Retro Video Gamer

A new homebrew for the Atari 2600 has been released in limited quantities (only 40 carts, which are numbered) - Muncher.  The game is NTSC only but I figured I'd still share info about it here.  It is a one player game and it was programmed by Rick Skrbina. 

Muncher is an original game where you play as an astronaut who crashed on an alien planet.  You must journey across the surface to eat all the food that splattered all over during the crash.  There are aliens who chase and try to eat you as you try to hold on to dear life.  There are 9 levels where the alien(s) behave differently.

Here is a video of the game in action:

[align=center:19ffwqc1]"Muncher" 2600 homebrew game (WIP) (//http)[/align:19ffwqc1]

There is no manual included with the cartridge, but the controls are as you would expect.  The game uses a joystick controller.  The button can be held to get a temporary boost, that is replenished by eating more food while going normal speed.  The Color/Black and White switch turns off the sound effect of eating food if you prefer.  There is also a pause after loosing a life or beating a level before it lets you resume the game.

[align=center:19ffwqc1](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mrBs9aIEnm4/UeSAomeNAEI/AAAAAAAAULM/10Mphr-jOEQ/w964-h723-no/Muncher+Cart.JPG)[/align:19ffwqc1]

Cartridges are $30 USD, shipping is $6 to the US, $20 to Canada, and $24 to anywhere else.  These are already shipping (I got mine today) and about half of them are still left.  If you are interested in a cartridge, you can send an email to wickeycolumbus(at)yahoo.com for payment instructions. Of course, replace (at) with @.

[align=center:19ffwqc1][size=80]Posted with permission from Rick Skrbina.[/size][/align:19ffwqc1]

Loving the art design on the cartridge label.

Quote from: "DreamcastRIP"Loving the art design on the cartridge label.

Yeah you mean the demon in lieu of an alien?

Looks pretty addictive. And as always loving the artwork too.

Love that artwork, not so sure about the game.

I think the theme doesn't match the game.

It would be better in my opinion, if the block (player) was a paint brush....add a handle....and the alien head was a paint can.....

You are trying to paint while someone is throwing paint cans at you. if You get hit, you lose a life and all the paint in the can gets spilled, and you have to paint over the mess.

Call it 'mad painter'

But you're not painting anything, you're actually clearing up what's there.  Most games have you painting something or covering something.  This is trying to be different by doing the opposite of that. 

I get that.....

But I think the premise is a bit strange, and the graphics don't match the premise very well.

Quote from: "Elektronite"I get that.....

But I think the premise is a bit strange, and the graphics don't match the premise very well.

Well it is the 2600 using batari Basic for crying out loud. 

It's 40 pixels wide (well with enough balzy programming you can do 160x192)

There still are copies of this game left, if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the plug TrekMD!

I'm the programmer, Necron99 over at AtariAge did the wonderful label art.  There are still plenty of cartridges left if anyone is interested.

Quote from: "Gorf"

Quote from: "Elektronite"I get that.....

But I think the premise is a bit strange, and the graphics don't match the premise very well.

Well it is the 2600 using batari Basic for crying out loud. 

It's 40 pixels wide (well with enough balzy programming you can do 160x192)

It was actually done in assembly.  Still the TIA has pretty limited graphics capabilities as I'm sure you all know.  The screen resolution is in fact 160x192 but it isn't anything close to a bitmap.  You have the 40 pixel playfield (4 pixel resolution), 2 8 pixel sprites, and 3 1 pixel objects (the player sprite in Muncher is one of these objects).  And of course, you have to store to the registers that control these objects on the fly, in sync with the electron beam of the TV so you are extremely limited with what you can do with them.  You have 76 machine cycles per line of the display to store to these registers. 

For example, a display that has 40 pixels of non symmetrical playfield data, 1 line resolution graphics for the sprites/objects, and different colors for the objects every line would be impossible, let alone a fully controllable 160x192 display.

When doing this game, I set a goal to keep it 2 kilobytes of ROM.  This is the original ROM size of the early 2600 games (Combat, Air Sea Battle, Kaboom!, etc...).  I wanted to see what kind of game I could make in the late 70s or early 80s if I were a programmer for Atari.

Thanks for joining us Wickey and giving us some insight 

Welcome to RVG!  Glad you were able to join us here. 

Quote from: "Wickeycolumbus"... When doing this game, I set a goal to keep it 2 kilobytes of ROM.  This is the original ROM size of the early 2600 games (Combat, Air Sea Battle, Kaboom!, etc...).  I wanted to see what kind of game I could make in the late 70s or early 80s if I were a programmer for Atari.

Loving that reasoning, Wickeycolumbus. Best wishes for the success of your project. 

Quote from: "Elektronite"I get that.....

But I think the premise is a bit strange, and the graphics don't match the premise very well.

To be fair, I did the artwork for it long before there really was a premise. I think the game was still in beta. Also, I didn't expect an actual cart to be produced with this label, I made it for fun and based on what I imagined the game was about at the time.

Agree! Nice artwork and good to see a 2600 project with fresh ideas!

Be sure to check out my review on the 2600 section. 

Thanks! I will check it out.