Rev. Rob Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 I wanted to see if we can make a list of systems that are completly homebrew free. I'll start: Microvision 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krytol Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Magnavox Odyssey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Might as well start a second list with the Odyssey called "Consoles that will never have homebrew", since it doesn't have a CPU or RAM and the "cartridges" are just little circuit boards with jumpers in them to select different built-in games. Seems unlikely, though not impossible, that someone will do a Microvision homebrew as well, seeing as how the cartridge itself contains the CPU. But I guess CPUs are a lot cheaper and homebrew-accessible nowadays. It'd be funny to throw a Geode or something in there and make a full 3D game on that 16x16 bilevel display. As far as traditional consoles go, what about the Channel F? I can't find any evidence of homebrew for that one. I think the Coleco Telstar Arcade was in the same category as the Microvision, but I can't find any homebrew for that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Hm... good question.... afaik there has been no homebrew for the german Interton VC 4000 Console. As far as traditional consoles go, what about the Channel F? I can't find any evidence of homebrew for that one. There are homebrews for the Channel F, on Sean Riddle's Homepage you'll find Tetris and Lights Out and there's also VES-Pacman. None of those game seem to have been completed, but nevertheless Channel F homebrewing atleast has been started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FujiSkunk Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Any Sega Master System homebrews yet? I would certainly think there are, but they don't seem to be getting any publicity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Hm... good question.... afaik there has been no homebrew for the german Interton VC 4000 Console. Actually some of the games in the original Interton library could be considered to be homebrew games. In 1979 the German electronics magazine Elektor published plans for a simple home computer based on the same chips that were used in the VC4000. People who had build that computer wrote games that were published by Elektor on tapes. Some of these games were bought by Interton to be turned into cartridge versions for the VC4000. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hakogame 箱亀 Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Any Sega Master System homebrews yet? I would certainly think there are, but they don't seem to be getting any publicity. There are. Check SMSPower, they have info on most of them. Currently someone there's working on a Picross game with an insane number of puzzles in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Uhhhhh... Adventurevision? Let's see... I'm just going to come up with a big list of systems here so we can get them out of the way first Consoles: Channel F - yes Studio II - maybe (I saw a web page with tech info, but I don't know if there was HB code) Atari 2600 - well duh! Intellivision - yes Odyssey^2 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Atari 5200 - yes ColecoVision - yes Vectrex - yes Atari 7800 - yes Arcadia 2001 - yes (I think I saw some code on a web page) NES - yes SMS - yes TG16 - ??? Sega Genesis - yes SNES - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) TGCD - ??? Sega CD - yes Neo Geo - ??? Neo Geo CD - ??? Jaguar - yes PS1 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) 3DO - maybe (it doesn't help that the digital signature key never escaped) Dreamcast - yes PS2 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Xbox - yes Gamecube - yes 360 - yes (it's not properly cracked yet, but there's that $99/year thingy) Wii - no (full Wii mode isn't cracked yet, though some people with dev units may have "homebrew" code) PS3 - yes (there should be some in Linux mode) Handhelds: Microvision - no (really it's just a display unit with the CPU in cartridges) Game Boy/GBC - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Lynx - yes Game Gear - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Virtual Boy - ??? Adventurevision - ??? Nomad - yes (it's just a hand-held Genesis) GBA - yes GP32/GP2X - yes (designed for them) DS - yes PSP - yes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Might as well start a second list with the Odyssey called "Consoles that will never have homebrew", since it doesn't have a CPU or RAM and the "cartridges" are just little circuit boards with jumpers in them to select different built-in games. I don't see why that should prevent homebrews? I would expect there are probably some wiring patterns that could produce games different from anything Magnavox released (one would have to also formulate suitable rules to go with them, since the game doesn't do a whole lot of checking). If one allowed the addition of resistors, caps, and transistors, homebrews could gain many more interesting features (e.g. accellerating objects). Of course, adding a micro could make them infinitely more powerful still, but that would be thoroughly "cheating". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS_Dracon Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Studio II has a homebrew space invaders... But I don't know if there a cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Eckhard Stolberg Posted Yesterday, 9:44 PMActually some of the games in the original Interton library could be considered to be homebrew games. In 1979 the German electronics magazine Elektor published plans for a simple home computer based on the same chips that were used in the VC4000. People who had build that computer wrote games that were published by Elektor on tapes. Some of these games were bought by Interton to be turned into cartridge versions for the VC4000. Thanks for reminding me of that, i read about the homebrew-games for the elektor-computer ages ago and totally forgot about it There is an Interview here with a guy who made his own elektor games. But notice that it is in german. IMO you can call those games "homebrews" so we can scratch the VC 4000 off the list. Bruce Tomlin Posted Today, 12:00 AMStudio II - maybe (I saw a web page with tech info, but I don't know if there was HB code) You can find 3 Studio II homebrews here, together with an emulator. I don't know if any of those games have been released on cartridge though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 (edited) I don't know if the format really matters.... consider the Astrocade or any of the tape-based methods on the 2600. Wasn't the Studio II just a Chip8 system anyway? It seems to me any number of hobbyist Chip8 games could be considered Studio II games, assuming they fit in its teeny resources. Edit: I see now from looking at the Studio II specs page that they are similar, but incompatible. Edited June 20, 2007 by raindog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 There are homebrew games for the tg-16cd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakasama Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Neo Geo - ???Neo Geo CD - ??? It's yes to both. Someone who posts here offered "Frog Feast" for sale for both systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haroldoop Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Any Sega Master System homebrews yet? I would certainly think there are, but they don't seem to be getting any publicity. www.smspower.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 NES - yesSMS - yes TG16 - ??? Sega Genesis - yes SNES - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) I might be wrong, but I don't think any of them saw any real releases so far, just emulator stuff. The NES is pretty close though and I think you'll find people that will make you NES cartridges if you want too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 (edited) Updates: Studio II - yes Adventurevision - ??? (probably no) Astrocade - yes (had homebrew on tape back in the day!) SNES - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) TG16 - ??? (flash card available) TGCD - ??? Neo Geo - ??? (flash card not available: http://www.tototek.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph...09d87488fd67216 five buses?) Neo Geo CD - ??? 3DO - maybe (it doesn't help that the digital signature key never escaped) Virtual Boy - ??? Neo Geo Pocket - ??? (flash card available) NES - yesSMS - yes TG16 - ??? Sega Genesis - yes SNES - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) I might be wrong, but I don't think any of them saw any real releases so far, just emulator stuff. The NES is pretty close though and I think you'll find people that will make you NES cartridges if you want too. I think it depends on what you call "having homebrew". If you mean a release that you can run on the original hardware, then anything NES is just as HB as the GBA thanks to the PowerPak, since I'm not aware of any GBA (or DS!) homebrew released on an actual cartridge. And if you mean a release that someone actually sold, that will knock lots of systems out of the running. The problem with the NES isn't the lockout chip (since it's easily defeated or salvaged, and now cracked), it's the dual bus and plethora of mappers. Edited June 20, 2007 by Bruce Tomlin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 I think it depends on what you call "having homebrew". If you mean a release that you can run on the original hardware, then anything NES is just as HB as the GBA thanks to the PowerPak, since I'm not aware of any GBA (or DS!) homebrew released on an actual cartridge. And if you mean a release that someone actually sold, that will knock lots of systems out of the running. That's what I meant and what I count. Else things gets debatable quickly. For example even in the heyday of the Mega Drive and SNES I had lotsa "unlicensed" stuff. I owned disk drives for both consoles and most games I had back then had stuff like "Cracker" intros, Trainer modes or other stuff like PAL/NTSC conversions or other fixes. I wouldn't be too surprised if some also spread standalone demos or even selfmade games for them back in the day. The problem with the NES isn't the lockout chip (since it's easily defeated or salvaged, and now cracked), it's the dual bus and plethora of mappers. I haven't checked nesdev in a while, but "memblers industries" had a NES PCB ready. No clue about the specs/mappers it supported though. IIRC it came with a socket for the CIC, so you could either cannibalize some or require your customers to cut a certain pin somewhere inside the NES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Then we're going to need multiple levels of this. One for systems that have been coded for, one for code that runs on a flash cart (if available), and another for actual cart releases. Technically there's no reason why you can't salvage an old cartridge to run simpler NES or SNES games, it's just that the NES HB community is so emulator-oriented, and the plethora of mappers complicates salvage. (Genesis board salvage is another matter, but I and others have already made proto boards. And here is an extreme example of Genesis board salvage - http://spritesmind.net/_GenDev/forum/viewtopic.php?t=180 - yes, that was an original cartridge board there at the bottom) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 I would imagine it's collectors who care if a physical cart got made, and developers who are just interested in whether anyone's written games for the system. I definitely fall into the latter category myself. Maybe this information could be better presented in a table (assuming you can make one of those on IPB.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirin jensen Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Odyssey^2 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Microvision - no (really it's just a display unit with the CPU in cartridges) Adventurevision - ??? I can't believe you didn't even do a search on the O2 homebrews. There are at least seven homebrews for it, with more on the way. Microvision and adventurevision both seem overdue for a tetris game. And what of the Virtual Boy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbanes Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Odyssey^2 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) Kill The Attacking Aliens (KTAA) Puzzle Piece Panic! (Tetris) Pong Calculator Mr. Roboto Planet Lander Just to name a few. Most can be purchased at Packrat VG PS1 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now)PS2 - yes (I don't know of any, but there should be some by now) As I recall, the PS1 has been made accessable for homebrews via modchips and disc swapping tricks. The PS2 requires a full-up mod chip, but homebrewers are able to use the Kalisto (KOS) library at a mimimum. (That's the same one that's used for Dreamcast homebrewing.) I'm fairly certain that they have more complete alternatives available as well. If the development tools exist, than homebrewing is already happening. The PS1 & PS2 also had their own Linux kits published by Sony. So they were homebrewable that way as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Wow, I didn't know there'd been any O2 homebrews since the first one (which I think was John Dondzila's "Amok!") That really opened my eyes to how cool the O2 could have been if Magnavox/Philips had a clue.... but I guess that's a recurring theme with Philips' flirtations with the gaming market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 That really opened my eyes to how cool the O2 could have been if Magnavox/Philips had a clue.... The O2 had some pretty unique and fun games which showed its potential. There where just not enough of them. IMO KTAA is the best homebrew for the system so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impaler_26 Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Thomas Jentzsch Posted Today, 2:41 PMIMO KTAA is the best homebrew for the system so far. I totally agree! KTAA rocks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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