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Twenty-three Skid-to-doo


Nathan Strum

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Well, I figured before the last list hit three years old, I'd better replace it with a new one - clean out the completed projects, update existing ones, and add a few more.

Latest updates are in red.

 

Homebrews in development:

 

  • Rip Off (was "Zombie Project (does not contain any actual zombies)")*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Early proof-of-concept build.
    1-10-24: First pass at new graphics complete.
    1-14-24: Added to to-do list.
    2-11-24: Second pass at new graphics complete. (It feels more like the twenty-third pass by now. ;) )

    2-24-24: "Zombie Project (etc)" revealed during ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards as the Champ Games port of Rip Off (originally started in 2006!).
     
  • Tutankham Arcade (was "WIP It")*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Active development.
    1-14-24: Added to to-do list.
    1-28-24: First pass at graphics complete.

    2-24-24: "WIP It" revealed during ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards as the Champ Games port of Tutankham.
     
  • "Acrylic Sign Holders"*
    Game graphics: Early development.
    Development status: Early proof-of-concept builds.
    11-2-23: Early proof-of-concept build.
    11-10-23: Added to to-do list.
     
  • "Space Mona Lisa"*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Early proof-of-concept builds.
    2-16-23: Early proof-of-concept build.
    11-10-23: Added to to-do list.

    12-18-23: First pass at graphics complete.
     
  • "Hoosegow"*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Early proof-of-concept builds.
    2-20-23: Early proof-of-concept build.
    11-10-23: Added to to-do list.

    12-31-23: First pass at graphics complete.
     
  • "Historical Documentary"*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Early proof-of-concept builds.
    2-15-21: New homebrew project.
    3-9-21: Graphics in progress.
    3-5-22: Moved to "on hold".
    2-15-23: Status changed to "Early development".

    2-18-23: "Historical Documentary" is now one-half of "Two-fer". Future updates will be listed under that title.
    1-14-24: "Historical Documentary" is now back to being its own entry.

    2-5-24: First pass at graphics complete.
     
  • "Two-fer"*
    Game graphics: On hold.
    Development status: On hold.
    6-3-22: Added to to-do list.
    2-18-23: Combined with "Historical Documentary". Status changed to "Early proof-of-concept builds".
    1-14-24: "Two-fer" is now on-hold. It may return later.
     
  • "Calidac's Revenge"*
    Game graphics: In-progress.
    Development status: Early Development.
    2-11-23: Added to to-do list.
     
  • "Champ Sports Shot Put"*
    Game graphics: Early development.
    Development status: Pre-development discussions.
    3-5-22: Added to to-do list.
     
  • Boom! (was "Black Squirrel")*
    Game graphics: In progress.
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Rough artwork approved.
    Development status: Active development.
    3-3-17: New homebrew project.
    3-3-17: First pass at title screen graphics and sprites finished.
    7-13-18: "Black Squirrel" revealed to be Chris Walton's port of Bomberman titled "Boom".
    2-25-22: Boom! is being rebooted as a CDFJ project.
    6-3-22: Boom!
    on ZeroPage Homebrew. Demo version is available for download in the AtariAge forums.
    2-3-23: Boom! nominated for Best WIP (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    3-18-23: Rough artwork approved for label, box, etc.
     
  • Zeviouz (was "Starts with a 'Z'")*
    Game graphics: In progress.
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Rough artwork approved.
    Development status: Active development.
    5-9-20: New homebrew project.
    5-23-20: First pass at graphics completed.

    8-18-20: "Starts with a 'Z'" officially announced as Chris Walton's port of Xevious.
    1-15-21: Zeviouz nominated for the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: Best 2600 Work-in-Progress (Port).
    2-6-21: Zeviouz won
    Best 2600 Work-in-Progress (Port) in the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    3-18-23: Rough artwork approved for label, box, etc.
     
  • Frantic
    AtariVox voices: First pass complete.
    Development status: Active development.
    8-18-20: Added to "Homebrews in development" list. First pass at AtariVox voices complete.
    1-15-21: Frantic nominated for the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: Best Work-in-Progress (Port).

    10-15-23: Demo ROM from PRGE posted.
     
  • Champ Sports Baseball (was "Trash Can")*
    Game graphics: In progress.
    AtariVox voices: Planning stages.
    Development status: Early development.
    2-2-20: New homebrew project.
    4-9-20: "Trash Can" officially announced as Champ Games' first sports title: Champ Sports Baseball.
    1-18-21: Game graphics in progress.
      

Completed Homebrews:

 

  • Turbo Arcade (was "Not a SuperCharger Game")*
    Game graphics: In progress.
    Game audio: In progress.
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Rough artwork approved.
    Development status: Active development.
    2-15-21: New homebrew project.
    3-18-21: Graphics in progress. Early non-playable proof-of-concept build.
    5-17-21: Most graphics are in place. Preliminary sounds being added. First "somewhat playable" build.
    ;) 
    5-21-21: Revealed as Champ Games' Turbo Arcade on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-20-22: Turbo nominated for the 4th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: Best 2600 Homebrew Port (Work-in-Progress).
    2-13-22: Turbo won Best 2600 Homebrew Port (Work-in-Progress) in the 4th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    3-18-23: Rough artwork approved for label, box, etc.

    10-13-23: Turbo Arcade released at the 2023 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Will be available soon at Champ.Games.
    2-1-24: Turbo Arcade nominated for Best Graphics - 2600 Port, Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, and Best Homebrew - 2600 Port for ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.
    2-24-24: Turbo Arcade won Best Graphics - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.

      
  • Elevator Agent (was Elevator Action/"Otis")*
    Game graphics: In progress.
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Rough artwork approved.
    Development status: Active development.
    11-18-15: New homebrew project.
    1-27-17: First pass done on title screen graphics, character sprites are in progress.
    3-15-17: Character sprites mostly finished.
    11-2-18: "Otis" revealed to be John Champeau's port of Elevator Action.
    2-25-22: Elevator Action is being rebooted as a CDFJ project.
    6-5-22: First pass at label artwork is in-progress.
    6-15-22: Elevator Action renamed to Elevator Agent.
    Thread added to Homebrew forum.
    12-31-22: Elevator Agent demo ROM now available for download at
    Champ.Games.
    2-3-23: Elevator Agent nominated for
    Best Work-In-Progress (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    2-25-23: Elevator Agent won Best WIP (2600 Port), in the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    3-18-23: Rough artwork approved for label, box, etc.

    10-13-23: Elevator Agent released at the 2023 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Will be available soon at Champ.Games.
    2-1-24: Elevator Agent nominated for Best Graphics - 2600 Port, Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, and Best Homebrew - 2600 Port for ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards.
    2-24-24: Elevator Agent won Best Music and Sound - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to Pat Brady!
    2-24-24: Elevator Agent won Best Homebrew - 2600 Port, in ZPH's 6th Annual Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to John Champeau!

     
  • Gorf Arcade (was "Neville")*
    Game graphics: Completed.
    AtariVox voices: Completed.
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Completed.
    Development status: Completed.
    4-2-19: New homebrew project.
    9-16-19: "Neville" officially announced 
    as a Champ Games port of Gorf! (And yes - it will have all five screens!)
    10-30-19: First pass at graphics completed.

    2-23-20: First pass at AtariVox voices completed.
    1-15-21: Gorf Arcade 
    nominated for the 3rd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: Best Work-in-Progress (Port).
    7-4-21: Label artwork in progress.
    7-31-21: Label artwork concept approved.

    5-21-22: Gorf Arcade packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-13-23: Final Gorf Arcade ROM now available for purchase at Champ.Games.
    1-23-23: Gorf Arcade
    now available in the AtariAge store.
    2-3-23: Gorf Arcade nominated for Best Music + Sound, Graphics, and Homebrew (all for 2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
    2-25-23: Gorf Arcade won Best Music + Sound (2600 Port), in the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to Bob Decrescenzo, who also won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Well-deserved!
     
  • Qyx (was Qix)
    Game graphics: Completed.
    Development status: Completed.
    7-19-20: Proof-of-concept Qix for the 2600 posted by Champ Games.
    1-19-21: Added to to-do list.
    1-20-22: Qix nominated for the 4th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards: 
    Best 2600 Homebrew Port (Work-in-Progress).
    5-21-22: Qyx label artwork (by David Exton) previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-13-23: Final Qyx ROM now available for purchase at Champ.Games.
    1-23-23: Qyx now available in the AtariAge store.
    2-3-23: Qyx nominated for Best HomebrewBest Graphics and Best Music + Sound (all for 2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
     
  • Galaxian (7800)
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Completed.
    7-4-21: Label artwork in progress.
    8-2-21: Label artwork concept approved.
    12-29-21: Final box/label/manual artwork in progress.
    1-14-22: Final box/label/manual artwork complete. Manual and box layout in progress.

    5-21-22: Galaxian packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-23-23: Galaxian now available in the AtariAge store.
     
  • Pac-Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition (7800)
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Completed.
    7-4-21: Label artwork in progress.
    8-2-21: Label artwork concept approved.
    12-29-21: Final box/label/manual artwork in progress.
    1-14-22: Final box/label/manual artwork complete. Manual and box layout in progress.

    5-21-22: Pac-Man Collection packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-23-23: Pac-Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition now available in the AtariAge store.
     
  • UniWarS (7800)
    Box, label, and manual artwork: Completed.
    7-4-21: Label artwork in progress.
    8-2-21: Label artwork concept approved.
    12-31-21: Final box/label/manual artwork in progress.
    1-14-22: Final box/label/manual artwork complete. Manual and box layout in progress.

    5-21-22: UniWarS packaging previewed during AtariAge Day on ZeroPage Homebrew.
    1-23-23: UniWarS now available in the AtariAge store.
     

Homebrews previously in development, but currently on hold:

  • (none at the moment)
      

Homebrews not currently in development, but not completely dead, either:

  • 2600 Toolbox (tentative title)
    Description: At some point, I need to make a Stupid Game Ideas! entry for this. The idea is to vastly expand upon the idea of the Test Cart, including color calibration patterns, hardware tests, sound tests, and various patterns for checking color combinations, flickering, and so forth. The cart can be used to test consoles, set up TVs, and be used by homebrewers and artists while developing new games.
    Development status: I have a list of things I'd like to see in it, I just need to write it all up, then hope a developer finds it interesting enough to pursue. ;)
     
  • "Bruce"*
    Development status: Interest has resurfaced in this project. It's pretty far on the back burner, but may yet see the light-of-day.
     

Miscellaneous projects:

  • Blog
    More homebreviews. I need to start slogging through a huge backlog of games.
  • ArcadeCinema.net
    Update old MacMAME.net video game movie reviews and redesign website.
  • 2600RM
    I want to build a custom, rack-mountable 2600. Could be expensive... could also be awesome.
  • Tronty-Six Hundred
    An Atari 2600 Tron console mod. Yes - I want to make this happen for real.


* As always, project names that are in quotes are code-names, and not the actual titles.


Published Jan 20, 2021

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Updates:

  • 1-14-22: Final box/label/manual artwork for Pac-Man, Galaxian and UniWarS are now finished. Manual and box layouts are in progress.
  • Like 1
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Oh... and in case anyone was wondering:

On 8/3/2021 at 12:58 AM, Nathan Strum said:

Next, I have to actually execute the final illustrations. On a difficulty scale of 1-10 (1 being super easy, barely an inconvenience, 10 being insane), I'd give them:

Gorf Arcade: 4

Lady Bug Arcade: 6

Galaxian 7800: 10

Pac-Man Collection XM 7800: 5

UniWarS 7800: 8

 

I'm probably going to be wrong on all of those.

Apart from Gorf Arcade (which will be completed later in the year), I guessed pretty well on these. I'd probably give Lady Bug Arcade a difficulty of 7 though.

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Once the other artwork is revealed, I can explain a bit more. But basically it has to do with the amount of detail in each illustration, the amount of shading (ie. not just flat colors), and the software I use to create the final artwork with.

 

In the case of all of the above games, they started out with a digital (bitmap) sketch on my iPad using Procreate. This is great for roughing out ideas, but I don't use it for finished work, because I don't feel that I have enough control over the final image. So from there they went over to Adobe Photoshop to weed out errant layers and get converted to CMYK colorspace (required for printing). After that, they went into Adobe Illustrator for the finished illustration.

 

I've typically used Illustrator for the line artwork, because Illustrator is a vector drawing program - not bitmap. So the artwork is infinitely scalable (and malleable) in a way bitmaps aren't. I can get super-clean lines and change characteristics of them in ways I can't do with bitmaps. Then I'd often take the line art back over to Photoshop for "painting" since it's well suited for shading, textures, gradients, etc. For artwork that doesn't have much shading (Zoo Keeper, Aardvark) I just used Illustrator for most of the artwork since flat colors are very easy to do (and again, very easy to change). Zoo Keeper has a bitmap for the brick background. Aardvark's background is fully vector.

 

This time, I did nearly all of the final artwork in Illustrator (except for the backgrounds in UniWar S and Galaxian, which are bitmapped "paintings"). For Lady Bug Arcade, the shading was minimal, so it wasn't difficult to do. In Photoshop, you can just grab a big ol' brush and swipe it across an area to add shading. But to get complex shading in Illustrator (where it follows a shape, or you have a highlight and shading in the same area), then it requires more work to set up because you're not "painting" as such, but assigning values and parameters to objects. So with Lady Bug Arcade I started experimenting more with that, which required using multiple layers of different gradients with transparency, or setting up (what Adobe calls) Freeform Gradients. Freeform Gradients are relatively new and a bit twitchy (and not always predictable) to work with. But they're very powerful since you can create gradients of (almost) any shape and color combination. And again, you can edit them without "repainting" them as you would using bitmaps. You just change values and parameters. It's like sculpting, but on a flat plane.

 

Once I'd gone through a learning curve on Lady Bug Arcade (which is part of the reason it's a "6", but also because I completely re-drew the entire label after the original version was well underway :roll: ), I decided to try applying those techniques in Illustrator to both Galaxian and UniWar S, which are both more "painterly" in appearance, and are the kind of labels I would have historically done in Photoshop instead. That's where the difficulty went way, way up, because I was trying to replicate the appearance of what I would have traditionally done pretty quickly in Photoshop, using a completely different method in Illustrator. There was a lot of trial and error in the process, but I was able to achieve the end results that I wanted. Perhaps even better than what I could have done in Photoshop. Certainly, there are some tools that vector graphics have (such as easily replicating and scaling objects) that makes repetitive tasks much, much easier to do.

 

At the other end of the difficulty spectrum, Pac-Man Collection is pretty straightforward. Mostly flat colors and minimal shading. So the technical challenge of executing it was the easiest of the bunch.

 

Pretty sure I'm not going to work on so many labels at the same time again though. ;) Although it did help in the sense of having something else to switch to when I got frustrated or stuck.

 

38178823_LadyBugArcadeBoxfront4K.thumb.jpg.4a33f1c442e4ee44ba68988bd7aed247.jpg

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Coming up with the ideas is always a 10. ;) 

 

But yes, in this case I was referring to the technical challenges of executing the artwork, rather than coming up with the ideas. But I'll go over those a little bit as well, once the artwork is revealed.

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So... many... updates:

*code name

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1 hour ago, Nathan Strum said:

2-25-22: Elevator Action moved back to "active development" - rebooted as a CDFJ project.

Yes!!!

1 hour ago, Nathan Strum said:

3-5-22: New project added: "Champ Sports Shot Put"*

? 

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Updates:

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Whole lotta Updates:

  • 2-11-23: Added new Homebrew project: "Calidac's Revenge" (code name)
  • 2-11-23: Gorf Arcade, Qyx, Galaxian (7800), Pac-Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition (7800), UniWarS (7800) all moved to Completed Homebrews.
  • 2-11-23: Boom!, Elevator Agent, Turbo Arcade, Zeviouz entries all updated to reflect packaging artwork in "early sketches" phase.
  • 2-3-23: Elevator Agent nominated for Best Work-In-Progress (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
  • 2-3-23: Boom! nominated for Best Work-In-Progress (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
  • 2-3-23: Gorf Arcade nominated for Best HomebrewBest Graphics and Best Music + Sound (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
  • 2-3-23: Qyx nominated for Best HomebrewBest Graphics and Best Music + Sound (2600 Port), for the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards
  • 1-23-23: Gorf Arcade, Qyx, Galaxian (7800), Pac-Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition (7800), UniWarS (7800) are all now available in the AtariAge store.
  • 1-13-23: Final Gorf Arcade ROM now available for purchase at Champ.Games.
  • 1-13-23: Final Qyx ROM now available for purchase at Champ.Games.
  • 12-31-22: Elevator Agent demo ROM now available for download at Champ.Games.
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Updates:

  • 3-18-23: Rough artwork approved for Boom!, Elevator Agent, Turbo Arcade and Zeviouz.
  • 2-25-23: Elevator Agent won Best WIP (2600 Port), in the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards.
  • 2-25-23: Gorf Arcade won Best Music + Sound (2600 Port), in the 5th Annual Atari Homebrew Awards. Congratulations to Bob Decrescenzo, who also won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Well-deserved!
  • 2-15-23: "Historical Documentary" status changed to "Early development"
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Catching up on a lot of updates. Some of these were missed because I was busy, some weren't added due to the tentative nature of the projects, and some are just brand-spankin'-new! I've been swamped the latter half of this year helping finish the development of Turbo Arcade and Elevator Agent, and also with helping to get Champ Games set up for self-publishing. Hopefully, things will calm down a bit now that we've got all that sorted out, and we can get back to developing new stuff! :) 

 

Updates:

  • 11-10-23: New project code-named: "Acrylic Sign Holders" added to to-do list.
  • 11-10-23: New project code-named: "Space Mona Lisa" added to to-do list.
  • 11-10-23: New project code-named: "Hoosegow" added to to-do list. 
  • 10-15-23: Updated Frantic Demo ROM from PRGE posted in Darrell's blog.
  • 10-13-23: Turbo Arcade released at the 2023 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Will be available soon at Champ.Games.  
  • 10-13-23: Elevator Agent released at the 2023 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. Will be available soon at Champ.Games.
  • 2-18-23: "Historical Documentary" is now part of "Two-fer". Status changed to "Early proof-of-concept builds".
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Some more updates:

  • 1-14-24: New revived project code-named "Zombie Project (does not contain any actual zombies)" added to to-do list. First pass at new graphics complete.
  • 1-14-24: New project code-named "WIP It" added to to-do list. Graphics are in-progress.
  • 1-14-24: "Two-Fer" is on hold. "Historical Documentary" is back to being a stand-alone project for now.
  • 12-31-23: First pass at graphics for "Hoosegow" complete.
  • 12-18-23: First pass at graphics for "Space Mona Lisa" complete.
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13 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

Update:

  • 2-5-24: First pass at graphics for "Historical Documentary" complete.

For a second there, I was hoping you really meant "historical record" and that you were working on Galaxy Quest 2600. 

Pig lizard, Gorignak, beryllium sphere miners, the chompers, Saris, mine field, somersaults, departing space dock...seems like reasonable content for a game.

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Updates:

As for the code names:

  • "Zombie Project" should be self-evident, since we actually started Rip Off back in September of 2006. The last binary I have prior to the recent reboot was from March 2007. This is a complete ground-up rewrite, with all-new single-line resolution sprites.
  • "WIP It" was because 1) Tutankham is a Work In Progress and 2) your in-game character is wearing a DEVO hat. For some reason. :roll:  I really shouldn't have to explain it any further than that.
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