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We were very excited to hear about the upcoming release of Zaxxon Arcade, a new homebrew title from Champ Games for the Atari 2600. Since then, the retro developer has announced that a demo ROM is available to download from its website. Depending on your region or maybe even preference, there are two versions available, NTSC and PAL60. YouTuber Steve’s Retro Gaming has made a great video showcasing the demo, which we’ve added below.
Zaxxon Arcade was revealed last month during ZeroPage Homebrew‘s Twitch stream, and since then, Champ Games has been working to add new features and fix a few bugs. They anticipate that the game is about 80% complete, with a projected release date of October 2026. The demo features the first three levels for the original Zaxxon and also includes the first three levels of Super Zaxxon, both with novice and standard skill levels.
The full version will include an advanced skill level, similar to the arcade, plus an all-new challenge skill level that will feature new enemies and power-ups. Champ Games also plans on including a champ level with new obstacles and a new final boss. Other planned features include a 2-player alternating option and SaveKey support. In the developers’ announcement, they mentioned that since the ROM is over 32K, it will not run on a Harmony or Harmony Encore.
