lash 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 new action games on Kongregate, and more...

Download it here: http://www.8bitrocket.com/podcasts/gamestorm1.mp3

ith 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 as I can. Long ago a decided to get rid of every box and package for pc and console games (DS games being the lone exception). I bought those inexpensive black cd binders and placed all of my PC games and software into them. I like the ones with 4 spots per page for cds (on each side). If a game or software manual would fit in the slim confines of the cd envelope on a page, I placed it in the bottom row and the associated disk in the slot above it. Since I now use an iMac and Parallels to do most of my work, I have no use for most of the software I have collected. Unless I really want to use boot camp, most of my game library is useless. With 6 giant binders chock full of 10 years of PC software, I had a lot of cleaning up to do. Even though these binders takes up little space, I decided that at least 2 of the 6 could eliminated. I wanted to have room to spare in the binders I kept and I also promised two of them to my wife to use be for the pile of kids DVDs we have procured over the last 3 years. That meant I had to be pretty liberal in the things I got rid of and very conservative in what I kept...

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 start with a straight-forward reverie about a owning an Atari 800 in 1983. I can very much relate to this one:

My Long Lost Atari 800 by Runningwave

"It's just amazing to review my own little piece of personal computer history and realize I was part of an technological revolution. A child of the 1980s, I was among the first to experience computers on a daily level. Now that is taken for granted."

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, and engines; and a whole bunch of new stuff from Emanuele Feronato; and the absolute basics of AS3. WHEW! Plus 5 great games for you to test and and play across some of my favorite portals. I didn't even make it to all of my favorite sites this week and I have more than a full load to read...

K, 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 cool combination of Asteroids, Gravitar and Sinistar. The vector look and feel as a nice retro sensability, and game plays very smoothly.

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 has 10 good entries, I've decided to combine them both into one list. Why? To save YOU time, that's why.  That's the kind of guy I am. So, here you are: 8bitrocket.com's Top-10 Grown-Up Gaming Sites And 8-bit "Olympic" Themed Video Games.

10. Summer Games (Epyx): (Atari 800, C64, Atari 7800) : Before Epyx made the Handy, (which became The Atari Lynx) and were financially destroyed in the process, they created some of the best 8-bit computer games from the 80's. Along with games like Jumpman, Pitstop, Impossible Mission, the sports themed "Games" series was one of their finest moments. Summer Games included fairly well-done versions on running, diving, gymnastics, skeet shooting, swimming and several others depending on the platform. The game went on to sell over a million copies in various formats. This is probably the best all-around Olympics themed game ever made.