I assume that you already know how to compile a swf with Flash Develop, but I’ll try to go over the basic steps as a quick review. There are quite a few steps along the way to get everything working, so since I don’t want to reinvent the wheel with this how-to so I’ll instead direct you to the original sources I followed where it makes sense:

What you need:

• FlashDevelop
• JRE 1.6
• Flex 4 SDK
• Air for Android SDK and Runtime for Andoid 2.2 Emulator
• Android SDK
• Flixel (optional)

Install and configure FlashDevelop if you haven’t already. FlashGamesDojo also has a nice install/configure tutorial.

Create a new “AIR Flex 4 Projector” project from the Project>New Project menu.

At this point you can follow the “Hello World tutorial for Flixel info if you would like. Otherwise create your game/app/whatever. When you’re done compile your app into a .swf file (press F8 or Project>Build Project from the menu).

Okay, now we have a .swf file! Let’s turn it into an Air for Android application:

You need two text files named CreateCertificate.bat and PackageApplication.bat.  If you created an “AIR Flex 4 projector” project to start with these files will be created for you automatically. If you created a different project type you can either create an “AIR Flex 4 projector” project now and move your project file over to the new folder or, create these files manually in the main project directory.  You’ll need to make some changes to get them working with the 2.5 Beta SDK. Here are mine to use as examples, please change the password, application names, and path to SDKs as appropriate:

CreateCertificate.bat:

@echo off

:: AIR certificate generator
:: More information:
:: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=CommandLineTools_5.html#1035959
:: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/distributing_apps_4.html#1037515

:: Path to Flex SDK binaries
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\AIR25_win_sdk\bin

:: Certificate information
set NAME=SelfSigned
set PASSWORD=FD
set CERTIFICATE=SelfSigned.pfx

call adt -certificate -cn %NAME% 1024-RSA %CERTIFICATE% %PASSWORD%
if errorlevel 1 goto failed

echo.
echo Certificate created: %CERTIFICATE%
echo With password: %PASSWORD%
echo.
echo Hint: you may have to wait a few minutes before using this certificate to build your AIR application setup.
echo.
goto end

:failed
echo.
echo Certificate creation FAILED.
echo.
echo Troubleshotting: did you configure the Flex SDK path in this Batch file?
echo.

:end
pause

PackageApplication.bat:

@echo off

:: AIR application packaging
:: More information:
:: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=CommandLineTools_5.html#1035959

:: Path to Flex SDK and ANDROID binaries
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\AIR25_win_sdk\bin
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\android-sdk-windows\tools

:: Signature (see 'CreateCertificate.bat')
set CERTIFICATE=SelfSigned.pfx
set SIGNING_OPTIONS=-storetype pkcs12 -keystore %CERTIFICATE%
if not exist %CERTIFICATE% goto certificate

:: Output AIR
if not exist air md air
set AIR_FILE=air/MyApp.air

:: Output APK
if not exist apk md apk
set APK_FILE=apk/MyApp.apk

:: Input
set APP_XML=application.xml
set FILE_OR_DIR=-C bin .

echo Signing AIR setup using certificate %CERTIFICATE%.
call adt -package %SIGNING_OPTIONS% %AIR_FILE% %APP_XML% %FILE_OR_DIR%
if errorlevel 1 goto failed

echo.
echo AIR setup created: %AIR_FILE%
echo.

echo Signing APK setup using certificate %CERTIFICATE%.
call adt -package -target apk %SIGNING_OPTIONS% %APK_FILE% %APP_XML% %FILE_OR_DIR%
if errorlevel 1 goto failed

echo.
echo APK setup created: %APK_FILE%
echo.

:: APK INSTALL
echo Installing package... %APK_FILE%
call adb install %APK_FILE%
if errorlevel 1 goto failed2

echo.
echo Android setup installed: %APK_FILE%
echo.
goto end

:certificate
echo Certificate not found: %CERTIFICATE%
echo.
echo Troubleshotting:
echo A certificate is required, generate one using 'CreateCertificate.bat'
echo.
goto end

:failed
echo AIR setup creation FAILED.
echo.
echo Troubleshotting:
echo did you configure the Air SDK path in this Batch file?
echo %PATH%
echo.

:failed2
echo Android install FAILED.
echo.

:end
pause

Next, let’s install the Android SDK. Then create a virtual device following the “Create an AVD” part of this tutorial. Fire up the virtual device you just created. This will take a while…

Install the Air Runtime on the Android device by opening a Windows terminal window (Windows Start Menu> type “cmd”) and entering the command:

adb install pathToRuntime/Runtime.apk

Now you’ve compiled your SWF, you have the Android emulator up and running with Air installed on it, all you have to do is right click on CreateCertificate.bat and select “Execute” from the popup menu. This will generate a certificate that can be used to sign your application.

Next,  right click on PackageApplication.bat and select “Execute” from the popup menu. Fill in the password you specified in CreateCertificate.bat file both times when prompted. Two steps happen here: The first one generates an .air file and the second generates an .apk file (and attempts to install it on an attached Android phone or the already running Android emulator).

And that’s it. If you’ve compiled your first Adobe Air for Android application! If you get stuck along the way the “Developing_AIR_Apps_for_Android” pdf included in the Adobe Air for Android SDK is an invaluable resource – just follow the the parts for “command line tools”.

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“The Humble Indie Bundle experiment has been a massive success beyond our craziest expectations. So far, in just over 7 days, 118,959 generous contributors have put down an incredible $1,082,698. Of this, contributors chose to allocate 30.95% to charity: $335,148 for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play Charity. I have made a page for the full breakdown including credit card fees in a JSON format here (json).

“Now it’s our turn to give back. As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source. We are preparing the sources right now and will be releasing them ASAP. We spent last night preparing Lugaru and it is available now. The code is still a little rough (no Visual Studio project yet, for instance) but hopefully with the help of the community we can rapidly make it more accessible to everyone.

“Note, the games will be “free as in ‘free speech’, not as in ‘free beer’”: see each license for the full, finalized details as they come out very hopefully this week — stay tuned. It is the underlying code that will be made available to everyone.

“Feel free to continue donating to charity, to the developers, or any combination thereof below. We will still be distributing humble bundles to anyone who contributes.”

Here’s a few more essential links:

• The Humble Indie Bundle Website
• Samorost 2 donated to HIB
• Another view of game piracy
• Why are people pirating a charity game?
• Linux users contribute twice as much as Windows users
• Zero-day open source contributions VS. Zero-day DRM cracking

The open source goodness – UPDATED 6/3/10:

• Lugaru HD
• Penumbra Overture
• Aquaria
• Gish

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About Rewind Gaming:

“We specialise in retro and vintage video games and consoles, for example Nintendo NES and SNES, Sony PS1, Sega Mega Drive, Master System and Dreamcast, and many others from the 70s, 80s and 90s.”

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Flixel is an Actionscript 3 library designed to simplify Flash game creation. I’ve used Flixel on Gunpei Mania and Run, Humanoid, Run! and think that it is really a great tool. The new version breaks backwards compatibility, but it has some exciting new features, a number of bug fixes, and many general improvements.

Here are the important links:

• Download
• Announcement
• Release Notes
• Porting Guide (1.5 to 2.0)
• Demos

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• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Maps
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Digg
• Kongregate
• MochiMedia
• RSS/Atom

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Commodore 64

• Cynthcart – A cartridge that turns your C64 into a keyboard synthesizer.
• Mssiah – Another C64 synthesizer cartridge.
• Sid2Sid – Upgrade board to add a second SID sound chip to your C64.

Gameboy

• LSDJ – Little Sound DJ is a music sequencer for the Gameboy. It can be used in an emulator or loaded onto a real game cartridge.
• Nanoloop – Another music sequencer for Gameboy.
• Pixelh8 – Yet another sequencer.

Nintendo Entertainment System

• Super Synth Drum Machine – Turns your NES into a drum machine.
• MidiNes – Play music with a midi instrument on your NES.

Atari 2600

• Synthcart – Created by the same programmer who created the Cynthcart, this is more of a drum machine than a synth, but it has some cool sounds and effects.

Communities and Examples

• 8bit collective – A large chiptune community.
• Chiptune – A fun Amiga inspired site.

Where to Buy

• Atari Age – On the rare occasion when the store is not down for maintenance, you can purchase both the Cynthcart and the Synthcart
• Non-finite – Stocks modified Gameboys and occasionally you can pick up an LSDJ cartridge.

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Pixel Art Tutorials

• Derek Yu’s Pixel Art Tutorial
• Creating Minimal Pixel Art
• Sexy Tiles: Sidescrollers

Pixel Art Examples

• Pixel’s Gone Mad – A nice collection of pixel art images from around the web.
• Devil’s Crush Full Map – A nice example from a retro game.
• Metroid Map – A good example of pixel art and tile layout (and an excellent example of level design).

Pixel Art Communities

• Pixelation – A community forum to post your pixel art and get feedback.
• The Spriter’s Resource – Pixel art from many classic games and more contributed by the community.

Miscellaneous

• List of 8-bit color palettes – A good reference for artists trying to match the palette of a classic computer or game console.
• Pixen & Reptile – Sprite and tile tools for Mac OS X.

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Retro Game Links

• Hardcore Gaming 101 – Hardcore Gaming provides a definitive look at many retro classics, forgotten treasures, and epic series.
• Racket Boy – A nice little site with some good lists to get you in the know on some retro classics.
• The Old Computer – I won’t get into a discussion about the legality of roms and emulators in your part of the world. I personally feel the best way to experience any game is on the original hardware, but that simply isn’t always possible. Roms and emulators are an import way to preserve the history of gaming.
• RogueBasin – Sometimes you want to recreate a forgotten treasure of a game. Well, apparently no one forgot about Rogue. Rogue is an early dungeon crawling game that has proved so popular it has spawned it’s own genre: the roguelike. This site details many of the intricacies in creating a roguelike game.
• Tetris Wiki – Tetris is one of those games that many developers want to cut their teeth on. Tetris Wiki will help you learn everything you ever wanted to know about Pong, Tetris. Yes, you too can know the differenct between the Akira rotation system and the DTET rotation system.
• Significant Bits – A nice little article about what made those old 2D platformer games so great.
• Atari Age – The Atari 2600 was one of the first systems to really bring the videogame into the home. Almost anything and everything Atari related can be found here.
• 20 Atari Games – A great look a Atari’s games and a bit of history.
• Retro Gamer – Retro Gamer is the only magazine I read and I read it cover to cover. It’s a British magazine so it costs an arm, two legs, and a first born child every month, but it’s worth every penny. They have two collected editions of the magazine available on CD-rom for an affordable price.

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