I bought a Vectrex!

by **Lysander** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:57 pm

Interesting concept. I wonder if I could actually use the thing...

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:51 pm

An interesting Vectrex programming site!

http://www.playvectrex.com/designit_f.htm

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:19 pm

Big news!

Mark from www.vectrexcarts.com wrote me back and said he'd make some games for me. For the price less than what ONE of them is going for on eBay I am getting:

o Protector / YASI (two games in one! Defender and Space Invaders clone)

o Rockaroids Remix (Asteroids clone)

o Scramble (original game made for the system)

o Star Castle (well, times to figure out what this one is all about)

This is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me.

The second big news is that someone made a C compiler for this thing. The thought of writing in Assembly, well, hahah, yeah right. I was going to have to steal routines from all the disassembled games and switch graphics if I could. I'm still reading up on the C compiler but if this is as good as it appears to be I will not rest until I have created a Vectrex game. I WILL NOT REST!

Well, I'll rest, but it won't be quality rest. I'll sleep on the floor or something.

by **AArdvark** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:49 pm

Robert Stickles (sutekh@feldspar.com) explained it very well like this:
The 3-D imager spins a disk which is 1/2 black and ]
1/2 colored bands
that radiate from the centre (Usually red, green and blue) between your
eyes and the vectrex screen. The Vectrex is synchronized to the
rotation of the disk (or vice versa) and draws vectors corresponding to
a particular color and/or a particular eye. Therefore only one eye will
see the vectrex screen and its associated images (or color) at any one
time while the other will see nothing.

A single object that does not lie on the plane of the monitor (i.e. in
front of or into the monitor) is drawn at least twice to provide
information for each eye. The distance between the duplicate images and
whether the right eye image or the left eye image is drawn first will
determine where the object will appear to "be" in 3-D space. The 3-D
illusion is also enhanced by adjusting the brightness of the object
(dimming objects in the background). Spinning the disk at a high enough
speed will fool your eyes/brain into thinking that the multiple images
it's seeing are two different views of the same object, and voila!
Instant 3-D and color.

Trippy!

As we all know, the very first Vectrex units were shipped with a flawed
version of Minestorm. Evidently nobody ever though that any player
could ever get to, let alone survive wave 12 so they only included data
for 12 waves. Predictably, most players found that their game crashed
after wave 12 (the "wave 13" bug) because the software indexed off the
end of the table which contains the information about what items were to
exist on each wave. It reads in garbage which usually causes the game
to crash.

=( silly of them!

THE
SERIOUSLY, YOU
COULD MAKE
A KILLER SNAKE TANK
OUT OF IT
AARDVARK

by **chris** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:11 am

pinback wrote:But no. He buys a Vectrex. For which Jackie Stewart once pimped a racing game on TV. That's all I remember about the Vectrex.

(Though, given my experiences with Nascar Chase To The Cup 2005 for the PS2 today, I'm thinking he has a point.)

I have an Atari 2600 in the attic, and I pulled my Intellivision out of storage a few weeks ago to play some games. Vintage arcade games are all well and good, but there's something special about the early home consoles. I applaud Jonsey for not only recognizing this, but going down the road less travelled and getting a Vectrex.

Next stop: BALLY ASTROCADE!

by **pinback** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:27 pm

chris wrote:Well, there's certainly something to be said about the simplicity and enjoyability of vintage video games. Don't knock 'em 'till you try 'em, Pinny.

Are you effing kidding me?

I literally (literally, mind you) spent every waking second of my life for the last two years I spent in California (10/01 - 10/03) playing Galaga.

And I don't even need to mention the Robotron Incident in Las Vegas, NV.

I LIVE for vintage video games, you ulcerous mass.

I just figured that, you know, if you've got a Crystal Castles game in your HOUSE, being pooped on by cats and snakes alike, that at some point you go, "Hey, actually, I think I'm good on old goddamn video games. Perhaps I will purchase something black and sexy and frilly for my significant other, and then secretly post photos of her on the internet at the reasonable rate of $16.99!"

But no. He buys a Vectrex. For which Jackie Stewart once pimped a racing game on TV. That's all I remember about the Vectrex.

(Though, given my experiences with Nascar Chase To The Cup 2005 for the PS2 today, I'm thinking he has a point.)

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 3:49 pm

Xbox wrote::(

I don't own this one. Anyway, I think the right way to express it would be =(

"I will never get tired of hurting you, Eddie" -- Nicolas Cage, 8mm

"I will never get tired of saying how big you are, Xbox" -- Ice Cream Jonsey, 35mm

by **chris** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 3:45 pm

Well, there's certainly something to be said about the simplicity and enjoyability of vintage video games. Don't knock 'em 'till you try 'em, Pinny.

by **Gamecube** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:26 pm

by **Xbox** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:26 pm

by **Playstation 2** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:26 pm

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 11:36 am

pinback wrote:Just... why? Why is this happening? Why an obsession with "Vectrex"?

...why?

Here's what sold me on the Vectrex: I'm playing the built in game. It's an Asteroids ripoff where there are mines instead of rocks.

Well all of a sudden on board two there are MORE than just mines there! There are things shooting at me! There are mines that follow me due to gravity or tracking prowess or something! It goes from, "Ho-hum, an Asteroids game" to COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME.

And that's just the built-in game.

I want more, goddammit. I love the controller. I love the fact that I can play it and I don't have to worry about "saving." I love the fact that the things have graphics where you can actually tell what the hell is going on.

I love it!

by **Worm** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 10:14 am

If you lived in NEPA you could just go down to the babysitting/punkrawk show place 'Cafe Metropolis' and had played their Vectrex.

by **pinback** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:10 am

Just... why? Why is this happening? Why an obsession with "Vectrex"?

...why?

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:02 pm

Why would I want to make them or why would I buy them or why am I going to cut you?

by **pinback** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:53 pm

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:47 pm

Yes, there is! I am pumped. I found this site:

http://www.vectrexcarts.com/

And it looks like the guy will sell any game for it for $10.

I also found some source code for Vectrex games. I'd love to make one for the hell of it but goddamn is there some esoteric Assembly involved. It looks like after four times I'm finally going to get an "A" in Intel Assembler, but this 6508 shit is a step into another dimension. There also does not appear to be any sort of how-to guide or tutorial or anything for it.

But anyway, I just wrote the guy and asked him about a cart with a Defender / Space Invaders clone, an Asteroids clone and then two old/original Vectrex games (Scramble and Star Castle). I'd be pumped if the guy was selling them for the $10 a cart he seems to be. The carts are running a little more expensive than I feel like paying for on eBay and they don't have the homebrew games available.

by **chris** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:24 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:All the games I want to get for this thing (the Qix clone, the Omega Race clone) seem to be developed by guys years after the system was released, and I can't figure out how to buy/obtain them. :(

There has to be a Vectrex fan site out there someplace...I know there are plenty of 'em for Ataris, and that's where you can get the poop on obtaining new ROMs.

Oh, and buy some stuff off of eBay.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 3:19 pm

Look at all the games!

http://vgdb.vectrex.com/index.pl

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:13 am

All the games I want to get for this thing (the Qix clone, the Omega Race clone) seem to be developed by guys years after the system was released, and I can't figure out how to buy/obtain them. :(

I bought a Vectrex!

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