My favorite Atari 2600 homebrew - console documentary

Taking a look at some of my favorite homebrew titles on the Atari 2600.
Sorry for the delay I've been dealing with some technical challenges that put me behind a few days.
Thanks to Mark Richardson Over at the Atari age Facebook group and everyone who helped out.
Please visit my Patreon at / pdbowl
Follow me on Twitter at / pdqc1971
Follow me on Facebook at Patmanqc-His...

[@thewingedavenger1007]

Happy little games

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

He should put that on a shirt.

[@Jaspa42]

Always wonderful to see old tech being pushed. Great video!

[@ItalNico]

Thank you for such a great video! I've never looked into 2600 homebrews and you've inspired me to dust off my old VCS and check some of these out. Please do a part two!

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thank you so much For the generous donation. I will definitely do a part two at some point

[@chrisinhotwater9896]

My first memory of playing video games was from about 1977, My neighbors dad work for Xerox and had a computer with a clipboard at the top of the screen, We would play bowling on it, And he had a sheet of paper with a cut out to look like a lane. The ball was and o and the pins were i . We thought that was so cool, I think its kind of what one day inspired me to become a network engineer 20 years later. Just wanted to share my story. Thanks for the video brings back some fun memories even if they are 8 bit.

[@socialistprofessor3206]

I'll never forget when my older brother (17 years my senior) brought home our Atari 2600. ET, Yar's Revenge and so many others were formative to my budding imagination and relationship with my brothers.

[@persona83]

The Atari 2600 homebrew scene is beautiful and prolific! Unfortunately even though the Atari 2600 was capable of running these games, they probably couldn't have been produced in the 80's because memory was too expensive back then. Anyway, one can only dream and it's never too late anyway. Great video as always, Pat!!

[@MrChristopherMolloy]

Wow! I had no idea so many of these existed. An amazing ability to squeeze so much out of so little!

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

An alternate world where atari did Well and ET never existed.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Atari 2600 did something like this In the 80's It'll beat out the competition. Be the best system on the market.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Atari knew they could do something like this if they just digged a little Deeper.

[@duffman18]

That's what she said

[@MrChristopherMolloy]

@@duffman18 🤣🤣🤣

[@ASAN2042]

You crack me up! I love your sense of humor and oh what passion for games! Great work, Sir!❤️🎮👾

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you appreciate the videos. Cheers

[@ASAN2042]

@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries ❤️🎮👾

[@louyork8379]

Yay!! New Patman!! I wasn’t an Atari kid but I loved the video. I got involved in games at like 5 years old and by then it was NES time lol

[@kbramlett6877]

Coleco did the same thing when they produced Donkey Kong for the Intellivision. The Blue Sky Rangers, the name of the programmers at Mattel, knew that the Intellivision could do so much more. The Blue Sky Rangers considered getting a license from Nintendo to produce Donkey Kong to show off the Intellivision's capabilities but were told no. So, to show off what the Intellivision could do, they acquired the rights from Data East, and in my opinion, created an almost arcade-perfect version of Burgertime. Burgertime was the pack-in game with the Intellivision II which was how I acquired my copy.

[@ddw1272]

Great Video as always, looking forward to part 2, Homebrew After Dark

[@scypsylock9402]

I vote for a Volume II for these homebrews! I am very curious now about Space Pacman! If you all want a volume II too, show your hands raised by clicking the like button! You help him out a lot!

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks a lot, glad youu enjoyed it

[@Jarod_Schultz]

I like Scramble, but for some reason it only had 3 ports in the 80's. It was in the arcade, along with the Tomy Tutor computer in Japan, and the Vectrex. But I'm glad there are homebrew ports on Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, and NES.

[@Dark_Lightning]

Scramble is also on the Atari 8 bit.

[@chrislaustin]

Hey Patman, another great video for the masses, and a great idea in general that could become a regular series on your channel(would love to see other systems). That being said, if you ever do a follow up to this 2600 homebrew vid, please include Donkey Kong Arcade. It is a much better port and much closer to original than the DK VCS shown(scrolling stages just aren't DK to me). DK Arcade actually includes an option to select region from America or Japan, as both games present the stages in different orders(how cool is that?).

[@opa-age]

Boom and Scramble are just mindblowing. Wow.

[@bonemasterd1]

Yes! Please do a Vol. 2. Also, if you've never played Aardvark or Draconian, you should check them out. They're amazing.

[@bransonbenson9520]

Happy Little Videos!! My guy Patman!

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks!

[@kalvinravn8431]

If only our Pac Man back then looked like this home brew one! Yes do another 2600 home brew because I’m in total shock of what they can make!

[@quantumfx2677]

Yeah, wouldn't have felt to bad when everyone was switching to colecovision when it hit the market!

[@exidy-yt]

There is no way the TIA could make the pac-man opening theme sound that good. That HAD to be a digital sample, something else I didn't think the VCS capable of, but maybe it used the same trick as the C64 used to get samples to play on the SID chip. Very friggin' cool! This was an excellent choice for a video and I'd love to see a volume 2.

[@retro_reflections]

Excellent vid, would definitely love to see a volume 2!

[@evilash570]

Pretty amazing what these programmers pulled off with these games!

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

Excellent video! Blown away what it can do.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks.Considering the system is almost 50 years old it is mind blowing

[@kjhoskins]

Great stuff. Thanks for the video.

[@HighHeelKnight]

"The Little Box That Could" DUDE! EEEWWWWWWW!!!! 😆😆😆😆

[@McLovin_2007]

Strike Zone is pretty elaborate for an Atari 2600 game. I love Atari homebrews and I wrote down a list of over 70 of them that I want to buy.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

It is very elaborate, couldn't believe it's the first time I saw

[@JustMe99999]

The Galaga game is astounding... even the sounds were nailed.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Yes, truly amazing

[@shawnpatrick1877]

My video game history is similar to yours. My family had a Coleco Telstar, a copycat PONG system. Then my first console that was bought specifically for me was the Atari 2600. I also love getting these homebrew games for the 2600. Getting new games for the system after all these years is pretty cool.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

I love playing Mario bros on... My 2600 that is😂

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Atari would have been swimming in Money if this happened. This is all they had to do but nooooooooo. Some game company would throw In the towel.

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

That Elevator Action is super impressive

[@swampdonkey4919]

I always find these fascinating, especially when the results are aesthetically pleasing and the game is actually fun and playable. Yes, please do a part 2. Did you like the Zaxxon clone Space Raid?

[@RyanRead]

Good memories with these games. They did a lot for what they had then.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Trust me if this happened in the 80's Your friend wouldn't give up your Atari. The envy of all envy.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Man what could have been for the 2600 if Atari just worked harder.

[@BlackArroToons]

Considering they're working with kilobytes and not mega, giga or terabytes, these are great titles remade much better for Atari 2600, yes. Nice comparisons, Patman! Q*Bert is a classic. The animated TV series, he had to clean up his act and doesn't swear, but definitely an entertaining series worth checking out along with Pac-Man and Family from Hanna Barbera. Cosmic Avenger is great on Colecovision, but the 2600 version looks very good too. LadyBug is a fun maze trap door game. Great reviews, thanks Patman!

[@SidebandSamurai]

Very cool video, please do a volume 2!

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thank you

[@Lauren_Tyler]

It was rumored that Coleco intentionally crippled their games on other consoles to make the Colecovision look good, but that's not entirely true. Programmer Garry Kitchen, who designed the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong, stated that they were facing time constraints among other things. That's why the Atari 2600 version had only two levels.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

I didn't think the sabotage rumors were true so this makes much more sense

[@Lauren_Tyler]

@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Honestly the Intellivision games look more crippled in my opinion.

[@xeriland]

It's not remotely true. Coleco hired a hotshot programmer associated with Activision in hopes of getting the best game possible. Coleco insisted the girders be slanted like the arcade. Gary Kitchen sweated blood to make it happen and didn't have time for much else. Notice in the "new improved" version the girders are straight. Also, the new version is 8K, which was rare for 2600 games in 1982.

[@KennethDPedersen]

Loved it! More

[@peacefulscrimp5183]

Great video 👍

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks 👍

[@AloanMoreira1]

5:35 - Pitfall Harry´s gone bowling :D

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

LOL good call

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

A great video Patman. The 2600 always gets a pass. Some awesome homebrews here. Thankyou for the upload my freind.

[@Catovaria]

Here in Russia, the Atari 2600 was practically unknown. Taiwanese Famicom clones began to be imported to our country in the early 90s, and a little later pirated copies of the Sega Mega Drive. Nevertheless, a console called Rambo TV Games could be found on sale (yes, none other than John Rambo from the famous film series was painted on the box there). And this console was the same Atari 2600 with a built-in set of games. Of course, this device was not popular. Everyone wanted to have a Dendy (our most famous version of the bootleg Famicom).

[@RDJ134]

Looking forward to volume 2 ;)

[@pacbilly]

Regarding Zevious, you said, "This is a port from the Atari 2600 version." Did you mean the 7800 version? Also this is the greatest video ever. They should let viewers double-like for videos like these. I love your History videos, but this one is just so much fun.

[@majikman7355]

Your analysis even makes shty games seem good 😆

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

LOL what a nice complement

[@bengineer_the]

That was glorious!

[@retropalooza]

Working double shifts patman you animal, must be queef season

[@shareofmoney]

These are happy little games for real! Shout out to the creators of these games! Awesome stuff indeed 👍

[@w.w.7148]

Great! Thanks.

[@jasonz7788]

Cool thanks 👍 great work

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Excellent, thank you

[@michaelparr5281]

Great Video, Please do a Vol. 2.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks

[@ronbroadfoot279]

Yeah, I want to see a Volume 2!

[@Arcadenut1]

Great video. You have Lady Bug labeled as "Mousetrap" though...

[@johneygd]

Many of those homebrew games are indeed mind blowing including scramble,bowling,pac man,galaga,flappy etc,,, they’re definitely a must have to download😁

[@adamofgrayskull7735]

The Man is back.🤘😆🤘

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks, sorry for the delay

[@vidarlystadjohansen9829]

Impressive Pacman!

[@gsx600racer]

I am always blown away on what these home brewers can do withe 40+ year old technology/hardware

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Yes it's amazing

[@jeffwolcott7815]

Man, these homebrew programers should be sent into a time machine back to 1976 and be hired by Atari. We would be playing with 260000s by now because of them.

[@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145]

That bowling is amazing especially compared to the origional Atari bowling

[@stevenspasstime5339]

Great video . Just wondering where the links are for finding these games .

[@nobodyimportant8859]

Q*Bert is 1 of my favorite video game characters

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

Being born in '83 I appreciate the 2600 for what it contributed to gaming as a whole and but other than River Raid and maybe Pitfall 2 I just can't get into the games. Same thing with Intellivision or the Apple II it's just before my time lol. I can't get past the sound, graphical fidelity, and most games feel like short mini-games to which I understand is due to the small about of memory they were dealing with. But oddly enough I can handle Colecovision, MSX, SG1000 but to me those better resemble the style of games that eventually lead up to the Master System and NES. These newer homebrews help to bridge the gap and show the potential so I may try them. Actually I do remember playing the Sonic homebrew but not for long before changing to another system. 😁

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

I get that, I grew up with the Atari so I can tolerate it a bit more :-)

[@JRthepyroguy]

Awsome video!! Where can I find these games ?

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks, Google is your friend my friend :-)

[@chrislaustin]

PS and besides being able to select the region in DK Arcade, you can also select characters as well. Sometime back, a father was asked by his daughter, why Mario could only save Pauline, why couldn't she save Mario? Well, being a great dad, he made it happen, and the "Pauline Edition" became a thing. So you can choose to play as either Mario saving the girl, or as Pauline saving the guy, a truly amazing port.

[@kevinbbadd]

sounds lame. should have sent his daughter to learn how to wash dishes

[@jnbloss]

Danke!

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thank you very much :-)

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

BONUS: Here's the original Atari 2600 Pac-Man programmer Tod Frye admiring the homebrew version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKLIq3mVgdtja7s BONUS #2: Here's a much younger Tod Frye explaining why there's so much flickering (and other issues) with the original 2600 Pac-Man: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4WnhnWVfM6HgaM One thing to keep in mind is that homebrew programmers have essentially an unlimited amount of time to work on and fine tune their programs, whereas the original programmers were no doubt under extreme time constraints and pressure to have their game done by a certain date, etc. Howard Scott Warshaw, for example, only had *FIVE WEEKS* to create the (in)famous "E.T." for the 2600. Most game development cycles for the 2600 were between 3 and 6 months!

[@old-school2337]

I still rock my 2600

[@MrDuneedon]

Every time I see a video about homebrewed Atari 2600 games, I think to myself, damn, if any these would’ve been released in the early 80s, they’d have absolutely blown minds. It’s pretty amazing to me what modern programmers are able to squeeze out of a system that is now, what-46 years old?

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Atari should have hired these people Back in the day.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

An alternate world where the 2600 Was the best system on the market. It sold millions. ET never existed.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Man what could have been for the 2600.

[@MrDuneedon]

@@nehemiahpouncey3607 In fairness, though: those programmers back in the day were up against absolutely impossible time restrictions. It was like, “we need this game in 4 weeks. Make it happen.”

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

@@MrDuneedon your right.

[@feenix219]

If you do a part two, you need to do Panky Panda and Draconian.

[@JohnHenrySheridan]

Great vid thank you! Just enjoyed watching with my 8 y/o son. :)

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kbramlett6877]

You goofed, PC. You labeled Lady Bug as Mouse Trap. OOPS!

[@jo-annfat-bricks2471]

luv ya!

[@McLovin_2007]

I heard the guy who made Princess Rescue was sent a cease and desist letter from Nintendo.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Not sure about that but within 48 hours the Commodore 64 homebrew was sent a cease and desist by Nintendo so they must've been monitoring him for some time

[@UncleGus]

Juno First is a great homebrew maybe even better than the arcade version.

[@UncleGus]

I wish the list of games was in your description.

[@1984Brandon]

On a somewhat related letter, what do you make of Tommy Tallarico making claims of owning Intellivision Amico and was going to make Earthworm Jim 4? I am reminded of the Phantom Entertainment company.

[@robertk1049]

I thought I was a genius when I was a kid because I plugged an Atari 2600 controller into a Sega Genesis and it worked perfectly for games that only needed one button like Sonic the Hedgehog.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

LOL

[@nobodyimportant8859]

Yeah look at all those transformers!!! G1 my favorite cartoon/movie/toyline.

[@GadgetUK164]

Lovely video =D It's a shame those Champ games aren't cheaper for the ROM - a bit over priced compared to other homebrew on other systems.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thanks a lot, I guess you are paying for the extra quality

[@Chordonblue]

I think Champ is doing it for the love of it AND a little profit. Keep in mind, the Champ games rely on an extra ARM processor for most of their cartridges. Games like Galaga or Bosconian would simply NOT be possible on the 2600 otherwise. The Stella emulator plays the games without complaint, but this is why other 2600-like hardware (Flashback series), will not. They are a full-on development house and have expenses. I don't fault them for that, and own my own Scramble cart now - totally WORTH IT.

[@placeholder4450]

Have you tried Carrot Kingdom? It's a pretty neat 2600 game.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

I just checked it out, that is very impressive

[@embryon1111]

Love your vids dude. Question: for the bowling game, why were 32 KB used, but only 2 used on the original bowling? Why didn't the programmers use 32KB and make a better bowling game back in the day? 32KB's were not available?

[@janetcarr1576]

32k was available, but: #1 it was quite expensive, so they wouldn't have been able to make a profit by selling the title for $20; and #2 RAM wasn't very dense then, and I don't know if they could have even fit 32k worth of chips inside an Atari cart.

[@Rando1975]

If 32K were available, it would have cost a lot more.

[@enzolombardi9631]

Hello, you mention the "Atari box" a couple of times as providing game-saving and better audio capabilities. What is that?

[@pjsampras7072]

On Xeviouz you said it was a watered down port from the 2600 version of Xevious I suppose you meant fron the 5200 or 7800 version.

[@jamesdye4603]

Demon attack was a favorite

[@wallacelang1374]

A lot of these homebrew games are great for the Atari 2600 VCS and I would like to have them in my collection, but unfortunately now that Atari has acquired AtariAge homebrews that are based on arcade video games may be a bit more difficult to obtain on cartridges.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Yes, I thought it was a bit suspect a few months back when they were pulling off a lot of the homebrew from their store

[@nelsonhill4625]

I love your videos, Patman. They really shave my ass.

[@animestokuandvideo5798]

Request: Armored Warriors or Powered Gear in Japan By Capcom in 1994 it's another beat em up game by them

[@thejasonknightfiascoband5099]

Time-out. Apologies if this was mentioned but i missed it. So was it possible for the original Atari programmers to program games as well as these homebrew games if they had the talent???

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

In the last 40 years I'm sure a lot of programming tricks and techniques have been learned that they didn't have back then.

[@jeffhelfand3995]

V2 please!

[@piratestation69]

None of these games could of been produced back in the day due to chip limitations. Also the cost to produce a 32k game on a cart would be astromical. It takes time to make a good game. Most of these games took a few weeks, make the cart and hopefully sell a few thousand.

[@EternalRoman]

I think a proper ALIEN homebrew for the 2600 is needed, something akin to Heiankyo Alien but with graphics that illustrate the Xenomorph and the crew of the Nostromo. Hope anyone with good programing skills gets this idea and get to it, cause ALIEN was really crap for the Atari 2600.

[@laurababyyy1]

Can you do the history of mappy.

[@paulsnickles2420]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

I emailed champ games once years ago but nothing came up. Gave them ideas of a fighting game. But knowing them they probably flushed it down the toilet 😂

[@MrChristopherMolloy]

Is there much of a ColecoVision Homebrew community?

[@xeriland]

I don't refer to most of it as "homebrew" because they are done by actual business. However, the ColecoVision library has grown to 3 times its size since 2010. Well over 500 cartridge games today.

[@MrChristopherMolloy]

@@xeriland Thanks 👍

[@MotownBatman]

I Love seeing what people have figured out with hardware & software Glitches & tricks over the years Everybody had a Floppy Copy of CHAMP Games for DOS somewhere in the piles **Is XeviouZ a Direct Port of the *7800 Version?

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

It has always fascinated me

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

Playing super Mario bros an sonic on the 2600 would work if you couldn't afford a Nes or genesis.

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

An alternate world where Sega and Nintendo had a partnership with Atari.

[@MotownBatman]

@@nehemiahpouncey3607 Look into the Depths of the Genesis & NES history

[@nehemiahpouncey3607]

@@MotownBatman ok.

[@paulmccormacksvideogamesan2912]

I dont think donkey kong vcs is available in cartridge form. I sure would like ti have it

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

That would be fantastic if it was

[@AstralWolf86]

Mind blown 0_o

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

You and me both

[@orinoco500]

You look handsome in that Simpsons pic.

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

LOL, why thank you

[@rustymixer2886]

18:30 you mean converted from 7800

[@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries]

Thank you

[@Djclyve]

Murderbird!

[@marlabelindabedenbaugh6238]

Hi

[@odizm5196]

this is like a glimpse into a Alternate Timeline ware we have a better version of Pac-Man and The E.T. Game don't not exist result in game market not crashing

[@rodrigoalves-cg6xv]

I find arcade ports a bit boring, I'm much more interested in new original games the way how Activision created new stuff for the 2600