riches that might befall us if the fruits of our…
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Mid-Core Update: Wikipedia, And A Mid-Core Life, 8bitrocket.com Update
WikiPedia Just when we thought we had put a cap on the whole Mid-Core thing, we’ve had two interesting developments in that area in the past week. First, back in 2008 there was a group of loyal readers who made an attempt to get the term “Mid-core” added to Wikipedia. …
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2010-2011 Prediction Results: Plus 2011-2012 Predictions
Usually we do this in September, but I feel like moving this up a bit, so we are doing it now. First off, here are the predictions from last year, and how we fared: 10. Flash Games Everywhere! Google TV, the Google Web App Store, Flash games on Android, Flash…
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8bitrocket teams up with Producto Studios
8bitrocket has teamed up with Producto Studios to create a single, super-charged, one-stop-shop for everything cool, interactive, and fun. When we combined the retro / indie gaming sensibilities of 8bitrocket with the design genius of Producto, we created a partnership of epic gaming and graphic design proportions. Check out the…
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Does Anyone Want a Hardcore top-down, Scrolling Shooter On a Mobile Device?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately: Will anyone play (buy) a hardcore, top-down shooter on a mobile device? What will it take to get someone to buy it, play it, and tell their friends about it? Should it be free, with weapon upgrades as in-app transactions? The type…
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8bitrocket Reunion 2011! The original lost 1/3 of 8bitrocket Returns For One Night Only
A couple weeks back Eric Barth (center), the original “lost” 1/3 of 8bitrocket, returned to his origins by visiting Jeff and I back in California. Eric is a Professor Of Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Instead of building games, he builds all kind of robots and devices that use…
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Two more Good Reviews Of Our HTML5 Canvas Book
Here are couple more good reviews of out HTML5 Canvas book. From Wonderoile “…overall I can recommend this book to every developer who wants to be creative with the web. This book provides a solid path for developing Canvas games/ applications with a solid performance.” From All Things Mat: “…I felt…
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Great HTML Canvas Book Review!
David Hayden has given our new book a very nice review. You can read it here. My favorite part of the review the fact that Hayden is developing games with his daughter: “My daughter and I have been developing a lot of HTML5 Games to improve our skills at…
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HTML5 Canvas Game Development Diary: Bug Off! No. 1
Steve and I have been getting our fill of commercial Flash Game development at our new day (and night and weekend) jobs a Zynga, so we have decided to start honing our HTML5 Canvas development skills even more by creating some fun game demos to post on the site. We…
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HTML5 Canvas Book Notes
O’Reilly Forums For HTML5 Canvas We’ve been answering questions about the book over at the O’Reilly forums. Come on over and visit. : http://forums.oreilly.com/forum/110-html5-canvas/ Firefox 4 “loop” Missing Firefox 4 has been giving me fits in the past week as I try to finish my HTML5 Canvas demo game, Brickbasher…
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HTML5 Canvas Book Spotted in the Wild Plus Chart Positions (#1 in Game Programming)
Its always fun to discover the first sighting of something you have created, “In The Wild”. Just about every Friday night I take a trip over to the local Barnes and Noble to look for the latest Retro Gamer or Wired. Today was a double success because aside from the…
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Gagaville goes gold (and silver, and sparkley, with a meat dress)
I was a small cog in the big Zynga machine that just launched a giant promotion with Lady Gaga today – Gagaville on Farmville. By playing you can unlock pre-release versions of her up coming songs, acquire Gaga specific items for your own farm, and much more. …
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HTML5 Canvas Book : Notes #1: Use Google Chrome
Here are some notes about our HTML5 Canvas Book. Actually one note: Use Google Chrome. Especially for the examples in Chapters 6 and 7 (audio and video), and especially when loading and playing video and audio clips, Google Chrome has the best support right now. The other chapter examples work…
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Our book, HTML5 Canvas is now available.
Our book, HTML5 Canvas from O’Reilly is now available. Only a few copies are left at Amazon, but you can get it directly from O’Reilly if you want.
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Our HTML5 Canvas Book Now Available for Amazon Kindle
Apparently Our HTML5 Book is now available for Kindle. Our faithful reader Hayes reports that our new O’Reilly book, HTML5 Canvas, is now available for the Amazon Kindle: You can see it here.
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The HTML 5 Canvas (O’Reilly) Table Of Contents
Our book on HTML5 Canvas programming is nearing completion. The Amazon.com info page has not been updated yet with the latest information, so I decided to put it here in case anyone is interested. We are in final revision stage and everything is right on time. We have checked and…
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The Essential Guide To Flash Games Made a Profit! (really)
Essentially because of many of you, our book, the “Essential Guide to Flash Games, Building Interactive Entertainment in As3”, actually paid Steve and I a royalty yesterday (even with that crazy-long title). After receiving a years worth of the most puzzling (I wish I could show one here) advance recoup…
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For Those Still Compiling We Salute You : 10 Reasons Classic Game Programmers Matter
A while back, coworker and I were talking today about the recent interview with Steve Woita in Retro Gamer magazine. We’ve both met Woita ( my co-worker in-person and myself virtually though this site), but my co-worker was blown-away that a few days prior, Woita had been “suggested” to him…
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8bitrocket.com Joins Up with Oracle-Retro!
The denizens of 8bitrocket.com have “beat around the virtual bush” for many weeks about the new “large company” they are working for, and today is the day they can reveal the name: Oracle! Yes, the world’s largest database company is starting a retro-evolved games division, and 8bitrocket.com are joining-up! 8bitsteve…
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Hotel Room Chrysalis
As 8bitjeff awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic code de-bugger. He was laying on his soft, as it were, free food fattened belly and when he lifted his head a little he could see he was still housed in a…
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The Game Shift 001: Thoughts On Week 1
I recently moved from working in a highly structured corporate development environment at one of the world’s largest toy companies to a loosely structured start-up environment at one of the world’s largest game companies. The Game Shift is a chronicle of that change. Day 1: Orientation Day 1 was a…
