Monthly Archives: October 2011

Goodbye Dad, Hello “Code Writer’s Block”

Posted on October 30, 2011 by 8bit_admin

My dad died just about 5 months ago.  In that time, I have done lots of things.  I have written a ton of blog entries (some good, some okay, and many bad ones), I have changed jobs, read at least … Continue reading →

Posted in diatribe, Game Coding and Development Diary | 8 Comments

Flash Is Dead? Games Volume Grows And Multi-player Pays Off: An Interview With Mochi Media

Posted on October 27, 2011 by 8bit_admin

Recently we caught-up with Alexander Shen from Mochi Media to ask him about the state of Mochi and viral Flash Games.  His responses are truly enlightening.  Far from Flash being dead and buried, it appears that both the volume of … Continue reading →

Posted in Flash Game Development, Interviews | 1 Comment

iOS 5 Has SUPERCHARGED the HTML5 Canvas

Posted on October 26, 2011 by 8bitjeff

Wow! Just freaking wow! My current two gigs are both HTML5 gigs, so that book we wrote is getting a lot of use. One of the apps is first-person game that is basically a simple shooter with some animation and sound. … Continue reading →

Posted in HTML 5 Canvas | 7 Comments

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

Posted on October 25, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 24, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari Nerd, Atari Nerd Chronicles | 1 Comment

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

Posted on October 22, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 and I and my brother … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History, Atari Nerd, Atari Nerd Chronicles, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Our Favorite Viral Videos About The Games And Web Business

Posted on October 19, 2011 by 8bit_admin

Code Monkey Jonathan Coulton’s classic song about the life of a software developer.  One of the all-time best songs ever written.   Angry Video Game Nerd : Atari 5200 So this is not just a video, but a whole series. … Continue reading →

Posted in diatribe, Flash Game Development, Game Coding and Development Diary, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 18, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design And Theory | 9 Comments

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

Posted on October 15, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design And Theory | 3 Comments

iWoz: The “Steve” I Always Liked Was Wozniak

Posted on October 14, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Book Reviews | 2 Comments

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

Posted on October 14, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History, Flash Game Development | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 13, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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.

Posted in 8bitrocket History | 3 Comments

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

Posted on October 13, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari Nerd, Electronic Games Magazine | 3 Comments

And the Man on the Hill said HTML5, build it and they will come…

Posted on October 11, 2011 by 8bitjeff

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History, diatribe | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 10, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History, Atari Nerd, Atari Nerd Chronicles | 3 Comments

The Top-10 (or so) Worst Real-Life Products For Video Gamers (circa 1982) Part 2: Your Future Career In Video Games

Posted on October 9, 2011 by 8bit_admin

Last week I posted a story named The Worst Real-Life Products For Video Gamers (circa 1982-1983) .  However, that was not the end of the story.  You see, you survived that Halloween in your Asteroids costume, Bat Mitts and Gobbler hat, … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari Nerd, Electronic Games Magazine | 1 Comment

Our HTML5 Canvas Book Already Made a Profit

Posted on October 8, 2011 by 8bitjeff

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. … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History, HTML 5 Canvas, HTML5 Canvas Book, HTML5 Canvas Games | 4 Comments

Waiting For One Good IPO : A Short One Act Play

Posted on October 7, 2011 by 8bit_admin

Waiting For One Good IPO: A Short One Act Play Setting: Snack room in an anonymous pre-IPO start-up software  firm.  Boxes of candy bars and chips line a large, round table in the middle of the room.  An industrial sized … Continue reading →

Posted in diatribe | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 6, 2011 by 8bit_admin

  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 … Continue reading →

Posted in HTML 5 Canvas | 4 Comments

Literally, there would be no 8bitrocket without Steve Jobs

Posted on October 6, 2011 by 8bitjeff

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in 8bitrocket History | 1 Comment

Adobe Purchases Phone Gap

Posted on October 4, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in HTML 5 Canvas | 1 Comment

Truth In Advertising #1: Atari 2600 Launch Games

Posted on October 3, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Truth In Advertising | 4 Comments

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

Posted on October 2, 2011 by 8bitjeff

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Flash Game Development | 1 Comment

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

Posted on October 2, 2011 by 8bit_admin

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: … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari Nerd, Electronic Games Magazine | Tagged | Leave a comment