Homebrew Game Club

Special guest host Chris (aka Deadeye) joins Conor and Nick for a deep dive into Retrotainment Games’ brilliant but baffling Full Quiet for NES. Conor reveals his new game design concept (the F.A.R.T.W.A.L.K.), Nick dusts off his memories of Russian literature, and Chris… probably isn’t used to this amount of profanity in a homebrew podcast. Still need to play Full Quiet? Find it on Steam, Nintendo e-Shop, or Xbox, or ⁠get the cartridge here. Our next Game Club picks will be Flea! and Tapeworm Disco Puzzle for NES and Dreamcast. Find links to both at Lowtek Games’ website. Check out Chris' Homebrews in Focus on YouTube. You can find the Full Quiet wiki here (expect spoilers). Join the Full Quiet speedrunning Discord server here. Ron Gilbert on “The Monkey Island rubber chicken problem” and designing obscure puzzles in games. Legacy of the Wizard (NES) game map. As always, find links to our social media and more at: ⁠http://homebrewgameclub.com

In this extra special bonus episode, Conor, Bart, and Nick scour the "Ask the Podcast" channel from the HBGC Discord server to catch up on unanswered questions over the last year. Questions like: How long should a homebrew game be? What's your favorite video game movie? Is Atari still Atari? And what's your desert island laundry detergent? The gang even employs artificial intelligence to answer the most pressing question of our day: What is the Frogger frog's job? Nick also offers his extended take on Breath of the Wild. (It's long.) Frogger Club music: "Dark Atmospheres 01" by dave_wheatley via Pixabay Got your own questions for the podcast? Join our Discord server, find us on social media, or buy some merch at homebrewgameclub.com.

The Game Club whets their appetites for cyberpunk cool with the demo for Courier, a hackeriffic new adventure for NES from Khan Games. Courier is available on Kickstarter until January 31, 2024. Grab your copy here.

The gang takes on three very short but action-packed shoot 'em ups: Omega Blast for the Mega Drive, Dangan GB2 for the Game Boy Color, and Flight of Pigarus for the Master System. We also reveal the winners of our 2023 shoot 'em ups high score competition! Still need to play the games? All are available as free downloads here: Omega Blast Dangan GB2 Flight of Pigarus Our next game will be Full Quiet for the NES. Find it on Steam, Nintendo e-Shop, or Xbox, or get the cartridge here. We got interviewed about our Discord channel for Full Quiet! Read about it here. Reddit AMA by toggleswitch about First Press Games ***Please note: the deadline to submit games for the MAGfest Indie Retro Homebrew Showcase was December 15, 2023. You can find out more here. 8-Bit Xmas 2023 Gunhawk by Skyboy Games Bleeper! Get one before they sell out. Ben Jelter's game Talbut. As always, find links to our social media and more at: http://homebrewgameclub.com

The Game Club takes on Doodle World and Kubo 3, two NESmaker games created with contributions from children. But are we the right audience for this type of game? We invite some guest experts on the show to discuss. Still need to play the games? Find Doodle World here. And here’s the link to Kubo 3. Our next Game Club picks will be shoot ‘em ups Flight of Pigarus, Omega Blast, and Dangan GB2. Join the high score tournament on our Disc ord server to win one of two very cool prizes. Entries accepted through December 18, 2023. Discord link and more available at http://www.homebrewgameclub.com. Get free ROMs for all three games at these links: Omega Blast (Mega Drive) Flight of Pigarus (Master System) Dangan GB2 (GB Color) R.I.P. Rani Baker, NES developer. Her itch.io page is here.

The Game Club takes on three iterations of Nathan Tolbert's Zelda-inspired Anguna series on the Game Boy Advance, Atari 2600, and Nintendo Entertainment System. Conor attempts to define the "walkie-pokey" genre, Nick has a question about where those arrows are coming from, and Bart shares a wholesome story about George Clooney and a litter box. Still need to play Anguna? Find links to all versions here: https://www.bitethechili.com/ The next Game Club picks will be Doodle World and Kubo 3 for NES. Get Doodle World here: https://natepeters.itch.io/doodle-world And find Kubo 3 here: https://dale-coop.itch.io/kubo-3-nes-game-by-sj-games AtariAge acquired by... Atari?! https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354609-atariage-atari/ Play all 82 Game Boy Competition 2023 entries here: https://itch.io/jam/gbcompo23/entries As always, find links to our social media and more at: http://homebrewgameclub.com

Twitter, now rebranded "X," has been an important avenue for homebrewers and other indie game developers to connect with each other and promote their work. Tech industry veterans Conor and Nick discuss the decline of the app under Elon Musk, the rise of alternative platforms, and what it might all mean for the homebrew community. This is an update of a similar episode from December 2022. Find that one in our feed, or listen here. You can find links to ALL of our social media accounts (regardless of where they are as you're listening to this) at homebrewgameclub.com.

Game Boy developer Ben Jelter joins the gang for a wide-ranging discussion on… Lots of things. Things like: Game design, GB Studio, his favorite homebrews, how to stay productive as a creative professional, hacker movies, the illusion of choice, Just World Theory, and what retro console he’s interested in developing for next (you won’t guess what it is). Oh, and we also talk about his excellent game The Machine, covered in depth on Episode 13 of our podcast. It’s a good time! Find all of Ben Jelter’s games here: https://benjelter.itch.io/ Pocket Pixels on Mastodon: https://pocketpixels.club Jeltron Games on Discord: https://discord.gg/uzZB2WuHY7 Still need to play The Machine? (Yeah, you do.) Get it here: https://incube8games.com/collections/boxed-games/products/the-machine-gbc As always, find links to our social media and more at: http://homebrewgameclub.com

The Game Club takes on The Machine, a dystopian sci-fi dark comedy for the Game Boy Color with surprising depth. Conor theorizes on how to keep hippies from turning into cannibals, Bart clarifies that we’re not watching a completely unrelated movie, and Nick embraces ethically compromised decision making. Still need to play the game? Get it here: https://incube8games.com/collections/the-machine Or check out a free demo here: https://www.themachinegame.com/ Our next game is Anguna for the Game Boy Advance, Atari 2600, and NES. Download the GBA and 2600 versions for free here: https://www.bitethechili.com/ Get the NES version here: https://the6502collective.itch.io/anguna-scourge-of-the-goblin-king Note: This month’s game club pick has nothing to do with The Machine movie starring Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill, coincidentally releasing on the same day as this podcast episode. Here is a link to that film’s official website, which we include here as a courtesy to our listeners and definitely not in a shameless attempt to improve our search engine results! https://www.themachine.movie/ As always, find links to our social media and more at: http://homebrewgameclub.com

Kevin Hanley, creator of NEScape! and co-host of the Assembly Line podcast, joins the Game Club to talk about his history as a developer, what he’s working on next, and why he thinks we’re in a “golden age” for NES homebrew. Our NEScape! livestream from March 2022: https://youtu.be/xnHryQBMcyE Kevin Hanley's website, where you can download many of his games for free: https://www.khangames.com/ Get NEScape! here (not the $999.99 version): https://khangames.itch.io/nescape As always, find links to our social media and more at: http://homebrewgameclub.com