games,games,games
View allAll Photos Tagged vectrex
How the old computer stuff is shaping up in the new place. It's still work in progress, but getting there I think.
I'd have some sort of competition to name everything you can see, but there's nothing that rare here and, anyway, a lot of stuff has the name of it on the front/top somewhere....hence I've tagged everything I can instead.
(that said, you don't see Atari 1200XLs, Philips N60s or Timex TS1500s in the UK that often)
my basement computer room [set]
see www.bytecellar.com/qtvr.html for more...
Click on 'All Sizes' to get a much better look...
Panorama generated with Apple Quicktime VR Studio 1.0. Photos taken with an Apple QuickTake 200 digital camera (640x480 resolution per photo, camera rotated).
This entire 1982 gaming magazine is asking to be scanned, there's a whole section comparing all the systems (Atari, Intellivision, Odyssey2, Astrocade (?) and the nascent Colecovision.
Despite the ad copy, Vectrex was never on anyone's radar, although the concept of a portable vector-based system seems pretty cool in retrospect.
The extreme excitement portrayed by the people in this in ad borders on mania. However, it still has resonance, my 7 year old saw this ad and asked me why everyone was looking at each other and not the game. Good point.
This one has some bugs -- the beam doesn't properly turn off some of the time, leading it to create extra lines.
More info: trmm.net/Vectrex_games and trmm.net/MAME
Emulating Tempest in MAME, displaying the vectors on a Vectrex game console's XY monitor. More info: trmm.net/Vectrex
iPad (4th gen) running Vectrex Regeneration, next to my trusty Vectrex console.
Here's my review of the Vectrex Regeneration emulation system:
toucharcade.com/2012/11/28/vectrex-regeneration-review-io...
Last weekend when I was at my friends house helping brew beer and when we brought the beer into the basement he showed me this old video game console from the early 1980s. Vectrex video games apparently was a complete commercial failure. I had never seen or heard of it. Just the look of the console and story behind this thing... and being intoxicated...ha..(where the best ideas are born)...i knew it had to be the subject of a lightpainting photo. So i borrowed it, and will now return it! Its a surreal/ conceptual shot. Im really happy with how it turned out. Originally i thought i was going to have to do a double exposure type shot.....but managed to work it all out and do this photo in one single exposure. Two tripods, Lens cap 3 times between transitions.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vectrex
Manufacturer Smith Engineering
Type Video game console
Generation Second generation
Retail availability NA November 1982
EU May 1983
JP June 1983
Media ROM cartridge
CPU Motorola MC68A09 @ 1.5 MHz
Controller input Two
The Vectrex is an 8-bit video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering. It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric (GCE), and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE. It was released in November 1982 at a retail price of 199 USD ($430 compensated for inflation); as Milton Bradley took over international marketing the price dropped to 150 USD and then 100 USD shortly before the video game crash of 1983.The Vectrex exited the market in early 1984.
Unlike other non-portable video game consoles, which connected to televisions and rendered raster graphics, the Vectrex has an integrated vector monitor which displays vector graphics. The monochrome Vectrex uses plastic screen overlays to generate color and various static graphics and decorations. At the time, many of the most popular arcade games used vector displays, and GCE was looking to set themselves apart from the pack by selling high-quality versions of games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack.
Vectrex comes with a built in game, the Asteroids-like Minestorm. Two peripherals were also available for the Vectrex, a light pen and a 3D imager.
The Vectrex was also released in Japan under the name Bandai Vectrex Kousokusen.
While it is a mainstay of disc-based console systems today, the Vectrex was part of the first generation of console systems to feature a boot screen, which also included the Atari 5200 and Colecovision.
System features and innovations
The Vectrex was the first system to offer a 3D peripheral (the Vectrex 3D Imager), predating the Sega Master System's SegaScope 3D by about six years. Also, early units have a very audible "buzzing" from the built-in speaker that will change as graphics are generated on screen. This is due to a lack of shielding between the built-in CRT and the speaker wiring and was eventually resolved in later production models. This idiosyncrasy has become a familiar characteristic of the machine.
Several companies offered or included Vectrex software in their products or promotions. The liquor company Mr. Boston gave out a limited number of customized cartridges of Clean Sweep. The box had a Mr. Boston sticker on it. The overlay was basically the regular Clean Sweep overlay with the Mr. Boston name, logo, and copyright info running up either side. The game itself had custom text, and the player controlled a top hat rather than a vacuum.
Some of the Vectrex's games feature unusual qualities or innovations, and new games are still being produced today by homebrew video game programmers.
The game built into the Vectrex, Minestorm, would crash at level 13. However, on some machines the game would continue much farther, with levels containing very unusual characteristics. The game would come to an ultimate end at its highest level, in which more mines were laid than would hatch. Consumers who complained to the company about the crash at the 13th level received a replacement cartridge in the mail. Entitled MineStorm II, it was the fixed version of the Vectrex's built in game. However, not many wrote to the company about it due to no advertisement of any sort, making MineStorm II one of the rarest cartridges for the Vectrex system.
German:
Das Vectrex ist eine Spielkonsole, die 1982 auf den Markt kam. Auffälligstes Merkmal ist der eingebaute Hochformat-S/W-Bildschirm zur Ausgabe der Vektorgrafik. Dieser Kompaktaufbau führte zur Einstufung durch Fachzeitschriften in eine eigene Kategorie: Mini-Arcade. Federführender Entwickler war Jay Smith, welcher bereits 1979 das Microvision Handheld für MB entwarf. Hergestellt und veröffentlicht wurde die Konsole in den USA von General Consumer Electric (GCE) ab 1982. In Europa und Japan übernahm MB den Vertrieb. 1984 stellte MB den Vertrieb ein.
Aufbau:
Das Vectrex war, ähnlich wie der Ur-Mac der Firma Apple, ein „alles-in-einem“-Gerät. Der mitgelieferte Controller fand in einer dafür vorgesehenen Halterung an der Frontseite Platz, so dass das Gerät an einem integrierten Tragegriff transportiert werden konnte. Im ROM war mit Minestorm, einem Asteroids-Klon, bereits ein Spiel vorhanden.
Weitere Spielmodule konnten über einen Einschub an der rechten Seite eingesteckt werden. An der Vorderseite befanden sich 2 Anschlüsse für zwei Controller sowie der Ein-/Ausschalter, der gleichzeitig als Lautstärkeregler diente. Die Bedienelemente des Controllers waren ein analoger Joystick und vier nebeneinander angeordnete Knöpfe.
Jedem Spiel lag eine Overlay-Folie bei, welche in eine entsprechende Halterung vor die Bildröhre gesteckt wurde. Dadurch konnten zum einen statische Strukturen (Gebäude, Bildschirmfenster) ohne spezielle Kennzeichnung voneinander abgegrenzt werden, zum anderen konnten einzelne Bereiche eingefärbt werden. Der Unterschied des Spieleindrucks mit oder ohne Overlay ist erstaunlich. Das Konzept wurde von Jay Smith bereits beim Microvision-Handheld verwendet.
Der Rechnerteil bestand aus einem mit 1,5 MHz getakteten Motorola-6809-Mikroprozessor mit 1 KB RAM und 8 KB ROM (4 KB „Executive“ und 4 KB für Minestorm). Als Soundchip kam ein AY-3-8912 von General Instrument zum Einsatz. Der Bildaufbau erfolgte komplett CPU-gesteuert, d. h. die CPU steuerte in Echtzeit das Zeichnen auf dem Schirm über eine X/Y-Ansteuerung der Bildröhre.
Some photos of my fathers that i scanned and grouped together. He worked in Research & Design at Milton Bradley for over 20 years.
This is a prototype of the Vectrex home video arcade system that MB and GCE put out in the early '80s.
The photographer in the pic is not my dad.
Asteroids Deluxe on the Mini Arcade cabinet with a Vectrex display. There is quite a bit of phosphor persistence!
Building a new set for our show, The Forge, at TechSmith. Some of this tech will be in the background display.
Tabela Periódica Completa de todos os Controllers & Joysticks. Idealizada pelo Pixel Fantasy - www.flickr.com/photos/techthis/3368683205/