Astrocade Homebrew Game Ideas By Glenn Saunders and Adam Trionfo November 14, 2001 There are always some good discussions going on at the Astrocade Discussion Group. I've (Adam) taken four postings (52, 398, 399, 401) and created this article. GLENN: For those who are wondering what might make a good homebrew on the Astrocade, here are my opinions... The biggest advantage of the Astrocade is its controllers. It's got four, which is fairly unique, but even more so is the combination paddle-joystick. There were some arcade games that used a combination spinner/joystick. Bally Midway's Tron and Discs of Tron come to mind. It can really open up some unique game designs. I don't think this feature was very well utilized in the Bally catalog, unfortunately. So if I ever get around to doing an Astrocade game, it will emphasize multiplayer and the paddle-joystick control action. Besides the obvious rotating turret or rotating arm ala Tron, you could control two sprites at once, which can lead to some very frantic gaming. Like you could to a Warlords type game where you can both defend your castle with the paddle and lay siege with little Berzerk type guys who shoot arrows at each other in 8-directions. ADAM: The Astrocade's built-in games show many of the functions that the unit is capable of. Calculator uses the keypad, Checkmate all four joysticks, and Gunfight and Scribbling use the paddle-joystick feature. These programs use the features in a non-gimmick manner. GLENN: Yeah, but these were first-gen titles. Technically, Combat and Video Olympics used all of the 2600's hardware features (sprite cloning, all 5 objects in play at once, paddles, joysticks, sprite width register), but it wasn't until things like Space Invaders that some of them were used in a more dramatic way. ADAM: I've never cared for Tron (blasphemy!), but Glenn's Worlord update is a good idea. Many games are improved in a multi-player mode, but this mode usually requires that one player can snuff out the other, even in a cooperative game like The Incredible Wizard. That's part of the fun of it. Sorta? Lastly, has Worlords ever had an update for any system at any time in any manner (shareware or not)? I'd like to check out any sequel- I used to play Worlords for hours at a time until no one would play with me anymore (i.e. "Nah, let's play something else"). Anyone willing to bet that the first new BASIC game for this system is going to be Tetris? Someone out there has probably already written it, I'm sure. END OF ARTICLE