History of Homebrews?

[8bitgamer]

what was the first homebrew game for the 2600?

Does anyone know of an online article on the history of homebrews?

Thanks!

[TonyTheTiger]

Isn't homebrew just a colloquial term for "unlicensed"? If that's the case then there are quite a bit of "homebrew" games on the 2600. I suppose homebrew also implies literally "made at home by a hobbyist" but a lot of early games were sort of garage projects.

[8bitgamer]

Isn't homebrew just a colloquial term for "unlicensed"? If that's the case then there are quite a bit of "homebrew" games on the 2600. I suppose homebrew also implies literally "made at home by a hobbyist" but a lot of early games were sort of garage projects.

Yeah, the ones I'm looking for are "made at home by a hobbyist." I think the earliest titles were in the late 1990s.

[udisi]

was probably Edtris or Okie Dokie. think they were both 1995.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, the first post had me confused. I guess Atari 2600 homebrews really were slow to start.

If meant in general...you gotta be kidding, there's way older homebrews than that. For example, famous Yagawa of Cave (I think) fame made Yagawa's Laserfight back in probably the 80s for the MSX1, as did some other folks for various systems long before 1995. The same is true of domestic software - C64, DOS, and otherwise. Hell, Karateka was just made by one guy, as was most of the stuff at that time. But old shareware game discs are full of stuff that's much older; in fact there's a game I used to love called Gateworld made by (as the page says)...Homebrew Software. Microforum distributed the sequel at one time but I doubt it was a funded project (especially considering a lot of the graphics were one step less original than even Duke Nukem's). Dude, that spacesuit is pretty sweet.

[jb143]

If I had to take a guess, the main reason that 1995 would sound right, is because that's when the internet became mainstream and people became aware of such creations. It was around '95 when my high school electronics teacher told us of how people used to make their own C64 games and burn them to eeprom on a cart to share with their friends...so that would have been in the mid to late 80's for sure.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, outside of the Atari 2600 scene, homebrews were at least a decade earlier (and let's not forget [iSpaceWar![/i] was a homebrew, and Tennis For Two was nearly one).

[horseboy]

Edtris was the first 2600 homebrew. It was before Okie Dokey.

[8bitgamer]

I found this Homebrew History article by Leonard Herman:

http://web.archive.org/web/200008152...sal/new_blood/

[tom]

Although not a game SoundX was first, reviewed in Nov 94 issue of The 2600 Connection issue 25 (I had the cover issue story). OK so it wasn't a game....but still the first 2600 homebrew you could play along with.
EdTris came Jan/Feb 95 (next issue reviewed actually).

Some people might have written a VCS game using the VCS cart Basic, so that'll be a homebrew, or even on the Spectravision Compumate (I think I got some games on tape written by someone for the Compumate).

[horseboy]

Although not a game SoundX was first, reviewed in Nov 94 issue of The 2600 Connection issue 25 (I had the cover issue story). OK so it wasn't a game....but still the first 2600 homebrew you could play along with.
EdTris came Jan/Feb 95 (next issue reviewed actually).

Of course this is all correct info, but he did ask specifically what the first homebrew game was.

[Ed Oscuro]

Of course this is all correct info, but he did ask specifically what the first homebrew game was.

He also asked what the history of homebrew was...details, details...

[horseboy]

He also asked what the history of homebrew was...details, details...

Fair enough.