Homebrew vs. Unlicensed games

[horseboy]

What's the difference here really? Obviously I know that hacks and what not are totally different, and although some are fun I kinda lump them in with pirate stuff. But a true homebrew (coded from scratch) seems like it is pretty much just an unlicensed game to me. I'd be interested to here everyone elses take on this.

[j_factor]

To me, the difference is that an 'unlicensed' game physically exists and is/was sold, whereas a 'homebrew' is a free release, usually a ROM.

[horseboy]

That's a good point, but there are many of them that do get released and sold on a cart before the rom is ever made public. The guy that made Mental Kombat and several other 2600 games initially released them in batches of around 100, with box and instructions no less.

[j_factor]

I would say that neither term applies to 2600 games, seeing as it never had licensed games to begin with.

[goemon]

I think that it has to do with time. An NES game that came out in 1990 was unlicensed (for lack of a better term). An NES game that came out last week is homebrew.

[udisi]

I think that it has to do with time. An NES game that came out in 1990 was unlicensed (for lack of a better term). An NES game that came out last week is homebrew.

This is pretty much the idea. Anything that came out durring the systems lifespan is usually considered unliscenced and anything after that is homebrew.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Simple.

Unlicensed = was produced in massive quantities for profit.
Homebrew = was probably made by some guy coding in his spare time without thinking of selling it for profit. Repros can be made, the amount is not even close to how many unlicensed copies of one game were sold during the run. :)

[horseboy]

Simple.

Unlicensed = was produced in massive quantities for profit.
Homebrew = was probably made by some guy coding in his spare time without thinking of selling it for profit. Repros can be made, the amount is not even close to how many unlicensed copies of one game were sold during the run. :)

This is along the lines of what I was thinking.

[XianXi]

Simple.

Unlicensed = was produced in massive quantities for profit.
Homebrew = was probably made by some guy coding in his spare time without thinking of selling it for profit. Repros can be made, the amount is not even close to how many unlicensed copies of one game were sold during the run. :)

With the exception of Last Hope of course.

[50TBRD]

If a game isn't licensed by the manufacturer of the system, couldn't you say that it is unlicensed whether the system is still being manufactured or not?

Weren't there people that made games for systems during that systems lifespan that might not neccessarily been released? These of course not being made by a major label. Therefore, could those be considered homebrew?

So, what I'm trying to say is couldn't homebrew games be unlicensed as well?

They don't really describe the same characteristic of a game.