First consumer-homebrew dev kit ever?

[Nicola]

I'm trying to find out when the videogame market realized that it was possible to publish a dev kit for consumers and push an open-source view.
The Yaroze? Was there something before this one?
I remember something about an Hudson school in Japan, but I can't find more informations.
And what kind of kits used the first homebrew producers?

[tom]

I think it was the Bally/Astrocade (1979 -1984ish).

Here's from the bally faq:
>>>>>In 1978 Bally/Midway introduced a home video game system called the
"Bally Professional Arcade". Due to "stiff competition" they withdrew the
system some time later. (Date anyone?) A group of users who had enjoyed the system's games & learned its potential through the Basic Programming
Cartridge got together & bought the system from Bally. They re-introduced it
in about 1981(?) as the "Bally Computer System". When you purchased this
system they gave you a Basic Programming Cart FREE.<<<<
Also the system was connectable to a tape unit from early on.


Or even the APF MP1000, connected to a Computer/tape-setup

Or even the Atari VCS and Spectravision Compumate add-on computer, allowed games to be programmed and saved onto tape.

Or even earlier the Atari Basic cartridge for programming (but no saving onto tape).


So basically the first 'kits' was Basic/and tape, anyone who could program in Basic, could make games.


MS Basic released in 1975 on the Altair computer was made for making your own "games".
Apple Basic, Atari Basic, Spectrum, Commodore Pet, all those computers had tape untis for writing/saving your own games.

[Nicola]

Thanks!
And the first games born in that way to get officially released? Yaroze or WonderSwan?

[tom]

Thanks!
And the first games born in that way to get officially released? Yaroze or WonderSwan?

As far as I remember Yaroze was homebrew only. I got many free Yaroze games on OPM magazine CDs

[y-bot]

Didn't people modify the cards on the 1972 Odyssey? I swear I've read that before. There is also some kind of programming cartridge for Studio II.

y-bot

[tom]

Didn't people modify the cards on the 1972 Odyssey? I swear I've read that before. There is also some kind of programming cartridge for Studio II.

y-bot

I was gonna mention the Odyssey, but re-wiring the card is not actually 'writing a game' as such

[Nicola]

From wiki:

Originally referred to as the Bally Home Library Computer, it was released in 1977 but available only through mail order. Delays in the production meant none of the units actually shipped until 1978, and by this time the machine had been renamed the Bally Professional Arcade. In this form it sold mostly at computer stores and had little retail exposure (unlike the Atari VCS). In 1979 Bally grew less interested in the arcade market and decided to sell off their Consumer Products Division, including development and production of the game console.

At about the same time a 3rd party group had been unsuccessfully attempting to bring their own console design to market as the Astrovision. A corporate buyer from Montgomery Ward who was in charge of the Bally system put the two groups in contact, and a deal was eventually arranged. In 1981 they re-released the unit with the BASIC cartridge included for free, this time known as the Bally Computer System, and then changed the name again in 1982 to Astrocade. It sold under this name until the video game crash of 1983, and then disappeared around 1985.




So, it was a third party or a bunch of users that loved the Basic programming?

[Nicola]

Almost any console has a basic-programing cartridge...
But I can't remember of a similar product for 16 bit, like Snes and Genesis. Or N64... These generations didn't interest hobby programmers?
Was there a gap between 8-bit and 32-bit about consumer programming features?

I presume that the 8-bit generation had to offer this feature to compete against the growing home computer's market.

[lackofselfcontrol]

As far as I remember Yaroze was homebrew only. I got many free Yaroze games on OPM magazine CDs


I may be wrong, but wasn't Devil Dice developed on the Net Yaroze?

[CosmicMonkey]

Yep, I'm sure Devil Dice was developed originally as a 'homebrew' on Yaroze. Judgment Silversword was created using the WonderWitch kit for the Wonderswan, it was then given a retail release as JS: Rebirth Edition.

That's about it for proper console dev kits released to the masses. There is Famicom BASIC, but god know what you could actually do with it.

[PapaStu]

Thanks!
And the first games born in that way to get officially released? Yaroze or WonderSwan?

Here in America The Yaroze demos were largely ignored on a wide scale, but in Europe they were in all kinds of OPM discs for a good 2 years. I know in Japan the Yaroze got even more love with not only demo discs but numerous games getting made. I think the only one of real note was Devil Dice which did get a stateside releaseto boot.

[Sothy]

wasnt there a yaroze game that was released that sucked horribly some kind of space race game "trying to mimic fzero" and recall it getting a 0.0 score in whatever review I read. Not sure it was even released stateside.