Nostalgic #1 Posted March 9, 2003 I sat down for a couple of games of Oystron today. While the game was running through the attract mode cycle, I caught the copyright date: 1997. The homebrew scene has been around for six years?!? It's probably longer, but I don't know much from before that time. Still, it was just amazing to think that it's been going on and growing for so long... When would you say that the 2600 homebrew scene got started? We have to have a 10th anniversary coming up in the near future... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mos6507 #2 Posted March 10, 2003 A lot of people mention EdTris as the first homebrew, which is circa 93/94, but there was a long gap between EdTris and 1997 when the homebrew scene really heated up (culminating in releases like Oystron and This Planet Sucks). The 2600 homebrew scene got going because of multiple of factors: Computers were just getting fast enough to run 2600 emulation at full framerate; before that you had things like Action Pack which cut all sorts of corners to run on 486/66 class hardware. The first time I ran 2600 emulation at full speed was on a 486/100 using PCAtari for DOS around 1996. The Stella CD and Bob Colbert's makewav opened up the 2600 hardware itself for easy development. No EPROM burner necessary. Just cross-compile and send to the VCS through your audio card. Because of that, a community developed at the newly formed Stellalist which began to aggregate a braintrust of information on how to write for the 2600. Before that it was really a no-man's land of incomplete information and no easy development environment. It should also be remembered that since 1997 there have been a few lulls in development. There was a bug lull before Manuel and Thomas arrived, for instance. So it's had its ups and downs. But now it looks like there is a sustainable stream of development in the pipeline. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Mitchell #3 Posted March 10, 2003 Homebrew for the Vectrex started in 1996 when John Dondzila released Vector Vaders .. and a few others started making new demos. Then it took off in 1998 when Chris Tumber created Omega Chase and Chris Solomon made VFrogger. I think the Vectrex has lead the race in number of homebrew games .. until last year when the Atari 2600 took the lead. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MattG/Snyper2099 #4 Posted March 10, 2003 Hmmmm, I always though that okie dokie was the first homebrew... MattG. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slapdash #5 Posted March 12, 2003 Hmmmm, I always though that okie dokie was the first homebrew... Nope... EdTris, and SoundX (I think) by Ed Federmeyer beat Okie Dokie too, though I think Okie Dokie did come out before Oystron. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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