• The Literal DOS Box – Classic DOS game gold vein

    I have been going through old boxes of retro gaming gear over the last few weeks and today I came across a set of 3 1/2 inch floppy disks that I knew existed, but was had been unable find. In 1992, Steve and I shed our beloved Atari 1040ST for…

  • Atari Nerd : This Day In Atari History For May 1st

    1981 May 1: Threshold  published By Sierra On-Line for Atari 8-bit 1983 May 1 : Atarisoft releases Pac-Man for the Intellivision 1989 May 1: Mastertronic Atari ST budget UK release: SILKWORM 1990 May 1:  Atari Games US Trademark date for Hydra 2003 May 1 : Atari releases Breakout for cell…

  • Atari Nerd : This Day In Atari History For April 30th

    1981 April 30: DataSoft first publicizes Micro Painter for Atari 8-bit computers 1984 April 30: Parker Brothers finalizes prototype of Atari 2600 game Frogger II 1994 April 30: Atari Classic Programmer’s Club announce 8-bit computer products• Loopz: game releases TBA• Helter Skelter: game release TBA• Bomb Blaster: game release Christ…

  • 8bitrocket InterWeb Mash-Up For Friday April 29th, 2011

    A Note From 8bitrocket Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying our new focus and format as much as we are are enjoying it.  We found it very hard to write lots of in-depth articles because the industry is changing so much at the moment.   We will have more in-depth…

  • 8bitrocket Daily Inter-Web Mash-Up – Thursday, April 28, 2011

    MochiGames.com Game for Today: RobotSockets RoboSockets is a new take (to us anyway) on the  classic falling item/connect/clear game play pattern.  The robots have various connectors that need to be lined-up to get clear them  from the screen.  It’s engaging with neat graphics, and fun in short bursts. Flash AS3…

  • 8bitrocket Daily Inter-Web Mash-up – Wednesday, April 27, 2011

    The Daily Briefing has been re-named back to the Inter-Web Mash-Up of old. Steve and I have both made it through 6 weeks with the new game development company, and although the hours are long, we are trying to find time for daily updates here on 8bitrocket.com. The focus will…

  • 8bitrocket Daily Briefing – Tuesday, April 26, 2011

    New Game Picks From Mochi Games Cactus McCoy : A Western-themed platformer with nice music and neat graphics. Homerun In Bezerkland :  Hit the geek as far as you can. More than a decade ago played this with penguins.  Because of that, this game probably falls into the “retro Flash…

  • 8bitrocket Daily Briefing : Monday April 25th, 2011

    Top Of Mind Jolt Here some neat new games from MindJolt.com : Green Archer : Aim and shoot arrows are various objects.  Simple and derivative, but intriguing none-the-less. Bi-Plane Bomber :  Addicting, easy to control (and wholly unrealistic, but still…) bi-plane dog fight and bombing game.  Nice scrolling, and great…

  • 2010 Easter Games Revisited

    Here are links to the 2010 Easter Games we posted last year.  All are simple games with graphics designed by my girls (8bitsteve).

  • The 8bitrocket Daily Briefing – Sunday, April 24, 2011

    First off, Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it. Try out these new Flash Game Distribution games. We liked them the first couple times we played them. – X Missile (once you find the game through all of the ads and Free Tower defense logos). This is fun shooter…

  • 8bits in the Attic – Atari (and Intellivision) Treasure Trove

    About 12 years ago I realized that I wanted to play my original 1986 Atari 7800, but had no idea where it was. After searching the garage at my parents house, I found the original system in its original box, but no games. This set me out on a mission…

  • Our First “Game” Hack, Circa 1981

    Last week I pulled out I found an old Choose Your Own Adventure book to read to my girls.   This was one of the original books Jeff and I got from the Scholastic Book club in elementary school.  This particular book was from 1981.  I recall, that Jeff and…

  • 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…

  • Ode To A Game That Nobody Played

    This is an ode to a game that nobody played For the classes and functions and code that I made For the weeks designing how the screen would be laid With Pseudo-3D and traces that rayed With cool explosions filled with particles sprayed This is an ode to a game…

  • Retro Scan Of The Week: Romox Games (1983)

    This week’s scan is a Romox microcomputer games advertisement from Analog magazine’s Sept/Oct 1983 issue. The two games featured in the ad are Anteater and Typo (available in cartridge form for the Atari 8-bit, Commodore Vic-20 / 64, and TI 99/4A). Romox started business in Campbell California in 1982 and…

  • Two Great New Video Game Books You Should Check Out

    It appears that we are in a “gaming book” renaissance the likes of which we have not seen since the  since the early parts of the 21st century when Dungeons And Dreamers, Masters Of Doom, and The First Quarter all fascinated us with inside stories of games being made and played. While there have…

  • Atari Greatest Hits Vol. 2 DS: Atari 400 Emulator In Action

    I discovered today that the new DS title Atari Greatest Hits Vol .2 for the Nintendo DS includes an Atari 400 emulator running Atari BASIC.    The emulator is in the extras section, and as far as I can tell, only lets you type in and run it in the…

  • This week’s retro scan and discussion: Killer Rigs – CGW March 2001

    Computer Gaming World is now defunct, but during the golden age of PC gaming it was my favorite gaming publication. I consider the golden age of PC games to have started with Wolfenstein 3D (about 1992) and ended just about the time Half Life was repackaged for the 10th time…

  • Get 100 Atari Classics for the iPhone / iPad for $14.99 USD

    The incredibly generous Atari’s Greatest Hits for iOS was released yesterday to the iTunes store. You can have 100 Atari classics for $14.99 or you can purchase various game packs such as the Asteroids pack, Warlords pack, or one of the many others for as little at $1.29. Many of…

  • Silverlight Not Dead: Silverlight 5 On The Way

    Last year while working at “Monolith” I had a short email argument with some upper management folks about the future of Silverlight.  They were all in a panic that “Microsoft was abandoning Silverlight” , and this was just after they had agreed to paid a vendor huge $$$ for some…

  • 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…

  • Watch the New Star Soccer 5 Trailer

    It is no secret that I love the football/soccer games from the 80’s and early 90’s. I was a HUGE Kick Off 2 and Kick off Player Manager fan on the Atari ST, but shed the ST for a PC just in time to miss out on Sensible. Anyway, about…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Atari 800 In A Hotel Room

    Jeff and I are still in S.F. doing a 2-week tour of duty with our new employer before we head home to work as remote employees.  While it might appear that we have been having a blast on this trip, in reality it as been very hard work, and every…

  • Management Sucks 001: No, It’s Not “Just Business”

    While working as a developer and then later as a manager for  “The Monolith” for 15 years, I learned a lot about how old-style corporations feel about their regular employees.    This new series, Management sucks, explores some of the experiences I had while trying to manage a team of…

  • Atari Greatest Hits Vol.2 For The DS Now Available

    Atari hs just sent us a press release for their “Greatest Hits volume 2” for the Nintendo DS.  We loved the first one, and this one looks like it will be just as good.   Check out the Atari release below: ATARI’S GREATEST HITS: VOLUME 2 NOW AVAILABLE AT RETAIL…

  • Road Test: Adobe “Wallaby” Flash->HTML5 Converter Preview Version

    A couple days ago, Adobe released a preview version of  “Wallaby”, their Flash->HTML5 converter.  It’s been a badly kept secret for the past few months that Adobe was working on something like this, but with the release they have finally come clean on their efforts. Here is what they says…

  • Listen to the live LAPD radio stream mixed with random ethereal music

    OK, so this is way off topic (game and retro-wise), but you can expect a little more in this “random awesomeness” category now and then. The site YouAreListeningToLosAngeles.com is simply a live feed stream of Los Angeles Police radio  chatter (provided by radioreference.com) played over a random selection of ethereal…

  • The Pac-man Dossier Kicks Ass!

    If you are at all interested in building a maze chase game in the Pac-man genre, or are just interested in the technical details about the game or how to play it, check out the incredibly detailed Pac-man Dossier by Jamey Pittman. This treasure trove of information contains everything from…

  • The current state of 8bitrocket Towers

    It has been a long, eventful two months to begin 2011.  I have not found the time to write much on the blog, but that will change as soon as Steve and I begin our new adventure in game development. I’m not sure the term “extra” time applies as I…

  • An Inspirational Story For Dreamers Everywhere

    We apologize for being very quiet lately.  Yes, we have a couple things to announce that will forever  change the content and direction of this site, however for now we have to stay focused and mum. However, I’d like to relay to you and inspirational story. Here goes: There is…

  • Flash Is So 2011, HTML5 Is So 2014

    Here’s a secret: Flash is far from dead, in fact it’s being adopted at a higher-rate than ever on multiple mobile platforms.  In recent ZDnet article Christopher Dawson wrote: “And it isn’t just Android. Windows Phone 7, RIM’s BlackBerry OS, and HP’s WebOS all currently or will shortly support Flash…

  • Retro Blaster, Pumpkin Man and Jack’s Beach Blitz added to Google Chrome App Store

    I have started to add some of our arcade games to the Google Crome App Store. Retro Blaster Asteroids on steroids with many power ups to purchase and bosses galore. Pumpkin Man If Pac-man had included 30 different mazes, multiple power-ups, door/key puzzles, transporters and more it would be something…

  • Ultimate Unscramble #1 and #2 Now In Google Chrome Web App Store

    I went ahead and added a couple more free educational games to the Google Chrome Web App Store today: Ultimate Unscramble #1: HTML Color Words Ultimate Unscramble #2: Countries And Flags It appears to be very simple to add new apps to the store. The interface is easy to use,…

  • Palindromes Plus Now In Google Chrome Web App Store

    I just tested out one of our games, Palindromes Plus,  in the Google Chrome Web App Store.  You can check it out here:

  • Quick Guide To wmode And Flash Embedding

    When embedding Flash .SWFs in HTML, there are several choices you can make for the wmode parameter.  I’ve always been a bit confused about which was which, so I set out to today to pull together as much information as possible on the subject.  Here is a quick run down of…

  • Flash Player 10.2 Released: Stage Video Is Finally Here – But What Is It?

    I can recall Adobe talking about stage video for a long time.   It’s a new feature in Flash Player 10.2 that is supposed to speed-up video layback considerably.   In many ways, this appears to be Adobe’s way of combatting HTML5 Video.  If you are curious, here is what…