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Post by c64stuff on Aug 19, 2022 1:09:24 GMT
Thanks to a cartridge, doing things like running the Star Wars, Battlezone, Tempest, and other vector graphics actual arcade ROMS, demos with speech and music, an awesome Elite port, etc. BTW I should mention that besides after market controllers and spinners he mentions for the Vectrex, check out RetroGameBoyz. He also makes great controllers for the Vextrex and other systems and is I think local to the states for those not in the UK.
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Post by vic2020ian on Sept 10, 2022 17:30:08 GMT
VecFever is currently unavailable. The project is base in Germany.
It is a faboulous cartridge that can run recompiled Mame images of vector arcade games and also turn the Vectrex into a Vector monitor for a PC running a special version of Mame.
An alternative is PiTrex using a Raspberry Pi connected to a cartridge.
I have Both. VecFever is more polished at this time in my opinion.
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Post by c64stuff on Sept 10, 2022 23:30:34 GMT
It's a shame VecFever isn't open sourced so others can produce it. BTW a bit of topic but I think I read Vectrex was the first home game console to offer 3D graphics via glasses that plugged into the machine, and if I remember right those are pretty rare and it's even more rare to find a pair that isn't broken because the frame hinges tended to break. For that reason they're said to be one of the most expensive accessories for any retro console. Seems like a ripe product for people to start making to sell among the Vectrex collector community. I plan to buy one of these consoles sooner or later. Watched a documentary on it once and I think they said the founder had bought a bunch of warehouse vector graphics monitor stock meant for oscilloscopes and that's how the machine was born. A truly unique system. Always loved vector graphic arcade machines.
That's what I miss most about arcade, home computers, and game consoles from back then. Each had their own very unique taste in hardware, software, graphics, sound, and flavor. To me modern computers and gaming consoles are all alike and boring and bland. About the only thing that excites me these days is the inexpensive Raspberry Pi and the unique uses for it on versions of an OS, gaming, etc. It reminds me of the "fly by the seat of your plants" computing and gaming back then. And realistically it can do pretty much anything you need to do in terms of home PC needs or gaming, unless you're doing a lot of heavy lifting number crunching type chores in terms of software like photo editing, and even then it's fine for that as long as you have a little patience like people did back in the day.
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Post by jj0 on Sept 11, 2022 12:45:30 GMT
VecFever is currently unavailable. The project is base in Germany. It is a faboulous cartridge that can run recompiled Mame images of vector arcade games and also turn the Vectrex into a Vector monitor for a PC running a special version of Mame. An alternative is PiTrex using a Raspberry Pi connected to a cartridge. I have Both. VecFever is more polished at this time in my opinion. Cool, do you have a Vextrex32 as well? I have that and a PiTrex but have yet to get around really doing something with them...
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Post by vic2020ian on Oct 19, 2022 17:28:22 GMT
I don't have a Vectrex32 but I understand you can run Vectrex32 programs on PiTrex.
Some clever work going on with this great old machine.
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Post by c64stuff on Oct 19, 2022 23:11:10 GMT
We thought we were living in the golden age of Gaming when these systems were still being made but actually with today's modern hardware mods such as storage or video interfaces and even new games being written I'd say now is the real golden age of gaming on these old systems.
I'm curious if a OLED monitor would offer the same laser sharp resolution and brightness of a vector graphics display? If so, it might be a great way to build your own Vectrex or arcade vector graphics game console or arcade cabinet. Yeah, modern LCD displays can do a much better job at displaying vector graphics than CRT monitors did back then, but LCD is still missing that real vector graphics brightness and sharpness vibe.
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Post by c64stuff on Dec 24, 2022 18:04:00 GMT
Here's a video on PiTrex. I'm either going to eventually buy an original Vectrex or build a replica using a Pi and an OLED screen. I never owned one but I've always been a sucker for Vector graphics arcade games. I haven't looked into it yet but just wonder if you're using a Pi to emulate a Vectrex are there any emulators that will also add the functionality of PiTrex and VecFever?
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Post by c64stuff on Dec 24, 2022 18:42:39 GMT
A short overview and history of the Vectrex.
And some new games for it, although this video by John Hancock is about five years old and there's plenty of new games since then out for it.
The Retro Hour podcast on the history of the Vectrex.
The Retro Hour podcast that aired last year on new games being written for it. If I remember right in this podcast they interview a guy writing new games for it and the technical discussion on how it functions differently than other home consoles is pretty interesting.
The Vectrex mini build. Pretty cool stuff.
Are people are paying $1700 for a Vectrex? I don't know about that. If you look around you can often find one for $300 to $500 dollars. Even cheaper if you search for sale ads locally.
Here's a video on making a color Vectrex (yes, Vectrex not vector) arcade machine.
Making the Vectrex and even black and white arcade cabinets produce color.
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Post by c64stuff on Dec 24, 2022 19:41:28 GMT
VecFever is currently unavailable. The project is base in Germany. It is a faboulous cartridge that can run recompiled Mame images of vector arcade games and also turn the Vectrex into a Vector monitor for a PC running a special version of Mame. An alternative is PiTrex using a Raspberry Pi connected to a cartridge. I have Both. VecFever is more polished at this time in my opinion. If I heard them right in one or two of the above videos, VecFever uses the actual Vectrex processor to drive the software, which is pretty impressive if it's using it to run the arcade ROMs, although I'm sure they're using some extra hardware probably to carry the weight like perhaps overclocking or expanded ram to quickly swap memory chunks around fast? The interesting thing is I believe they said the PiTrex overrides the Vectrex CPU and uses the Pi processor to handle things. If that's the case there should be potential there to do things beyond what the VecFever can do with the right software being developed? I could see things like a Robotron port that even surpasses the arcade in number of robots on the screen with no slowdown, or a Star Wars port that goes beyond what the arcade was able to do. Maybe even a remake of one of those newer ports of Tempest that are out for I think the Atari Jaguar or some other more modern console I know I saw somewhere.
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Post by c64stuff on Dec 27, 2022 22:10:45 GMT
New Donkey Kong port for the Vectrex, and in this video he's using an automated LCD screen overlay filter to give individual objects on the screen their own colors. Amazing stuff.
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