My favorite Atari 2600 homebrew - console documentary

happy little games this video was requested by Justin and Johnny T cockatoo housing thank you so much for being a supporter of mine for so long hope you enjoy the video anyone who was a fan of my channel would know that I have been a video game fan since I was a wee little peckerwood the first home system my family owned was a generic pulling unit that had no built-in screen saver if you left the TV on along with the system you could essentially burn in the image ruining your brand new RCA my first actual video game system would come along a few years later and that would be the Atari 2600. this big and sexy wood grade Mama Jama would be my primary source of video game entertainment for a number of years and even to this day holds a place near and dear to my heart it is always fascinated me how programmers could use a little bit of creativity and a little bit of Ingenuity to produce something spectacular on a less than powerful system the Atari 2600 was often referred to as the little box that could which coincidentally enough is what my ex-girlfriend was called in high school thankfully there are some very talented people out there who feel the same and have brought us some fantastic home roof for the system these kind folks are not only showcasing their programming skills but also keeping the 2600 alive to this day in today's video I am going to look at a number of Homebrew titles that have thoroughly impressed me and should hopefully impress you as well some you might expect to be on the list and others might just surprise you so sit back and relax and let's take a look at some of my favorite Homebrew on the Atari 2600. when it comes to Homebrew on the 2600 it should come as no surprise that the dark Wizards at champ games were going to be near the top of the list at this point with their reputation champ games could fart in a box stamped 1995 on it and they would sell millions they have been doing that Voodoo that they do do for a number of years and have produced some truly astonishing games that are very close to their arcade counterparts here are some of my favorites from champ games and I am going to keep my big clap trap shut so you can soak in all the Retro Gaming goodness [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] games on the Atari 2600 you have the original which was released in 1978 and that is it it is hard to argue with perfection despite its low memory size clocking in at just under two kilobytes the game was immensely playable but one of the hardest things to get right were the pin physics which they did a pretty good job on developers have been struggling with this since the onslaught of bowling video games over the span of 20 years only a few games were able to get them just right 10th Frame for the Commodore 64 and also Brunswick circuit pro bowling and 10 Pin Alley for the PS1 for the last 45 years there have been no bowling titles released for the Atari 2600 until now Strike Zone Bowling is jaw-droppingly good especially when compared to the original 1978 bowling the game was programmed by EA Smith and it turned out fantastic once the game starts up you are showing a brief intro where you head to the calendar to determine whether you want to play with one player or two things are not looking so Rosy in the Mushroom Kingdom because Mario has a part-time job sniffing bowling shoes there is a bit of a learning curve with the controls but when you find that sweet spot it can hit it consistently you are golden you can choose to put spin on the ball or throw it straight there are strike animations spare animations and if you get three strikes in a row you are in the zone making strikes a bit more easier depending on what your score is will determine what ending screen you get you could be hanging out in front of the bathroom trying to get a peek under the door the pool hall or even the arcade my personal best is 185 when writing this so we will see what I can score when recording footage for the game whereas the original game was only two kilobytes this game is 32 kilobytes which is why the programmer was able to cram so much stuff into it if you're a fan of bowling and video games you should definitely check out what the Atari 2600 is capable of Pac-Man 4K was programmed by Deborah who set out to create a version of Pac-Man that wasn't a hack of the existing game but a completely original title built from the ground up he wanted to see how close he could get to the original arcade version using the same memory size as the official 2600 Pac-Man the original title was programmed by Todd Frye and took six months to complete no idea on the timetable for this one but all in all it looks really good there is a lot of flicker but on an actual VCS unit it's nowhere near as bad the maze layout is almost identical to the arcade original and we even have proof that looks like fruit as opposed to the square watermelon that appeared in the Original Pac-Man VCS game the enemy AI has also been upgraded which while not arcade perfect does a much better job than the official title the sound effects are fantastic with the siren making its triumphant return when you advance aboard the screen will flash just like in the arcade game it's a nice little touch this is fantastic and it's amazing how close it is to the actual arcade game I would have loved this back in 1982 for my trusty but perhaps Rusty 2600. I should also mention Pac-Man 8K which obviously doubles the size of the original effort and with that extra space comes a gaming experience much closer to the arcade title this version is bigger badder and better well once again we have an accurate maze layout but this time around we also have music the arcade attract screen close to Arcade perfect sound effects and even intermissions the enemy AI is even closer to the arcade game than the 4K version this is without a doubt the best version of Pac-Man on the humble 2600. oh [Music] if you would have told me 30 years ago that Sonic the Hedgehog was going to be running on the Atari 2600 you could have knocked me over with a feather as of 2023 he still isn't available although we do get his dim with it inbred half cousin Zippy the porcupine this fine product was programmed by Chris pry and it's an unbelievable Recreation of Sonic the Hedgehog for the little box that could There are 16 stages in total including boss fights with Robotnik and some rather Spectacular music for the 2600. there is something oh so cool about collecting rings and going through Loops while hearing a rendition of Hill Zone coming out of my 2600. there are little things included such as Zippy's impatient toe tapping animation and bonus stages to find the game is also available in cartridge form for use on your actual system [Music] [Music] since I mentioned Zippy the porcupine let's go ahead and look at the Mario influence Title by the name of Princess rescue this was also programmed by Chris Frye and while not as smooth as Zippy it does do a great job at running Super Mario on the Atari 2600 the evil BG has kidnapped the princess and it's up to you to rescue her There are 16 scrolling levels with power ups to assist you along the way the character sprites must have been eating their Wheaties because they are absolutely huge just wait until you get the power up and your character doubles in size everything still runs nice and smooth and it's very fast the levels are so good and it's just mind-blowing that they were able to reproduce a Mario clone as good as this not only do we get a lot of the same level designs but we also get an excellent rendition of the Super Mario theme it is best to play this with a two button pad so you can use a button for jumping and a button for fireballs overall this turned out rather well and who would have thunked that the 2600 was capable of producing a Super Mario clone as good as this [Music] thank you [Music] next to Pac-Man my favorite retro arcade game from the early 80s would have to be Donkey Kong rumor has it when Calico brought the game over to the 2600 they used a bit of sabotage on a pipe purposefully not doing a good job on the conversion why would they do this because they were trying to sell their collegial Vision game system which boasted much better graphics and sound as well as a fantastic version of Donkey Kong that was actually the pack-in title what we got on the 2600 was okay but it only had two stages there were no intro animations or cutscenes either that brings us to Donkey Kong VCS this little Slice of Heaven is something I would have loved to have owned back in the day the game includes all four stages intro and outro animations cutscenes and excellent music some compromises had to be made such as the screen now Scrolls vertically but it doesn't hinder the gameplay too much the game still controls great and it feels like Donkey Kong [Music] thank you another of my favorites from the Golden Age of arcades was Qbert this short Stout little man was full of piss and vinegar and had a mouth that would make even my wife blush setting aside his personality for just a moment the game was a 2d action puzzle game with isometric Graphics which was a unique presentation at the time the Atari 2600 version turned out pretty good for the hardware but always felt that something more could have been done there have been various attempts to hack the graphics at one point in time or another but they all seem to miss the mark ruby Q came along for the 2600 and attempted to fix some of the mistakes found in the original for starters the graphics look similar to the original 2600 version although the character sprites are better animated including giving kubert that spring into step that he was missing ruby Q also plays a bit faster giving it that true arcade feel other extras include the spinning discs being a bit wider and not just a tiny sliver the target color that you are trying to achieve in the upper left-hand corner has also been included that's just the tip of the iceberg though ruby Q expands upon the original cubert game with three different modes including the original arcade version there are five difficulty levels player action speech support via the ataria Vox high score support a pause function and more the additional two gameplay modes are a lot of fun and they really expand upon the game with new enemies and play mechanics this is a fantastic update and it's available either in ROM format for you to download and test out for yourself or you can purchase a physical copy for your Atari 2600. [Music] [Music] Flappy as you might expect was inspired by the original Flappy Bird iOS game programmer Michael Haas borrowed the flight through pipes concept but made the game the way he wanted to play it which was fun and humorous it's pretty simple you just have to keep pressing the button to fly through the pipes otherwise you crash and burn with Homer Simpson letting out a yell when this happens the graphics look great with some nice smooth Parallax scrolling which is always a nice treat especially on the 2600 Mr Ohio succeeded in what he set out to do which was create a fun simple game to pick up and play when it comes to incredibly cool home brew titles programmer Chris Walton smashed 2600 lovers over their heads with two fantastic games the first one is xevia spelled z-e-v-i-o-u-z which believe it or not is an excellent Port of the arcade classic xevius the game was in development for the Atari 2600 back in 1983 and a prototype has since been leaked but this Homebrew version blows it out of the water the game is a direct Port from the Atari 2600 version with lots of tweaks and optimizations to make it work on the VCS the game features smooth animation and nice tight controls if it ain't tight it ain't right the sound effects of Music are darn near arcade perfect and gives me a nice little tickle taint whenever I hear them this is truly fantastic and you should definitely check it out [Applause] [Laughter] the other game that was programmed by Chris Walton was boom which was based on the NES version of Bomberman this was a game I didn't play too much back in the day but around five or six years ago I started playing it with my kids and we had a lot of fun the object of the game is to kill all of the enemies with your Bombs all the while trying to locate the hidden door under one of the walls on each level is a hidden power up that gives you different abilities such as increased bomb radius and the ability to plant more bombs similar to Mr Walton's other title you have the ability to save your high score and a two button pad is also supported this is a great little game that retains all the fun and fury that was found in the original title now even though there were a number of champ games on display earlier in the video I wanted to show off another of my favorite early Shooters which was scramble for those of you who don't know scramble was the first side-scrolling Shoot Em Up that sees you shooting and bombing everything in sight your jet is armed with forward firing guns as well as bombs each one with a separate fire button your fuel is constantly depleting so you have to bomb fuel tanks that are littered throughout the game the version champ games put out a few years ago is fantastic the graphics and especially the colors are very reminiscent of the arcade game and it features fast gameplay the scrolling is a bit choppy but once you play it for a bit you tend not to notice the sound effects and music are really good and the controls are perfect all six stages from the arcade game have been included but there are a number of extras including four difficulty levels two button support so you can use a Sega Genesis pad for that true arcade feel the ability to save high scores thanks to the Atari box and more if you are a fan of the arcade game and the 2600 you owe it to yourself to check it out oh last but certainly not least is the rather Cool D make of Halo entitled Halo 2600. this was programmed by Ed Fry's who was a former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft he was also instrumental in Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie now obviously he couldn't do anything even remotely resembling the original title so he took the game and flipped it on its side turning it into an action adventure title similar to berserk and adventure you take control of Master Chief as you set out to explore 64 screens of shooting and exploration these are divided into four zones including outdoor Covenant base ice world and the final boss area you need to locate hidden keys to disable the game's force fields in order to reach the final boss there are different weapons and power-ups such as Shields there is even an excellent rendition of the Halo theme which sounds pretty good as I mentioned the game is very similar to berserk and it's a lot of fun to play foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] there you have it my friends some of my favorite Homebrew for the 2600. yes there were a lot of archaican versions here but we also have some pretty cool original titles such as Halo and strike zone if there is enough demand perhaps I'll go back and do a volume two so if you would like to see that let me know in the comments down below once again big shout out to longtime supporter Justin Reed and Johnny T cockatoo house and for suggesting this video thanks everybody for watching if you like this video be sure to like comment share and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below 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Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 19,165

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Homebrew, bowling, strike, zone, scramble, bomberman, Champ, games, Halo, zookeeper, xEVIOUS, Ed Fries, Chris Walton, Michael Haas, flappy bird, Q-bert, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Chris spry, Debro, Turbo, MAPPY, Todd Fry

Id: iDOzNLi32fs

Length: 25min 14sec (1514 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023