Atari 2600......FIRST HOMEBREW?

[+Wonder007]

Inquiring minds want to know......

 

What was the first homebrew game on the Atari 2600 (NTSC)?

[Atari-Jess]

I'd guess Okie Dokie but I wouldn't know for sure.

[djmips]

Combat?

 

Elk Attack was kinda like an early homebrew game.

 

Did Edtris beat Okie Dokie?

[+Wonder007]

Could it technically be Cubicolor, or was that a proto?? Imagic did reject Rob Fulop's idea, so does the rejection make it a homebrew?

[AtariAger]

Could it technically be Cubicolor, or was that a proto??  Imagic did reject Rob Fulop's idea, so does the rejection make it a homebrew?

907145[/snapback]

 

I would classify it as...a, "Completed Prototype". Just my 2 cents.

 

[sku_u]

IIRC Edtris was the first.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Could it technically be Cubicolor, or was that a proto??  Imagic did reject Rob Fulop's idea, so does the rejection make it a homebrew?

I'd just say it was the "missing link". Maybe you could say it was the "zeroth homebrew".

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Skeet Shoot

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I think Edtris was the first homebrew from the kind of production that we consider a homebrew now, i.e. it had no commercial cartridge release backed by a real company and wasn't done by a professional insider like Doug Neubauer or Rob Fullop either.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[+batari]

Hi there!

 

I think Edtris was the first homebrew from the kind of production that we consider a homebrew now, i.e. it had no commercial cartridge release backed by a real company and wasn't done by a professional insider like Doug Neubauer or Rob Fullop either.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

907432[/snapback]

Wouldn't this mean that Boulderdash isn't a homebrew, for both reasons above?

 

Regardless, I think the question of the first homebrew would make a good poll.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Wouldn't this mean that Boulderdash isn't a homebrew, for both reasons above?

 

If it becomes a full blown official First Star release, I'd think it was more in a league with Solaris.

 

Then I wouldn't consider Andrew a "professional insider". Professional definitely, but no insider. At least AFAIK he didn't work on any official 2600 release back in the day.

 

Probably also a bit early to discuss that, as the game is neither finished nor available yet

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Rob Mitchell]

IIRC Edtris was the first.

907193[/snapback]

 

This is what I was going to say. 1996?

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Rom Hunter]

1995.

 

SoundX (also from Ed Federmeyer) is from 1994.

 

Edited August 9, 2005 by Rom Hunter

[Gateway]

as Rom mentioned ^

 

SoundX(1994) was the first homebrew demo and Edtris(1995) was the first complete game.

 

Does that sound right?

Edited August 9, 2005 by Gateway

[AtariAger]

as Rom mentioned ^

 

SoundX(1994) was the first homebrew demo and Edtris(1995) was the first complete game.

 

Does that sound right?

907763[/snapback]

 

Gateway...I love the Avatar!!!

[+Andrew Davie]

Hi there!

 

Wouldn't this mean that Boulderdash isn't a homebrew, for both reasons above?

 

If it becomes a full blown official First Star release, I'd think it was more in a league with Solaris.

 

Then I wouldn't consider Andrew a "professional insider". Professional definitely, but no insider. At least AFAIK he didn't work on any official 2600 release back in the day.

 

Probably also a bit early to discuss that, as the game is neither finished nor available yet

 

Greetings,

Manuel

907445[/snapback]

 

 

You are correct. Although my first complete assembler game was in 1979, I did not work on any '2600 games back in the day. As far as Boulder Dash® is concerned, it lacks a title/selection screen, lives and scoring, and of course music... and needs some minor tweaking. But those are not major tasks, and the game is fully playable. No promises on releasing this thing, but I will make an effort to let it be seen at various shows.

 

If it were to become a FSS release, I would still consider it a homebrew. It wasn't commissioned by a company; it was developed as a hobby project by a single individual (with a little help from my friends). How more 'homebrew' do you want? Some of Manuel's projects are ports of existing games. Are they more homebrew because the companies that made them no longer exist? Surely they would share the same classification as Boulder Dash®.

 

Cheers

A

[Cybergoth]

there!

 

If it were to become a FSS release, I would still consider it a homebrew.  It wasn't commissioned by a company;  it was developed as a hobby project by a single individual (with a little help from my friends).  How more 'homebrew' do you want?

 

It solely depends on how you define homebrew. Using your definition, Solaris was certainly beating Edtris for being the "First" of that kind then.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[mos6507]

It solely depends on how you define homebrew. Using your definition, Solaris was certainly beating Edtris for being the "First" of that kind then.

 

Or go back even further. Star Raiders (for the Atari8) and Space Invaders (2600) were started by the programmers and only later did management decide to make them official projects. Ed Logg wrote Othello as a moonlighting project since he was really part of the coinop team. I think Basic Programming for the 2600 was initially a pet project too.

 

The game industry wasn't as top-down then as it is today. In the early days most of the time management just let programmers come up with their own ideas and they got involved at a later stage. It wasn't until later that game companies started to obsess on endless licensees and coinop ports.

 

Many 3rd party games were written by independent contractors in a very homebrew style rather than by formal fulltime salaried development teams.

 

Pretty much anyone who could have claimed to be able to write 2600 games got a chance to do so before the crash.

[sku_u]

1995.

 

SoundX (also from Ed Federmeyer) is from 1994.

 

907526[/snapback]

 

Does someone have a bin file of this one? I'd be interested in seeing/hearing what it is.

[Tempest]

Ed Logg wrote Othello as a moonlighting project since he was really part of the coinop team.  I think Basic Programming for the 2600 was initially a pet project too.

 

 

Wow I didn't know that. Where did you find this out?

 

Tempest

[mos6507]

Ed Logg wrote Othello as a moonlighting project since he was really part of the coinop team.  I think Basic Programming for the 2600 was initially a pet project too.

 

 

Wow I didn't know that. Where did you find this out?

 

Tempest

912808[/snapback]

 

Which item, Othello or Basic Programming?

[+Wonder007]

So Othello and Basic Programming are considered homebrews or what????

 

So....let me pose this two part question....

 

What is a 'homebrew', persay? What is the criteria of a game being an "official" homebrew?

[Cootster]

So Othello and Basic Programming are considered homebrews or what????

 

So....let me pose this two part question....

 

What is a 'homebrew', persay?  What is the criteria of a game being an "official" homebrew?

919501[/snapback]

 

 

The general definition would be a game produced by an independent programmer with no direct ties or support from a publisher. Othello, Basic Programming, and Solaris wouldn't really qualify under that one as the programmers had official Atari resources at their disposal, even if the games themselves were made on the side. Skeet Shoot and Space Jockey, OTOH, probably would be considered homebrews under this definition.

[supercat]

I think Basic Programming for the 2600 was initially a pet project too.

 

I've exchanged email with Warren Robinett, and BP was definitely an official project. WR wanted to do some things differently from how they were done, but management was insistent. Adventure, however, started out as a pet project. Warren was told that doing an adventure game would be impossible, and he shouldn't waste his time trying. Later, once it became clear things would be somewhat workable, he was asked to do a Superman game. He declined, but gave his unfinished adventure code over to the guy who completed the game as "Superman". Similarities between the games are thus not coincidental.

[mos6507]

I've exchanged email with Warren Robinett, and BP was definitely an official project.  WR wanted to do some things differently from how they were done, but management was insistent.  Adventure, however, started out as a pet project.  Warren was told that doing an adventure game would be impossible, and he shouldn't waste his time trying.  Later, once it became clear things would be somewhat workable, he was asked to do a Superman game.  He declined, but gave his unfinished adventure code over to the guy who completed the game as "Superman".  Similarities between the games are thus not coincidental.

920187[/snapback]

 

I could probably go scouring google, but I thought I recalled an interview with him where he said it was his idea to do the Basic interpreter.

 

I still contend that the way projects got greenlit in general back then was much fuzzier and game programmers had more control over the games they wrote.

 

Few of the programmers I interviewed, when asked about the origins of their games said "oh yeah, some guy from marketing came down from on high and said, YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE THIS."

 

Tod Frye had to do that with Pac-Man, and HSW with ET and Raiders, and Doug Neubauer had to do that with his 20th Century Fox games. I can't think of any others.

 

Activision and Imagic had a pretty loose leash, obviously.

 

Most of the time they started out by saying "I always wanted to do an ___ game" which would indicate that there was some choice involved, obviously more choice than any game programmer these days could ever hope to have!