MovieClip Casting Fails with attachMovie()? Flash 8

I seem to be getting casting failing (returning null) when I have a class that extends a class that extends MovieClip. Here’s an example… MyWidget extends SimpleButton SimpleButton extends View View extends MovieClip That’s the inheritance chain, SimpleButton and View are some base classes I have written for use in various projects and are not part of the v2 components. Here’s what happens when I try to cast an attachMovie(): ...

September 5, 2006

Homebrew for PSP 2.0 – 2.8

I was a bit gutted when I upgraded the firmware on my PSP to 2.71 in order to get the Flash Player on there. I had a lot of useful homebrew like a PDF reader and some open source games like Tetris, and its always good to have the choice to try out some demos/games of your own (for example with LUAScript). Anyway some good news and probably the smoothest hack yet. You can now navigate to a special tif image on your memory stick and the preview icon alone will cause the PSP to run in User/Kernal mode all ready for homebrew. ...

August 29, 2006

Expansive Flash Lite 1.1 Game – Fantasy Quest

“beginner_lite” has been going all out in his spare time adding more and more to the rather expansive Fantasy Quest Flash Lite 1.1 game. Not only is it a role playing game utilizing Final Fantasy graphics if I’m not wrong, but there’s also Tetris, Tic Tac Toe, racing, a labrynth, weapon upgrades and a whole lot more packed into this mammoth Flash Lite game. You can see lots of screens the last few updates to this game over at the Flash Mobile Forum. ...

August 28, 2006

Simple BitmapData.getPixels() / ByteArray Example

I found the Flex 2 docs didn’t really contain an example of using the pixel data getPixels() puts into a ByteArray. I wanted to take the pixels in that ByteArray and have them explode or move around in a controlled fashion not obtainable with a simple Convolution Matrix or DisplacementMap. I’m not going to go through all of that, but just a quick example of getting data back out of a ByteArray and displaying it again as a copy. Normally copyPixels() would be the better option for this specific task, but this as I say gives the opportunity to move the pixels around indepentently in 3D for example. ...

August 11, 2006

Y Design Awards launched in UK

The aim of the Y design awards is to recognise leading creative talent demonstrated through the use of digital technology. This year the awards are focussed on the recognition of great design with the use of Flash technology – in celebration of Flash’s 10 year anniversary. The competition is aimed specifically at the Uk design/agency community and already there is great interest from some the likes of Saatchi and Tribal DDB. The grand prize, which is a people choice award voted for online, is a trip for the lead designer to the next international Flash conference. ...

August 10, 2006

Thanks for the Cake!

What an awesome suprise when I got to work. For any Little Britain fans out there… “I looove the cake” 😉 Thanks to Robin and to Adobe! Only problem is it’s too nice to eat.

August 10, 2006

ActionScript – a Prototype vs. Class based language

I was just asked by a friend, “if code on the timeline in Flash 8 is no different from AS1 because it isn’t inside a class file [therefore not type-checked or anything else that typically differentiates AS2 from AS1], what is AS3 code on the timeline in Flash 9?”. I didn’t have a simple answer. That code will still be runtime checked etc, it certainly isn’t AS1 or AS2. The reason we can’t define what it is exactly is probably due to the nature of the language. ...

August 9, 2006

London Flash Platform Usergroup Meeting July

Come and join us this time at my place of work for the July London Flash Platform Usergroup (LFPUG) meeting for some really great presentations, and of course free beer and pizza. Covered this month: Development Techniques for Localizing Flash (19:00 – 20:00) – Dave Williamson There is no avoiding it. More and more projects require some level of localisation. Clients want their micro site deployed across Europe, banners to support the whole of EMEA, and global intranet applications that take in the whole of the planet. Not only that they want them built to the same timelines as their HTML emails. Find out the easiest tricks to make those hellish localisation issues…… not so hellish. ...

July 22, 2006

Catch Up and Site Launch – NikeRunning.com

Time to catch up. I’ve been at AKQA for a little while now and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly so far and I really feel a strong commitment to the team. My first project went live the other day, www.nikerunning.com, even though it’s aimed at runners (of course!) I hope you enjoy it even if you are not. My favourite sections are the shoe selector and technology section. I’m no photographer, but after this I’ve started to appreciate good photos; you can hit the home button to get 3 different scenes for the home page, I wish I’d gone on shoot for the coastal one! ...

July 14, 2006

Zinc 2.5 Now Supports Flex 2 / AS3 / FP9

Well, I’ve been using Zinc for quite some time now so I know it pretty well and I’m very keen to give the new version a test run and see that any old bugs have been quashed forever, so here’s a thank you to MDM for the free copy. 🙂 Zinc 2.5 now supports Flash 9 (which includes AS3 and Flex 2 apps), I’m yet to look into how this is implemented, but with 2.5 we saw the commands becoming synchronous, which was a big relief from the asynchronous commands we had in all the swf wrappers a little while back. Also bundled for the first time is an SWC, this should also mean intrinsics for all of the classes (previously intrinsics were downloadable seperately and were a lone effort by one of the team in the forum), this should ultimately keep FDT/Flex Builder 2 happy. ...

July 14, 2006