The homebrew and ROM hack list[]
| Box Art | Title | Genre | Description | Acquire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Berzerk: Voice Enhanced | Shoot-Em-Up | Berzerk is one of the best games on the 2600. This hack brings it a bit closer to the arcade original, restoring the voice samples missing in the official port and tweaking the colors slightly to be more in line with the Arcade. | ROM |
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Donkey Kong VCS | Platformer | Fun fact: the original 2600 port of Donkey Kong was gimped because it was done by Coleco - who had a vested interest in making their own Colecovision look like a far more powerful machine. Which it was, admittedly... but this fan-made port proves that the 2600 could get pretty close to the arcade version too. | ROM |
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Halo 2600 | Shooter | This is a fangame, but it has an almost-official pedigree: it was developed by Ed Fries, former vice-president of game publishing at Microsoft, also known as "the guy who convinced Bill Gates that they should make a console". The game was actually released as a cartridge at the Classic Gaming Expo 2010. | ROM Play |
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Juno First | SHMUP | Homebrew port of the 1983 Konami arcade game. Plays like Defender but vertically. One of the most visually impressive 2600 games. Also has a sweet title screen song.
If you play this on offical hardware, it also supports the AtariVox for saving high-scores and voice samples by the enemy. |
ROM
Warning: links to URL that requires installation of SecurySearchApp malware. |
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Lady Bug | Maze | A homebrew port of the arcade game. Coleco was supposed to bring this game over to the 2600 back in the day and even appeared in their cataloge, it never happened. A really good port of the game. | Commercial |
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Pac-Man 4k | Maze | The official port on the system is infamous for being one of the worst games on the system. Atari rushed it out the door, thinking it would print them money due to the popularity of the Arcade original. Its also one of the ugliest due to Atari wanting to show off the color capabilities of the system.
This Homebrew version shows off that the 2600 was more than capable of re-creating the arcade version, all while coming in under 4k of memory. An 8k port also exists, bring it closer to the Arcade version. |
ROM |
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Princess Rescue | Platformer | A reasonably faithful Super Mario Bros clone. Once available as a purchasable cartridge until Nintendo ordered a cease and desist. | ROM |
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Space Rocks | Shmup | With a name like that, you can guess what this game is all about. Yes, it is a clone of Asteroids. But this version is much better than the official port, with improved graphics and lots of new options. | Commercial |
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Star Castle Arcade | Shmup | Back in the day, Atari's hotshot programmer Howard Scott Warshaw said porting Star Castle to the 2600 was impossible. It took thirty years until he was proven wrong.
The game is a mix of Yars Revenge and Asteroids. Shoot through some shields and destroy the ship in the middle. Its harder than it looks. |
Commercial |
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Wizard of Wor Arcade | Shooter | While the original port is pretty good, this version is very close to arcade perfect. Includes support for the Atarivox for voice and saving high scores and even has a maze editor built-in! Supports Co-Op and even works with the Quadtari so you can enjoy the voices and co-op at the same time!
The game is essentially Pac-Man with guns! Blast through a labyrinth with weird looking creatures while hunting the elusive Wizard of Wor. |
Commercial |
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Zippy the Porcupine | platformer | A Sonic the Hedgegog clone from the same guy who made Princess Rescue. It's quite impressive, being one of the very few 64K games on the system. | Commercial Demo |