Dinky Bomb was an online multiplayer Flash game, built for the converged service Gamer.tv many years ago. It was inspired by Team 17's classic Amiga game Worms and was one of the first real-time multiuser experiences on the web in Flash technology (originally Flash 5, connecting to a Java socket server backend with Flash's then new XMLSocket capability). It grew to become one of the most popular web games, with multiple Dinky Bomb game servers running at capacity and tens of thousands of Google results! Dinky Bomb also featured on TV, as shown in the video above.

Since then, Dinky Bomb had 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.

Dinky Bomb has since been aquired by Atari and then sold off yet again to someone else (alas not me).

Little known facts:

• I originally spelled it 'DinkyBomb' with no space
• The first recorded use of the phrase 'dinky bomb' was actually by Admiral Noel Gayler describing the atom bomb - I had no idea at the time, so it adds a somewhat morbid edge to the title. In 1998, ADM Noel Gayler commented to interviewer Steve Sapienza that "I saw Hiroshima. Utter desolation. Not a thing moving. A little old dinky bomb did that."
• The domain name dinkybomb.com was 'let slip' by Gamer.tv management staff, domain name hijacked by some search portal knobhead who got away with it too 😠

You can learn more about the creation of Dinky Bomb here or read a more about the politics that killed Dinky Bomb here.