This is really fun! BTW would you happen to have access to a PNG of the awesome box art I can use for my thumbnail? I can only find 3D versions. If not, no worries!
Hi, thanks a lot for the video! It's a great pleasure for me to see players enjoying the game, thanks for making and sharing the video :)
Here are some answers / comments to questions asked during your video:
- During the "Arcade" and "Contest mode, your score increases and you must make the best score. Each treasure earn you a defined amount of points: 3 points for a coin, 4 points for a diamond, 5 points for a ruby. And hitting and killing skulls earns you even more points (10 for a regular skull, 35 for a boss).
- In the "Levels" mode, you must collect a defined number of treasures / kill a fixed amount of enemies to clear the level. So in this mode the score decreases each time you "earn points". When you reach zero you clear the level, like you did in the video.
- The levels all looks the same (there is a single "brown" area), but each level has a different layout (type and place of treasures and enemies). Each level is hand-tailored to offer a slightly more difficult challenge each time you progress in the game.
- You should definitively try the level 4, you're in for a "big" surprise that you haven't discovered yet in the video.
- The "digging power" of the minigun does not vary over time, you have the same power whether you are playing level 1 or level 16 - only the challenge you face becomes harder :).
- The "TV" setting in the main menu allows you to configure your TV type when playing on real hardware to have the game look right on every machine region. When played on a PAL console (so Europe and Australia) the game will look strange on startup, as it'll be configured as a NTSC game. But selecting the "TV: PAL" setting will make the game look as good on PAL machines as on NTSC consoles. The Stella emulator that you use runs in NTSC mode by default. And the SECAM TV type will display colors when played on an actual SECAM version of the 2600 (exclusive to France, can display only 8 colors instead of the 100+ colors of NTSC and PAL versions). But the "SECAM" setting doubles as a "Black & White" mode when played on a NTSC or PAL machine.
- There are a lot of other Atari 2600 homebrew for you to try if you like the console, the scene is very active since a very long time. The best place to find them are the AtariAge forums. For example, James from the ZeroPageHomebrew Twitch show is keeping track of all homebrew released each year, for all Atari consoles. Here is the Atari 2600 list of homebrew released in 2025: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/378304-atari-2600-homebrew-games-releasedcompl...
- And as requested, here is the front cover art, drawn by the wonderful William Thorup (commissioned by AtariAge, who published the physical release). It's not the final-final version (it lacks the copyright info in the bottom right) but the image is the final one :).
Thank you for sharing all of that information. I just completed Level 4!
You put a lot of thought and effort into your game. The PAL/NTSC filter is very useful for those playing on real hardware. I'm new to Atari games and wanted to check out some homebrews and I spotted your game on the homepage of AtariAge! The list of homebrews you shared will keep me busy.
Thank you also for sharing the cover art. William Thorup has designed other covers I've noticed and they are all very good! My next game queued up is Axercise!