• Nick Bilyk’s Optimizing Actionscript Artcile

    Super cool 8bitrocket friend, Alan Donnelly, sent over a link to one of the best AS3 Optimization articles I have ever read. Spare no time getting over to Nick’s site to take an extended read.

  • R.I.P Jerry Reed, “East Bound And Down”, Smokey And The Bandit

    Back in May 1977 my dad told my brother and I that we were going to see a “sleeper” film at the theater. Star Wars was out the same week, but we would have to wait months to see that movie. Instead of an adventure filled with Rebels, Imperials, droids,…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe – Dynamic Sprite Sheets and What’s on Jeff’s DVR

    I have been working on a few new projects that require speed and blit operations. This has given me the opportunity t to research and re-fine my methods. At one time I used arrays of bitmapData objects, pre-cached from movieClips. Those were especially needed when I was working with designers…

  • Domino Multiplayer by Lorenzo Nuvoletta has been added to our Retro Showcase!

    Lorenzo keeps pumping out great Retro Multi-player games and we keep adding them to our site! Multi-player lets you play the classic against the world. This turn based game is a great example of the Nonoba Multi-player engine. Check it out! What’s more retro than Dominoes?

  • Super Mario RPG: Devolution Is The Best Solution

    A couple years back I received Paper Mario: 1000 Year Door for the GameCube (to play on my Wii). At the time, I was playing many of the of Final Fantasy games via GBA and DS, but as soon as I played Paper Mario I knew I had found my…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: September 3, 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 the Pixel Blitz Engine EXPLODES!; A new Multi-player classic from Lorenzgames; Common game development mistakes to avoid; A Flash Game License First Impressions Review; A Hand…

  • 8-bit Rocket’s Top-10 Midcore/Casual/Retro Game Predictions For The Next 12 Months

    Since September is just starting and many Midcore/Casual gamers and gamer-parents are gearing up for what is really the new year (new schools and/or classes, new and returning tv shows, NHL,NBA,NFL, world Futbol leagues restarting, etc) we’ve decided to buck the trends and make this our month to make yearly…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #3: Family Edition

    OK, here is Podcast #3. We are still tinkering with the format, so this one is a bit different from the previous two. Jeff and I were on a vacation this week, so this one was done with our kids around. In some cases it works (interesting ideas), in others…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Separated at Birth: Sarah Palin and Tracy Flick

    I was up late last night finishing my latest tutorial, so I was a little late to the game hearing the announcement that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be the vice presidential candidate on the ticket with John McCain. This certainly is not a political blog, and since both Steve…

  • Tutorial: AS3 Basic Blitting #2 : Rotation – Part 1

    Tutorial: AS3 Basic Blitting #2 : Rotation – Part 1 In this tutorial will will explore basic blitting from a tile sheet to a single blit canvas. We will do so by implementing a common animation problem – rotation. We will also demonstrate the simple math tricks that are used…

  • The Temptation Of The Unreleased Game

    The second installment of my History Of Atari for gamasutra.com was published last week. It was very difficult to write Part II (1978-1981), not for a lack of information, but because there is simply too much . Believe it or not, since there is not much written material about Atari…

  • Norm Soule’s Pixel Blitz Engine Released

    Norm Soule’s Pixel Blitz Engine Released The incredible Mr. Soule as been hard at work on an engine that will help you created blit rendered games. Features include (from his site) * Pixel-level collision detection * Layer effects * Horizontal and vertical scrolling * Parallax scrolling * Virtual timeline nearly…

  • SoundSnap.com – awesome free sounds for your games

    My buddy, Chris Cutler, sent me a link to this site today (www.soundsnap.com) and I have been exploring it on an off in the limited free time I have had tonight. There are literally 1000’s of great sounds and music free for you to use in your games. Here are…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:August 25, 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 The difference between “distance between points” methods in AS3; MAME Goes the way of Flash; 50 ways to…

  • Atari: The Golden Years A History, 1978-1981 Update #2

      I reported on Thursday that my second article on Atari History launched on Gamasutra:Atari: The Golden Years A History, 1978-1981 , and then I updated with the news that it had hot the front page of SlashDot (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/08/21/2135202 Today I noticed that it has been picked-up by Kotaku.  They…

  • Atari History Part 2: 1978-1981 Launches On Gamasutra: Updated!

      The second part of my “History Of Atari” launched today on Gamasutra.  “Atari: The Golden Years A History, 1978-1981” is long, and self-indulges a lot with the history of the Atari computer line (because the story has told in many places before).   If have a bit of time, please…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #2: Secret Sauce

    OK, we are back much sooner than expected.   Since we launched the GameStorm! Retro Casual Game Idea Generator (see below)  today, we decided to use it to formulate another podcast.  Today we discuss several different game ideas and designs including an idea that uses one of our all-time favorite arcade…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Quad Tree Collision Research.

    Along with many other little projects, I have begun research into creating a AS3 Quad Tree implementation to extend the optimized code in my series on creating an optimized Asteroids Game. A couple other blogs have also started their own implementations, including Fatal Exception and Polygonal Labs. Neither have any…

  • New Flash Game Blog: Norm Soule

    Norm Soule, who created the great game Magma (featured in our Retro Showcase) has a brand new blog dedicated to Flash Games. One of his latest entries is a very cool example of a pixel displacement filter created with particles and he wants YOU to have his code too! Nice…

  • GameStorm! Launches

    To help with our new GameStorm! Retro/Casual Game Design Podcast, we have just launched “GameStorm!: The Retro/Casual Game Idea Generator“.  Here’s our “blurb” about it: “Never Again Can You Say You Don’t Have An Idea For a Game! This is not that game, but a tool for developers and would-be…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:August 18, 2008

    Flash Game Development Inter-web mash up:August 18, 2008 The latest in Blog entries and articles that might interest Flash game developers. This time we cover FlashGameLicense.com; How people are cheating and hacking Flash games; How to Pause and Resume a sound in AS3; How to implement A* in AS3; 6…

  • 8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #1: Eminent Domain

    8bitrocket GameStorm! Podcast #1: Eminent Domain OK, today we are trying something brand-new. Jeff and I have wanted to try our hand at a podcast for a very long time, but we were reluctant to try because we could not think of anything original to yap about. However, on whim…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Getting rid of the old stuff

    With a new baby in the house, plus a 3 and 1/2 year old starting to figure out what it means to have a little brother taking up space that was once all his, I have been under the gun to purge into storage (or the bin) as many things…

  • Retro Game Showcase: Back In Action

    OK, I’m back at a house and back in the saddle ready find some cool retro-inspired games to waste some of your precious time. This week we have 5 more. I’m sorry the review descriptions are short, but I’m still getting back into the swing of this. Gravitroids A really…

  • 9 Interesting Stories And Blogs About How People’s Lives Were Affected By Their 8-Bit Computers And Video Games

    Since we often write long-winded stories about how 8-bit computers and video games affected our lives, I just took a look out on the interweb to see if there were any other people wasting their precious living moments doing the same. There are. Here are a few good ones: We…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: August 12, 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 new stuff on monetizing games; sponsor lists; DZONE and Stumble Upon for game devs and site owners; game usability; a discussion on libraries, frameworks,…

  • Top 10 Grown-Up Gaming Web Sites/8-bit “Olympic” Themed Video Games

    I thought of two subjects for a diatribe this weekend. One was about Olympic themed games from the 8-bit era (because err, the Olympics were on TV), and the other was about the recent “explosion” of gaming sites geared towards “grown-ups” (because I am one now). However, since neither one…

  • R.I.P. Computer Gaming World err… Games For Windows mag.

    I received an issue of PC Gamer in the mail yesterday. It’s not strange for me to receive magazines on gaming subjects, but what is strange is that I never subscribed to that particular magazine, and have never received one in the mail before. After looking at the jiffy bag,…

  • Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: August 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 time we take look at a smattering of news and happenings in the Flash Game World: An early look Gamingyourway.com’s latest brace; N+ goes the way of…

  • Atari Nerd Chronicles: R.I.P. My Boyhood Classic Arcade, Castle Park, Redondo Beach CA.

    Most video game fans from the “golden age ” (roughly 1978-1983) frequented an arcade that they felt was “their own”. For many kids in the South Bay cities of Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan Beach in Southern California, that arcade was Castle Park in Redondo Beach. Castle Park was built in…

  • Space invaders Multiplayer Added to the Retro Showcase

    8bitrocket.com is proud to announce the addition of Lorenzo Nuvoletta’s retro evolved re-make and tribute to the Taito Classic, Space Invaders. Space Invaders Multiplayer employs the Nonba Multiplayer engine to add a very interesting twist to the classic retro action. You and a partner from anywhere in the world can…

  • Google Can Now *See* The Text In Your Flash .SWFs: Things To Consider

    I’d heard something about this a few weeks back, but today I decided to look into it more.  It seems that the Google Bots can now index .SWF files for text content.  While this seems to be good news for people who have shied away from creating Flash-Only sites because…

  • …and some of our games have made it to YouTube

    I’m not really sure why, but it looks like a few people (ok, at least one) one YouTube have filmed themselves playing some of the games we have created in the past.   There seem to be lots of game videos on YouTube.com these days, but why someone would video tape themselves playing…

  • GameSetWatch Reviews A Flash-Based MMO With Some Of My Games

    One of my favorite sites, GameSetWatch.com has recently posted a review of a kid’s based MMO that I have done some work for. While the review is not really favorable, the cool part is that they highlight a couple of the games on the site, and BOTH of them are…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe: Micro Retro Mash-up, Air Battle Hour 3

    I have now moved into the 3rd hour working on the first game for my Micro Retro Mash-up. The game is based on the Atari 2600 launch title, Air-Sea Battle. I have chosen to create just an Air battle using part of my existing Boids of Death game engine. I…

  • 8bitrocket Diatribe August 4, 2008

    New Indie / Punk-Pop Music Clips! I have had a little time weekend to go back through my collection of Acid and Magix loop libraries and create some new clips that you can use in your games. There are 14 new clips, and they have all been extracted from much…

  • Some Computer Advice From a Freakin’ Genius

    Here is a bit of computer advice from a freaking genuis.. If you move into a modern new house from an old crappy one, and you plug your lap-top into a random available outlet, make damned sure it is not an outlet that is currently operated by: A dimmer switch…

  • New Little 8bitter doing much better

    Thanks to everyone who wrote to, prayed for and kept Jeanne, little Justin Rhys, and I in your thoughts. He is starting to do much better, and if everything continues to improve hopefully will be home in a couple days.  -Jeff

  • 8bit Jeff Out For A Bit: Baby Son Born, But He Needs Positive Thoughts

    Jeff will be out for a few days as his baby son was born today.  However, the boy has a few “complications”, and it would be really cool if any of you out there who have enjoyed and made use of his tutorials, ideas, games, etc. could  think positive thoughts,…

  • Tutorial Update: Basic Blit with Transparency

    Tutorial Update: Basic Blit with Transparency Super cool 8bitrocket.com reader, MR. K, asked a very interesting question today. He asked if this tutorial included transparency because both the screen background and the helicopter background are black. Some how I completely missed that point when I created the original tutorial. The…