• Pinball Mania! “Special When Lit” on Netflix and “The Pinball Arcade” For Nearly Every Platform That Matters

    When my wife and I first met, we spent countless hours playing pinball together.    In the mid 1990’s you could still find a pinball machine at most pizza parlors and multiple machines at arcades and bowling alleys.  Our standard playing style was to find a machine we liked (i.e.…

  • The Day Wii Played Hooky : How My Family Loved And Lost The Nintendo Wii

    By Steve Fulton In 2006 my family played hooky: All 5 of us.  It was a Monday in November.  The previous day I had gotten-up very early to stand-in line at the local Target.  It was rumored that they would have about 100 Nintendo Wii consoles available first come, first…

  • Sometimes Destiny Lies Between The Lines or How 4th Grade Isn’t Necessarily The End Of The World

    By Steve Fulton I sat next to Michael Jackson in the 4th grade.  Not that Michael Jackson, but Mike Jackson, my friend since he moved from England to  attend our Kindergarten at Pennekamp Elementary school in 1975. Mike, I and my brother had been friends since he arrived from the…

  • Our Favorite Viral Videos About The Games And Web Business

    Code Monkey Jonathan Coulton’s classic song about the life of a software developer.  One of the all-time best songs ever written. [iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/5W_wd9Qf0IE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen/]   Angry Video Game Nerd : Atari 5200 So this is not just a video, but a whole series.  The AVGN is now…

  • The Psychological Incentives Of Social Games Are Oddly Familiar. Hmm…I wonder where I’ve seen this before?

    Here Are Some Psychological Incentives Of Social Games That We have Observed Money is converted to “credits”, tokens, or chips for playing. This abstraction makes it harder to keep track of how much money has actually been lost. Once real money has been converted to play money, it takes significant…

  • Cracked.com’s 4 Worst Things About Writing For The Internet Can Be Applied To Games Too

    Cracked.com, one of my favirote site right now, published a story last week named “The 4 Worst Thing About Writing For The Internet” .  It’s a great read, and a the same time, you could apply all of the four things to making games, and it would be just as…

  • iWoz: The “Steve” I Always Liked Was Wozniak

    With all the hoopla about the passing of world’s greatest technology dictator and reality distortion master last week (okay, and the greatest tech visionary of the last 20 years, but’s who’s counting?), it appeared that, once again, Steve Woziank got buried under the praise for his short-time partner, Steve Jobs.…

  • Through The Looking Glass? : 6 Weeks Into My New Gig

    So I’m now 6 weeks into my new gig working as a contractor for a game and technology company.  At this point, at my last gig, I was drowning in minutiae and had almost no options but to soldier on into oblivion.   No fault from either side, but the job…

  • Just So You Know Who You Are Dealing With Here: A Note From 1985

    Just in case you had no idea who you are dealing with when you come to this site, here is note we wrote our mom in 1985.  She saved it.  That has to mean something.

  • Worst Products And Services For Classic Gamers (circa 1982-1984): Final Roundup Of Even More Useless Products

    In the past two article (part 1 and part 2 ), I have tried to tell stories with insight into just how useless some of these products, services and offers were back in the day.  However, there are a bunch more products that, while not quite as shockingly bad, are still…

  • 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…

  • Video Games Are My Hobby: My Essay From English Class, March 1982

    My essay for Mr. Davis’ 6th grade English class, March 22, 1982, Foster A, Begg, Junior High, Manhattan Beach, CA. (text below) Steve Fulton 3-22-1982 Essay My favorite thing to do is play a video game. After school on Thursdays I run home, grab 10 dollars, and nag my mom…

  • 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…

  • Republic Of Fun Aims To Take Over The World With Ginormous HTML Game Engine

      Republic Of Fun have announced Ginormous, and HTML5, cloud-based game engine that aims to toi give developers a way to target all HTML5 compatible screens with a robust set of of game creation tools. The offering includes Facebook integration and analytics, but is not Canvas based.  Very interesting.

  • 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…

  • Adobe Purchases Phone Gap

    Adobe just bought Phone Gap.   We think it’s a good move.   We used-up an entire chapter of out HTML5 Canvas book showing how to package a Canvas for consumption on the iPhone with Phone Gap.  We thought it was pretty cool. It looks Adobe likes it too.

  • Truth In Advertising #1: Atari 2600 Launch Games

    We love the box-art for the original Atari 2600 games.  The amazing game paintings inspired by the “idea” of the game (but not the action) went a long way to fill-in our imaginations when we played the games, because their primitive graphics could not do the job. However, we were…

  • The Flash CS5.5 Air Package to iOS Kicks ass!

    I had avoided upgrading the Flash CS5.5 for a few months because the job I had  didn’t really need it and I had been exploring Corona and Cocos-2d for iOS development. Then, just last week, I was asked what it would take to translate a client’s existing kids web site…

  • Katz/Kunkel/Worley : The History Of Video Games From Holy Trinity Of Game Journalism

    Bill Kunkel, Arnie, Katz and Joyce Worley were the pioneers of game journalism.   Here, in chronological order, are links to a good portion the writing they created in the golden age (and beyond) of video games. 1970-1980: Arcade Alley: Bill Kunkel And Arnie Katz suggested this column to the…

  • Who Killed Video Games?: Tim Rogers Knows

    In his latest, and possibly greatest piece of writing, Tim Rogers explores the mystery of “Who Killed Video Games:A Ghost Story“.  It’s an awesome read, even if you already know how it turns out in the end.  It’s hard to take just one quote, but here is a good one:…

  • Unity -> Flash Stage 3D Looks Impressive

    Yesterday at the free “Flash Day” at the Unity Unite conference, the Unity team showed off their new Unity -> Flash Stage 3D converter.  The product exactly what it sounds like it does: it converts 3D games built in Unity to “Molehill” compatible Stage 3D of the type supported by…

  • The Atari Sanction : Chapter 1 (fiction)

    Detective Jake Rolly rubbed the sheet green-bar printer between his thumb and forefinger.  He sat back in his rolling chair, and pushed his feet against the footing of his desk, rolling himself back towards his office window.  As he rolled back, he closed his eyes, and tried to concentrate.  However,…

  • A Tribute to the Child-Oriented Consumer Goods Company “New Media” Department Golden Era (2001 – 2006)

    Note: This is a true story that depicts real events from the perspective of the author.  Most real names of the people and the places involved have been changed or left out on purpose. Everyone involved will recognize the company and the events and might even have their own spin to…

  • Why Information Technology Director Is The Most Hated Job In America (An Anecdotal Account)

    CNBC ran a story on Friday about the 10 Most Hated Jobs In America.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that job I left in corporate America after 15 years was represented generously on the list.  In fact, technical jobs in generally made-up almost 1/2 the entries. However, today I’d…

  • Unboxing the iCup Atari Drinking Glasses From The Target Clearance Sale : A Photo Essay

    Today I purchased the iCup set of four classic Atari drinking glasses that were on clearance at Target.  Instead of telling you this story, and I’m going to show it to you with a web-only exclusive photo-essay of this exciting and monumental event.  Click the images for a larger picture.

  • Microsoft Hot On HTML5+Canvas For Windows 8, Freezes Out Flash

    Apparently, Microsoft has decided that their “Metro” Presentation layer (included in Windows 8 for PC and designed for tablets and smart phones) will not allow any kind of plug-ins to run (read: Flash).  Instead, “Metro” has been optimized for HTML5 and JavaScript.  This means that, for all intents and purposes,…

  • 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”…

  • The 8-Bit Game: Digesting Archon

    (By 8bit Jeff Fulton) The word “Archon” roughly translated from Greek means the ruler of a particular nation or state. The 8-bit computer game, Archon was the king or ruler of “real-time” strategy in the early 80’s well before the genre was actually “invented”. While it does not bare any…

  • Twisted Pixel’s Beard Secret: An Atari 800

    Twisted Pixel, the guys who created Gunstringer, ‘Splosion Man and Ms. ‘Splosion Man for the XBox 360, have revealed their secret.  An Atari 800.  Check out this video below: [iframe width=”560″ height=”345″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/Kd1M4TzhlgA” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen/]

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Developing The Alarm.com: 1995-2011

    Developing The Alarm.com: 1995-2011

    Introduction I was web master for http://www.thealarm.com for over 15 years. The Alarm were an 80’s band with hits like 68 Guns, Strength, and Rain In The Summertime.  They broke-up in 1991, but soon afterward, lead vocalist Mike Peters embarked on a solo career, that led to the creation of…

  • Rest In Peace Bill Kunkel: Video Game Journalism Pioneer

    By Jeff Fulton Bill Kunkel, part of the duo of Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel who created Electronic Games the frst magazine about video games, Electronic Games, died on Sunday at the age of 61. We were big fans of Bill Kunkel.  One of the first stories I wrote for…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 8bitrocket Interweb Mash-Up For September 3, 2011

    Iain Lobb On The Flash Community So we missed this a month ago, but Iain Lobb posted a really great piece named The Flash Community Needs a Complete Reboot about a month ago.  It’s still worth reading.   We really need to read our own industry feeds page more often……

  • Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is the the best book about video games you will read this year.  However, this is not a history book, nor is it a personal narrative.  Instead, Ready Player One history lesson in 80’s pop culture wrapped inside an engaging sci-fi story. The story…

  • 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. …

  • We Use Xtra Normal To Make A Sub-Par Video About Flash Games And Intellectual Property

    [iframe width=”560″ height=”345″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/SkCIMxqATwI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen] Here is our first attempt at using xtranormal to make a video.  This was obviously inspired by this video we posted a couple weeks ago.

  • Jamie Lendino Of PC Mag Admits To Loving The Atari 800

    Today, in an article named Steve Jobs: End of an Era Jamie Lendino uses the editorial good will created by Steve Job’s resignation to wax nostalgic about his days with his Atari 800.  It reads a bit like an 8bitrocket.com piece. “Needless to say, that Atari computer made a tremendous impression…