Advice on must-play homebrews greatly appreciated!

[stopXwhispering]

I've always been into collecting original games and never "cheating" by using emulators or contraptions that use an SD card and such. But I've learned that there's loads of homebrews and new games being made for a lot of the older systems that I play, it mainly started with the C64, but I just recently purchased the Harmony cartridge for the Atari 2600 as well, only to be able to experience these new games that I've missed out on

I don't intend to use the Harmony for the original released games, these I will continue collecting But I intend to use it for the types of games that I can't find physical releases of.

Since I'm a total n00b when it comes to this field I'm wondering if there's some kind souls on here that might give me som advice on where to start looking, and any particular homebrew games that I really should try to get

Thanks in advance!

[StanJr]

Lots of great stuff to choose from. Your best bet is to browse the AA store and read the reviews there. Everyone here has their own pet list. Here are a few I say you cannot miss: Marble Craze, Stay Frosty 2, Hunchy II, Seawolf, Starfire, Lady Bug, Crazy Balloon, AStar. Really, there are far more incredible games in the AA store, than there are minor players.

 

Have fun!

[stopXwhispering]

Thanks! I'll make sure to check those out

Is there a general list somewhere on here that I might have missed where people have rated all the homebrews btw? ^_^

[+SpiceWare]

Check out Nathan's reviews. Click game names to see the detailed review.

[StanJr]

I'm sure there are lots of "favorite homebrew" threads in this and the 2600 forum, but honestly, the easier thing to do is read the reviews in the store. Nathan Strum is a pretty good evaluator of games, so his reviews carry a lot of weight with me.

 

Again, nearly every homebrew here has someone who loves it dearly, so you'll always find an advocate for pretty much any of the upper tier games. Something to keep in mind is that Atariage has a quality standards requirement for games in their store, so you'll rarely find anything like shovelware there.

[StanJr]

SpiceWare beat me to it. He's got a lot more free time than I do.

 

[stopXwhispering]

Check out Nathan's reviews. Click game names to see the detailed review.

 

Awesome! Thanks a bunch ^_^ I'll check it out!

 

 

I'm sure there are lots of "favorite homebrew" threads in this and the 2600 forum, but honestly, the easier thing to do is read the reviews in the store. Nathan Strum is a pretty good evaluator of games, so his reviews carry a lot of weight with me.

 

Again, nearly every homebrew here has someone who loves it dearly, so you'll always find an advocate for pretty much any of the upper tier games. Something to keep in mind is that Atariage has a quality standards requirement for games in their store, so you'll rarely find anything like shovelware there.

 

That's good to know! I just entered the store, and I'm wondering, is it physical cartridges their selling? (Since the prices are $20+) And if so is there a way to buy homebrews digitally for use with something like the Harmony?

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I just entered the store, and I'm wondering, is it physical cartridges their selling? (Since the prices are $20+) And if so is there a way to buy homebrews digitally for use with something like the Harmony?

 

Yep, those are real physical cartridges they're selling in the store. Most Atari 2600 developers have been kind enough to release the final version of the ROMs for their games free to the public for use on Harmony carts and emulators though, so if there's a game in the store that you'd like to try before you buy just Google search the name of the game + AtariAge and you should find a thread for it that you can download the ROM from. Only a handful of Atari 2600 games in the AtariAge store have never had their ROMs released publicly (Chetiry, Star Castle Arcade, Haunted Adventure Trilogy, Epic Adventure, Zippy the Porcupine, and maybe one or two others that I can't quite remember at the moment) so you should be able to find most of the homebrew and hack games from the store somewhere on the forum.

 

There's also a few really awesome homebrew Atari 2600 titles that haven't been released on a cartridge yet that are definitely worth checking out, such as New Pac-Man 8k and D.K. VCS. Hope that helps!

 

 

 

P.S.: Dungeon is my #1 top recommended homebrew Atari 2600 game.

[+Nathan Strum]

Thanks for the kind words about my reviews. I'm probably about 40 games behind (including 2600 and 7800 titles), so many of the newer ones aren't in that list yet. Hoping to catch up in the new year.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Your best bet is to browse the AA store and read the reviews there.

I found the store reviews often to be positively biased. That's nice, but it also blurs the differences. You have to read between the lines.

 

Nathan and the VideoGameCritic are more direct and provide valuable feedback and constructive criticism.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Thomas Jentzsch