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Which are the better games, orig.published games or modern homebrew games


Which are the better games, orig.published games or modern homebrew games   

27 members have voted

  1. 1. Which are the better games, orig.published games or modern homebrew games

    • original published
      7
    • modern/current homebrew
      2
    • both
      15
    • don't know/care as I don't do homebrew
      3

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Which are the better games

 

original published games for your platform or modern homebrew games for your platform

 

 

 

Given the emergence of the homebrew market as the staple diet of new games/software releases on the classic/retro computing and gaming platforms and that the old school publishers and developers have left this market for so called 'greener pastures' it begs the question....which are better games, original published games for your platform or modern homebrew games for your platform

 

OK, I accept that modern homebrewer coders/programmers don't or didn't have the sort of money to help them develop/publish their wares/creations as the old school publishers and developers did and also Old school developers and publishers didn't have access to the same development capabilities and facilities as modern homebrewer programmers/coders do

 

Further more, old school devlopers/publishers didn't have access to the same 'free' distribution channels as the modern homebrewers have nor did old school publishers/developers have access or knowledge of all the various 'programming tricks' that modern hombrewer coders/programmers have access to or knowledge of (if you've seen some of the software based hardware tricks on the A8/c64 etc you'll know my meaning) and lastly given the fact that modern homebrew programmers/coders don't have access to the same resources/facilities to help them develop/publish their wares/creations in the same way that old school developers/publishers did

 

I think it's now time that we treated and accepted the modern homebrew coder/programmer who's supporting our system,/platform by writing software for it, in the same way we treated and accepted the old school developers/publishers way back when (but leaving out the piracy aspects)

 

 

 

I personally think that the quality of productions coming out for the classic/retro gaming and computing platforms by the homebrewer community is equal to, if not better then the quality of games developed/published by the old school developer/publishers (OK so you have to wait a little longer for your software but at least you are not getting shovel ware like we used to)

 

what do you people think

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I think in the case of the ST the two most important things needed by the developers were -

 

1. Talent, there is no substitute for genius coding to get the most out of the custom chip deprived ST.

2. Time, most of the games released by Ocean/US Gold etc were on very short development timelines and the coders did the best they could in the time.

 

I don't think money is the issue. If someone has the time and the talent it is possible to make something as good as the best of the original ST releases. Formula 1 Grand Prix was written by one many alone for example. And Gauntlet 1 was written very early in the life of the ST so there wasn't exactly a lot of knowledge about to pilfer code from existing games which is why 2 bit systems (who made the software for the Replay sampler for the original ST) have a lot of respect from me.

 

I haven't been keeping up with homebrew ST stuff though to be fair, so I probably haven't seen the best examples of ST homebrew in the last 10 years or so.

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each game has its own merits... some are better when you load them, some are better when you turn off the power switch... this distinction isnt defined by the time it was made but the game itself...

 

 

sloopy.

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each game has its own merits... some are better when you load them, some are better when you turn off the power switch... this distinction isnt defined by the time it was made but the game itself...

 

That's far more poetically put than i could've managed right now... wot he said. =-)

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I voted both, I think that the best modern homebrew games are just as good as the best titles from back in the day. Of course, there's many more games that I haven't played, but that is my perception. And the packaging now is just as good as well, games from Atari Age are completely professional in quality with color manuals and excellent artwork.

 

But back to the games themselves. Homebrew developers now have added tools available to them, plus the accumulation of an extra 20-30 years of game development to learn and take ideas from. And there are hopefully no time or financial pressures on homebrew developers. Their works are true labors of love, worked on in their free time. So, with hopefully no corporate deadline looming, they are able to get their game just how they want it, and we all benefit from that extra care.

 

But I am rambling. lol Basically, I think today might be the best time to own and use older consoles, especially the 2600. Most games from the past are available at reasonable prices, and new homebrew development gives us all new experiences that push the limits of what those old machines can do! It's an exciting time! :)

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I think in the case of the ST the two most important things needed by the developers were -

 

1. Talent, there is no substitute for genius coding to get the most out of the custom chip deprived ST.

2. Time, most of the games released by Ocean/US Gold etc were on very short development timelines and the coders did the best they could in the time.

 

There are some excellent homebrews on almost any platfrom (on the ST, "Oxyd", "Hoog", "Alterra", "Dynabusters+", so I voted for "both", but on the ST there also were many, many excellently written "major label" (YMMV), e.g. by the Bitmap Brothers, Thalion/Eclipse, several ones by Gremlin and Rainbird and even some titles by Ocean (a company which sadly had the tendency to publish mediocre movie tie-in titles and coin-op conversions of varying quality), just to name a few.

 

Thorsten

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I don't know that you can unilaterally say that one group is better than the other. There were some great games published back in the day as well as some not so great ones. For modern releases the quality tends to be higher but I also wouldn't say that all modern releases are better than all classic releases.

 

Mitch

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Some of the original games were/are fantastic. However nowadays I don't think anyone writing a homebrew would create the same old thing over and over again like what happened back in the 80's. I doubt there's the urgency to get the game out in 6weeks without testing it first. Who would want to make an Airlock clone?

 

Basically you could say for example 40% (I've no idea how many original games there were that were good. I just know that there was a lot of dross.) of original were good well programmed and enjoyable to play BUT 100% of homebrews should be good and well programmed games.

 

PS Carmel. Notice I have changed my location.

Edited by HollowPoint123
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Although I do agree with the idea that a game's absolute quality is irrelevant to the time it was released, there is something to be said for influence and originality... thus I voted for originally released titles because even though the hard work of homebrew creators should not be dismissed, if the originally published games did not exist, even the best quality homebrews would arguably not be the same or even exist without the older games' innovation.

Edited by Mario Bros.
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Totally depends on the System really.

 

There is very little decent homebrew games for the Sega machines for example.

 

And as far as the Atari machines are concerned the 2600 and 7800 both have some amazing homebrew stuff. The Lynx has only a few standouts while the Jaguar has quite a bit of homebrew but not really anything at all that matches the quality of the commercial games released for the machine. Of course this is mainly due to the resources needed to make a commercial quality homebrew for a machine like the Jaguar. However there is some amazing stuff on the horizon like the Atari Owl Project and Adventure 2000, both of which I have been lucky enought to play in their early forms and they already match up well against the best stuff available for the machine.

Edited by The_Laird
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I cant/Even Read and or your/thread because its/ too long and or hurts my/eyes. :(

 

But to answer the question, there is no answer. There are both good homebrew games, I own a few.. and there are good original games.

There are bad homebrew games, and there are bad (and even TERRIBLE) original games. Its all the same.

 

But you have to give homebrewers credit for their dedication and ability to publish the game, which is not cheap.

Edited by jeremysart
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