Dinky Bomb online multiplayer web game
Flash, Games, Videos

Dinky Bomb – multiplayer game

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Back in 2002 some colleagues and I built one of the web’s first and most popular online multi-user Flash games, Dinky Bomb.

The game grew out of a proof of concept prototype I created, obviously inspired by Team 17’s game Worms. I wanted to create something simple to learn and playable, even on old modem internet connections.

If you’re on Windows, you can now play the game again here.

After the dotcom we were working for folded (NOW.com / Gamer.TV), Dinky Bomb was apparently sold to EA and subsequently acquired by Atari, who have unfortunately done little with it. There are a few YouTube videos out there, including this one, which features Dinky Bomb as part of a TV game show from way back then… good times!

A Dinky History

Dinky Bomb was an online multi-player Flash game, built for the converged service Gamer TV many years ago (2002). It was one of the first real-time multi-user experiences on the web in Flash technology (originally Flash 5, connecting to a Java socket server backend using Flash’s then new ‘XMLSocket’ capability).

It grew to become one of the most popular web games, with all of the Dinky Bomb servers almost always full! A special level was built for the TV game show ‘Hi-Score’ which you’ll see in the video above. Since then, Dinky Bomb has been redeveloped into ‘Dinky Bomb Deluxe’, using a different lobby system and a Java-based physics engine. This was shortly before Gamer TV closed its web arm to concentrate on TV, selling off much of its content to a third party. Subsequently, Dinky Bomb has been acquired by Atari, who have done nothing with it :/

The team at the TWI (IMG) run NOW.com / Gamer.tv converged services, which designed and built the original Dinky Bomb game were:

  • Liam O’Donnell – concept, programming, game design, level design, sound design, animation
  • David Pharo – game design, level design, interface design, character design
  • Chris Reinke – character design
  • Tom Butler – logo design
  • Ciaran Tuohy – server backend
  • Stuart Law – server backend
  • Sungsoo Lee – additional graphics
  • Fran Atkinson – thought up the name Dinky Bomb (thanks Fran 🙂

It’s unfortunate that I was kept out of the loop about Dinky Bomb’s sale and redevelopment – not a lot has happened with it since, but you can read more about this here.

16 thoughts on “Dinky Bomb – multiplayer game”

  2. Is this the same video as the one showed on “Dinky Bomb on TV” site?

    Hah that was slippie alright

  3. Now you can play Dinky Bomb Original online once again. Atari has shut down Dinky Bomb Deluxe, along with Voodoo Magic, and Oddballs but DBO is here to stay.

  4. Jesus, did I loved this game. I left when Atari took over, everyone was so happy to see it happen. Turned out a bad decicion. And I see that they shut it down… Oh well, I wasn’t going to be a black star soon anyway. IS the community still alive?

    Greetings

  6. I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

  10. Not really. It pisses me off that they’d buy Dinky Bomb from my old company and not host it properly 🙁

  11. do you own any rights to it at all?
    maybe some kind of petition?
    (i really dont know how the business works, im just spitting out ideas)

  12. No 🙁 because I built it under the employ of TWI, they owned it, but sold it off to one of the staff (?) but ignored my requests to take it, host it and develop/maintain it …I guess it’s who you know huh?

  13. I used to play this game several years ago. I remember that night when Slipkid played his 10,000th game. I used to love this game. I left shortly before Atari took over. Came back periodically to check on it, eventually it was gone ]: Any news on it coming back?

  14. Have you ever thought of making a very similar game that you can play against AI as well as online?

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