The Atari Age Store has finally dropped the new titles that were announced for 2022 release. Some of these titles were available in limited quantities at Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October of last year.
I could have spent a lot more money if I had bought everything I wanted, but with the prices of these games running upwards of $50-60 a piece, they’re no longer the easy buys that they were at $25-30, 5-10 years ago. Although the prices are up, the quality is too. Both in terms of the games themselves and their presentation and packaging.
The games I bought this year are some of the best looking homebrews I’ve seen yet: RubyQ (2600), Qyx (2600), and Popeye (7800). All three are arcade clone/ports: RubyQ = Q*Bert, Qyx = Qix, and Popeye = Popeye. All three look amazing, particularly considering the systems they were developed to run on.
I was tempted to add Galaxian (7800), Pac Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition (7800), Oozy the Goo: Slime Quest (2600), and Blocks (2600). But I just can’t fit them into my budget this year. Gorf Arcade (2600), Rob’n’Banks (5200) (Lock’n’Chase), 2048 (7800), and Keystone Koppers (7800 (Keystone Kapers) also look well done, but not games that I liked well enough in their original incarnations to buy again on physical cartridge, although they’re certainly worth a play if you can download the ROMs and run them on emulator.
The Atari 2600 homebrew scene is better than ever, it seems, and still going strong 45+ years on from the original launch of the Atari 2600 in 1977, with works being produced today that exceed the best quality games that were available on the platform in its commercial heyday.