Professor Melanie Swalwell, professor of digital media heritage at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, met with WSU Vancouver students on Sept. 2 over Zoom to discuss the importance of “homebrew games” during the era of micro-computers. Swalwell’s presentation was a part of The Games Lecture Series, presented by the Electronic Literature Lab through the university’s CMDC program.
“What’s nice about indie games and individual homebrew games is that there’s much more edginess to it … and you don’t get that from a lot of AAA games.” – Dene Grigar
Swalwell is the author of “Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality,” a book that focuses on the origin of homebrew games created during the introduction of microcomputers. These games are created by independent hobbyists or game developers that are not part of a greater commercial entity, and can be downloaded on certain consoles and computers. According to Swalwell, homebrew games developed during the late 1970s through the mid 1980s were mostly made by self-taught programmers.
“A typical homebrew game would cost $15 and consisted of a smudgy photocopied sheet of instructions, and a tape cassette or a floppy disk in a plastic bag,” Swalwell said.
One of Swalwell’s case studies is called the “Donut Dilemma,” a 2D platformer developed by Nickolas Marentes in 1984 for the TRS-80 Model 1. After school, Marentes would design the game’s sprites and animations on grid paper, coding the levels later during development. Marantes sold his game locally in his hometown, and today he continues to develop homebrew games for micro-computers.
Swalwell said although these micro-computers are no longer in production, homebrew games are still developed for them to this day. In her lecture, Swalwell also discussed CroZXy Road by Bob’s Stuff, a more recent example of a homebrew game. CroZXy Road is a “de-make” of the popular mobile game Crossy Road, developed in 2014 by Hipster Whale. A “de-make” is a game that was originally made for more recent hardware but has been remade on an older device. CroZXy Road was programmed in 2015 for the Sinclair ZX81, a home computer released in 1981. The game plays exactly like the mobile game that inspired it, using 8-bit graphics to run the program on a smaller memory card.
Dene Grigar, director of the CMDC and Electronic Literature Lab, sees independently made games as important in an industry that focuses on large studios, including well-known and high-budget AAA games made by popular commercial publishers.
“What’s nice about indie games and individual homebrew games is that there’s much more edginess to it … and you don’t get that from a lot of AAA games,” Grigar said.
WSU Vancouver students can make their own games using programming software at CMDC Studios, a branch within the CMDC program. Andrew Thompson, co-founder of CMDC Studios, said the program is used as a mirror of the game industry for students.
“We want it to be a comfortable transition when students work with us and someday go on to get jobs as game designers, so that they are familiar with working in their own teams, communicating with higher ups and having leadership meetings,” Thompson said.
Katya Farinsky, a director of CMDC Studios, works with students to create unique games that can develop valuable learning experiences for those participating in the program.
“All of the mainline projects are meant to be thoughtful and insightful. We take away some of the things that are very common in AAA games, as it forces our team to get creative, and gives us more to talk about when we’re thinking about portfolios,” Farinsky said.
The next Game Lectures Series talk, “A Tour of Retro Games in ELL’s Collection,” will be on Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. To learn more about CMDC Studios visit their website here.
Norman is a senior majoring in Integrated Strategic Communications and Digital Technology & Culture.