Number of people who've created 2600 games?

[DanOliver]

I was wondering today if more people had climbed Mt Everest than had written a 2600 game. Goggle says about 4000 climbers.

 

Goggle number of 2600 games found 470. But that didn't seem to include home brew.

 

Seems like it'd be way under 4000 however. Anyone have an idea on the number of 2600 game authors?

 

Just wondering.

 

[Keatah]

How about the number of people that played VCS games?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Seems like it'd be way under 4000 however.

Original games: ~550 (incl. prototypes, excl. pirates)

 

Homebrews? No clue, there are lots and lots of batari games created these days.

Maybe check this, it includes only released games. Sometimes the categories are not quite right, e.g. some hacks are listed as homebrews.

[DanOliver]

The link shows about 20 home brews for 2015 and 28 for 2014. Don't know how many years this has been going on.

 

I would exclude prototypes since to me a game isn't a game until it's released to players as a finished product.

 

I've seen a few web sites, like at AtariAge, that show web pages that look to be generate from a database. which include authors when known. But I've never seen access to the database so I could search.

 

Seems safe to say way less than 4000 no matter how it's sliced.

[SIO2]

How many of those climbers looked at an assembly language source code listing and said, "Yup. Where is my coat? I think can conquer the mountain."

[high voltage]

Atarimania list programmers for VCS, where known.

[Rom Hunter]

I've seen a few web sites, like at AtariAge, that show web pages that look to be generate from a database. which include authors when known. But I've never seen access to the database so I could search.

 

Here you can find all known VCS programmers from the 1977-1992 period:

http://www.atarimania.com/advanced-search-atari-2600-vcs-game-_2_G.html

 

Click on their names and you see their games.

 

Edited July 1, 2016 by Rom Hunter

[+SpiceWare]

I've seen a few web sites, like at AtariAge, that show web pages that look to be generate from a database. which include authors when known. But I've never seen access to the database so I could search.

 

Go to the home page, click on 2600 in the Systems group box. From there you have access to the database such as a Companies view. For now, click on Programmers and you'll find 258 entries.

 

Do note that it does include more than just programmers, such as Nathan Strum who's known for his excellent artwork (as an example, he did the majority of the graphics for Stay Frosty and Stay Frosty 2, plus those were his original game concept). If you click on a name you'll see a column labeled Position, for Nathan that's Graphics while for you its Programmer.

[DanOliver]

 

Here you can find all known VCS programmers from the 1977-1992 period:

http://www.atarimania.com/advanced-search-atari-2600-vcs-game-_2_G.html

 

Click on their names and you see their games.

 

Perfect. Thanks. Well almost perfect. The drop menu for programmers lists them all but I'll have to figure out a way to count them. Plus I couldn't figure out how many games the programmer isn't known yet. There wasn't an "Unknown" field to search on.

[DanOliver]

 

Go to the home page, click on 2600 in the Systems group box. From there you have access to the database such as a Companies view. For now, click on Programmers and you'll find 258 entries.

 

Do note that it does include more than just programmers, such as Nathan Strum who's known for his excellent artwork (as an example, he did the majority of the graphics for Stay Frosty and Stay Frosty 2, plus those were his original game concept). If you click on a name you'll see a column labeled Position, for Nathan that's Graphics while for you its Programmer.

Excellent. And this includes homebrew too. Same problem with number of unknown authors. But the ballpark seems like the ratio I'd expect, 470 games with 258 authors. Seems safe to say "fewer than 500".