• Distellamaps : Ben Fry Visualizes Atari 2600 Code : Suitable For Blowing Your Mind (And Framing)

    Sometime it seems like we miss some pretty good stuff because we are busy working and not trying to scour the interbaun for really cool things (any more).  One of those things that  appears to have passed us by are Ben Fry’s Distellamaps.   These were made almost two years…

  • 8bitrocket.com Interviews Johnny Wilson Former Editor Of Computer Gaming World

    By Steve Fulton (Note: A Portion of this interview ran on  http://www.gamecareerguide.com/ December, 2011) Johnny L. Wilson was the editor of Computer Gaming World magazine for about 10 years, and in that time he saw computers games rise to become the dominant game medium of the 20th century.  He is the co-author of…

  • Retro Gamer Review

    By Jeff Fulton With traditional game related magazines falling by the way-side every day, why would Retrogamer magazine still be going so strong after 100 issues? Somewhere around the middle of 2004, I was browsing the magazine shelf at the local (now itself defunct) Borders and I found a  large yellow…

  • By Jeff Fulton With traditional game related magazines falling by the way-side every day, why would Retrogamer magazine still be going so strong after 100 issues? Somewhere around the middle of 2004, I was browsing the magazine shelf at the local (now itself defunct) Borders and I found a  large yellow…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 8bitrocket.com Forums Are Back To Manual Registration

    The 8bitrocket.com forums are using a manual, closed registration system. If you are already a member, please click here: If you would like to request a membership, please send your name and email address to into(at)8bitrocket(dotcom, and we will get you registered. Why have we down this?  Because we were…

  • Atari Vets “Getting The Band Back Together” To Rock Mobile Games Like’s It’s 1979 All Over Again

    Denis Koble, Rich Adam, Ed Logg, Lyle Rains, Bruce Merritt, Tim Skelly, Owen R. Ruben, Ed Rotberg, Bob Smith, and Rob Zdydel are forming a game company named Innovative Leisure, and you should take notice. If you don’t know who those guys are, they are the designers, programmers, and masterminds…

  • 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…

  • Chuck is gone, but it will leave a lasting impression (to modern nerds at least)

    (Jeff Fulton) The TV show Chuck had it last two episodes last night and while it never achieved a huge TV audience, it represents the type of modern,  innovative, quality TV programming that can exist if those involved use the same creativity with production as they do with writing, acting…

  • When Social Media Fails

    This week I found out that someone I know is in a very bad situation.  Actually, the situation is dire, really horrible, and honestly, unimaginable.    I went to school with this person, and for a couple of years we spent a good amount of time together.  This person is…

  • Star Wars Uncut The Director’s Cut Released : Another Sign Of The Apocalypse?

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 331 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on this year. The next Sign Of Doomsday: Star Wars Uncut : The Directors…

  • Corporate Development Work Almost Killed Me

    (Jeff Fulton) Corporate Development Work Almost Killed Me First the good news.  I no longer work for a large corporation and I am am doing very well health-wise.  Except for a few minor exercise related injuries,  I am the healthiest I have been since 2006. From 1997 – 2006 I loved…

  • 336 Days Left : The Next Sign Of The Apocalypse : Microsoft Adds Achievements For Coding Into Visual Studio

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 336 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on this year. The next Sign Of Doomsday: Microsoft Adds Achievements For Coding Into…

  • Stop SOPA and PIPA: To quote an old NRA slogan. If you OUTLAW web sites, only OUTLAWS will have Web Sites.

    (Jeff Fulton) Even our Book Publisher is against SOPA and PIPA O’Reilly, (our book publisher) is one of the many companies with intellectual property that would supposedly be “saved” by massively under-thought and over-protective SOPA and PIPA online Intellectual property bills, is going dark today (along with Wikipedia, and many other web…

  • 346 Days Left : Next Sign Of The Apocalypse : The Kindle Fire Holding It’s Own Against The Apple iPad

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 346 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on this year. The next Sign Of Doomsday: The Kindle Fire Holding It’s…

  • Where is the Point Blank Remake?

    (Jeff Fulton) Point Blank and Point Blank 2 were 2 of the best party style games for the original Playstation. You needed a “gun controller” that oddly hooked up to the video “in” on your TV and to the controller port to make it work. I have both still on an old…

  • 348 Days Left : Next Sign Of The Apocalypse : Tom Chick Goes Solo

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 348 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on this year. The next Sign Of Doomsday: Tom Chick goes solo Tom…

  • 349 Days Left To Code: Next Sign Of Doomsday : Bob Cringley Quits Writing About Technology

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 349 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on this year. The next Sign Of Doomsday: Bob Cringley Quits Writing About…

  • 351 Days Left To Play: Next Sign Of Doomsday : Adobe Sales Are Up

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 351 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on. The next Sign Of Doomsday: Adobe sales are up It turns out,…

  • 352 Days Left To Play: First Sign Of Doomsday : Atari Defends Its’ Intellectual Property

    The current Mayan Countdown has us at 352 days left until the end of the world, so we here at 8bitrocket.com have decided to spend some time looking for stories that we think show that something weird is going on. The first Sign Of Doomsday: Atari starts to defend its…

  • My Interview With Johnny Wilson (CGW) Live on GameCareerGuide.com

    A few months back I got the urge to catch-up with Johnny Wilson, the long-time editor of Computer Gaming World.  I do this from time-to-time.  I get nostalgic about old games or magazines, and then attempt to look-up some of the personalities and get them to speak on record about…

  • spaceport.io Takes some of the Pain Out of HTML5 Game Development By Helping you convert AS3 to HTML5

    Wow, it’s getting hard to keep track of all the exciting new APIs, SDKs and platforms emerging for HTML5 game development! We just took a look at Ben Savage’s spaceport.io project today, and it looks really interesting.       There is both an SDK that helps you to convert…

  • Atari Nerd Chronicles: The Best Christmas Ever

      Although I had no idea in early 1981, my brother and I were video game obsessed twins on a collision-course with the pinnacle of ultimate geekdom: computer ownership.    We both loved arcade games and owned an Atari 2600 that we played constantly.  We spent all of our money on…

  • The 12 Years Of Atari Christmas 1981-1992

    On Christmas ’81 Atari gave to me, a VCS under the Christmas tree   On Christmas ’82 Atari gave to me, two arcade conversions and a VCS under the Christmas tree   On  Christmas ’83 Atari  gave to me three Swordquest titles two arcade conversions and a VCS under the…

  • HTML5 Canvas Game: Tic Tac Pro Quack The Glass – Goes Gold

    8bitrocket in conjunction with Producto Studios and in association with TicTacDontion.com is proud to announce the launch of our HTML5 Canvas only game targeted to work on ANY HTML5 browser platform (mobile or desktop). 8bitrocket and Producto Studios did all of the game programming in HTML5 and TicTacDonation.com  provided the…

  • Atari 80’s Christmas Commercials (More Filler For A Slow Week)

    Nothing brings back 8-bit Christmas memories like atrocious video game commercials from the 80’s.  The funny is, we LOVED these commercials.   They represented the mainstream accepting our love of Atari and video games…at least that is how we thought about it. Anyway, here are a couple for your viewing…

  • Atari History Book Kickstarter Project Launches

    By Jeff Fulton Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel have launched their Kickstarter.com project to help get their massive Atari History book project off the ground.  Here is a video about the project: [iframe frameborder=”0″ height=”410px” src=”http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ataribook/atari-history-book-volume-1-beginnings-to-1984/widget/video.html” width=”480px”/]    

  • Image Gallery : From Altair To Nintendo : Christmas Themed Computer And Video Games Ads and Editorial Pages, 1975-1989

    When I was growing up, getting into the Christmas spirit usually involved reading my favorite computer and video game magazines and paging through the special Christmas content created just for the holiday. Since the physical magazine era is quickly coming to a close, I thought we would salute the golden…

  • 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…

  • HTML5 Puzzle Game : Color Drop : Game Demo + AS3 vs. JavaScript Code Comparison

    HTML5 Puzzle Game : Color Drop : Game Demo + AS3 vs. JavaScript Code Comparison

    Color Drop was game that was featured in our book The Essential guide To Flash Games.  Earlier this month I decided to to see how hard it would be to tackle a similar game for HTML5 Canvas for the next version of HTML5 Canvas for O’Reilly.  Color Drop HTML5 Canvas is…

  • What the hell are you running from?

    When I was in 5th grade I started to run. I ran with a friend named Richie and we would circle the play ground of our Manhattan Beach  grammar school 20 or 30 times per recess. I was never interested in running as a competition, just as something to do.…

  • 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…

  • HTML5 Canvas Christmas Tree Drag And Drop Demo And Tutorial

    HTML5 Canvas Christmas Tree Drag And Drop Demo And Tutorial

    Here is another demo from DevCon5.  Yesterday we showed you an action game, now we will show you something completely different.  A Drag And Drop style decoration application of the type we produced by the dozens ta Mattel throughout the first 10 years of this century.  We present to you:…

  • HTML5 Canvas “1945” Game Demo

    HTML5 Canvas “1945” Game Demo

    Here is one of the game demos we showed at Devcon5 last week.  This is an action game named 1945.  It uses graphics from Ari Feldman’s Spritelib and music from Musopen.com.   You cannot die in this game.  It’s a demo of parallax scrolling and particle effects.  Move and shoot with the…

  • New Forum Redux

    A couple notes about the new forums. 1. the permissions have been updated so registered users can post in all forums 2. Registering requires admin approval now, as the “human spam bots” are causing issues. -8bitsteve      

  • New Forums To Focus On HTML5 Game And App Development (with Flash and Corona too)

    We’ve had a lot of requests to start a forum for HTML5 Game and App developers.  Since we use HTML5, Flash, Corona, and other tech too, we decided to try a new forum for all that stuff too. This is really just a fresh install of PHP BB with some…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…