One of the things that makes retro video gaming enjoyable, is the sense of community that comes with the hobby. Whether you were an avid video gamer back during the early days of the technology, or appreciate the vintage stuff that was in production before you were born, it’s these various groups of gamers coming together that makes it a lot more fun. A specific group of gamers that are also dedicated to the hobby, are those that are always hard at work making brand new games for some of your favorite consoles of yesterday. And just as we enter “award show” season, with the Grammy’s and Oscar’s just weeks away, AtariAge, alongside of ZeroPage Homebrew and Brian Matherne of “The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion”, have officially announced the nominees for the 2018 Atari Awards!

The Atari Awards are nothing new, but it has been several years since the last one took place in 2004. The concept around this unique award is to celebrate the dedication and devotion to the newest games on the market for the Atari 2600 platform, several decades after both it’s launch and discontinuation. In any given year, dozens of original, new games are created for the system, sometimes pushing the VCS to amazing limits that even those that worked at Atari themselves never thought would have possible during the systems original lifespan. In order for a homebrew game to be considered for an award, the game had to have been released at some time between January 1 and December 31, 2018. In addition, the game must have had a ROM image or physical cartridge released publically during that same time frame. Also, games that were released before January 1, 2018 that received a re-release in the previous calendar year are also ineligible.

Just like other award shows of this style, there are a variety of categories that a title can be eligible for. A complete list of these award categories, alongside of the nominees and programmers for each corresponding category and title are as follows:

Best Homebrew “Balloon Trip” by bluswimmer “Birds and Beans” by bluswimmer “Dungeon II: Solstice” by David Weavil (s0c7) “Mappy” by John W. Champeau (johnnywc of Champ Games) “Plague” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Refraction” by Norbert Landsteiner (NoLand) “Sheep It Up!” by Dr. Ludos “Stripes of Terror” by Krzysztof Kluczek (DevKK), Michał Żuchowski, Mariusz Górski “Sword of Surtr” by Jeff Stermer (ultima) “Tyre Trax” by Lewis Hill (Muddyfunster)



Best bB (batari Basic) Homebrew “Apollyon” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Gizzle Wap and the Terrible Blizzard of Firn, The” by Jeff Smith (Mountain King) “Horizon Shift” by Paul Marrable (of Flump Studios UK) “Monkey King” by Alex Pietrow (Coolcrab) “Plague” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Sheep It Up!” by Dr. Ludos “Space Game” by Karl Garrison (Karl G) & Maggie Vogel (mvo) “Stardust” by Brian Wayne Shea (metalbabble) “Sword of Surtr” by Jeff Stermer (ultima) “Tyre Trax” by Lewis Hill (Muddyfunster)



Best Work In Progress Homebrew “Aardvark” by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez (nanochess) Thomas Jentzsch (on coding), Nathan Strum (on graphics) “Amoeba Jump” by Dion Olsthoom (Dionoid) “Black Jack Theta VIII” by Edward Gilmour (azure) “ChaoticGrill” by Philip Blackman (splendidnut), NostAlgae37 (on graphics) “Dare Devil” by Lewis Hill (Muddyfunster) “Dragon’s Descent” by Revontuli “Pac-Man 2600 8K” by DINTAR816 “Railslider” by Lillapojkenpåön “Robo-Ninja Climb” by Nathan Tolbert (gauauu) “RoboMechanik” by Krzysztof Kluczek (DevKK) “Spies in the Night 2” by Jared Gray West (graywest) “Wizard of Wor Arcade” by John W. Champeau (johnnywc of Champ Games), Mike Haas (on sound), Nathan Strum (on graphics)



Best Game Hack “Active Shooter” (‘Turmoil’ hack) by James Catalano (JamCat Reloaded) “ALF” (‘Taz’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) & James Catalano (JamCat Reloaded) “Batman” (‘Popeye’ hack) by James Catalano (JamCat Reloaded) “Berzerk NEO Version 2” (‘Berzerk’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Broadside” (‘Combat’ hack) by Claudio Salvucci (CDS Games) “Dawn of the Dead” (‘Worm War I’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Extinction” (‘Demon Attack’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Ketchup Kaboom!” (‘Kaboom!’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Miner 2049er Faster” (‘Miner 2049er’ hack) by Thomas Jentzsch (speed up hack), OmegaMatrix (bug fix), and doctorclu (on sprites) “MissADVENTURE” (‘Adventure’ hack) by Alan W. Smith (accousticguitar) “Moon Patrol Arcade DC Version” (‘Moon Patrol+’ hack) by doctorclu “Q*Bert Jump” (‘Amoeba Jump’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Santa HERO ET” (‘H.E.R.O.’ hack) by Scott Dayton (neotokeo2001 of NEO Games) “Stargate Desert Raid” (‘River Raid’ hack) by Krzysztof Kluczek (DevKK) & Marcin Łapiński (Whip) “Stranger Things – Barb’s Revenge” (‘Dig Dug’ hack) by Lee Kebler (keebz) “U.F.O. Galaxian” (‘Galaxian’ Hack) by James Catalano (JamCat Reloaded)



Best Demo “AcidRain” by Jeremiah and Kno1 “Alpha Cucks” by Dentifrice “Compofiller” by g0blinish “Dengue Fever” by Digital Sounds System & Flush “Hard 2632” by Imp & SvOlli “Lapin Kulta” by Dentifrice “M” by Flush “Mushroom Adventure” by Satori “Stella A Trois” by Flush “Three Minus” by altair



Best Graphics “Apollyon” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Balloon Trip” by bluswimmer “Dungeon II: Solstice” by David Weavil (s0c7) “Fear of the Dark” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Gizzle Wap and the Terrible Blizzard of Firn, The” by Jeff Smith (Mountain King) “Mappy” by John W. Champeau (johnnywc of Champ Games) & Nathan Strum “Plague” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Sheep It Up!” by Dr. Ludos “Space Game” by Karl Garrison (Karl G) & Maggie Vogel (mvo) “Stripes of Terror” by Krzysztof Kluczek (DevKK), Michał Żuchowski, & Mariusz Górski “Sword of Surtr” by Jeff Stermer (ultima) “Tron” by Orange808 “Tyre Trax” by Lewis Hill (Muddyfunster)



Best Music & Sound “Apollyon” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Asteroid Rescue” by Ross Adkin (TidusRenegade) “Beeware” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Fear of the Dark” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Gizzle Wap and the Terrible Blizzard of Firn, The” by Jeff Smith (Mountain King) “Mappy” by Mike Haas (iesposta) and Darrell Spice Jr. (Spiceware) “Plague” by Fehér János Zoltán (MemberAtarian) “Space Game” by Karl Garrison (Karl G) & Maggie Vogel (mvo) “Stripes of Terror” by Krzysztof Kluczek (DevKK), Michał Żuchowski, & Mariusz Górski “Sword of Surtr” by Jeff Stermer (ultima)



Best Packaging “Alien Greed 5” packaging by Yandman “Astronomer” packaging by Alex Pietrow “Balloon Trip” packaging by Vladimir Zuñiga “Bouncer” (‘Boing!’ hack) packaging by Scott Dayton “Dungeon II: Solstice” packaging by Dave Dries “Ketchup Kaboom!” (‘Kaboom!’ hack) packaging by Corey Kramer “Mappy” packaging by Nathan Strum “Plague” packaging by Fehér János Zoltán “Q*Bert Jump” (‘Amoeba Jump’ hack) packaging by Scott Dayton “Santa Bros.” (‘Mario Bros.’ hack) packaging by Joe Klander “Space Game” packaging by Maggie Vogel “Tyre Trax” packaging by Atariboy2600 “Zombie Road Kill” packaging by D. C. Stuelpner



Technical Achievement Award “Aardvark” by Thomas Jentzsch: Alternating playfield priority to create transparency effect (sun/moon shining through the clouds) “Aardvark” by Thomas Jentzsch: 32 pixel sprite that smoothly enters, traverses and exits the length of the color changing playfield (both single line) without using HMOVE blanks, WSYNCs or using extra sprite data “Grey Screen with No Music” by Tomas Härdin (Tjoppen) for 16 Byte “Maximum Minimal” Demo “Hard 2632” by Imp & SvOlli: 32 byte hardware dip switch demo implementation “Mappy” by Thomas Jentzsch (coding) & Nathan Strum (on graphics): 85 pixel multicolor title screen “Mappy” by John Champeau: Player and Enemy anti-flicker code “Studio 2600” by Norbert Landsteiner (NoLand): 2600 Audio Demo Software



What’s even better, is that unlike other award shows that you may be used to, fellow retro gamers are going to get to place their votes for their favorite homebrews! For those that have not had a chance to try out some of these homebrews, you are in luck! A downloadable file containing the ROM images of all of the nominees has been made available, and can be played on your favorite emulation program.

Voting has officially begun, with a list of the eligible games having been announced this past Wednesday via ZeroPage Homebrew’s Twitch channel. An upload of this broadcast has been made available on YouTube, and can be viewed below. Voting closes on February 18th, and the 2018 Atari Awards will be broadcast live on the ZeroPage Twitch channel on February 23, 2019 at 3pm Eastern, 12pm Pacific!

Sources: AtariAge Forums, Brian Matherne

Sample This Years Nominees: ROM Download Link

Cast Your Vote: AtariAge Forum (all votes remain private)

Official Twitch Channel: Zero Page Homebrew