Vectrex

The Vectrex is an 8-bit video game console developed by General Consumer Electric (GCE) and later bought by Milton Bradley Company. The Vectrex is unique in that it utilized vector graphics drawn on a monitor that was integrated in the console; no other console before or after the Vectrex had a comparable configuration, and no other non-portable game console had a monitor of its own (integrated). It was released in November 1982 at a retail price of $199. As the video game market declined and then crashed, the Vectrex exited the market in early 1984.

Smith Engineering briefly considered designing a handheld version of the device in 1988, though the success of the Nintendo Game Boy made such a project too risky. In the mid-1990s, Smith Engineering condoned the duplication of the Vectrex system image and cartridges for non-commercial uses and has expressed joy to see that it has still-thriving developer and user communities.

Unlike other video game consoles which connected to TVs to display raster graphics, the Vectrex included its own monitor which displayed vector graphics. The monochrome Vectrex used screen overlays to give the illusion of color, and also to reduce the severity of the inherent flickering caused by the vector monitor. 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 like Space Wars and Armor Attack. The system even contained a built in game, the Asteroids-like Minestorm.

The Vectrex controller featuring an analog joystick.

The two peripherals for the Vectrex were a light pen and 3D imager.

Trivia

*While it is widely believed that the Nintendo 64 was the first home console to include an analog controller, the Vectrex (and Atari 5200) preceded the N64 by over a decade.
*Even today there are new games in development by homebrew video game programmers. Also new hardware (for example VecVox - speech synthesizer) is available.
*Newport Cigarettes at one point commissioned a customized version of Web Wars. It just featured "Newport Cigarettes Presents" on the title screen and trophy room screen. Bill Hawkins finished the coding which was sent to Newport, but it isn't known what happened with that, if anything.

The Vectrex: an 8-bit video game console from the early 1980's

*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 % proof/copyright info running up either side. The game itself had custom text, and the player controlled a top hat rather than a vacuum.
*The game built in to the Vectrex, Minestorm, would crash at level 13. The consumers who complained to the company about it, got a cartridge in the mail. Entitled "MineStorm II", it was the fixed version of the Vectrex's built in game. But, obviously, not many wrote to the company about it, as MineStorm II is one of the rarest cartridges for the Vectrex system.
*Was the first system to offer a 3D Peripheral(The Vectrex 3-D Viewer), predating the Sega Master System's SegaScope 3D by about six years.

Technical Specifications

Circuit Board

*CPU : Motorola 68A09 @ 1.6 MHz
*RAM: 1 KB (two 4-bit 2114 chips)
*ROM: 8 KB (one 8-bit 2363 chip)

Sound

*Sound: General Instruments AY-3-8912
*3" magnet-driven speaker

Display

*CRT : Samsung 240RB40 B&W television (9 x 11 inches). Many myths exist about a custom "vector" CRT. The CRT was a standard 240mm (diagonal) black-and-white television picture tube and magnetic deflection yoke, and can be easily replaced with comparable black-and-white television components. However, rather than being driven by a conventional sawtooth deflection system (to generate a raster like a blank TV or monitor has), the Vectrex drove the deflection yoke with a digital-to-analog converter for each of the horizontal and vertical windings on the yoke, allowing dot position to be swept as the software needed. The CRT's beam was simply turned on and off under software control; to make a line on the display appear brighter, it would simply have to be refreshed more often. Unlike a regular TV set or monitor which has a stable horizontal stage to drive the flyback transformer, an independent oscillator was used to drive a regular television flyback transformer. Much of this adaptation of inexpensive off-the-shelf television components is also found in vector-based arcade machines like Asteroids.
*Display size could theoretically be increased, but would involve a massive redesign of the horizontal and vertical amplifiers, flyback oscillator and transformer, and beam control circuits.
*No external TV receiver hookup is needed, provided for, or even possible without mapping the display to some form of rasterized video memory.

3D Imager

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 3D Imager

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 is seeing are two different views of the same object. This creates the impression of 3-D and color.

Supported Games

*3D Pole Position (not released)
*3D Crazy Coaster
*3D Minestorm
*3D Narrow Escape

Screenshot/Overlay Gallery

List of game titles

Original

3D Crazy Coaster
3D MineStorm
3D Narrow Escape
AnimAction (requires light pen)
Armor Attack
Art Master (requires light pen)
Bedlam
Berzerk
Blitz! Action Football
Clean Sweep (aka Mr. Boston)
Cosmic Chasm
Engine Analyzer (requires light pen)
Flipper Pinball (aka Spinball)
Fortress of Narzod
Heads Up Action Soccer aka Soccer Football
Hyperchase Auto Race
Melody Master (requires light pen)
Mine Storm
Polar Rescue
Pole Position
Rip Off
Scramble
Solar Quest
Space Wars (adaptation of Computer Space)
Spike
Star Castle
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (aka Star Ship, not related to the Atari game of the same name)
Starhawk
Web Warp (aka Web Wars)

Unreleased Prototypes

Berzerk II
Cube Quest
Dark Tower
Mail Plane (requires light pen)
Melody Master II
Pitcher's Duel
Tour De France

Home Brew

Vec Sports Boxing
Vector Vaders (1996)
Patriots (1996)
All Good Things (1996)
Spike Hoppin' (1996)
Vecmania (1998)
Vectopia

1998

Omega Chase Deluxe (new title developed in 1998, based on Omega Race)

2000

Moon Lander (new title developed in 2000, based on Lunar Lander)

2001

2002

Gravitrex (new title developed in 2002, based on Gravitar)
Tsunami/VIX (new title (two games) developed in 2002, based on Tempest and QIX)

2003

Protector (new title developed in 2003)
War of the Robots (new title developed in 2003)
Yasi (new title developed in 2003)

2004

I, Cyborg (new title developed in 2004)
Revector (new title developed in 2004)
Thrust (new title developed in 2004)

2005

Debris (new title developed in 2005)
Nebula Commander (new title developed in 2005)

2006

Colorclash (New Title Released May 2006)
Space Frenzy (New Title Released March 2006)
Star Sling (New Title Released May 2006)
Vector 21 (New Title Released April 2006)

References

* Vectrex Faq 6.0
* Vectrex rarity guide

External links

* Vectrex News
* Vectrex forum
* Vectrex Portal
* Classic Game Creations - New Vectrex Games
* Spike's Big Vectrex Page Vectrex portal, recent games/projects/news, information archive
* Vectrex fansite Many screenshots, faqs, scanned manuals, scanned boxes and more.
* Vectrex Game Database great source of games and screenshots
* ParaJVE: Vectrex Emulator for Windows written in Java5
* Vecx: Vectrex Emulator for Windows by Valavan Manohararajah
* Port of Vecx to Xbox
* The Dot Eaters article featuring a history of the Vectrex

Vectrex: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents