Could the Vectrex be reborn?

[Castlebrick]

The first big find at my local thrift store was a Vectrex! Unfortunately it was in the auction case, and the bidding went too high (I'm a kid, I don't have that much money!) This got me thinking. Since the Vectrex is public domain could somebody potentially put the machine back into production? I know there is an iPad app. This also brings up two questions. Is there a demand for the Vectrex still, and would the cost of manufacturing the machine allow for a profit?

[Mayhem]

No, the Vectrex is not in public domain. Neither are the original games. They are free to download and use in emulation as stipulated by Jay Smith, but for non-commercial use. He still retains copyright, and are thus NOT public domain.

[Castlebrick]

The first big find at my local thrift store was a Vectrex! Unfortunately it was in the auction case, and the bidding went too high (I'm a kid, I don't have that much money!) This got me thinking. Since the Vectrex is public domain could somebody potentially put the machine back into production? I know there is an iPad app. This also brings up two questions. Is there a demand for the Vectrex still, and would the cost of manufacturing the machine allow for a profit?

Ah, I could have sworn I heard it was public domain. It serves me right, I should have done my research. Thanks for pointing out my false information.

[Vic 2000]

I think that Vectrex is THE console to emulate these days.

Why?

Because of the plastic overlays. Without them it's not much left. Ovelays is easy to emulate in an emulator. It's so sad to see homebrews or even new commercial games sold without the nessessary plastic overlay. All that is left is white lines on black background.

The overlays was vital for Vectrex.

[highinfidelity]

Do you really think so? I have always played my unit without them and, honestly, I never missed them really much. Most of them add nearly nothing to the gameplay, like MineStorm's overlay that is basically a plain cyan sheet.

Definitely I would not trade my hardware machine for an emulator with emulated overlays, that's for sure. Many vector-monitor arcade classics were monochrome, by the way. Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Omega Race, Red Baron, Tail Gunner...

Over the years there have been people selling overlays reproductions, however. I can't say anything about their quality as I never really felt any need for them.

[Vic 2000]

It's not only the colours but the artwork as well that makes the plastic overlays so vital for me.

Vectrex was designed to use overlays for a good reason, to recreate the arcade feeling. Vectrex was never thought of to be used without the overlays.

A good thing is that overlays can be made by anyone.
http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/vec_other.html

This is pretty much Vectrex for me (click for full size)



The glowing colours, the arcade feeling.



Overlays is used in MAME as well to recreate the arcade feeling of certain games.

[Mayhem]

The overlays was vital for Vectrex.

Nah, I've been into the Vectrex since 1999 and I barely ever use the overlays. Something they just get in the way of things for me. Most of the original programmers never liked them either, according to interviews. Sure, it's only white vectors on a black background, but I grew up in an arcade era where that was the norm, before colour vectors properly came in.

[Vic 2000]

Then you had the artwork on the arcade machine. That's why overlays is used for many MAME games too.

I owned a Vectrex in the 80's and i never forget the glowing blue Minestorm containing a grid or the green hyperchase two colored ovelay.





Many time the plastic overlays marked out the game area as well.







Without them it's a much poorer experience. Colours is importand in video games because it's the colours that creates feelings. And you get the game how it's supposed to look when using an overlay.

I think it's was smart of Milton Bradley to use overlays to give the games both colour and artwork using a monochrome screen. Without it, no colours, no artwork, no marked out playing area. What's bothering me most is that things from the game is actually missing without the use of the plastic overlay that the game once was made for. Take a look at any game without the overlay, besides loss of colours it's look empty because things that should be there is gone. On a computer these things would have been "on screen" but it's wasn't possible doing that on Vectrex.

[akator]

Overlays were added to the Vectrex after the hardware was designed and many games were programmed. Marketing said they couldn't sell a machine without color and the games were redesigned to fit within overlay constraints. That would suggest that overlays were not how the Vectrex was originally intended to be experienced.

I think the overlays are cool but unnecessary. Most of the time I don't use them. More surprising is that most of my visitors don't want to use them. That would suggest that overlays are not necessary to enjoy the Vectrex.


EDIT: The Vectrex is almost cyberpunk in the stark hardware design and presentation. CRT vector graphics are also very cyberpunk, like animated interactive neon. The Vectrex forecasts an exciting and mesmorizing future of man and machine, not necessarily pretty but definitely addictive.

Cyberpunk enjoys what the Vectrex says about life and the universe with the glowing white lines on an otherwise empty black CRT, all surrounded by an almost featureless black enclosure. Cyberpunk doesn't need overlays to get a deeper meaning from the Vectrex experience.

[Vic 2000]

To the left - Hyperchase without overlay
To the right - Hyperchase with it's overlay

I'll gladly pass to play the left version because it's nothing left of what's Hyperchase for me.



Vectrex was not alone of using colored overlays. Same thing was used by both Atari and Taito for exemple on their early arcade machines.

Same thing here, i gladly pass to play any Vectrex games without the overlays.







Without the overlays it's just white lines on black. Dead and look the same game after game.

[highinfidelity]

Without the overlays it's just white lines on black.

Do you really think that anyone would change his/her mind if you repeat this same concept over and over and over? It's your personal thought, not a fact, and as you see most (if not all) Vectrex owners disagree with you. Nothing personal, just points of view. Can we please pass to something else?

[Vic 2000]

What i said was

For me the overlays is vital. That's why i use an emulator to play Vectrex. I personally think that the games look terrible without the overlays, besides missing what should be there. That's why i wanted to show the difference posting screenshots.

If anyone want to play Vectrex without the overlays watching just white lines on a black background, it's completly okey by me. But don't tell me that the overlays is just a waste of time and something that makes the game worse, or that almost any Vectrex owner thinks so.

Because that isn't true.

(that's why i continued to post, not because i wanted to force the world using overlays)

[Jeff-20]

I have a stack of vectrex carts and only one overlay. I feel like overlays disguise the unique character of the vector graphics.

On the topic of rebirth: the discussion of producing Vectrex consoles again is essentially the discussion of producing CRT monitors again. If any company were to do that, it would find a high-end niche market. It would be something like the modern phonograph market.

Let's face it, TVs are a pain to ship. I don't know how they did it in the final days of the era when 36 inch televisions were in high demand and weighed 200lbs. But many retro gamers would pay for a new CRT with all the right inputs.

[English Invader]

I see CRTs going for as little as £5 a time but I can't take any of them because otherwise my home will end up full of them. I have two working CRTs which is as many as I can feasibly keep. I worry that I'm going to end up kicking myself if and when my existing CRTs pack up and the high street CRTs are no longer available.

I guess it depends on whether the retro gaming market is as big as the record market. That's probably what it would take for companies to step in and make new CRTs like new record players.

[highinfidelity]

I see CRTs going for as little as £5

Basically here you can have as many CRTs as you want for free. There is a CRT TV set beside every dumpster. Well OK, I don't mean that literally, but indeed if you take a 4-5 minutes walk you will surely find a perfectly working colour TV set near the third or fourth dumpster. Miracles of the so-called "digital terrestrial".

Concerning your last point, unfortunately a record player is way easier to manufacture than a working CRT tube (whatever Hi-Fi ads pretend). And unfortunately I can hardly imagine any discipline that will strictly need CRT technology in the future. Medicine diagnostics, perhaps? Maybe, but probably not. I see that even oscilloscopes are mostly digital today.

Perhaps one day some new technology will be devised that will actually stand up to CRT performances. All todays surrogates are very poor replacements, IMHO.