Homebrews No Longer Obtainable?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Also I can't help but notice you and Thomas both listed Star Castle Arcade as a credit...

That's correct. Chris started it and then I took over.

[Necron99]

I found a rom for Reflex. Is this considered no longer obtainable because it's no longer in a store?

[Necron99]

No longer in a store. The game was produced and sold without the programmer's permission and in limited quantity.

 

There was 20 regular carts made and 16 more made for the cowlitz gamers for kids event in 2014. I believe he was asked to stop selling them before they were sold out.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Necron99

[neotokeo2001]

No longer in a store. The game was produced and sold without the programmer's permission and in limited quantity.

 

There was 20 regular carts made and 16 more made for the cowlitz gamers for kids event in 2014. I believe he was asked to stop selling them before they were sold out.

 

I have tried to contact the programmer a few times to do a new limited edition release but have received no replies. It is a re-named version with a few changes. I would do more if I get the OK to proceed.

 

[hizzy]

Do homebrewers attend gaming conventions as guests? In Montreal, gamester81 was a guest at a local retro gaming con. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but it seems like the programmers are pretty low profile. I'd love to see a panel with Tod Frye and the person who made Pacman 8k! It's strange to me that collectors are known in the hobby, but the programmers who turn out new games for old systems are kind of anonymous.

[neotokeo2001]

Do homebrewers attend gaming conventions as guests? In Montreal, gamester81 was a guest at a local retro gaming con. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but it seems like the programmers are pretty low profile. I'd love to see a panel with Tod Frye and the person who made Pacman 8k! It's strange to me that collectors are known in the hobby, but the programmers who turn out news games for old systems are kind of anonymous.

 

There have been shows in the past where attendees almost trample true Atari programming legends in their effort to get to a YouTube persona. Makes no sense to me.

[+Random Terrain]

There have been shows in the past where attendees almost trample true Atari programming legends in their effort to get to a YouTube persona. Makes no sense to me.

"Atari programming legends were before my time, so they don't matter. That reminds me, my history teacher just doesn't get it. Why do I need to know who Abraham Lincoln was? He's been dead so long that he's not even worm food anymore. Just give me Auto-Tune, twerking, and talentless girls with big butts."

[MrBeefy]

Reflex is cool. Any others I'm missing out on besides the first star castle?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

 

There have been shows in the past where attendees almost trample true Atari programming legends in their effort to get to a YouTube persona. Makes no sense to me.

I've been noticing this more the last couple of years. I think there are a couple of reasons for it. First, the programmers who come to the shows are all known primarily as 2600 programmers (even though most of them stayed in the business and did games for other systems). Second, I'm seeing more younger attendees. Someone who was born in 1990 isn't as likely to be interested in hearing about games made before he was born. Edited July 2, 2017 by KaeruYojimbo

[Andromeda Stardust]

I've been noticing this more the last couple of years. I think there are a couple of reasons for it. First, the programmers who come to the shows are all known primarily as 2600 programmers (even though most of them stayed in the business and did games for other systems). Second, I'm seeing more younger attendees. Someone who was born in 1990 isn't as likely to be interested in hearing about games made before he was born.

I listen to vinyl records older than I am so why not?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

I listen to vinyl records older than I am so why not?

 

I didn't say no one born after 1990 wanted to hear about 2600 games.

 

Let me try this again.

 

Most (possibly even all) of the programmers who talk at shows are from the 2600 era and talk primarily about working at Atari and making games for the 2600. If you're at a show and your interest is pre-crash stuff, that's who you're going to listen to.

 

But if you're at a show and your interest is primarily post-crash games, there probably aren't going to be any programmers from that era there so you go see one of the YouTubers because more of them focus on post-crash games.

 

So I guess it's not so much an age line, though age plays a part, it's an interest line. If you dig really old games, you listen to the guys talking about really old games, who are mostly programmers. If you dig sort of old games, you listen to the guys talking about sort of old games, who are the YouTube hosts. And it seems like a higher and higher percentage of the audience at game shows want post-crash games, so those are the talks that draw the bigger crowds. If programmers from the that era came to shows, I bet they'd get pretty good draws.

Edited July 2, 2017 by KaeruYojimbo

[+SpiceWare]

Do homebrewers attend gaming conventions as guests?

 

I've given presentations in Houston, Austin, and Portland. I'll be on a panel this year in Portland with one of the Atari programmers from the 80s and, I believe, another homebrewer.

[hizzy]

I've given presentations in Houston, Austin, and Portland. I'll be on a panel this year in Portland with one of the Atari programmers from the 80s and, I believe, another homebrewer.

 

Very cool! I hope the atari programmers play space rocks

[CPUWIZ]

 

I didn't say no one born after 1990 wanted to hear about 2600 games.

 

Let me try this again.

 

Most (possibly even all) of the programmers who talk at shows are from the 2600 era and talk primarily about working at Atari and making games for the 2600. If you're at a show and your interest is pre-crash stuff, that's who you're going to listen to.

 

But if you're at a show and your interest is primarily post-crash games, there probably aren't going to be any programmers from that era there so you go see one of the YouTubers because more of them focus on post-crash games.

 

So I guess it's not so much an age line, though age plays a part, it's an interest line. If you dig really old games, you listen to the guys talking about really old games, who are mostly programmers. If you dig sort of old games, you listen to the guys talking about sort of old games, who are the YouTube hosts. And it seems like a higher and higher percentage of the audience at game shows want post-crash games, so those are the talks that draw the bigger crowds. If programmers from the that era came to shows, I bet they'd get pretty good draws.

 

I have all sorts of fun stories from back in the TGFX16, SNES & GENESIS days (yes, I wrote games for all of those systems). But you wouldn't find me sharing them on stage.

[+Random Terrain]

I have all sorts of fun stories from back in the TGFX16, SNES & GENESIS days (yes, I wrote games for all of those systems). But you wouldn't find me sharing them on stage.

Can we at least have a signed photo of you scratching your butt?

[RevEng]

I have all sorts of fun stories from back in the TGFX16, SNES & GENESIS days (yes, I wrote games for all of those systems). But you wouldn't find me sharing them on stage.

Maybe someday you'll reconsider - I'd gladly pay money to see that. Even just a chat about the systems, flavor of devkits, what it was like being a 3rd party dev for those systems, etc. I don't think I'm alone here.

[CPUWIZ]

Can we at least have a signed photo of you scratching your butt?

 

PM sent!

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

So I guess it's not so much an age line, though age plays a part, it's an interest line. If you dig really old games, you listen to the guys talking about really old games, who are mostly programmers. If you dig sort of old games, you listen to the guys talking about sort of old games, who are the YouTube hosts. And it seems like a higher and higher percentage of the audience at game shows want post-crash games, so those are the talks that draw the bigger crowds. If programmers from the that era came to shows, I bet they'd get pretty good draws.

But most major post crash developers (Nintendo, Sega, Namco / Bandai, Taito, Konami / Hudson, Capcom, etc...) are all Japanese, aside from localisation teams. Assuming you convinced them to fly a plane across the Pacific to attend a show, you'd still have a major language barrier on your hands when they got here...

 

That said, all hail Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario! [ducks for cover]

[+frankodragon]

Can we at least have a signed photo of you scratching your butt?

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[accousticguitar]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

I'd pay a dollar NOT to see it.

[Mr SQL]

 

There have been shows in the past where attendees almost trample true Atari programming legends in their effort to get to a YouTube persona. Makes no sense to me.

Double true! in the 80's fans lined up to get our autographs at expo's and everyone was always smiling.

[Mr SQL]

To the homebrewers out there:

 

How would you rank your games from favorite to least, or is that too hard a task, like how parents don't have a favorite child?

 

Awesome thought provoking question! Great to see the programmers thinking about and discussing their creations; here's my take on this:

 

It may look like I've ranked my games from left to right, top to bottom just like we read but rather I've put them in a visual framework of a classic Atari Box design - an amalgam of pictures and screenshots to create an aesthetic that draws the eye to choose games based on the arrangement most interesting to the player.

 

I'm a player (not all programmers are) so I use that perspective when I designed the live Atari box where you can click the tiles to download or play the games online.

 

The games I'm drawn to vary, but I particularly like:

 

PIXELS - This game is fun! I wrote it before and perhaps influenced the movie

 

STARBLITZ in 30 HZ on a tube Television (ducks)

 

KC Monochrome Dreams pink (the PAL version played on NTSC)

 

WARPDRIVE:

This an interesting mind game to teach you to develop faster reflexes, clearing the boad requires you to be able to react with 1/30 of a second response times.

 

I can do this and I've seen people who practice meditation, martial arts or just have really flast reflexes master it sometimes on the first try.

 

The game has an impossibilty setting (best on a tube TV) where you have to respond in 1/60 of a second to clear the board. I've been trying to do this but haven't been able to yet - no one else I know has succeeded either though some have come close.

 

This game features a rating system - positive motivational messages (from Starfleet) to encourage you more and more as you make progress. The motivational rating system keeps me trying to clear the board at 1/60 of a second, but it may be faster than we can react - if it is, can the game train me to achieve this level of conditioning over time? The game keeps me coming back to find out.

 

And the game on the end isn't mine, though iconic and one of my favoites.

 

Playing the games is as much fun as writing games, or talking about the 80's

 

[+KaeruYojimbo]

But most major post crash developers (Nintendo, Sega, Namco / Bandai, Taito, Konami / Hudson, Capcom, etc...) are all Japanese, aside from localisation teams. Assuming you convinced them to fly a plane across the Pacific to attend a show, you'd still have a major language barrier on your hands when they got here...

 

Real Nintendo fanboys are fluent in spoken and written Japanese so they can play their import games!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I quite frequently visit the local retro gaming convention in Oberhausen. But that's all.

[+Andrew Davie]

Do homebrewers attend gaming conventions as guests? In Montreal, gamester81 was a guest at a local retro gaming con. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but it seems like the programmers are pretty low profile. I'd love to see a panel with Tod Frye and the person who made Pacman 8k! It's strange to me that collectors are known in the hobby, but the programmers who turn out new games for old systems are kind of anonymous.

 

I have attended one in Texas years ago, and one in Melbourne late last year, where I gave a presentation which by a stroke of misfortune was preserved for posterity....

 

https://youtu.be/kh1drqSLzPM?t=1025