31 Homebrew Games Worth Playing

We track down some of the game industry's most interesting homebrew games from over the years.

By: Ryan Winterhalter April 29, 2011

Say the word "homebrew" to the average gamer and he probably thinks about piracy. Recent events have brought the homebrew scene into the public light like never before, and at least when it comes to PS3 homebrew, piracy and "back-up copies" seem to be a major part of the scene.

The fact is that homebrew just refers to homemade games or applications for consoles. We wanted to take a look at the scene and see if any of these games are actually worth playing. While we found hundreds of fun titles, we managed to boil our list down to 31. We wouldn't exactly call these the "best" homebrew titles, however, because we left off certain games in order to prevent a single console from dominating our choices.

When it comes to modern consoles, Microsoft is the only company to actively encourage homebrew developers. Its affordable XNA development kit allows garage programmers to not just make their own 360 titles, but to sell them on the Xbox Live Indie Store. While there are tons of good games available there, we limited our list to a single Xbox title in the interest of promoting games that may be otherwise overlooked.

We also found that homebrew developers vary by region. Japanese garage game makers have stuck to classic consoles, usually going no further than the Dreamcast, while American game alchemists have tended to divide their time between classic consoles and modern ones. European homebrewers, on the other hand, seem to be fond of old-school 8-bit computers. We've divided the list by platform to help make it easier to find the games you're interested in.

Most of these titles are free, requiring little more than an emulator or the original console to play. However, a few of them cost a bit of cash. We've noted which titles are free and which aren't. And by including the game on our list, we hope to emphasize that, yes, these titles are worth the asking price.

• Evil Magician's Return

  Platform: Atari 2600
  

  After leading your heroic square to victory in the classic 2600 game Adventure, you thought it was over and that you'd saved the world. Not quite. Evil Magician's Return is an unofficial sequel to the classic game that adds a few modern touches, like an inventory system, to the old-school gameplay.

• Halo 2600

  Platform: Atari 2600
  

  Ed Fries helped design the original Xbox and fostered the system's growth in its early days. After leaving Microsoft, he made his return to the gaming scene with Halo 2600. Inspired after reading a book on the technical limitations of the Atari 2600, Fries set out to replicate the Xbox's most beloved franchise on the classic system. Fans of the series will recognize many things that made Halo unique upon its release, from the iconic enemies to regenerating health.

• Duck Attack

  Platform: Atari 2600
  

  Just what was that big enemy in Adventure for the 2600? Was it a dragon? Maybe it was a duck. That seems to be the idea behind Duck Attack, which plays a bit like Adventure -- except you have a giant waterfowl pursuing you across the map for the whole game. It's like someone took Adventure and mixed it with Resident Evil 3. Only with more ducks.

• Mega Man 2600

  Platform: Atari 2600
  

  While this demo consists of a handful of screens and a single boss fight, it's a technically impressive recreation of Mega Man on a system that wasn't designed to handle platforming titles at all. Made for the I Am 8-Bit Art Show in 2007, Mega Man 2600 stands out amongst the system's homebrew offerings despite its short length.

• Super 3D Portals 6

  Platform: Atari 2600
  

  While not quite as good looking as Portal 2, Super 3D Portals 6 takes the basic mechanics of the original Portal and tries to compress them into something the size of a 2600 game. It's impressive just how much of Portal's gameplay made it into this version, but the parts that didn't make it are understandable -- we doubt even the most talented programmer could fit realistic physics and a 3D engine onto the 2600.

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• Down Fail & Battlesphere? WTF

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  DJAUSTIN
  

  What a terrible list. Firstly there are tons of great Jag games and only people who have never played on the machine and believed idiots like EGM think otherwise, why do you think it has such a big following these days?

  Next on to the issue of the 2 Jag games you included - Down Fail is near enough the worst example of homebrew on the Jag being marginally beaten by the atrocious Superfly DX. If you wanted to include great Jag homebrew you should have looked at the likes of Gorf CD, Painter or Madbodies. Battlesphere cannot be called homebrew as it was officially licensed by Atari and originally commisioned by them too.

  Also how you can miss out Streets Of Rage remake is criminal, it should have been top by a mile. I am pretty surprised too at the lack of any 7800 or Lynx games given some of the amazing homebrew releases those machines have seen over the last few years.

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• Dikki Painguin

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  Faust
  

  A side note for the author. Dikki Painguin was created by an old classmate of mine, Neil Druckmann, who went on be a lead designer for Uncharted 2. 

  The game was created for a class we took back in the day taught by Bob Rost. If the comments allow links, the class page can be found here: http://bobrost.com/nes/

  The more you know...

   

  P.S. It seems I totally forgot another classmate, Allan Blomquist, helped create Dikki Painguin. His name can be found in the credits of World of Goo.

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• Great article

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  manoffeeling
  

  I get why younger dudes might be all UGH about games like these, and even I wouldn't necessarily sit at my computer to play most NES games.  But if you can put an emulator on your DS or PSP, handhelds are really the perfect format for games of this vintage, and it can be really fun to play "new" old games even for just a few minutes.

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• Downfall for the Jaguar!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  austinmackert
  

  Downfall is a very simple concept, but is a lot of fun to play. The background scrolling is reminiscent of classic 16-bit games, runs at a solid 60fps, and the music is most-excellent. If you don't have a Jaguar, you at least owe it to yourself to try it in an emulator!

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• ZOMG! TEH PIRATEZ!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  Gold_Ultima
  

  i luv $ony and hate teh horribles dat maek deez hum bruse den killed da PSN! i dont no anythign aboot hax but i am sher itz hum bruses faultz!

  /joke

  >_>

  <_<

  *sigh* People are dumb....

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• Homebrew games

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  SyntheticCFM
  

  Homebrew games are awesome. I have tried to make them but I am just not a good enough programmer!

   

  classnotecomics.com

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• Hurray!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  SwigGY12
  

  Awesome article. Great read! Thanks a lot. 

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• PS3 got hacked so people can play this crap? Really?

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  b_ez_fallback
  

  This is what the big deal is all about, this crap?      PS3 and peoples credit cards got stolen, because sony didn't want this crap on their system

   

  come on, what the hell is this world coming to

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• Were you playing games when the Jaguar was around???

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  pcengine92
  

  How can you say that the jaguar had no good games. Everyone who played Aliens vs. Predator loved that game when it came out. It was even more fun when you played it late at night in total darkness, and is still fun to play today. 

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  • Jaguar? Oh yeah...

    Posted: 05/01/2011 by  Colorwind
    

    I started gaming around the 16-bit era of games and I remember hearing about the Atari Jaguar when it launched. However, I didn't know anyone who had it. However, to my understanding, the only title I can remember from the Jaguar that's of any worth is the original Rayman.

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• Mamotte Knight - Thanks for pointing this one out!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  Duke.Togo
  

  Just bought and played through Easy on Mamotte Knight. Very cool game, great music, and I want to got some friends over to beat up on it.

  This is the kind of content I love to see. More please!

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• More good stuff

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  SPennLUE
  

  I was kind of surprised Battle Kid isn't on here.  Then again, it has received a bit more attention on this site than pretty much anything on this list, so I guess it's fair.

  Also be sure to check out Powder and Word Up on the DS.

  Flag | Reply

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• XBOX Indies Rule!!!!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  king_mob
  

  You guys really need to start covering the XBOX Live Indiies. There are probably a lot of gamers who would love but have never heard of games like Miner Dig Deep, the Arkedo Series, the Radian Games Series, Cthulu Saves the World, Urban Galaxy Squirrels, the Soulcaster games and Clover.

  Come to think of it, I have all these games. I guess I have something to blog about.

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• Blade Buster has the best graphics on the NES?!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  superfakt
  

  Fck NO! Are you absolutely INSANE? I can think of AT LEAST 10 games that have MUCH better graphics on the NES/FC...Y'alls is TRIPPIN'!

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• Re: No Good Games on the Jaguar?

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  ctnzdsht
  

  I second the notion that Tempest 2000 doesn't suck.

  One improvement need of a few 1up writers would be to speak accurately when it comes to gaming history.

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• Ah, not the best games.

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  Mr.LametoWatch
  

  If you ask me, XBL Indie titles are essentially homebrew and there actually is a decent number of games. although Twin Blades and Echoes are the only ones I consider better than some name brand games.

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• Great Article!!

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  zumafire
  

  I'm gonna hunt these 2600 games down.. More stories like these please!!

  Flag | Reply

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• Ah Desert Bus,

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  SamuraiTerry
  

  Can't you drive from L.A. to Vegas in real time or something along those lines?

   

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  • Exactly

    Posted: 05/02/2011 by  venom77
    

    It basically emulates the incredibly boring experience of driving through the desert for 8 hours, a random bug hits the screen every few hours or so, that I believe is similar to the trip from Vegas to LA.  You get exactly one point for completing the trip and then it starts all over again in an endless loop.  The only "challenge" is that the bus pulls slightly to the left, so you have to auto adjust.  Really funny concept but the reality of actually playing the game?  Not so much.

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• Battlesphere

  Posted: userComment.createdDate by  valgalder
  

  BattleSphere is amazing.. I wouldn't really consider it a homebrew game though.  The game was in development in the eary days of Atari Jaguar, but wasn't finished until after Atari abandoned the system.  Too bad it was so limited and hard to get ahold of. 

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  • No Good Games on the Jaguar?

    Posted: 04/30/2011 by  Pacario
    

    I'm curious about the game, too, but I'm still shocked over the author's following comment:

    "Despite (arguably) not having [the Atari Jaguar] a single good game during its short lifespan. . ."

    He doesn't like Tempest 2000?  He's the first I've ever found who has an apparent dislike for the game.  But beyond that, many also consider the Jaguar's Alien vs. Predator a quality title, at least for the time.

     

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  • Battsphere and Downfall

    Posted: 05/02/2011 by  OmegaSupreme
    

    Battlesphere is kinda "iffy" as a homebrew, yes, but considering what the crew went through to get it published, it more than deserves the mention. Just too bad it's impossible to find a copy without paying ~$1,000, though.

    Glad to see Downfall for the Jag make the list. However, the game "Superfly DX" by the same developers (Reboot) should be on the list ahead of it. One button gameplay that's addictive as hell, an incredible soundtrack, and oodles of replayability make it one of the best Jag games, IMO.

    Another Jag game worth mentioning is "Do the Same" by JagWare. It's a very well polished and extremely addictive puzzler that rivals any of the Jaguar's commercial efforts.