How Champ Games tricks old hardware with new cartridges on the Atari 2600

gamedeveloper.com:

The Atari VCS, later renamed the Atari 2600, had a unique design that made it famously challenging to develop for. Whole books have been written about that process, such as Racing the Beam from MIT Press. Hobbyists have been tackling the challenge of making new games for the 2600 since nearly the end of that system's long life. Some of them appear in officially-released collections, such as a fanmade Adventure sequel appearing on the Atari Flashback.

Lately, the cartridge format has allowed the use of an old trick, that of including extra hardware in the cartridge to increase the capabilities of the main system, to make possible games that are much more complex than were possible during the Atari’s heyday. One group making Atari games with frankly amazing visuals and play is Champ Games. They agreed to talk with us about how they overcame the 2600’s legendary limitations.

The market for games for retro consoles is necessarily a niche one. How is business going for you? How do you promote your products?

Since Champ Games is a hobby, it’s not treated the same as a typical business as far as marketing is concerned. We mainly promote through social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram) and through the AtariAge website forums.

We also have a dedicated website that has information on all of our games and upcoming projects, as well as an online store for purchasing digital copies. Physical distribution (Atari cartridges with professionally printed labels, manuals, and boxes) is done through our publisher AtariAge, and they will promote our games as well.

Additionally, we promote our games by attending classic video game conventions (like the Portland Retro Gaming Expo) where we have our games set up to play and can