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Whilst searching through my hard-drive the other day, I found a bunch of games and experiments I did in Flash 5/MX. At that time I was still working in engineering, and reading everything I could about the the web and computer languages. Although the games are not ground breaking and the experiments just fluff, I find looking through them very nostalgic. They came at a the point when I finally realised I could do this web stuff for a living.

The source for the games is still missing which is frustrating, but I did find the source for all the experiments.

I recently found some old Flash games I had written about 7 years ago, and it got me reminiscing about all the old games I used to play on my Acorn Electron when I was a boy. Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorites, Repton.

I also have fond memories of Chucky Egg and of course Elite. Mode 2 graphics *sigh*. I can even remember the first program I ever wrote:

10 VDU 23,0,10;0;0;0;
20 MODE 2
30 GCOL 0, RND(128)
40 MOVE RND(640), RND(512)
50 PLOT 85, RND(640), RND(512)
60 GOTO 30

This used to draw random coloured triangles on the screen. I think the VDU 23 bit used to make the cursor disappear, and meant that you had to press break to stop the program. Oh and this was written from memory .. 25 odd years ago of memory too. Can anyone clarify this actually does anything?

[UPDATE] Just checked it in Electrem and it bloody works!

Someone’s re-made the intro to Grand Theft Auto…. in Lego. Brilliant.

Here’s a direct link to the LEGO movie.

We had an Acorn Electron when I was growing up because my parents thought we should have the same computer we had in our local school; but couldn’t quite see the need for a BBC model B. It was fun and all writing all those simple mode 2 programs (plot 85 etc…) and using those 8 colours; but the machine didn’t come alive for me until I’d got a copy of Elite.

Elite was the first computer game I think I was seriously hooked on. And I mean hooked. I used to come home from school and spend all my allotted computer time playing this thing. I probably only managed to get back and forth to a few planets in a session but that didn’t stop me. Although I don’t think I ever managed Elite status, I know I travelled to some for flung places. I do wish my long term memory was better.

Anyway, there is now a ported version of Elite named Oolite for PC, Mac and Linux. It’s still as addictive as it was back then and I’ve been playing it to death. Mr Patterson is far more eloquent then I and has a great write up and how Oolite has brought back some of the magic from that time. If you have never seen it before, I advise you to download and play. You’ll get to see how a game without high end graphics, surround sound and trigger twitch play can still keep you coming back for more.

I found this on flashmagazine. I had missed this but the hidden games in Flash MX can be found in the About Flash popup available from the Help menu. Double Click the exact middle of the “crotch” of the X in MX (like on image) and 6 hidden games will be revealed. It can be a bit hard to find the exact pixel that you have to click, so try a bit before giving up. You must be online.The games range from very simple to classic entertainment. Great time-wasters if you have some time to spare.What fun.

The Chick/Umbrella game rocks!…. as do all the others.Visit the site Here

A version of Tetris in 3D using the Flash MX drawing API. Nice technical demo. See it here.

The best Flash golf game I’ve seen. Play it here.