Homestar Runner Atari 2600 RPG Nears Release

Thanks to Atari Age for pointing out an updated demo of the Homestar Runner Atari 2600 RPG has been made available on their forums, and an attached message notes "...new bigger tiles, bigger map, ability to move between different maps and enter some buildings, [and a] partially done inventory screen." There's more information on this previously covered title at the official Homestar Runner RPG site, which lists pertinent features for the game, which is due to be released this May, including: "Will be released as a cartridge for the Atari 2600", and "Strongbad is not playable because he is the villain!"

Comments

It's Hoamshtarr!

[Oncogene]

Ye find yeself in yon dungeon. Ye see a FLASK. Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.

Re:It's Hoamshtarr!

[mythosaz]

You mean, it won't be this game?

Re:It's Hoamshtarr!

[CompSurfer]

Enter yon dungeon!

One Strong Bad Question

[mythosaz]

Will he use his powers for good, or awesome?

Re:One Strong Bad Question

[Oncogene]

If it were too awesome, girls would try to make out with the screen, and they'd have to program it to be like, "Back off, bay-bee."

Re:One Strong Bad Question

[-kertrats-]

The word is awexome

Perth people who need a deck...

[Kris_J]

The first 8 or 9 people that can come to my house in Perth, Western Australia, with one of these carts in their hand can have, free, an Atari 2600. Earlybirds get their choice of 6-switch, 4-switch and Jr. 9V power supply is your problem, but I will make sure the Atari works before you leave. Follow the link to my website for my email address.

I'm not affiliated with the game in any way, I just collect old video games stuff and have more Atari 2600s than I know what to do with.

Re:Perth people who need a deck...

[obeythefist]

It's not like I have a problem with this or anything, but when 2 out of 10 posts on slashdot are from us west aussies there is definately something funny going on. Or these americans just act all tough but they sleep just like everyone else!

Re:Perth people who need a deck...

[Anonymous Coward]

cool jacket dude!

Re:Perth people who need a deck...

[Anonymous Coward]

nice hummer too! can i take it for a spin?

Here we go

[jetfuel]

Cue hundreds of people getting +5 Funny for posting verbatim transcriptions of their favorite Homestarrunner lines. Then hundreds more also getting modded up for replying with the next line of the scene.

Re:Here we go

[Beeswarm]

Here comes the Thnikkaman!

Re:Here we go

[Incoherent07]

Here, jetfuel, have a trophy.

Re:Here we go

[black mariah]

Hey stupid! I brought you this stuff! I mean, I made you this veggie burger...

Re:Here we go

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't have a cow, man!

Re:Here we go

[lptport1]

The player wouldn't control me... Cuz you can't control me!

Re:Here we go

[aggieeit]

Yeah, shut up kid!

Re:Here we go

[PhilipMatarese]

Here comes the Thnikkaman!

Here comes the Thnikkaman!

Re:Here we go

[Anonymous Coward]

Cue some jackhole feeling very clever and proud of himself for successfully determining, and pointing out, that people like stuff, and also like talking about it.

Time to close up shop boys, jetfuel cracked the case!

Re:Here we go

[alatesystems]

"Ya momma tried to tell me 'bout the laaaaaazer crabs"
-- Coach Z, Strongbad Sings CD

Re:Here we go

[SteakandcheeseUm]

Who the hell is this guy?

Re:Here we go

[ArmpitMan]

I shall now define, for your enlightenment, the Three Stages Of Funny, scientifically determined using state-of-the-art anus-extraction technology.

Stage One: Quoting In-Jokes
Everyone loves a good in-joke. They're hilarious to everyone who has shared the experience which spawned it, and incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't. Making pop-culture references is a particular form of in-joke which takes advantage of the fact that a much larger proportion of people are in on the joke. Unfortunately, this has the negative consequence that, within a large group of people, there are going to be many for whom the in-joke has already died, was never funny in the first place, etc. Eventually, this leads to...

Stage 2: Whining About Overused In-Jokes
Eventually, if you hear "We are the knights who say ni!" enough times, it's just not funny anymore. And you just keep hearing it, perpetuated among people who think it is. Eventually you begin to feel that such people are clearly braindead, to find such tired, overused humour funny. Don't they have the creativity to come up with their own jokes? Eventually, a person in Stage 2 will attempt to turn their bitterness into humour. Look how stupid these people are with their overdone jokes! Check out all this cliched, hackneyed humour, masquerading as originality! How wonderful it is to have an ironic distance from all of that!

Unfortunately, it usually takes far too long for a person in Stage 2 to realize that this subversive, ironic humour that they felt was so unique is still an in-joke; one meant for the people who have experienced an oversaturation of unoriginal humour. And that this joke is just as tired. After reaching enlightenment, such a person will attempt to struggle towards...

Stage 3: Actually Being Funny
This is left as an exercise to the reader. (Oh, drat, Stage 1 humour! Retreat!)

Re:Here we go

[Night Goat]

D'oh! Where's the beef?

eh

[nexex]

Strongbad is not playable

then whats the point

Re:eh

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly, I refuse to play a homestar RPG that doesn't feature strongbad.

Jesus why?

[ReverendBobtheJunkie]

It's legacy for a reason... let it die... :(

Re:Jesus why?

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

If you haven't seen some of the (at the end they have some games to play) other games they have on their website, they make them in old skool Atari look... blocky graphics, 8-bit sound, the whole 8 yards...

Just a natural extension. I think it's cool, but my Atari probably doesn't work anymore.

Re:Jesus why?

[ReverendBobtheJunkie]

I've seen Homestar. It's horrible. I don't understand how anyone can like that crap.

Re:Jesus why?

[strictnein]

Well, unfortuntately for you, you seem to be in the small minority on that one.

Sorry.

Re:Jesus why?

[Anonymous Coward]

The 2600 is a very sturdy and durable beast, chances are on your side that it is indeed working.

I own about 10 machines and not any of them have broken.

~JessPKC

How'd they get it on a cart?

[Kleedrac2]

What's more interesting to me than the game itself (though as an avid Strongbad fan I can't wait for the game either) is how are they going to produce an Atari 2600 cartridge? If this process is easy (which I can't imagine it would be) then why haven't we seen more Atari/NES/(S)NES games come out from the indie scene. If this process is difficult then I wonder if there would be a tutorial/HOWTO on the process somewhere?

Kleedrac

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[holnet]

Well, on some of the other projects on his page, he links to the atariage.com store. I looked there, and they provide services to homebrew game makers. Kinda cool actually, though they say that for the shell they take an old 2600 game, clean off the label, and use the shell. That seems kinda wasteful (and destructive). I mean, it's a small plastic box. How hard could that be to manufacture??

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[Anonymous Coward]

They could reduce waste by digging up the old ET cartridge landfill and using those cases.

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[kaellinn18]

though they say that for the shell they take an old 2600 game, clean off the label, and use the shell. That seems kinda wasteful

Recycling is now wasteful? Man, Earth is screwed...

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[gmhowell]

Yeah, because god forbid someone destroy a copy of ET or Custer's Revenge (although the latter probably didn't sell in large numbers).

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[kisrael]

There's a reasonably active indie/homebew scene.

For the 2600, it's based on the [stella] mailing list, and for the manufacturing, AtariAge.com is a great bet for someone who just wants their game manufactured and publicized and not (nec. maximizing pure profit, just taking a royalty per cart)

I just had my first atari 2600 game JoustPong made, released it at "PhillyClassic 5". You can order it at atari age.

People interested in trying it themselves...it's not easy to learn to program it, but isn't too bad if you know assembly or at least are good in some high level languages. I recommend my own tutorial, 2600 101 for people looking to learn.

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[holnet]

LOL. OK. That didn't come out right. I was thinking about it like melting down a valuable coin collection for the metal. I guess I should have said 'destructive' and left it at that. I didn't think there were that many old 2600 carts still around. I still have my collection from when I was a kid (not that I play them...), and I can't imagine ripping them apart just for their plastic case. I do remember reading about all those ET cartridges buried in the desert somewhere... Those would make good plastic shells.

Re:How'd they get it on a cart?

[Kris_J]

Those would make good plastic shells.

Actually, they used a type of label that's a complete bastard to get off. But there are plenty of common 2600 carts out there that deserve to be converted into something new. It's impossible, for example, to buy an Atari 2600 collection these days without getting two copies of Space Invaders. I recently shipped 30+ carts off to AtariAge for recycling. Half of them were Space Invaders and Asteroids.

Strongbad is not playable...

[PhilipMatarese]

Strongbad is not playable because "You can't control me!"

Who do you play then?

[b0r0din]

I wouldn't mind playing a futuristic cyber warrior with a cyber shield.

Let's examine possible games with characters other than Strongbad.

Homestar Baseball 2004 - Let's play ball. Except of course, the game requires using a baseball bat, and some people don't have any arms.

Bub's Burger Time - This game I could see playing. Although watch out for invisible villains sneaking off with your Swiss Cake Rolls.

Coach Z's Street Basketball - "Where my lasers at?"

Marzipan's Dance Dance Revolution - can you really go wrong with Carol as lead guitar?

Trogdor's Burninating Rampage - Burninate all the people...in their THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!!!

Pom Pom's Pong - Just pong pom pom around with two old-school paddles.

The Cheat is Not Dead - Max Payne style, starring the Cheat as an undercover raver and ladies' man. He fights the law...he also fights the crime, but not as much.

Re:Who do you play then?

[Spunk]

Trogdor's Burninating Rampage - Burninate all the people...in their THATCHED ROOF COTTAGES!!!

Here you go.

expensive

[kc78]

I was planning on purchasing it until I found out it was going to cost around 45 dollars. I'm hoping they have an emulator version for the rest of us then.

Re:expensive

[DJayC]

You're in luck.. right off the homepage:

- Will be released as a cartridge for the Atari 2600
- ROM will also be released for emulators

Re:expensive

[Paul Slocum]

"Around $35 without a box or around $45 if we decide to do a box." I'm estimating on the high side to account for unexpected costs, so it could certainly cost less. We're trying to make it as cheap as possible, but the materials can add up and it's a lot of work to manufacture new carts.

-paul

This is stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't they make it a PC game so we can all enjoy it? If the retro style is that important, they can make the graphics and sound Atari style. Why narrow your audience down to such a tiny niche if you don't have to?!?

Re:This is stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Easy: Emulation. The VCS is a pretty low common denominator, and emulators for it exist for multiple platforms.

Seems like an easy way of expanding their audience easily, if you ask me.

Duck?

[FubarPA]

So, soes Homestar get to release a duck to go after Strongbad?

Somebody get this freakin' duck away from me!.

For those that don't know, one of the menus is gaming themed, and selecting one of the options displays Strongbad with a trophy running from a dragon from Adventure. Good stuff.

The real question is...

[Stormwatch]

...is Fhqwhgads a playable character?