IntelliMission

Tommy, You introduced the "My Intellivison" song in my head. I am really grateful for that and I know your intentions were good, but... Can you please remove it? Is there a way I can forget about this now? 😁🙉

I don't have too many anecdotes related to the arcades other than remembering the atmosphere, the smell of cigarettes and the magic of looking at at a video game's demo looping over and over (yes, I used to do that as a kid because those were games I didn't have at home and didn't have the money to play). It's a real tragedy those places disappeared. But one of your stories remind me of something: check out these suspicious high scores that came by default in the Amstrad CPC awesome version of Contra.

Speaking about Breakout: I recently added some more systems to the Homebrew Wars topic and discovered that the Atari 400/800/XL version of Super Breakout allowed for 8 players. Has anyone here played that one?

Ouch! I thought the S in SAFE was "safe" but it's "simple"... but yeah, the Darkmico/Enemico would not be simple either because of the split screen and FPS games. So it would be MOMAE (Mature Offline Multiplayer Affordable Entertainment). Hmm, perhaps it's time to move on to other topics... Tommy, if you were the CEO of Sony, Nintendo or Sega, would you free the development tools for 20-30 year old consoles and organize homebrew contests or do you think it would not be beneficial for your company as it would promote playing in machines that you're no longer manufacturing? I don't think this kind of initiatives would be so harmful commercially. After all, hardcore gamers that are planning to buy a PS4/PS5 or the next Switch will not change their minds because there are 5-10 new PS1 titles available. If a physical release is a problem, I would make those games available as digital purchases or I would include them as extras in other games. In the end you would be generating positive news about your company and potentially increasing the brand recognition by paying homage to its legacy.

Yes, I know it's not possible for commercial reasons. It was just a science fiction scenery.🚀🛰️

In that case, we would have to remove the "S" too: M. A. T. E. .

@Swami What does that mean? I even googled it but still have no clue. 🙃

Yeah, some weeks ago I already suggested a mature version of the console, something called Enemico or Darkmico where split screen games are also possible, a machine where the only commandments were "4 player local multiplayer is required for all games", "all games must be $10 or less" and "no games will have DLC". It was a joke and I know this was not possible, but if this existed I can see thousands of us ordering it just like the FE.

Yeah, I was just trying to say that it's interesting how a game like WoW can be the best for millions of millennials and the worst for some people with more experience. I always say that older generations are somewhat lucky to understand video games better. Most of us don't need good graphics or 3D, and many of us can identify when a game is trying to steal 100 hours of our lives by artificial repetition of tasks.

@high voltage To be honest, the second and third generation of consoles are basically the same for me. The "more resolution" is not enough to differentiate the systems and the "introduction of scrolling games" is a fallacy, as scrolling games were perfectly possible in "second generation" consoles and there were a few. What constitutes a "second generation" system? I think the Colecovision is included there because it has a weird controller. By the way, I just found this Atari Age topic by googling "colecovision vs nes". An interesting read.

@Nintendo64 No hacks, no demos. Just games. And yes, I'm also surprised by some of the numbers. There are a couple of ultra famous consoles, generation winners, that "should" have more homebrew games, such as the NES or the PS1. I hope I just didn't look at the right lists and these systems have actually more games.

@adamchevy That's a really interesting choice of games, because I'm sure that many people (especially the ones born after 1990) consider World of Warcraft the best game they've ever played and I suspect they would probably choose Robotron 2084 (or any game with similar graphics) as their worst gaming experience if you only showed them one particular game of that era. I've never played WoW because I'm not into RPG games, but I am curious... what made you dislike it so much? Do you prefer deeper RPG games?

By the way, I wish console manufacturers such as Sony or Nintendo released every single developer tool for their discontinued consoles. Some companies such as Lobotomy software or even Konami could release their tools too. I don't see any reason to protect that software 20 years later. Hell, they could even arrange homebrew competitions for their old consoles to increase brand recognition and generate positive news among their hardcore user base. I guess the main reasons are the potential legal issues, with some consoles even requiring illegal modifications to play homebrew games.

@Shawn Thanks! After reading your comment, I checked and discovered that "homebrew" is mostly used for console games, while computer games made by non-professional users are called hobbyist. However, I have spent hours trying to remove the hacks and non-playable demos, so that should not be an issue. The number of Atari 2600 games was taken from an Excel file linked by an Atari Age user (check the link in the first message) that already has filters in the columns to remove the hacks. In the end, there were around 2000 games (I was also surprised). Perhaps I rename the topic "homebrew/hobbyist games", but the good thing is that each user can now use the links to correct the numbers and remove potential hacks/demos, or filter by Commercial homebrews only, or just ignore the computer games as they're not propietary hardware and are not officially called homebrew. My main objectives are to measure how much love does each retro platform receive from modern developers, and how many non-commercial games did users create at the time. It's also a way to thank those awesome, hard-working developers that normally didn't receive any money from their games and to give them visibility.

I just added the Atari 400/800/XL "Atari 8-bit" computers and the BBC Micro. I was pleasantly surprised with the number of homebrews and type-ins for the Atari 400/800/XL. By the way, can somebody explain the Atari 400/800/XL graphic modes? How many simultaneous colors are allowed? Wikipedia mentions hundreds of colors but the games I saw have around 5-10...

Try to choose one! ☝️👍🤓

I just added some more systems and was really surprised with the PSP & DS scenes... wow! With all this data at hand, what would be the system with a best low sales/number of homebrew games ratio and which one would be the worst (i. e. dozens of millions of consoles sold and only 5-10 homebrew games)?

The question was about any game, not just commercial... it's funnier this way. Sometimes even the programmer(s) of those shitty shareware/type-in games recognize their games suck. 😁

Hi turboxray, Thanks for the suggestion! Actually, I have already tried to keep the non-playable demos out from the start. Check out the links again, I have removed them from the filters. This is why I have mentioned the new Saturn engine by XL2 but didn't count it as a game: both Sonic Z-Treme and the FPS demo are demos, not games. About all those homebrew ROM that didn't have a physical release... well, for me they count as games. In any case, it's great to have all those resources to check and try to count modern commercial hardware games, it's a great tool. Sometimes the physical format is hard to manufacture, so I guess having a ROM is better than nothing! 🖖

May I recommend a couple of songs for my waiting fellows? Okay, I will only recommend one. I was going to say "Waiting in the Shadows" by Rasumus, but that one sucks, so listen to this one instead.

NE146, the way I see it, you don't need to play a game several times to consider it the best you've ever played. Some games, especially one player games, are one time experiences. You lose the surprise factor the second time (unless it's 10-20 years later, and even then you remember many things). I know some guy who finished Monkey Island every couple of years or so. He told me he had beaten the game 20 times and tried to do some kind of speedrun before me. It's also my favorite game, but I have only finished it twice. I waited almost 10 years for the second attempt, when I was sure I didn't remember most of the puzzles. And then there are some Japanese games that I would place in my top 10, such as Metal Gear Solid or Silent Hill, that are so dramatic I don't even want to play them again (Silent Hill gave me nightmares and the torture in Metal Gear Solid gave me a contracture in the shoulder).

Thanks, stupus! By the way, can you add any links with sources to your numbers? I will add those systems to the list tomorrow.

Hey Swami, where did you get the 230 number for the Colecovision homebrew? Wikipedia says 165 and Google didn't help me.

I have just added Colecovision and Odyssey²/Videopac. I also added most of the retro handhelds. And Apple II. I will leave it for today. Heh. By the way, if anyone knows a list of Apple II type-ins or freeware games created back in the day, let me know in the comments. Perhaps I should filter by Publisher on the online Excel with the list of games and select some magazine games. EDIT: Yeah, I'm counting every game offered for free and also commercial modern homebrews. It's not very accurate, but after all it's just a list of games and a curious way to see how much love receives each system.

Ouch! I didn't check Wikipedia and forgot about a few systems that were not big in Europe... ⚽ Fortunately, the mods just gave me access to edit the message and add them. I will start with that one. By the way, the PS1 has received 5 games in 20 years... depressing.