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Homebrews "In the Wild"


Andrew Davie

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I got to thinking about how one of my games is approaching 20 years old now and how sales are effectively zero.

This got me to thinking how many copies sold- total, all versions - and it would have to be up around 400+

And then I started to wonder "where are they all now?"

 

Which prompts my question -- what *homebrew* games have you found "in the wild"?

And my definition of "in the wild" means not from a collector, and not on ebay.  Some "find", in other words, at a fleamarket, or local paper, or estate sale, or found by a friend, or garage sale... something where the game has clearly left its original owner and its provenance/value is no longer known by the owner.

 

I thought there might be some interesting ones out there, so I'm asking.

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I've picked up four homebrews from a local shop a few years back.  Coke Wins (ResQsoft), Pesco, Space Treat Deluxe & Seawolf.  I was really surprised to see them all!  I believe there might have been one or two more, I probably didn't have the money to grab them all at the time.  Pesco, Space Treat & Seawolf all are Atari Age branded.

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On 1/25/2021 at 8:42 PM, Wickeycolumbus said:

There's a copy of Colony 7 at my local video game store in Michigan. I've seen others as well, but cant think of what they were. Always cool to see.

Oooh! A local video game store in Michigan? Please do tell where .... 

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Hi Andrew,

On 1/25/2021 at 7:45 PM, Andrew Davie said:

I got to thinking about how one of my games is approaching 20 years old now

That is crazy! I don't think I've looked at it like that but you're right. Your and a lot of the original VCS homebrew games are reaching 20 years!

 

If only we could get a [stella] @ 20+ documentary :)

 

BTW, isn't Qb approaching 40 years old? Could we see a 40th anniversary release say on a Nintendo Switch? *nudge*

 

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6 minutes ago, DEBRO said:

Hi Andrew,

That is crazy! I don't think I've looked at it like that but you're right. Your and a lot of the original VCS homebrew games are reaching 20 years!

 

If only we could get a [stella] @ 20+ documentary :)

 

BTW, isn't Qb approaching 40 years old? Could we see a 40th anniversary release say on a Nintendo Switch? *nudge*

 

I first sketched the Qb concept/board on a piece of paper, in red pen, in about 1983.
Maybe an expanded '2600 40th anniversary version ... who knows.

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5 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said:

I first sketched the Qb concept/board on a piece of paper, in red pen, in about 1983.

If you still have the sketch, it would be cool to include as part of the updated manual. Wow, I was Sophomore in high school in ‘83.

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11 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

If you still have the sketch, it would be cool to include as part of the updated manual. Wow, I was Sophomore in high school in ‘83.

No, alas. I have a good mind's eye view of what it was like, but reproducing it would be pointless.

I do recall comparing it with the finished version, and they were very very close.

 

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Great idea for a topic, as I have often wondered about this, too.  In about a decade of casually looking around, I've only ever seen one homebrew in the wild. At a local game-cd-record store a year and a half ago, I came across a copy of Another Adventure with it's box. I figured it must have come in with someone's collection, as it was sitting in a box with several other boxed games and about 50 loose games.  Interestingly enough, given the amount of items with it, that was the only homebrew, as though the original owner just bought that one and was done. The only downside was no instructions, even though there was a huge stack of others. 

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Some of you know, I own "Who North America," the Doctor Who store in Indianapolis. A few years back, I got a call from a person saying he bought a house (estate sale) and there was a bunch of Doctor Who stuff in it. He wanted to know if I was interested in buying it so I said, "Sure." He brought me BUCKETS of Doctor Who stuff. Books were individually bagged, CDs never opened, etc. I bought it on the spot as he had no interest in Doctor Who; he just wanted the house to flip it. Turns out the items belonged to a long-time customer of ours who died and he had no family.

 

This thread makes me think of him because I know that will happen to a lot of us collectors. We're going to die and all our stuff will end up being sold or donated by someone who has absolutely no interest in the stuff we've been collecting/hoarding. It might just end up in some resale shop or Goodwill one day.

Edited by keithbk
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17 minutes ago, keithbk said:

Some of you know, I own "Who North America," the Doctor Who store in Indianapolis. A few years back, I got a call from a person saying he bought a house (estate sale) and there was a bunch of Doctor Who stuff in it. He wanted to know if I was interested in buying it so I said, "Sure." He brought me BUCKETS of Doctor Who stuff. Books were individually bagged, CDs never opened, etc. I bought it on the spot as he had no interest in Doctor Who; he just wanted the house to flip it. Turns out the items belonged to a long-time customer of ours who died and he had no family.

 

This thread makes me think of him because I know that will happen to a lot of us collectors. We're going to die and all our stuff will end up being sold or donated by someone who has absolutely no interest in the stuff we've been collecting/hoarding. It might just end up in some resale shop or Goodwill one day.

Yeah, My wife is gonna invite my best friends, and they will probably take all the rocketry stuff, but I do know my son will probably take the games.

 

 

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On 1/25/2021 at 6:45 PM, Andrew Davie said:

I got to thinking about how one of my games is approaching 20 years old now and how sales are effectively zero.

This got me to thinking how many copies sold- total, all versions - and it would have to be up around 400+

And then I started to wonder "where are they all now?"

 

11 hours ago, DEBRO said:

Hi Andrew,

That is crazy! I don't think I've looked at it like that but you're right. Your and a lot of the original VCS homebrew games are reaching 20 years!

If only we could get a [stella] @ 20+ documentary :)

Yeah I realized this when I started writing my next book, which will be a checklist book for Atari 2600 homebrews and hacks ranging from 1995-2020 = the first 25 years!

 

 

 

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