Programmers adopt Flex and migrate to ActionScript 3.0

"The JavaScript components of an Ajax application are typically generated dynamically at runtime, making it harder to debug and requiring developers to be proficient in C#, JavaScript, and HTML. One of the touted benefits of .NET programming was that with one language (such as C#) you could program both tier 1 and tier 2. Sadly, however, Ajax throws a wrench in the works and, in my personal opinion — stemming from years of object-oriented C, C++, and C# application development — is a hack."

50 Reasons Actionscript 3 Kicks Ass

Nice flash slideshow on some of the great new features in Actionscript 3.

Examining the Puzzle Game sample application

"Originally part of the samples that shipped with Flash Professional 8 under the Bitmap data feature, the Puzzle Game sample application has been updated from ActionScript 2.0 to use the latest features in ActionScript 3.0. This article details the code used in both versions so you can understand how the sample application was migrated from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0."

Alternate Pseudo-Random Number Generator

"When developing games you often need a PRNG that, once initialized with a seed value, produces always the same sequence of random numbers after it. The Math.rand() function in Flash is a PRNG, but it doesn't let you define a seed value (I think it's picked randomly when the swf starts, but there isn't much information about it) so another solution has to be found."

An interesting alternate way to generate pseudo-random numbers using ActionScript.

Motor Physics: Collision Demo

"Collisions are resolved using a very simple but fast method which doesn't support rotational effects - basically the collision model just applies an impulse based on the velocities and masses of both bodies along the normal of collision to separate them, and computes some sort of dynamic friction along the normals tangential component. A restitution factor is used to simulate energy loss (blend between perfect elastic and inelastic collisions)."

Neat demo of an alternate way to detect collisions.

diggflashdevkit - Google Code

"The Digg Flash Kit is a collection of ActionScript 2.0 classes that can be used to build visualizations of Digg data like those featured on Digg Labs."

Debugging Fast-Paced Action Games

"During the development of my last game I took a different approach of debugging it which is especially useful for real time games. Because it's so simple I'm wondering why I haven't used this method before (perhaps too lazy ? ;-)) Usually you include a bunch of trace statements everywhere or create a logger system which prints out the information you need. But this is useless in games where many simultaneous events occur. Your logger will be flooded with messages so it's hard to keep track of everything."

Tips for migrating your Flash applications

"Adobe Flash CS3 Professional includes many great new features, including the ActionScript 3.0 programming language and the ActionScript 3.0 FLA file format. This article is a summary of my notes and reflections as I migrated to using ActionScript 3.0. I also provide solutions that address these topics:

* Changes to handling movie clips
* Changes to loading data, content, and symbols
* Changes to building object classes in ActionScript 3.0"

Vectors for Flash

"These tutorials are meant to explain how to use vectors with Flash and actionscript. You dont have to know high level mathematics to understand the ideas, but some previous knowledge is always good. Please notice that only 2D vectors are discussed and if you are looking for 3D vectors then i am afraid you need to look from somewhere else."

Great review of basic level vector arithmetic in the context of the ActionScript language.