Homebrew game timeline

[Mayhem]

As what I'm currently writing about involves homebrews a lot, then it would be good to know some history about the start. Does anyone know what the first homebrew from the mid 90s was? I've got EdTris which says 1995 on it, anything earlier than that? What other early homebrews are there (any format)?

 

So far, I've got in my collection to reference at least:

 

EdTris

Tetris 2600

Okie Dokie

Vectrex Vader and Patroits

 

What other early (pre 98) examples are there?

[SteveW]

Could Rob Fulop's Cubicolor possibly count? He originally made it for Imagic, but it wasn't published, so he sold something like 50-100 earlier than '95.

[christianscott27]

the first console based homebrews would be the user produced games for the bally astrocade back in the 80s. if you count computers there were lots of "ziploc baggy" home programmer games back then as well.

[Rom Hunter]

For the 2600:

 

Dark Mage (1997) (Hozer Video Games, Greg Troutman)

Dark Mage - Beta (1997) (Hozer Video Games, Greg Troutman)

Domino (1997) (Hozer Video Games, Piero Cavina)

Edtris 2600 (1994) (Hozer Video Games, Ed Federmeyer)

Hozer Video Promo Cart (1996) (Hozer Video Games)

SoundX (1994) (Hozer Video Games, Ed Federmeyer)

 

Edited May 15, 2005 by Rom Hunter

[Bill Brasky]

What year was John Donzilla's first CV game, Space Invasion? Space Fortress is dated 1997 and I think it was before that.

[Mayhem]

What year was John Donzilla's first CV game, Space Invasion? Space Fortress is dated 1997 and I think it was before that.

855683[/snapback]

 

Various places say Space Fortress was before Space Invasion. Certainly it wasn't pre 1997 as again, various places say 1997 was the first year for Coleco homebrews.

 

Yes I realise the Astrocade had "homebrew" games in the mid 80s, but I was more thinking when things took off in the mid 90s and homebrewing became a regular occurance (though needless to say I will mention the machine).

 

Either way, John D's first homebrew was on the Vectrex and it was Vextrex Vaders (dated March 96).

[Bill Brasky]

What year was John Donzilla's first CV game, Space Invasion? Space Fortress is dated 1997 and I think it was before that.

855683[/snapback]

 

Various places say Space Fortress was before Space Invasion. Certainly it wasn't pre 1997 as again, various places say 1997 was the first year for Coleco homebrews.

 

Yes I realise the Astrocade had "homebrew" games in the mid 80s, but I was more thinking when things took off in the mid 90s and homebrewing became a regular occurance (though needless to say I will mention the machine).

 

Either way, John D's first homebrew was on the Vectrex and it was Vextrex Vaders (dated March 96).

855698[/snapback]

 

Is Astrocade considered a home computer or a console? I thought computer since that's the way it was marketed and has a built-in keypad for programmability and shipped with BASIC, IIRC.

[+kisrael]

When was Oystron out? The label I see on the AA page for it seems to say 1998...that was the first homebew I remember catching my attention--besides that it was generally not-action-oriented stuff.

[Big Player]

Is Astrocade considered a home computer or a console? I thought computer since that's the way it was marketed and has a built-in keypad for programmability and shipped with BASIC, IIRC.

855750[/snapback]

 

For this discussion, I agree with you. It's a home computer because you could program games for it out of the box while the 2600 required a lot of work to produce the first amatuer programmed games.

 

I like this idea of making a timeline of homebrew games. But what I would really love to read is a history of 2600 homebrewing. I don't think a lot of people even on this forum know how much reverse engineering it took before any game programming could begin.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

IMO some pre-crash games where homebrews too (e.g. Skeet Shooting and Forrest).

[Bill Brasky]

Isn't Bump 'n' Jump for Intellivision one of the first homebrews? I read it was made by two brothers who used their INTV Gameline modem to link up a PC to INTV and then later on sold the finished game to Mattell, but it started as a homebrew project.

[+batari]

Don't forget Elk Attack for the 2600, which Mark Hahn programmed at home in 1987, and tried to sell it to Atari and Epyx but they didn't want it. The EPROM sat in a drawer for around 10 years until the first emulators started to arrive, then he decided to dump it and share it with the world.

[Mayhem]

If I ever get the time, maybe I'll write (or try to write) a proper history of homebrewing and "lost game" releases and how it all started. For now though, just want to set the scene as the article this will be referenced by is just about the Vectrex. As Vectrex homebrewing started very early in the scheme of things...

[fsuinnc]

The Astrocade is a console (a very nice one). The built in keyboard is a calculator similar to the atari keyboard controllers and there is no way to program it out of the box. The Basic 'cart' had to be purchased seperate. The Astrocades operating system is similar to home (micro) computers of the time and expansion keyboard etc. was planned but it's made to play games. The Odyssey2 is also a console even though the Computer Intro cart lets you program it.

 

I like the Bump 'n' Jump story as the earliest homebrew. By that I mean it's a fun story, whether it's considered Homebrew or not. If you want info on Homebrews try getting in tough with Randy of Hozer Video. I would bet he has a pretty good Chronology.

[rolenta]

I wrote an article for Gamespot.com several years ago called "New Blood For Orphaned Systems" which examined the history of homebrews. Alas, it doesn't appear to be in the free sections of the site any longer. Perhaps someone who subscribes to the site might be able to find it.

Edited July 7, 2005 by rolenta

[Laner]

I wrote an article for Gamespot.com several years ago called "New Blood For Orphaned Systems" which examined the history of homebrews. Alas, it doesn't appear to be in the free sections of the site any longer. Perhaps someone who subscribes to the site might be able to find it.

887496[/snapback]

 

It's available through the wayback machine....

 

Archive.org

[chrisbid]

Isn't Bump 'n' Jump for Intellivision one of the first homebrews? I read it was made by two brothers who used their INTV Gameline modem to link up a PC to INTV and then later on sold the finished game to Mattell, but it started as a homebrew project.

855803[/snapback]

 

 

not quite, the two guys were given the project after they showed mattel how they got into the system. they were given the game so that they would keep their mouths shut, and not sell their knowledge to other companies

 

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/....html#bump_jump

 

One day, Mattel Electronics was contacted by a couple of guys from New Jersey, Joe Jacobs and Dennis Clark, with startling information: they had hooked up a PlayCable unit to a personal computer and made their own Intellivision development system. They demonstrated that they had figured out how to program Intellivision games quite well, and they wanted to offer their services to Mattel before going to some other company. Ah, blackmail is such an ugly word...

 

To keep them away from the competition, Mattel contracted with them to program the Intellivision version of the arcade game Bump 'N' Jump. They, under the name Technology Associates, were paid $24,000 for the conversion.

 

David Warhol (Mind Strike) served as liaison, giving technical assistance as needed. Except for the title screen graphics by Daisy Nguyen, all the work was done in New Jersey, in one of the programmers' basements; they weren't invited to Mattel headquarters.

 

 

 

interestingly, Bump n Jump is one of the best games on the INTV

[supercat]

As what I'm currently writing about involves homebrews a lot, then it would be good to know some history about the start. Does anyone know what the first homebrew from the mid 90s was? I've got EdTris which says 1995 on it, anything earlier than that? What other early homebrews are there (any format)?

 

Back in 1994, I started a version of columns for the 2600. I got the kernel sorta working, but gave up on the game since the assembler I had was a pain, trying out code was a pain (no emulators back then), and I didn't think there'd be any interest.

 

If anyone wonders what my efforts looked like, here it is:

COL.ZIP

The assembly file has been changed to assemble under DASM (unfortunately, the easiest way to do that meant converting everything to ALLCAPS) but otherwise the code is exactly what I had in October of 1994.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

If anyone wonders what my efforts looked like, here it is:

The binary is two bytes to small. Doesn't run with z26.

[Big Player]

The Astrocade is a console (a very nice one).  The built in keyboard is a calculator similar to the atari keyboard controllers and there is no way to program it out of the box.  The Basic 'cart' had to be purchased seperate.  The Astrocades operating system is similar to home (micro) computers of the time and expansion keyboard etc. was planned but it's made to play games.  The Odyssey2 is also a console even though the Computer Intro cart lets you program it.

887484[/snapback]

 

Oh the curse of being held to what I wrote two months ago. What was I on?

 

For the purposes of discusing homebrew development, I still say the Astrocade is closer to a computer than a console. No one had to reverse engineer the hardware, as was done in the early days of 2600 homebrewing, just to get a "Hello world" on the screen. People were making games for the Astrocade almost as soon as the BASIC cart was released.

 

I should have been more careful with my words. You can't program an Atari 800 out of the box either.

 

The Odyssey2 is still a console because you can't program any games with the Computer Intro cartridge. At least not any fun ones but that may just be a limitation of the console itself.

[Great Hierophant]

Its was far easier to program a game by yourself (without the resources of a developer and a publisher behind you) for a documented computer with software packages and easy to use interfaces and storage mediums than a prioprietary console. The era of the zip-lock bag style of distribution was over by 1982. This is why so many companies should contribute their success to open systems like the Apple II or the Commodore 64.

[supercat]

If anyone wonders what my efforts looked like, here it is:

The binary is two bytes to small. Doesn't run with z26.

888700[/snapback]

 

The clunky assembler I was using would die if it crossed the address $8000 boundary, and the Dodgson cart required a $7000 base address. So yeah it is a couple bytes short.

 

It runs in Z26, though, if you start it in windowed mode. It's 271 scan lines which isn't right, but I didn't have a scan line counter when I did it--just a TV. Not sure why Z26 likes it in when starting windowed mode but not when starting in full-screen mode.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I'd think Solaris is sort of a homebrew.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[+batari]

If anyone wonders what my efforts looked like, here it is:

The binary is two bytes to small. Doesn't run with z26.

Added two bytes to the binary and it runs, just crashes when you move the joystick right

 

But what is there looks decent...

colfix.zip

[vdub_bobby]

Runs fine in Stella, and looks kinda cool. Pretty impressive-looking display for 2600.

 

You should finish it.