• Making Games: Jack’s Beach Blitz Part 3

    Making Games: Jack’s Beach Blitz Part 3 I have changed the name of my game from Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz to Jack’s beach blitz. Although the original name of the character in Pumpkin Man was Percy, I think Jack (for Jack-O-Lantern) is a better fit and much more catchy. I…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: October 17, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: October 17, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we cover the latest Flashkit Game Contest; The FHM game contest; New games by Squize, Richard Davey, Steve Fulton, Terry Paton, and Brent Silby; A new…

  • Daphnies Balloon Castle (2008)

    Simple, satisfying popping action game. You must make it through the clouds to the Balloon Castle! Destroy the specified number of balloons to advance to the next cloud. Watch out for the “bad” balloons. If a balloon makes it to the top of the screen, it will return as a…

  • USB Enabled Classic Atari 2600 “Red Button” Joystick Announced Today!

    A new era for classic 8-bit retro gaming has arrived today! Curt Vendel over at Legacy engineering just clued-us-in today on his latest project that brings the classic era of the Atari 2600 to modern audiences.  Curt was instrumental in the development of the Atari Flashback 1 & 2 consoles…

  • Daphnie’s Balloon Castle goes Live! Becomes A Mochi Featured Game!

    Our latest game, Daphnie’s Balloon Castle went live on our site and through Mochi Distribution today.   As a nice bonus, Mochi put it up as one of their Featured Games in the Publishers section.   I’m not sure what the criteria is for this (it might have been slow day for…

  • Making Games: Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz Part 2

    Making Games: Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz Part 2 For the last week I have been working on a new game with the working title Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz. It is going to be a cross between Gauntlet and Wizard of Wor using the basics of an engine I created this…

  • Jack’s Beach Blitz

    Special Agent Jackson Orange, disguised as a beach ball, must blast his way through multiple levels to rescue his girl friend. This maze-based shooter is inspired by the games Gauntlet and Wizard of Wor. Upgrade your weapon, collect candy and treats to replenish your limited ammo. Use various keys, transporters,…

  • Sand Dune Park: Goodbye/Hello

    Growing up in Manhattan Beach, my favorite place to play, bar none, was Sand Dune Park.  It was a park like no other. It’s main feature, an enormous 100 foot or so high sand dune hill sloping at about a 30 percent grade, was the only piece of “play equipment”…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #9: Drivecast!

    This week we have another “themed” podcast.  Because we had to do the podcast while commuting, we discussed driving games.  We talk about driving games through the years, our favorite driving games, complications with making good driving and then some of the best driving games that are suitable for remaking…

  • 8bitrocket Fresh Kill Flash: A Biased selection of new (to us) Mochi Games.

    8bitrocket Fresh Kill Flash: A Biased selection of new (to us) Mochi Games. Games get on this list in one of two ways: 1. They are in the 25 newest Mochi games feed when I start writing this entry, or I find them else where on Mochi (on the days…

  • 8bitrocket Retro Games Inter-web mash up:October 08, 2008

    8bitrocket Retro Games Inter-web mash up:October 08, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Retro Game Fans. This time we cover new stuff on Recycled Gaming, Retro Thing, Classicgaming.com, Lemon64, Atari Mania, Lemon Amiga, c64audio, Atari Age, and RetroGamer. Recycled Gaming – A Super Mario 64…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: October 08, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up: October 08, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. (New Format: less scatological, more awesomeness). I have separated the Retro content and the survey of new games into separate posts to help keep this organized (and shorter).…

  • GameStorm! Podcast #8: Halloween GameStorm!

    Sorry this podcast was a few days late.  This weekend was filled with so much family(kid’s birthday, soccer games)  and personal stuff (high school reunion), it was difficult to get this one edited and out the door . This week we have a session about creating viral games specifically for…

  • Making Games: Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz Part 1

    Making Games: Pumpkin Man Beach Blitz Part 1 Last weekend (not two days ago, but 8 days ago), we decided it would be a good idea to make a second version of Pumpkin Man for Halloween. It started off as quick re-skin with the hero negotiating a beach setting to…

  • R.I.P. Game Theory Show

    One of my favorite gaming podcasts, GameTheoryShow has bitten the dust today.    The show featured Gary Witta, Colin Campbell and Kris Graft (among others),  discussing games and the game industry in a way that harkened back to the best game journalism from publications like Next Generation.    The show made our list…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:October 01, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:October 01, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. Wow, it’s already October. This year has flown by but the freelance (and corporate) Flash game industry is as strong and vibrant as ever. This time we cover GPL…

  • A Comprehensive List Of Documentaries/TV/Shows/Movies About Video Game and Computer History

    If you know me, you know that I love a good movie or tv show that covers one of my favorite subjects, especially if it is non-fiction. However, the selection of these types of movies and tv programs that cover the world of video game and computer history has never…

  • 7 More Games Added to the 8bitrocket Retro Showcase

    7 More Games Added to the 8bitrocket Retro Showcase In our search for the best retro inspired Flash games on the infobaun, we have come across to two developers who each have created multiple games we feel need to be added to our showcase. Both deflogic and Jess Hansen have…

  • Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 3)

    Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 3) This is a long tutorial, so it has been split into 3 parts: In this tutorial we will discuss the theory and practice behind 360 degree n-way blit fine scrolling in AS3. What does that mean? N-way scrolling is a…

  • Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 2)

    Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 2) In this tutorial we will discuss the theory and practice behind 360 degree n-way blit fine scrolling in AS3. What does that mean? N-way scrolling is a means by which you can scroll the screen in any direction based on…

  • Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 1)

    Tutorial: N-way tile-based blit fine scrolling in AS3 (part 1) In this tutorial we will discuss the theory and practice behind 360 degree n-way blit fine scrolling in AS3. What does that mean? N-way scrolling is a means by which you can scroll the screen in any direction based on…

  • RuneScape, First Impressions

    RuneScape, First Impressions RuneScape is a free Massively Multi-player RPG that I started to play off of the AddictingGames home page today. This British produced, Java based game plays very well on my New iMac. Considered to be the most popular MMORPG in the world, this title has been around…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #7: Special Wide-Load Double Episode : Our Favorite Games

    Today we present the first 8bitrocket.com Special Wide-load Double Episode!   This does not mean that that it is double the quality or double the goodness, it’s just really double the length.   In this episode we “shake it up” by rejecting our  regular format and spending over 30 minutes talking about…

  • The Best Portals For Residual Game Plays

    The Best Portals for Residual Game Plays We make retro inspired games, and so far none of them have been a HUGE hit on the home page of any major portal. Although I would love to have a big hit game, I also understand what the kids want to play,…

  • Willy Higinbotham, “Video Game” Pioneer Speaks (sort of)

    This was pretty cool. Yesterday I received an email from William Higinbotham’s son, Billy. For those who are not students of ancient video game history, Willy Higinbotham is credited with being one of the first people to create a game that used a screen and could be played interactively via…

  • New RSS Feeds And Updates + RSS Validator!

    I’ve been working for the past week to upgrade our RSS Feeds to be compatible more modern technologies.  The main feed (http://www.8bitrocket.com/8bitnewsrssfb.aspx) is now more compatible with RSS 2.0 and Atom, and now displays a proper description for each blog entry. Also, I have added new “Category” specific feeds.  These…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Tile-based BitmapData Fine Scrolling

    8bitrocket Diatribe: Tile-based BitmapData Fine Scrolling I’m currently working on a 4 way scrolling car driving game, somewhat like Atari 800/C64 Rally Speedway or Mattel Intellivision’s Auto Racing. I have “borrowed” (for testing purposes only” the graphics from a very early Atari/Kee Games coin-op called Super Bug, which in itself…

  • Grand Theft Auto:Intellivision

    Following closely on Jeff’s post last week about Minus World’s Modern Atari Classics  comes this YouTube video of Grand Theft Auto Intellivision.  (Thanks to Intellivision Lives for heads-up on this one) (Note: This one is NOT FOR THE KIDS)

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:September 22, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:September 22, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This week I decided to find search out some new sites (or ones I haven’t covered in a while), as well as cover the usual suspects… This time we…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #6 Bushwhacker! , More on I.P. Issues

    OK, here is Podcast #6. This week we have a thrilling brainstorm discussion about game that ends up being named “Bushwhacker!” (but not for obvious reasons). We also cover some intellectual property issues and how they might affect viral Flash game developers, plus we cover some of our favorite sites.…

  • Great”General”Gaming Blog

    I’ve talked a bit about Edge-Online in the past, but today they proved again that they are one of the best “general” game sites on the interbaun.  This week they started a new feature  by Colin Campbell that collects the best links from the gaming world.   Today’s best quote is…

  • Minus World’s Atari modern Classics

    I had this buried in the Mash-up yesterday, but it is so good that I felt the need to give it space of its own. Check out the Minus World array of modern games re-done with 2600 pixel art. ABSO-FRICKIN-LUTEY fantastic!

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:September 16, 2008

    The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. It’s time to hit my favorite Flash sites and see what’s new in game development. This time we cover some new Zarjaz from Squize; Updates to the Pixel Blitz Engine; An Atari ST classic re-made; Game design…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Drawing Vector Primitives into a BitmapData Object in AS2 and AS3.

    8bitrocket Diatribe: Drawing Vector Primitives into a BitmapData Object in AS2 and AS3. That doesn’t sound too difficult, and it really isn’t. I received an email question this weekend from a game developer who was stumped at how to accomplish this in AS2. I knew it was pretty easy to…

  • 8 More Mochi Games Added to the 8bitrocket Retro Showcase

    I have been keeping a keen eye on the latest games uploaded to Mochi Ads and have selected 8 games to add to our Retro Showcase. It is difficult to select games for this showcase because even though many good retro inspired games exist on Mochi, we need to make…

  • Spore Is Midcore!

    I know I’m not the first person to mention this (I saw link from another blog that puts the idea of Spore and Midcore in the same sentence), but I just want to reiterate just how much SPORE seems fits the idea of “Midcore”. I’m currently playing Spore on my…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #5: A Real Project , Some AS2 -> AS3

    OK, here is GameStorm!  Podcast #5.  In this episode we discuss a recent game design project and how we might have tackled it for a retro inspired game.  Also, we start our on-going conversation about developing games in AS3 as opposed to AS2. This week we feature the song “8…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: September 8, 2008

    A selection blogs, articles, tutorials, games, and more that might be on interest to Flash game developers (or any other game developers). This week we have a great video that tells the plight of most developers; game creation software for Facebook users; Many cool new games; Game design blogs and…

  • Gaming The System: Can Playing Games Help My Dad’s Memory?

    My dad is losing his mind. I know it’s a common story, an elderly parent on the cusp of alzheimer’s, but it’s still tough to watch when it’s zoomed-in close-up of someone you love. My dad, who at one time was one of the sharpest people I have ever known,…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #4: Top-10 Predictions Plus More…

    OK, here is Podcast #4.  This time we discuss two thrilling game ideas, and then we get into our Top-10 Predictions For The Midcore/Casual/Retro Game Industry. Also, this podcast marks the first time we bumper the podcast with music from our vast library of songs created for games and other…