Favorite Atari 2600 homebrews and Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion

[socrates63]

I just got the 4th volume of the Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion by Brian Matherne. I had Amazon ship it to him directly so he could sign it and send it back to me. I won signed copies of the first three volumes last year during the Stella-thon fundraiser organized by ZeroPage Homebrew, back when I knew very little about homebrews.

The original Atari 2600 library has amazing games, but truly, it's the homebrew community and developers that have taken a venerable platform we love to another level and have kept it relevant in the 21st century. Many amazing games have been released -- games that'd be difficult to believe are 2600 games -- and many more are in the pipeline.

Do you play homebrews? What are some of your favorites?

Some of my favorites include:

• Amoeba Jump
• Conquest of Mars
• Draconian
• Juno First
• Jump VCS
• Space Rocks
• Star Castle Arcade
• Tower of Rubble

I have more than 30 physical homebrew releases from AtariAge alone and I haven't played them all yet.

[TrekMD]

I have a huge collection of hombrews!  All of those games you list are awesome!  By the way, congrats on getting signed copies of the books!

You can check out my collection here:  TrekMD's Collection

[socrates63]

Holy moly! 😮 That is quite the collection! 😍👏👍 I did a quick peruse as I didn't have time to look through that 14 page post, but I saw a lot of homebrew history there. I've been buying homebrews for less than a year so missed out on a lot of classics.

By the way, how do you embed images in your post? I tried the img tag with imgur shortened URLs and it didn't work.

[TrekMD]

Glad you like my collection and all the homebrews there.    Be sure to check the reviews we have in the Legacy Reviews Tab here as well.  There are reviews for many of the games, but I do need to start writing more of them and add them to the new reviews area on the front page.

As for how to embed your images using imgur, select the link that is titled "BBCode (message boards & forums)" and that will give you the HTML you need to embed.

[zapiy]

Nice selection of games, great fan of all of those but I don't personally collect any Atari homebrew apart for the Lynx and Jag.

[socrates63]

Ah, the Lynx and Jag -- the only Atari consoles that I don't have although they are enticing What homebrews do you have for them @zapiy?

[zapiy]

Lynx

Loopz
Alpine Games

Jag

Elansar


Not got many, I aim to get more Lynx games though.

Maybe even publish one.

[socrates63]

Publish one? That sounds very interesting. Can you share how far you are in development and what kind of game it is?

[zapiy]

We don't have anything yet mate, once we get something offered to us we will post here.

[davyk]

The homebrew I keep returning to is an relative Oldie.  Thrust is a superb port of the 8bit microcomputer game.

The only homebrew I have on cartridge is Medieval Mayhem though I tend to play the PAL60 ROM on my Harmony. It really needs multiplayer to get the best of it and I have yet to try it that way - will be using it in work if we ever get back to the office.

Fall Down is another favourite. Superb game that. Better in 2P but still a really nice game in 1P.

I'm a real Asteroids fanboy so I have tried Space Rocks but I haven't spent a lot of time with yet. Seems very good based on what I have experienced.....certainly feels better than the 5200 version I have experienced via the new Atari Vault compilation on Steam.

[socrates63]

I’ve heard good things about Thrust, and it’s on my wishlist.

Yes, I’m sure a game like Medieval Mayhem is best experienced in multiplayer. I have the gave but haven’t played it yet It’s a SpiceWare game so I should really play it.

I ordered an all-button custom controller to play Space Rocks and the game did not disappoint. I like to describe it as a better Asteroids than Asteroids. I haven’t played 5200 Asteroids but Asteroids on the 7800 is very good.

[TrekMD]

Space Rocks is excellent!  Playing it with a button controller is awesome because you get an arcade feel for it.  I do agree the 7800 version of Asteroids is excellent!

Thrust/Thrust Plus is fantastic as well.  You should get your hands on it!

[davyk]

I still prefer the 7800 version though Space Rocks adds the option of deluxe mode and the raster/vector selection too - and gives you options about shields, hyperspace etc. so it has more variety.