Developer Spotlight: Mardi Gras Brings New Orleans to the Atari 2600
There is no setting more alive than a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. The floats crawling down the street. The jazz band somewhere behind you. The crowd pressing in from every side. Throws raining down from riders up above. A daiquiri in your hand and absolutely zero plan for what comes next.
Now imagine that energy on an Atari 2600.
Mardi Gras is one of the most original concepts to hit the retro homebrew scene in years — and it’s coming to Houston Arcade Expo 2026 this November, published by Retromaniacs.
🎊 The Game
You are attending your very first Mardi Gras parade in good ole New Orleans. The jazz band is playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” You have your daiquiri in hand. You are ready to party. Get ready, here comes the parade!
As a Mardi Gras goer, your goal is to catch as many throws as possible — beads, doubloons, trinkets tossed from the float riders perched above. The floats are pulled by tractors, rolling down the street while the crowd surges forward chasing the best throws. But it’s not all easy pickings: between the floats, there are marching bands, mounted police on horseback, and the dramatic flambeaux carriers lighting the night — all of them standing between you and your haul.
Dodge. Dart. Catch. Score. Laissez les bon temps rouler.
👨💻 The Creators
Mardi Gras is a collaboration between two people who clearly love both retro gaming and Louisiana culture — though one of them has experienced it entirely from a distance.
The original game concept comes from Brian Matherne, a Louisiana native who dreamed up the idea of capturing the chaos and joy of a real New Orleans parade in arcade form. The programming was handled by Ross Adkin — who lives in the UK and has never set foot at a real Mardi Gras parade. That didn’t stop him from turning Brian’s vision into something that actually runs on 40-year-old hardware, which makes the authenticity of the final result all the more remarkable. Sometimes you don’t need to be there to get it exactly right.
The result is a game that feels genuinely joyful — something rare in homebrew circles, where darker or more technically ambitious themes tend to dominate. Mardi Gras doesn’t try to be a shooter or a dungeon crawler. It just wants you to have a good time. And honestly? That’s exactly what Mardi Gras is supposed to feel like.
🎺 Why This One Stands Out
The Atari 2600 homebrew community is full of impressive technical achievements, but Mardi Gras stands out for a different reason entirely: it’s rooted in a real place, a real cultural tradition, and a very specific kind of American joy. There is literally no other Atari 2600 game like it.
The purple, green, and gold box — complete with fleur-de-lis accents and a real parade photograph — is already one of the most distinctive cartridge packages we’ve seen. It looks like it belongs in a French Quarter novelty shop and a retro gaming collection at the same time.
Mardi Gras debuts at Houston Arcade Expo 2026 in Houston, Texas this November, published by Retromaniacs. Physical cartridges will be available at the show and in our store following the event.
Come find us in Houston. We’ll be the ones catching throws.