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  • Uncategorized

    PurpleFloyd’s HTML 5 Canvas Platform Game Running On An iPod Touch With Touch Controls

    Purple Floyd just contacted us to tell us that he has created an iPod Touch/iPhone compatible version of his platform game.  You can see it running in the video above. What does this mean?  Well, it means that very soon developers can make games that are formatted to the iPod…

    February 3, 2010
  • Features

    Apple/Adobe/HTML 5 Saga: Who Is Big Brother Now?

    Apple/Adobe/HTML 5 Saga: Who Is Big Brother Now? Well, I never expected to be writing about HTML5 years before it will be finished, but the whole iPad/No Flash support saga has me up at night wondering if we need to move sooner than later. First off, far from Apple relenting…

    February 2, 2010
  • Our Games

    Ultimate Unscramble #1: HTML Color Words (2010)

    Learn arcane HTML coding as you play a mediocre word game! Swap letters to unscramble the words. Pay attention to the color and hex code hints.

    February 1, 2010
  • Podcasts

    8bitrocket Video Gripe-Cast: HTML 5, Flash and The iPhone/iPad

    8bitrocket Video Gripe-Cast: HTML 5, Flash and The iPhone/iPad In this Podcast full of sour grapes and gripes, Steve and Jeff wonder out loud why Apple doesn’t play nice with Flash apps on their hand-held platforms while at the same time having developed and contributed the canvas to HTML 5.…

    January 29, 2010
  • 8bitrocket Features

    Why Does Apple Hate Flash: The HTML 5 Canvas Might Be The Answer

    Why Does Apple Hate Flash: The HTML 5 Canvas Might Be The Answer Many people on the web have been questioning why Apple “really” hates Flash and why it has not been included in the iPod Touch, iPhone, or new iPad. Everything from “Flash runs slow” to “Flash is not…

    January 29, 2010
  • Uncategorized

    8bitrocket Inter-Media Mash-Up: January 28, 2010

    8bitrocket Inter-Media Mash-Up: January 28, 2010 Its no secret that I have had my head buried in the proverbial sand over the last month, slogging through page after page of revisions on the book we are writing. I have not had too much time to visit blogs and have not…

    January 28, 2010
  • Features

    Tables Turned: One Of My Favorite Game Jounalists Interviews Me

    Last week I spent over an hour talking with one of my favorite game journalists, Tom Chick, about one of my favorite games of all-time, Roller Coaster Tycoon.    Actually, we seemed to discuss many things other than Roller Coaster Tycoon, but it was still fun. You can listen to it…

    January 28, 2010
  • 8bitrocket Interviews

    Video: Mochi Media’s Jameson Hsu Answers Our Question About Shanda And Developer I.P.

    <object name=movie width=425 height=344 > Millionaire Tycoon Jameson Hsu From Mochi Media removes his monacle for a bit to talk about the Shanda Buyout And Mochi game intellectual property. We asked Jameson a question about how Shanda will treat developer intellectual property in the Mochi system. This was his response.…

    January 28, 2010
  • 8bitrocket

    iPad Flash Support For Web Sites? Apples Fumbles This One Badly

    So it looks like the new iPad, the one that apple claims is  the “Best Way To Surf The Web”, does not support Flash.    That  means that any full-form web site that uses Flash for ANYTHING will not work correctly.  This is not just games or animations, but all sorts…

    January 27, 2010
  • 8bitrocket

    Mochi Media Bought By (Alleged) Ex-Chinese Gold Farmers? (updated)

    Update: Jameson Hsu of Mochi Media confirmed yesterday (1/27/2010) that Shanda does not intend to do anything with developer I.P. that would jeopardize Mochi’s standing in the development community.  This is great news.  We will continue to follow this story and report anything that might be of note. Original story: How did…

    January 26, 2010
  • Videos

    Down The Road – Before The Corruption: An Overly Sentimental 40th Birthday 8mm Film Retrospective.

    Down The Road – Before The Corruption: An Overly Sentimental 40th Birthday (today) 8mm Film Retrospective. This video includes 8mm film of us (twins Steve and Jeff Fulton from 8bitrocket.com) from 1970-1983. All the time before we were “corrupted” by getting our own Atari 800 computer or discovering the rock…

    January 24, 2010
  • Uncategorized

    Flash Indie Game Review Mash-up: January 19, 2010

    Flash Indie Game Review Mash-up: January 19, 2010 I am going to “clear” out the notebook (so to speak) and review a list of games that people have sent me over the last few weeks. I have not had time to do reviews in that time, but I as encourage…

    January 20, 2010
  • Uncategorized

    Today Only: 100% Of Your Purchase At Popcap.com Goes To Haiti Relief

    Today only, you can load-up on PopCap.com games (some of the best games ever made) and every penny you spend will go to the Haiti relief effort. If you have been waiting around to buy such games as Zuma, Book Worm Adventures, Heavy Weapon, Feeding Frenzy, Peggle or Bejewelled, today…

    January 16, 2010
  • 8bitrocket Books etc.

    Ever Wondered What Some “Reviewed” Book Pages Look Like? No? Too Bad.

    Have you ever wondered what the pages of a book look like when they are in the middle of being reviewed by multiple people?  No?  Too bad. Here are some examples anyway.  See all those different colored balloons to the right?  Those are are the digital voices of people who know much…

    January 16, 2010
  • 8bitrocket

    Flash Game Developer Jens Winterstein Digs Into Our Music Loops For “Running Blue”

    We just recieved this nice email from Flash Game Developer Jens Winterstein. He recently dug into our library of free music loops to use in one of his games:   Hello 8-bit rocket, my name is Jens Winterstein, I’m an independent flashgame developer from Germany.I was searching the net for…

    January 15, 2010
  • Features

    The office politik: Twilight v. The Atari 800

    The office politik: Twilight v. The Atari 800 Ok, so I really want to write something about Flash games or indie games, or retro games, but every ounce of my energy for and interest in those topics is being funneled into the final revisions for the book. I would love…

    January 14, 2010
  • Features

    I Play/Read All This Stuff At Once???

    I noticed yesterday that I have too many games being played and books being read at exactly the same time.  All of these games/books are being played/read at different times, when I’m doing different things. -Mac: M.U.L.E. (new version)-PC (Mac Bootcamp): Dragon Age Origins-PC Laptop:  (no game) making a video…

    January 14, 2010
  • Features

    R.I.P. Art Clokey: Creator of “Gumby” and “Davey And Goliath”

    Art Clokey was one of the masters of “stop motion” animation. He is best known for the “Gumby” cartoons. Gumby : The Small Planets There were a few episodes the dealt with space. This one stands out as the best….and most bizarre. “My beautiful arpeggio ruined!”   Art Clokey was…

    January 11, 2010
  • Features

    Writing A Technical Book: The Stuff No One Tells You

    We are finishing-up the final parts of the book “The Essential Guide To Flash Games“. The Amazon release date is wrong, as the whole process is about a month behind. We are sorry for anyone who expected to get this thing next week, but honestly, (HONESTLY), the book is much…

    January 7, 2010
  • Reviews

    Flash Retro Game Inspirations: Atari 2600 Outlaw

    Flash Retro Game Inspirations: Atari 2600 Outlaw (Atari 2600 Outlaw in the great Stella Emulator) I literally have an entire pile of started, but unfinished retro games sitting in folders on my development machine. I start and never finish at least 10-15 games  a year based on some whim, (examples:…

    January 5, 2010
  • 8bitrocket

    Tunnel Panic

    Tunnel Panic is very simple game. As your ship flies through the retro, 8-bit tunnel, simply press the space bar to move it up. Dodge everything and stay alive for as long as you can. You get more points the longer you make it through the tunnel.

    December 30, 2009
  • Interviews

    My Interview with Arnie Katz (Co-Founder Of Electronic Games magazine) Up At Gamastra

    My interview with Arnie Katz is now up at Gamasutra. If you don’t know who Arnie Katz might be, here is the intro I wrote for the interview: Arnie Katz was a pioneer of video game journalism. In the late 1970s he, along with Bill Kunkel, started Arcade Alley in…

    December 29, 2009
  • Uncategorized

    Merry Retro Gaming Christmas Inter-web Mash-Up from 8bitrocket.com

    Merry Retro Gaming Christmas  Inter-web Mash-Up from 8bitrocket.com Here are some retro-gaming Christmas treats for your viewing / reading pleasure. First some Christmas related retro gaming commercials and then some retro gaming Christmas stories and finally a survey of some of the new Mochi Flash Christmas games I could find.…

    December 25, 2009
  • Uncategorized

    What Happened To Silverlight Games? (Or, Why Flash Is Still The Platform Of Choice For Web Games)

    As you may recall, we started this year experimenting with technologies beyond Flash. First, we started to review iPhone games because, well, my wife got an iPhone Touch and I wanted to start looking at the games and explore the possibility of making them. Next, we looked into Microsoft Silverlight.…

    December 24, 2009
  • Podcasts

    8bitrocket’s Five Favorite Retro Inspired Flash Games of 2009 Podcast

    8bitrocket’s Five Favorite Retro Inspired Flash Games of 2009 Podcast We’ve featured and reviewed many games this year. Over the next couple weeks we are going to take some time to list our favorites in a few different categories. The first category is near and ear to our hearts –…

    December 23, 2009
  • Podcasts

    Planet M.U.L.E First Impressions

    Our first impressions of the Planet M.U.L.E, the online playable 2009 update to Dan Bunten’s classic Atari 800 game, M.U.L.E.   http://www.planetmule.com  

    December 18, 2009
  • 8bitrocket Our Games
    .+.palindromes.+. plus

    .+.palindromes.+. plus

    Unscramble The Palindromes…Plus! Now with more palindromes, including palindrome phrases and better re-play features.

    December 17, 2009
  • Podcasts

    idkwid.com “Flying Blind” video tutorial…

    A simple tutorial for playing IDKWID.com’s game “Flying Blind”.  (http://www.idkwid.com)  

    December 14, 2009
  • Podcasts

    Flash Game Blog Interweb Mash-up Video Podcast Dec 12, 2009

    Flash Game Blog Interweb Mash-up Video Podcast Dec 12, 2009 I decided to have a go at doing a Mash-up as a video podcast with mixed results. How many different iMovie transitions can you recognize? See below for links to all of the sites, articles, and whatnot.   Gamingyourway.com Twitter…

    December 13, 2009
  • Podcasts

    8bitrocket.com IDKWID.com Mochi Game Review blowout!

      Today we cover our new favroite Flash Game developer, idkwid.com. I believe idkwid stands for “I Don’t Know What I’m doing”.   We cover these gems: Public LiBEARy Beam Me Up, Santa Flying Blind Dino Art Museum Just in case you are wondering, no we are *not* kidding.  These games…

    December 11, 2009
  • Podcasts

    8bitrocket Reports On the Mochimedia 2009 Survey Results + IKDWID.com Preview

      We report on the Mochimedia.com Flash Games Market Survey.

    December 11, 2009
  • Podcasts

    Mochi Flash Game Review 12/10/2009

    5 More games Mochi games reviewed: Bloons Tower Defense Baby’s Christmas coloring 8bit Little Killer Disney Puzzle 3 in 1 Dark Inference : The First Shadows (Inspired by a Spectrum Game, not originally C64 or Amiga as we stated)

    December 10, 2009
  • Podcasts

    Mochi Flash Game Reviews 12/9/09

    Mochi Flash Game Reviews: This time we have a new style where the games are highlighted only with voice overs.  We think this might be the easiest and est way to do this.  Games Reviewed:Rift Under City Eric’s Xmas Work Wars

    December 9, 2009
  • Uncategorized

    Mochi “Doofus” and “Talent” game reviews of the day: Dec 8, 2009

    Mochi “Doofus” and “Talent” game reviews of the day: Dec 8, 2009 Today we are going to pick two Mochi games to review. One will be the “Talent” game. This game will be my favorite game of the day. The “Doofus” game of the day will be one that needs…

    December 8, 2009
  • Uncategorized

    GameSetWatch Tackles Indie And Fan Clone Games + What Do Gamers Think Of Microtransactions?

    Sometime I feel like we are talking into thin air when we discuss intellectual property issues and indie/Flash games.  It just seems like no one really cares, or just looks the other way.   However,  today GameSetWatch.com has a very interesting article that tackles this topic named Analysis: Clone Games &…

    December 7, 2009
  • Reviews

    The greatest song ever written? Code Monkey By Jonathan Coulton

    Code Monkey – Jonathan Coulton   I’m not sure what else to say.  I’ve listened 10 times in a row… 

    December 4, 2009
  • Podcasts

    Retro Game Insipration Podcast #1 : Atari 7800 Food Fight

    Retro Game Insipration Podcast #1 : Atari 7800 Food Fight I am planning to make a new “re-skinnable” game engine based on the Atari 7800 (and arcade) game by Atari.GCC called Food Fight. I will be looking for a Pixel Artist to help re-skin it and put it up for…

    December 3, 2009
  • 8bitrocket

    AS2->AS3: Making A Click And Stick Christmas Tree Designer In AS2 and AS3

    In my last tutorial I focused on the differences in managing the mouse in AS2 and AS3 and how to create a click and drag effect in AS2 and AS3. This tutorial will take the code in those tutorials further to make a simple Christmas Tree designer in AS2 and…

    December 2, 2009
  • 8bitrocket

    AS2->AS3: A Simple Drag And Drop Game plus Hiding/Showing/Changing The Mouse Pointer

    One of the things designers love to do in the Flash IDE is change the mouse pointer. This was a pretty simple task in AS2, but in AS3 there are few complications. The following short tutorial describes how to hide/show/change the mouse pointer in both AS2 and AS3. It then…

    December 1, 2009
  • 8bitrocket

    Essential Flash Games Book Chapter 12: A Viral Game In A Day

    Essential Flash Games Book Chapter 12: A Viral Game In A Day I know a lot of people do it, but I have never really been a “game in a day” kind of guy. With my day job, kids to play with, books to write, games to review, etc, I…

    November 26, 2009
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