Homebrew

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The term Homebrew is using recently encountered in the retro scene. A homebrew version refers to a computer program that is not officially licensed by the manufacturer or publisher or as an official conversion of a computer platform (including consoles or handheld systems such as e.g. Atari 2600 or Gameboy). Hombrew software are developed by a programmer or team as a hobby or fan project and is usually free of charge as a public domain (PD) or Freeware.

Often well-known games are converted faithfully from arcade machines or video game consoles for computer systems, for which there was previously no official and faithful implementation. Or existing games are modified or extended, so that there is for example an unofficial follower game.

Furthermore, new, available storage media of recent years have created possibilities for the old home computer systems that did not exist in the 1980s and 1990s, making it possible for today's programmers to develop perfect conversions that could not exist due to earlier memory limitations (e.g. for graphics or music). With the C64, earlier limitations are removed by the use of, for example, modern cartridges like EasyFlash or memory cards.

Also there are always new ideas of hobby programmers, which are often implemented as a computer game or C64 game, sometimes with programming aids or game creation programs such as S.E.U.C.K., as a hobby project, and these are then published for free as a digital .D64 image for emulators in the Internet on scene websites, such as the CSDb, as download.

C64 Fan Projects (Selection)[edit | edit source]

An animation from "Zoo Mania" (2006).
A slide show from "QWAK" (2016).

Some well-known and interesting Hombrew versions or fan projects of the last years are:


Links[edit | edit source]

WP-W11.png (video games) Wikipedia: Homebrew (video games)