Atari 2600 Holiday Homebrew Companion
I thought this would be a great time of the year to post my review of The Atari 2600 HOLIDAY Homebrew Companion, released back in December 23, 2018, by Brian Matherne.
Brian now has seven books published in the Atari homebrew category, this one being his third, sandwiched in between volumes two and three.
Taking a closer look at the cover, you will notice the Christmase colors, blue, white, red, brown, and shades of green. The artwork for the book’s cover and backside were all done by Brians’s daughter, Lauren who was a Junior in High School at the time. I can tell just how proud Brian is of her through his emails. On the cover, you will see a snowy scene. There’s a few houses drawn and what looks like the grinch stealing a bunch of presents, one falling out.
The Grinch, the sack, and the present are from the homebrew game Christmas Adventure, which is included on the Byte Before Christmas multi-game cartridge. The happy snowman is from the homebrew “Stay Frosty 2: Stay Frostier and is also used on the first page of the book, just under the title.
On the back of the book is Laurens’s illustration of the snowman chilling in a recliner, melting, with the caption “Stay frosty my friends”. Brian shared, this was her play on the Dos Equis Beer Commercials where at the end of them; the most interesting man in the world would say “Stay Thirsty my friends”. Petty clever.
The book begins with a nice piece from fellow homebrewer, James Earl O’Brien, from the Zeropage Homebrew Youtube and Twitch Channels, clearly defining exactly what a homebrew game is.
“Homebrew is the umbrella term for new video games made for classic consoles. Just as the term homebrew is used for people who enjoy making beer in the comfort of their own home.”
Following that there is a piece that further distinguishes homebrews versus hacks.
We truly are blessed to have the blossoming homebrew community still actively making and publishing homebrews, some 28 years after the discontinuation of the Atari 2600, amazing!
“In this special holiday edition, “The Atari 2600 Holiday Homebrew Companion” covers a total of 56 homebrews and hacks that are Christmas or winter-themed video games made for the Atari Video Game system. “.
From https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1731020201/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p1_i4
These titles cover the time period from 2001 through 2018. Brian explains on page 17, that some of the titles contained within the book are repeated a few times as they were released separately as a ROM or on multi-carts, etc. This gives us the added benefit of being able to more quickly locate the titles you are looking for within the book. Having said that, the book does include a complete table of contents as well.
Brian was able to put these books together fairly quickly having already curated his massive homebrew list, which goes by the title “The Most Comprehensive Atari 2600 Homebrew List”. A link for which I will provide in the videos description.
As with the other volumes, the games in the Holiday Homebrew Companion are arranged alphabetically and the author includes title screen images as well as gameplay screenshots from most of the games covered in the book. There are also images of game boxes and cartridges sprinkled in. Each game is broken into its various sections; background, release notes, gameplay, options, controls, scoring, design, strategy, analysis, and it’s done consistently throughout the book.
There are loads of information contained within these sections, including in some cases, Easter egg reveals.
I particularly enjoy the release notes and strategy sections. Here we catch of glimpse of the game’s development history and the best ways to approach completing them. At least one title even includes a section covering the inspiration for the game (p353).
My favorite titles in the book are Stella’s Stalking which is a mult-cart, Stay Frosty 2, and Toyshop Trouble. I have to admit some of the hacks in the book are fairly unremarkable, simply changing the main character graphic into Santa Claus for example, and not really changing a whole lot else.
I asked Brian about that. He confirmed:
A LOT of hacks are just “sprite” hacks …meaning the game character is changed to something else […]
Seems like Space Invaders is the most hacked original game with probably (this is a guess) 40-50 versions…..anything from different aliens (space invaders), to words (like Atari hacked it originally in Pepsi Invaders), to names, to music groups (Spice Invaders – Spice Girls), and so on, etc. The next one I’d guess would be Pac-Man for the 2nd most hacked game.
As opposed to his first two books, which were a mere 182 pages, around 30 or so reviews, this book by contrast clocks in at 390 pages and 56 reviews or about double the norm, making it a super value proposition.
On page 381 there is a short section of definitions and websites covered.
I purchased the paperback version, which is printed in black and white and is available for $18.99. You can still purchase the Kindle version for $4.99.
Brian has informed me, he is working on a new project, with the tentative title of “The Atari 2600 Homebrew & Hacks Checklist”. It is being done in the same spirit of the “2007 Digital Press Collector’s Guide”
“The book will have only released homebrews, hacks, demos, and reproduction prototypes from 1995-current listed. This book will be the standard 8.5×11” pages […] They will be listed alphabetical order along with: a list of homebrew patches (with pics), a list of the “2600 Club” trading cards, and a list of “The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine Trading Cards” (the last 2 are from Michael Salzman). Each title will be listed with title, distributor (seller), original price, a rarity rating (R1-R6), programmed by ___, if limited – how many, special info about the package (if any), type of game, AND release date!
So, be on the lookout for that one. It sounds like it will be great!
I really do appreciate the amount of work, research, and polish that went into producing these books.
Highly recommended.
Homebrew list – Shorter URL:
https://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew
Youtube Description:
This is my review of the Atari 2600 Holiday Homebrew Companion
My review of Volume 3:
https://youtu.be/896pGQIZAIc
Paperback version:
https://www.amazon.com/Atari-2600-Holiday-Homebrew-Companion/dp/1731020201
The Most Comprehensive Atari 2600 Homebrew List:
https://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew
Gray Defender blog:
https://graydefender.com
