Vectrex Stuff

o1s1n

Wehey! Another Vectrex landed on these shores.

Wait until you see the joy that is those vector lines. And the buzzing. The sweet, sweet buzzing.

Doge

o1s1n wrote: »

Wehey! Another Vectrex landed on these shores.

Wait until you see the joy that is those vector lines. And the buzzing. The sweet, sweet buzzing.

I was just as impressed if not more looking at those lines!

Can't get over how sharp they look, I love the birght blue sparks in minestorm also when you hit hyperspace.

Can't wait to play it in the dark tonight to see the true glow,
wearing completely black clothes is essential for day time playing to minimize reflection, maybe even a ballyclava RA style if you're head is level with the screen!

I noticed when turning up the brightness full, you can see the "invisible" radial lines that come from the centre of the screen to connect to each vector.

Steve X2

waveform wrote: »

I was just as impressed if not more looking at those lines!

Can't get over how sharp they look, I love the birght blue sparks in minestorm also when you hit hyperspace.

Can't wait to play it in the dark tonight to see the true glow,
wearing completely black clothes is essential for day time playing to minimize reflection, maybe even a ballyclava RA style if you're head is level with the screen!

I noticed when turning up the brightness full, you can see the "invisible" radial lines that come from the centre of the screen to connect to each vector.

If you have a read of the manual it'll tell you to lower the brightness down until the dot in the middle of the screen cant be seen. Although it is nice to have it ultra bright some times

.

Myrddin

waveform wrote: »

wearing completely black clothes is essential for day time playing to minimize reflection, maybe even a ballyclava RA style if you're head is level with the screen!

Waveform by 8pm tonight

Doge

EnterNow wrote: »

Waveform by 8pm tonight

Well, I don't have the Last ninja in my sig for nothing!

Steve X2

Quick update/review on the Vectrex flash cart.

Pros:
1. Solid build quality(better than the original carts).
2. Comes with 32MB micro SD card which is small but fits every full game, homebrew game, music, slide shows and demo you can find for the device with loads of space left on the card.
3. It fits into the cart socket better than the original games for some reason.
4. You get to play homebrew games and some of them are better than what was actually officially released for the device.

Cons:
1. Probably could be cheaper but I thinks its well worth the cost.
2. Game names are limited to 13 characters which is fine for the full games but the homebrew, demos and slideshows can have very long descriptive names.
3. The games list on the Vectrex in a paging system. As in you have 4 or 5 games listed per page and you just cycle through all the pages. No folder support so you cant separate the different types of software into folders on the menu.



All in all a great device and I've already ordered a Virtual Boy Flash cart from the same guy.

Edit:
It's 4 games per page by the way. 1 per each action button on the joypad.

.

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Quick update/review on the Vectrex flash cart.

Pros:
1. Solid build quality(better than the original carts).
2. Comes with 32MB micro SD card which is small but fits every full game, homebrew game, music, slide shows and demo you can find for the device with loads of space left on the card.
3. It fits into the cart socket better than the original games for some reason.

Cons:
1. Probably could be cheaper but I thinks its well worth the cost.
2. Game names are limited to 13 characters which is fine for the full games but the homebrew, demos and slideshows can have very long descriptive names.
3. The games list on the Vectrex in a paging system. As in you have 4 or 5 games listed per page and you just cycle through all the pages. No folder support so you cant separate the different types of software into folders on the menu.
4. You get to play homebrew games and some of them are better than what was actually officially released for the device.


All in all a great device and I've already ordered a Virtual Boy Flash cart from the same guy.

.

Nice post ,but how is that a con? Surely the ability to play games that wern't officially released for the system is a Pro?

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Nice post ,but how is that a con? Surely the ability to play games that wern't officially released for the system is a Pro?

Don't know what you're talking about. You must have edited my post as that was clearly under the Pro's section :D:D

.

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Don't know what you're talking about. You must have edited my post as that was clearly under the Pro's section :D:D

.

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

More of a

CiDeRmAn

Not sure of the con there Steve, in fact it is the biggest pro of the device, and vastly improves the console.
Most of the games on the Vectrex never got updated, aside from Minestorm, and so it was up to homebrewers to get stuck in and provide the time and skill that the market said the Vectrex wasn't viable for.
So, we get Patriots, Rockaroids and the rest, also released beta code for games that never saw the light of day.

Bestest console EVER!

The Flashboy is not quite as much fun, the first run cart I had only held one game at a time, maybe this is something that can be changed as people get more used to the architecture of the machine, I don't know.
Also, there are only a handful of hard to find games and, truthfully, Space Invaders and Tetris aside (not V-Tetris, it's sh1te!) most of them are awful.
The homebrew scene is very early too, with little there aside from some demos and protos.
Maybe that's changed over the last year, I sold my Flashboy due to lack of use last summer.

Steve X2

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Not sure of the con there Steve,

What Con??

:D

.

CiDeRmAn

I sense something sneaky going on here, just can't put my finger on it....

Doge

After Oisín's post in the other thread about the Colour Prototype Vectrex,
it made me think how great it was if either a reproduction, or a more evolved vector display was made in this age.

If there was some magic way of changing the colour of the phosporus light dymanically on various parts of the screen, so it would be a true multi-colour display, it would amazing!

Would make for an intersting opensource / DIY project, but the availabilty of parts may prevent this from becoming a reality.

From reading the information page regarding the prototype:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jmorg/vectrex/VecColor.htm


It says that GCE planned a portable handheld version of the Vectrex with a tiny flat CRT screen thats only a few inches in size like the Sony Watchman:




Maybe a smaller Vectrex inspired display would be an easier srart for such a project!

I'd hate to see this technology die.

We need something modern that can emulate that beautiful glow, and those beautifully sharp lines! Take vector graphics to the next level!

Myrddin

waveform wrote: »

We need something modern that can emulate that beautiful glow, and those beautifully sharp lines! Take vector graphics to the next level!

The only thing that can emulate a vector display, is, well, a vector display.

Doge

EnterNow wrote: »

The only thing that can emulate a vector display, is, well, a vector display.

Then we need a homebrew vector display, capable of showing multi colour graphics!

And a community to develop games for it!

Myrddin

waveform wrote: »

Then we need a homebrew vector display, capable of showing multi colour graphics!

And a community to develop games for it!

Doge

Oh my goddddddddddd..........

Best online discovery of the day:

http://www.revival-studios.com/?page=32

VEXOS



Supported Media:
- APPS: Able to run binary code (BIN files)
- APPS: Able to run basic code (BAS files)
- APPS: Able to run brainf*&k code (BF files)
- GRAPHICS: Able to display bitmap graphics (JPG/BMP/TGA/PCX formats)
- GRAPHICS: Able to display Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG format)
- GRAPHICS: Able to display vector graphics and animations (VEC format)
- GRAPHICS: Able to display Logo hex-dumps (still unstable)
- GRAPHICS: Able to display 3D objects (OBJ format, exportable from 3dsmax)
- AUDIO: Able to play digtized sound (WAV format, and custom song format)
- AUDIO: Able to play Atari YM music files.
- AUDIO: Vecvox textreader
- DOCUMENTS: Able to display text files





And now for the worst bit...

No download linky yet (at least not on their site).



Check out the audio clips at the bottom of the page.

Speech Synthesis
Audio Clip Text File

PCM Playback:
Prodigy

The Last Bandit

Can it run Crysis ?

CiDeRmAn

It's amazing that a 30 year old machine is still capable of surprising people.
Looking forward to downloading it and giving it a whirl!

safetyboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdhybZfr2Mk

Anyone tried this, both my joysticks are banjoed.

No word from the ebay seller about my broken vectrex. I might try paypal dispute. but i might as well fix what i have.

Myrddin

safetyboy wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdhybZfr2Mk

Anyone tried this, both my joysticks are banjoed.

No word from the ebay seller about my broken vectrex. I might try paypal dispute. but i might as well fix what i have.

I wouldn't touch it. If no word back, dispute all the way. If you've tampered with it the seller could cause you hassle

safetyboy

I shall give him a few days and see what happens! cheers!

o1s1n

Best if he never replies - paypal dispute - money back - free Veccy!

safetyboy

How do i go about a dispute? I've never done it before?

safetyboy

o1s1n wrote: »

Best if he never replies - paypal dispute - money back - free Veccy!

Done a paypal dispute for full refund there! fingers crossed!

Myrddin

safetyboy wrote: »

Done a paypal dispute for full refund there! fingers crossed!

That'll get his attention anyway. With stuff like that sometimes I wonder if the seller ships it broke in the first place, hoping to get out of it somehow.

o1s1n

I'd only go to dispute if the guy wasn't replying to you at all. But usually if they don't reply to your emails, they wont reply to the dispute either.

I think they have something like 30 days to reply. If not by then, you get a 100% refund by default.

Good luck with it

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

But usually if they don't reply to your emails, they wont reply to the dispute either

I normally find the opposite, as basically the dispute locks the sellers PP account, preventing them from withdrawing money. I've done it about 4 times over nearly ten years, & I've always had success by doing it.

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

I normally find the opposite, as basically the dispute locks the sellers PP account, preventing them from withdrawing money. I've done it about 4 times over nearly ten years, & I've always had success by doing it.

Well the cases I have ended in success too, I just didn't get any response from the seller. They chose to ignore it and I was refunded after the 30 days.

I didn't know it locked their Paypal account. That's pretty hardcore stuff! I guess it stops them withdrawing everything and doing a legger.