Atari 2600 homebrew

With only 128 bytes of RAM, no frame buffer, and code and visuals closely intertwined, the 2600 is a difficult machine to program,[1] and many homebrew titles are written for the technical challenge.

[11] In 1995 — three years after Atari's withdrawal of the 2600 from the marketplace — enthusiast Ed Federmeyer released SoundX,[12] a cartridge to experiment with the sound capabilities of the system.

Warring Worms, by Billy Eno (2002), takes the core design of Surround and adds new gameplay modes, such as the ability to fire shots at the opponent.

[22] Medieval Mayhem (2006) by, Darrell Spice Jr., is a version of the 1980 arcade game Warlords which includes elements omitted from Atari's official port.

In SCSIcide, released by Joe Grand in 2001,[24] the player acts as a hard drive read head picking up color-coded data bits as they fly past.

[25] Oystron, released by Piero Cavina in 1997, is an action game in which "space oysters" are opened and pearls collected to earn ammunition.

[30] Princess Rescue is an unofficial 2600 port of Super Mario Bros., while Zippy the Porcupine is a game inspired by the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

This typically includes alternate graphics and colors, but may involve gameplay modifications and the ability to use a different controller than the one for which the game was originally designed.

[32] In 2003, Activision selected several homebrew 2600 games for inclusion in the Game Boy Advance version of its Activision Anthology: Climber 5 by Dennis Debro (2004), Okie Dokie by Bob Colbert (1996), Skeleton+ by Eric Ball (2003), Space Treat Deluxe by Fabrizio Zavagli (2003), Vault Assault by Brian Prescott (2001), Video Euchre by Erik Eid (2002), and Oystron.

[38] With third-party hardware such as the Cuttle Cart and Harmony Cartridge, developers could load in-progress games onto a physical Atari console to test.

[39][40] The Cuttle Cart, developed by Chad Schell in the early 2000s,[41] was designed to be compatible with the Starpath Supercharger, and allows ROM images to be loaded via an 1/8" minijack audio interface such as a cassette tape or CD player.