There are often old consoles lying around in boxes or attics, collecting dust and whose owners don’t really know what to do. The concept is little known, but it is possible to buy new games to give these machines a second life.
Sylvain Gadrat’s office is a true throwback to the 80s. His bookshelf is full of consoles, impressive computers, old games and figurines of all kinds. But the centerpiece stands out well: his Nintendo NES released in 1983. “It really is my favorite console,” he says with a smile.
So much so that he developed a new game on this old console, and this concept is called homebrew. baptized super tilt bro, your arcade action game is all about kicking your opponent off the screen. Above all, super tilt bro It has just raised more than 70,000 euros on the Kickstarter platform while the initial goal of 40,000 euros was reached in two days, much helped by the international media.
This success is the culmination of 7 years of work. “I fell into the computing cauldron when I was very young, I learned about it from my father who was very interested in it,” recalls Sylvain. It all started with a selection that his parents made in his house. “My mother called me to tell me that she had found my old consoles in a box. She came to pick them up ”.
“I fully trained”
And among the machines, the Nintendo NES. “It was the first console I had when I was 7 years old. I wore it out!” Since then, the passion has never faded, on the contrary. When he took over the NES, Sylvain, a computer developer by training, wanted to understand the processor and programming of this machine. And above all, he creates a game.
Initially, he set out to make a game for enthusiasts only. “I totally trained myself, going to watch tutorial videos.” Then, from game conventions to discussions, he saw that his game was interesting. super tilt bro he begins to make himself known in the medium as he spends whole nights developing it.
He then approached video game publisher Broke Studio who, in 2018, floated the idea of adding a Wi-Fi chip to the game cartridge. A mix of two eras “even though the NES went out of production before Wi-Fi came along.” -Fi”, the developer amuses himself by pointing out.
This Wi-Fi chip allows you to play multiplayer with an NES console, connecting to a server. “I put everything I had to make a game accessible to everyone.” At the moment, this version is limited to two players.
The Wi-Fi feature also has the advantage of allowing you to upgrade the game as you go and update it remotely. Another particularity, the game code is open source, “this means that players can create their own version of the game, modify the characters, use their own servers to play online,” Antoine Gohin, founder of Broke Studio at Tech&Co. .
The Kickstarter is his idea. “We saw that the game was growing, so we thought about how we could proceed,” says Sylvain. This type of crowdfunding will not only allow the cartridge to be produced on a large scale, but Sylvain will also get paid after all these years of work.
The importance of the community
Kickstarter success is possible thanks to the community home brew. “The community brings together enthusiasts and people who want to preserve and archive the art of video games”, analyzes Sylvain Gadrat.
Patrice Rucar is the founder of the publishing house Côté Gamer. Since 2014 more than thirty games have been published. “We post based on a favorite for a game or if we’re interested in a focus.”
For him, “business exists in the community but passion is above all else.” And to set the price of a home game, several parameters come into play. “We estimate according to what seems to us a correct price between what the player is willing to put and according to the client’s work. We must also allow the publisher to anticipate, to invest in other projects”.
For example, MSX consoles, released in the 1980s, attract few gamers, so the prices of games will be lower than Neo-Geo consoles. Action and arcade games are the best sellers.
For Sylvain Gadrat, now a video-on-demand developer, homebrew is all about maintaining the gaming experience. “The cartridge is an integral part of the experience. Today the games are dematerialized ”, he laments.
Next step for the developer and his publisher, producing the S cartridgestop tilt brother by April 2023 to the 900 taxpayers who have requested them. But for the most curious, it is now possible to play online.
Leaving Sylvain’s house, his son is playing in the living room, a controller in his hands. Don’t worry about that side, the succession is assured.
Source: BFM TV
