Yesterday, the website AtariAge announced that it had made 8 new homebrew cartridges for classic Atari game consoles available for purchase to the general public for the first time. Of this lot of new games, 3 are for the Atari 2600, and 5 of them are for the Atari 7800. All of these game programs had previously been made available in limited quantities at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, which occurred a little more than three weeks ago. Now, all of their newly featured games are able to be bought immediately to anyone with a computer. We have complete details and descriptions about the new games, and wanted to share them with you all. At the end of the article, we have pricing, television formats, and other purchase details.

Chetiry is a new puzzle game for the Atari 2600 console. The objective is to combine falling shapes of 4 squares (tetrominoes) into continuous horizontal lines of 10 squares, which will remove them from the grid. “Chetiry” is a loose translation of the Russian word “Four”. The Soviet Union is crumbling, and so the most brilliant scientific minds have hatched a final master plan of world domination to save the republic. Their plan is the construction of a gigantic infernal machine, superior to all other weaponry. For the plan to succeed, vast quantities of steel beams are required. But the proletariat have become drunk on the smell of freedom and will only produce small twisted shapes of metal. Your job is to combine these feeble parts into large sturdy beams, so that the diabolical plan can be realized.

Epic Adventure is a new adventure style game for the Atari VCS as well. After many years of peace, the nightmares recapture your mind. Vivid visions of death and chaos across the realm soon haunt your waking thoughts. You start to wonder if the crafting of evil is at work. Rumors of beast sightings have begun to weave their way in from the villages. Villagers say that Orcs, Trolls, and a frightful winged creature have overrun the outlying regions, and that an “allseeing eye” controls these fiends. Many have been sent to investigate these rumors, but none have returned. It’s been many months since the Chalice disappeared-though only taken by common thieves, there is but one “thief” who could harness the power of the Chalice and cause this much death and destruction-the Evil Magician! In a moment of clarity, you know what you must do. You go to gather up what few items you need to aid you in your perilous journey, but you quickly realize that they have all gone missing! Stepping outside the castle gate, a familiar feeling comes over you-you are very much alone.

Pac-Man 4K is the definitive home version of the arcade classic! Nothing at all like the official version released for the 2600! Gobble your way through the maze of Pac-Land, chomping on dots and avoiding the four hungry monsters, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. But if you can manage to eat an energizer, turn the tables on those monsters by feasting on them for bonus points! Dennis Debro sought to create an adaptation of Pac-Man more faithful than Atari’s 1982 version for the VCS. Utilizing the same 4K memory limit as the original, Dennis’ game is a feat of programming that finally brings Pac-Man to the Atari 2600 as it was intended. Improvements include the original maze layout, proper siren sound that changes pitch, properly colored ghosts, and bonus items that are true to the original cabinet!

Crazy Brix is a new puzzle game released for the Atari 7800. Break through 32 levels of Brix that will challenge and frustrate you. You start the game with three Deflectors and lose one each time you allow both balls to escape off the bottom of the screen. Keep both in play for as long as possible to rack up the big points! Game features 32 unique levels, three skill levels, supports both the joystick as well as paddle controllers, and can be played by 1 or 2 players. Start off easy, when the balls start at their slowest speed. This is ideal for young children or first-time players. Upgrade to the normal level, and the balls start at their standard speed. This is good for people already familiar with the game, and similar games of this genre. Or make it even harder, and let the balls start out at a much faster speed, and hit their max speed much higher. Only players with insane reflexes will be able to handle the fast-pace of this skill level!

Meteor Shower is another new homebrew for the Atari 7800. Meteors are falling to Earth! Defend Earth’s surface by blasting away at the falling rocks… But beware! Alien forces have learned what was happening and are taking advantage of our vulnerability to attack us! A small rock gives you twice as many points as a big one. And small rocks that land unhit cost you twice as many points. When big rocks are hit they usually split in two. If a spinner lands, it costs you one laser base. Spinners make audible alarm signals. Dive Bombers are guided missiles trying to home in on your base, and change course as they fall. They make a beeping sound as they attack. They are worth 8 big rocks when hit. When your score is over 20,000, Saucers occasionally fly past, dropping bombs on your active base location. You get no points for hit-ting the bombs, but each Saucer hit is worth 10 large rocks. Saucers make a distinctive sound as they fly across. Experienced players will find that at a certain score range, a second Saucer will appear as well.

The classic arcade game Moon Cresta has now made its way to the Atari 7800! Each round consists of ten waves of aliens, and two sets of docking sequences (provided you have a ship left to dock with). Every two waves of aliens have different entrance sequences, attack sequences, and point values. After you eliminate the first four waves of aliens, if you have any ships in reserve you will be given an opportunity to dock with your next ship. Successfully docking gives you increased firepower, but also gives the aliens a bigger target to aim for. You are given another chance to dock after the next four waves of aliens (again as long as you have another ship in reserve). As you pass each round of ten waves of aliens, the game play starts over, and the difficulty increases. The aliens are more and more likely to re-emerge from the bottom of the screen after passing the player’s ship. The attack patters become more varied and difficult to maneuver around.

Rip-Off is a top-down vector shoot ’em up arcade game, released by Cinematronics in 1980 and brought to the Atari 7800 by Robert DeCrescenzo. It is the first shoot ’em up arcade game to feature cooperative gameplay and to exhibit flocking behavior. When you start a new game, your pirate-destroying ship will appear on the right side of the screen. In a two player game, a second pirate-destroying ship will appear on the left side of the screen. Your canisters will be in the center. You must guard your canisters from the pirates who will try to steal them. The pirates can appear from anywhere on the screen. Steer your ship with the joystick for left and right rotation. Move your ship forward by pressing the left button or up on a single button joystick. Press the right button to fire lasers at the pirates. The pirates can be destroyed by colliding with them, but you will then have to wait for your new pirate-destroying ship to appear before you can fire more lasers. The game is over when all the fuel canisters are stolen.

Finally, we have Scramble: Another faithful arcade port brought to the Atari 7800 by Robert DeCrescenzo! Each round consists of five stages and a ‘base’, or final, stage. Destroy any targets on the ground, or in the air. You can (and should) destroy Rockets, UFOs, Fuel tanks (to give you more fuel), Bonus Items, and the Base itself at the very end. You cannot, however, destroy Meteors and should avoid them at all costs. Each stage within a round challenges the player with a new type of enemy or terrain to maneuver. As you pass each round of five stages and destroy the base, the game play starts over, and the difficulty increases. Your ship burns fuel at a faster rate, and the rockets, UFOs and Meteors become more aggressive. Start off easy, and have no rockets launch, having your ship burning fuel at a very slow rate. Go normal, and only two launching rockets can be on the screen at a time, and your ship burns fuel at a normal rate. This variation is equivalent to the “Konami” version of the arcade game. Or kick it up a bit, and go hard, where Four launching rockets can be on the screen at a time, and your ship burns fuel at a very fast rate. This variation is equivalent to the “Stern” version of the arcade game.

The cost for most of the titles shown here today is $30, with the exceptions of Pac-Man 4K ($25) and Moon Cresta ($50). All of the games include the cartridge and a manual of some sort, and Moon Cresta also comes with a custom box. Meteor Shower also has two different label variations to choose from! All games are available in both NTSC and PAL formats, with the exception of Epic Adventure which is NTSC only. The purchase of all games will also give you a free magnet of the cartridge art while supplies last. If you are a fan of the homebrew scene, these are some excellent games to add to your collection, indeed!