Homebrew advice?

[scott9771]

I've always just ignored these and probably will for quite some time due to price. What is anyone's opinion on any of the home brew games? Can't at this point pay one zillion times what they sent for. And don't go saying expenses. Expenses. Plenty of people remake original carts for good price. The chip costs nothing. Anyway just being a thorn. I can wait another ten yrs for it to be affordable 

Edited April 22, 2023 by scott9771

[MGG]

There's a big difference between a cheap reproduction of a cart and what goes into a lot of these homebrew games that utilize much more memory and specialized boards to maximize what can be done on the Intellivision.  Some of my absolute favourite Inty games are homebrews.  Are they all winners?  No, but look up reviews and gameplay footage for titles you're interested in and I have zero doubt you'll find more than a couple that you'll want to play.

Plenty of ROMs out there too if you want to test things out on an emulator or something like an LTO flash cart.

[+cmadruga]

1 hour ago, scott9771 said:

I've always just ignored these and probably will for quite some time due to price. What is anyone's opinion on any of the home brew games? Can't at this point pay one zillion times what they sent for. And don't go saying expenses. Expenses. Plenty of people remake original carts for good price. The chip costs nothing. Anyway just being a thorn. I can wait another ten yrs for it to be affordable 

 

I think it is a mistake to completely ignore homebrews because of CIB prices. 

Many games are available in rom format nowadays and are relatively inexpensive.

Besides there is a lot of free stuff.

[+DZ-Jay]

4 hours ago, scott9771 said:

I've always just ignored these and probably will for quite some time due to price. What is anyone's opinion on any of the home brew games? Can't at this point pay one zillion times what they sent for. And don't go saying expenses. Expenses. Plenty of people remake original carts for good price. The chip costs nothing. Anyway just being a thorn. I can wait another ten yrs for it to be affordable 

 

Here is a free home-brew.  Please enjoy at your leisure without any qualm or compunction about price or circumstance.  My treat.

https://www.CarolVsGhost.com/getrom

   dZ.

[mr_me]

5 hours ago, MGG said:

There's a big difference between a cheap reproduction of a cart and what goes into a lot of these homebrew games that utilize much more memory and specialized boards to maximize what can be done on the Intellivision.  Some of my absolute favourite Inty games are homebrews.  Are they all winners?  No, but look up reviews and gameplay footage for titles you're interested in and I have zero doubt you'll find more than a couple that you'll want to play.

Plenty of ROMs out there too if you want to test things out on an emulator or something like an LTO flash cart.

I think the OP is referring to the limited production of some homebrew cartridges and demand driving the price up many times over their original price.  I agree that more copies could be produced as cartridge only, on demand, and sold for a reasonable price.  But like MGG said, Intellivision cartridge hardware is a little more costly than those on other systems, not so much because of the extra memory homebrews demand but because of the electronics an Intellivision requires.  Flash mult-carts are more expensive too, and not always available.  Not everyone can emulate.

 

ROM files should cover a lot of the homebrews but not all of them unfortunately.  Either way investing in a flash multicart would save you money playing on original hardware, especially since some of the best ones are free like the one linked in the post above.

[scott9771]

Hmmm. So I need some kind of multicast something to use other than buying these? I'm not very mechanically inclined. Don't know anything about an imulator. Sounds like most don't appreciate the home brews?

[carlsson]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:40 AM, DZ-Jay said:

Here is a free home-brew.  Please enjoy at your leisure without any qualm or compunction about price or circumstance.  My treat.

https://www.CarolVsGhost.com/getrom

Not just free, it still remains as the most played Intellivision game ever as reported in the weekly tracker here at AtariAge.

[+DZ-Jay]

4 hours ago, scott9771 said:

Hmmm. So I need some kind of multicast something to use other than buying these?

 

A few things have been mentioned in this thread so far, so let me summarize and in doing so, hopefully clarify them:

• The primary reason home-brew games for the Intellivision are expensive is because the hardware needed for the cartridge boards is specialized (unlike for other platforms), only a few people can or are able to manufacture them, and the parts to build them are expensive themselves.

 

• Another reason production of home-brew Intellivision games is expensive is because the community (and therefore, the market for them) is very small (unlike for other platforms), so publishing expensive products becomes a boutique operation to service mostly a collector's market, which attracts speculators, which in turns results in a marked up second-hand market.

 

• Still, not all of those expensive cartridges may be of interest to you, so you do not need to buy them all (unless your aim is to be a completist collector); and most of the very best ones are available for free or on the cheap as ROMs (digital download files).

 

• To play one of those free (or inexpensive) ROMs, you need one of two things:  an emulator (software that emulates, or simulates, the console on your PC), or a multi-cart or flash-cart (a special cartridge that lets you load up the ROMs from your PC onto itself, so you can play them on the console).

 

• The game ROM I linked above for free download, comes itself bundled with its own emulator, so you just install it on your Windows or Mac PC, and play.

 

• For other game ROMs (free or cheap), you will have to install an emulator yourself and set it up in order to play on your PC.  The good news is that you only need to do this once, and it will work the same for all ROMs (including the free one I linked above).  All you have to do is continue to add them to the designated folder.  Some emulators are hardcore command-line tools for geeks, and others are more user-friendly.  I am sure the fine folks in this forum will help you with either or both.

 

• Alternatively, you could buy a flash-cart or multi-cart.  These can be even more expensive than the expensive games themselves.  However, they simplify the entire affair by allowing you to easily add downloaded ROMs to the cartridge on your PC, and play them directly on the console.  Sort of like syncing an iPod to iTunes with a USB cable.  Plus, expensive as they may be, the cost is incurred only once:  one flash-cart can be loaded with any and all ROMs at once, and you can use it forever.  It really is a great convenience to just plug in your flash-cart to the console, and play any game you want, without having to switch cartridges.

 

• The most popular of these flash-carts is the "LTO Flash!"  It is apparently the easiest to use, with a user-friendly interface for your Mac or Windows PC.  It is also the most expensive, and because it is out of print at the moment, may be even more expensive on the second-hand market.  The producer has promised to make more soon, though.  It is still about $200.00 retail (or something like that).

 

• There are other such flash-carts.  Again, I am sure that the fine folks in this forum can offer some help in finding and using one that addresses your needs (and budget).

 

4 hours ago, scott9771 said:

I'm not very mechanically inclined.

 

That's fine, neither am I.  We can then rule out anything requiring specialized mechanical (or electronics?) skills.  There are still plenty of options.

 

4 hours ago, scott9771 said:

Don't know anything about an imulator.

 

That's fine too.  There are some emulators available that are pretty much "double-click to run," and require nothing more than installing them and filling up a folder with downloaded ROM files.

 

Ask for help, and you shall receive it.  There are plenty of options, and there may be just the very right one for you.

 

4 hours ago, scott9771 said:

Sounds like most don't appreciate the home brews?

 

Oh, I do not think that is true in the least!  If we gave you that impression, then we failed.

 

I think, part of it is that your post is buried deep into a particular topic that may or may not have a lot of traffic in itself.  If you post in the main Intellivision forum, you have a higher chance of getting responses from the general crowd in the Intellivision community -- you know, the other folks that, like you, just want to play the games but do not know how.

 

However, a big part of it could be the confrontational nature of your original comments.  It may have rubbed some people the wrong way, which may not have lead to the answers you were looking for.

 

I and others are obviously willing to help hook you up with the right stuff, and get you going playing some cool Intellivision home-brew games.  We are all Intellivision gamers, and some of us home-brewers, and it is always nice to have more people join our ranks.

 

So, in the interest of offering some constructive criticism, I recommend you start anew, with a brand new post on the main forum, and ask how you can play some home-brews, which ones are worth the trouble, and how to acquire them.  Perhaps even mention that you do not know anything about emulators or flash-carts, and need help.

 

And if you ask nicely, I'm sure people will jump at the chance to help you.  I see it all the time.

Godspeed,

    dZ.

 

[Intymike]

Not every game is sold out immediately.

Even DIIK is still available: http://www.gooddealgames.com/inventory/Intellivision.html

 

 

[mr_me]

5 hours ago, scott9771 said:

Hmmm. So I need some kind of multicast something to use other than buying these? I'm not very mechanically inclined. Don't know anything about an imulator. Sounds like most don't appreciate the home brews?

A flash memory multicart would cost around US$129.  A more inexpensive one is expected soon.  Here's an example, but it's on backorder.

https://store.backbit.io/product/backbit-pro/

 

A software emulator costs nothing, only requires a computer and some basic computer skills.  And you play on a computer with a usb game controller.

[+Black_Tiger]

Another method for playing homebrew roms is buying or making a custom Intellivision Flashback.