The Vectrex had potential

[thanonyx thanonyx]

The Vectrex was a novel piece of gaming hardware, a console with it's own CRT monitor. Plus, the use of vector graphics instead of sprite based ones was an interesting choice. Sadly when it came out the industry crash of '83 happened not too long after robbing it of any chance to shine. I feel that it had potential and there's still people out there making homebrew games for it. It would be really cool if someone made a more modern looking one that can play every game for it on one cart or even have them built in. What do you think of the Vectrex and have you played one before?

 

[qw90700]

It looks like what you would think military use to send robots and control it with this device for high-tech wars or train soldiers for real wars with digital war simulators lol. But then when arcade places so popular it didn't make sense to buy a device like this. And then when people got used to arcade places and made babies video game consoles were a way to make kids stay in home for whatever parental reason people had so no wonder they could sell a lot in a way parents actually bothered to buy video game consoles for kids lol. In that regard a device like this with better graphics had released in 90s honestly it would be way more preferable because number 1 parent complaint regarding video game consoles was you either gotta buy 2nd TV to kid or let the kid steal 1 TV in the house so you may never know if a nuclear war had started so make sure you are always close to your basement, buddy lol. I seriously think and wished video game consoles should had their own screens especially after my momma broke my Atari 2600 just to watch news lol. Then I made her buy a Sega lol.

 

[ciro64]

Saw a video of it recently. Sounds like something very fun to make homebrew for.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

If anything, it was both a home arcade machine and owner of the sharpest graphics around. Both are worth praising, specially given the year this thing hit the market.

 

[Eclipse14]

Got to test one back in 2021 to make sure it functioned (first with the in-built MineStorm and again with Berzerk).

It truly is an interesting piece of work, due to the vector rendering, but in a greater scope of things, it suffers from the core issues I see with the second generation; the games were largely arcade ports or were in that style. You've pretty much seen everything there is to the games within 15 minutes, and a full session of playtime wouldn't last an hour. But then again, that was standard fare, for the time.

I still put it as my second-favorite 2nd-Gen system. It's hard to beat the 2600 with some of its more advanced games (like the stuff on Supercharger).

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I'd love to own one of these, I've always found the Vectrex fascinating.

 

[Deleted member 560402]

my parents had this and let me play it in the early 90s, but it disappeared one day. They must have sold it.

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

I never had a vectrex but we have to admit that it was a console ahead of its time but at the cost that it only generated vector graphics and also Because they were black and white so you would have to use a colored transparent film depending on the game to simulate it on the screen.

 

[qw90700]

I never had a vectrex but we have to admit that it was a console ahead of its time but at the cost that it only generated vector graphics and also Because they were black and white so you would have to use a colored transparent film depending on the game to simulate it on the screen.

Sadly so many high tech in their respective eras was not popular therefore all the advanced hardware were so wasted because it was too advanced for its time and I seriously mean it lol.

Lastly I felt the same thing about PS Vita. Technically the console is very powerful but it seem weak just because they wasted the whole hardware mostly with visual novels. So PS Vita could have had better games than PSP had but they just didn't bother despite development ease in many aspects. I'm just glad PS2 as a very advanced tech for its time wasn't wasted so thanks to its superior hardware we could enjoy games like Metal Gear Solid 3 in the state it was lol.

 

[ThunderBoy]

Vectrex is back with Vectrex Mini

https://vectrex.com/vectrex-mini-kickstarter/

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Vectrex is back with Vectrex Mini

https://vectrex.com/vectrex-mini-kickstarter/

Watch your mouth. I've seen a prototype of this mini. The workmanship was shoddy, you could hardly see the dim and tiny graphics, the controller was junk and the unit is tiny compared to the original. Seriously are any of these mini systems good for anything? Getting a real Vectrex can be expensive, so your best bet is to emulate on PC with Vectrexy. Everything included in download. The game ROMs were cleared in the 90s for commercial use so no worries about piracy

 

[calebthegnome]

Watch your mouth. I've seen a prototype of this mini. The workmanship was shoddy, you could hardly see the dim and tiny graphics, the controller was junk and the unit is tiny compared to the original. Seriously are any of these mini systems good for anything? Getting a real Vectrex can be expensive, so your best bet is to emulate on PC with Vectrexy. Everything included in download. The game ROMs were cleared in the 90s for commercial use so no worries about piracy

View attachment 117306

I saw it as well. It is just an early prototype, though, so I don't think the criticisms make much sense, especially when the creator said he wasn't finished with the design.

I do agree that all the mini consoles have limited appeal. They're largely about novelty. But I can see the appeal of the Vectrex mini more than most. It would make for a cool conversation piece and there is some added value to having the physical transparencies.