AtariAge is a website for Atari players and collectors, with forums and a large database of games, manuals and rarity ratings. It also runs an online store that sells new cartridges, so almost everything under this name is a modern homebrew, written decades after the console’s heyday and usually sold with a manual and printed label art. Some of these games were released by their own authors or small labels and only sold through the store, such as Warring Worms from Billy Eno’s Baroque Gaming.
The site has 18 pages here, several of them NTSC and PAL versions of the same game. A few to try:
Halo 2600 (2010): Ed Fries’s take on Halo as a 1982-style game, fitted into 4 kilobytes.
Medieval Mayhem (2006): Darrell Spice Jr.’s four-player castle game based on Warlords.
Boulder Dash: Andrew Davie and Thomas Jentzsch’s conversion of the digging puzzle, made with First Star’s approval.
Lady Bug (2006): John W. Champeau’s version of the arcade maze game, with gates you swing to reshape the maze.
K.O. Cruiser (2010): Devin D. Cook’s first-person boxing game against six cartoon opponents.
Duck Attack!: Will Nicholes’s tribute to Adventure, full of fire-breathing mutant ducks.
No cartridge needed: pick one below and play it in your browser.
Wall Jump Ninja is a homebrew Atari 2600 game by Walaber, the independent developer behind the JellyCar games. You are a ninja in training who has to master a single move, the wall jump, and survive as long as you can before the “death beam” catches up with you. This page runs the NTSC version of the game. You can play it here in your browser.
Wall Jump Ninja is a homebrew Atari 2600 game by Walaber, the independent developer behind the JellyCar games. You play a ninja in training who has to master one move: the wall jump. It is a quick, one-button game about lasting as long as you can before the deadly “death beam” catches you. Walaber wrote it entirely in 6502 assembly and fitted it into 4K, the original Atari cartridge size, and AtariAge sells it on a real cartridge. You can play it here in your browser.
Wall Jump Ninja is a homebrew Atari 2600 game by Walaber, the independent developer behind the JellyCar games. You are a ninja in training who has to master a single move, the wall jump, and survive as long as you can before the “death beam” catches up with you. This page runs the PAL60 version of the game. You can play it here in your browser.
Warring Worms is a homebrew Atari 2600 game by Billy Eno, released on cartridge by his label Baroque Gaming in 2002. It builds on Atari’s Surround: two worms leave solid trails behind them, and whoever crashes first loses the round. The twist is a “mega cannon” that can blast holes in walls and trails, or hit the other worm directly. You can play against the computer or a friend, here in your browser.
Squish ‘Em is a 2007 homebrew game for the Atari 2600 by Bob Montgomery. It is a close conversion of Squish ’em, a 1983 climbing game for the Atari 8-bit computers published by Sirius Software. You climb unfinished 48-floor buildings to grab a suitcase full of money at the top, while critters patrol the girders and bricks rain down from above. This page runs the PAL60 build of the game. You can play it here in your browser.
This is the NTSC version of Squish ‘Em, Bob Montgomery’s 2007 Atari 2600 homebrew conversion of the 1983 Atari 8-bit climbing game from Sirius Software. You climb tall, unfinished buildings floor by floor to reach a case of money at the top, dodging falling bricks and the creatures that patrol the girders. You can play it here in your browser.
Synthcart is not a game at all: it is a homebrew cartridge from 2002 that turns the Atari 2600 into a small synthesizer, with an arpeggiator and a built-in drum machine. It was written by musician and programmer Paul Slocum and sold through the AtariAge store. All of its sounds come from the console’s own sound chip, the same one you hear in Pitfall! or Combat. You can load it here in your browser, but please read the note below first.
Medieval Mayhem is a 2006 homebrew for the Atari 2600 by Darrell Spice Jr. (SpiceWare), with graphics by David Vazquez and music by Erik Ehrling. It is a new take on Atari’s 1981 paddle game Warlords: four kings in four castles, a shield for each player, and fireballs smashing through the walls. What makes it worth playing is that it brings back features of the Warlords arcade machine that the original cartridge left out, such as the dragon that launches the fireballs. You can play it here in your browser.
K.O. Cruiser is a first-person boxing game for the Atari 2600, written and designed by homebrew programmer Devin D. Cook and published on cartridge by AtariAge in 2010. You see your own boxer as a see-through outline in the foreground and fight six cartoon opponents, each with their own style and special moves. It is a modern homebrew, made decades after the console’s heyday. You can play it here in your browser.
K.O. Cruiser is a first-person boxing game for the Atari 2600 by homebrew programmer Devin D. Cook, released on cartridge by AtariAge in 2010. You fight your way through six cartoon opponents towards the Gold Belt. This page runs the PAL60 build of the game. You can play it here in your browser.