Vectrex Arcade Unit?

[Video_Game_Bible]

Would anyone here be interested in seeing the design that I'm using to create an actual arcade Vectrex unit that will play on a large monitor (25" or so)?

 

I'm currently working on this as my only hardware project (until it is complete) and was just wondering if there was any interest in seeing how I do it (assuming that I can get it to work right).

[eric_ruck]

I wouldn't know your design from plans for a teleporter. But I can't wait to see the final project.

 

Eric

[Inky]

I wouldn't know your design from plans for a teleporter.  But I can't wait to see the final project.

 

Eric

 

In that case, I have a teleporter to sell you. Only 10,000$

 

Sure, it says 'Combat' on it, but don't let the label fool you, it's a teleporter.

 

[christianscott]

the original vectrex arcade machine...still beggin for quarters

 

http://www.foodtastesgood.com/mini-cade/

[eric_ruck]

In that case, I have a teleporter to sell you.  Only 10,000$

 

Sure, it says 'Combat' on it, but don't let the label fool you, it's a teleporter.

 

 

Is that the 4k teleporter or the 8k teleporter.

 

Eric

[Inky]

In that case, I have a teleporter to sell you.  Only 10,000$

 

Sure, it says 'Combat' on it, but don't let the label fool you, it's a teleporter.

 

 

Is that the 4k teleporter or the 8k teleporter.

 

Eric

 

It's an old Teleporter. 2K

[CosmicJoke]

Would anyone here be interested in seeing the design that I'm using to create an actual arcade Vectrex unit that will play on a large monitor (25" or so)?  

 

I'm currently working on this as my only hardware project (until it is complete) and was just wondering if there was any interest in seeing how I do it (assuming that I can get it to work right).

 

Heck Yeah!

 

I probably will not understand anything technical, but, it would be fun to check it out. It sounds like a really interesting project.

[Ze_ro]

the original vectrex arcade machine...still beggin for quarters

http://www.foodtastesgood.com/mini-cade/

 

Wow, that's pretty cool. Is that an actual manufactured arcade machine? Or is that just something some jerk made in his basement?

 

--Zero

[BlitterBit]

It's an old Teleporter.  2K

 

Is it the model where if you are teleported off the edge of the screen you reappear on the opposite side of the screen?

 

blit

[wberdan]

basement made. from what i understand, you can adapt a vectrex to most any television.... it uses a typical tv monitor.

although, one thing that has been bothering me lately about that- since the vectrex monitor seems to be close to a 16:9 ratio standing upright (9:16, i guess you would call it), and a regular US tv screen has a ratio of 4:3..... how the hell is that going to work without seriously distorting the games image>?

 

willie

[Raijin Z]

Black bars?

[christianscott]

its not basement made, at least not by me. i found two of these around boston and 6 others have turned up in places like michigan, illinois, new jersey so thats a pretty effective basement operation. its built around the a standard vec with a custom cabinet and time/coin op control electronics.

 

so far no one has determined the exact history of the minicade, its credited to ESI corp copyright 1983, who they were we dont know.

[Curt Vendel]

Would anyone here be interested in seeing the design that I'm using to create an actual arcade Vectrex unit that will play on a large monitor (25" or so)?

 

I'm currently working on this as my only hardware project (until it is complete) and was just wondering if there was any interest in seeing how I do it (assuming that I can get it to work right).

 

If you need help with a full sized cabinet design, let me know, I'd love to design and build one for the project.

 

 

Curt

[Ze_ro]

from what i understand, you can adapt a vectrex to most any television.... it uses a typical tv monitor.

 

'fraid not... in fact, the Vectrex uses a vector monitor, which is VERY different from your TV. Your TV, and even your computer monitor are called "raster" displays, and they work by drawing the picture from the top left to the bottom right of the screen similar to how you'd type on a typewriter. For a vector monitor like the Vectrex uses, the beam does not cover the whole screen. Instead, games feed the beam x/y coordinates, and it draws between those points. The good thing about this is that you can make 3D graphics really easily (Keep in mind this was about 20 years before 3D accelerators came around), and you had almost infinite resolution, since the lines would be essentially perfectly straight without any "jaggies" or whatever the PSX kids call them.

 

Vector monitors have their downsides though... you can't draw actual pictures, only line drawings (Hence the overlays that Vectrex games had), stuff like text was a little tricky, you often had flicker as the beam drew other lines, most games were monochrome (I believe color vector monitors were quite a bit more expensive), and they're not compatible at all with raster monitors. They're also hard to find nowadays since they stopped using them after about 1985. There are a lot of arcade games that use vector monitors (Asteroids, Tempest, Star Wars, etc) that could probably be used with a Vectrex... but that would require sacrificing an old arcade machine that's probably worth more than the Vectrex...

 

My guess is that's it's probably easy enough to disassemble a Vectrex and mount it's monitor within an arcade cabinet though.

 

--Zero

[Video_Game_Bible]

Well, all I can say (without giving away our 'secret') is that there will be NO distortion of any type...that we've finally figured a way of doing data transfer to a monitor...it WILL incorporate the overlays into the game screen without distortion, and it WILL include actual arcade sticks...not the flimsy standard Vec controllers (assuming I can secure 2 of them).

 

@Curt:

 

YES...I would really appreciate any help building the cabinet...that was going to be my weak point. It will have a few odd special requirements obviously...and we still haven't worked out one of the major problems. We'll be doing some testing with our first unit this week (hopefully)...but if you help with the cabinet, that sure would take a big burden off of me. Let me know via email or AIM: videogamebible@hotmail.com or VideoGameBible (on AIM). Thanks.

[Ze_ro]

... Of course, you could always build a PC into an arcade cabinet, and have it running a Vectrex emulator... VGA monitors are a heck of a lot easier to find I'm sure (and you could even use a monochrome one)

 

--Zero

[Video_Game_Bible]

Nah, emulation would be cheating...though it would probably make our overlay delima easier. Still, by using the original hardware it makes it that much more entertaining.

[Video_Game_Bible]

Nah, emulation would be cheating...though it would probably make our overlay delima easier. Still, by using the original hardware it makes it that much more entertaining.

[Ze_ro]

Black bars?

 

Ooops, didn't notice this question...

 

Anyways, have you ever noticed some Atari games have an odd graphical glitch that shows up sometimes. What you see is a series of horizontal black bars on the left hand side of the screen. If my explanation sucks, just look at the first screenshot from Space Invaders, and you'll see what I mean.

 

As far as I know (although I admit my knowledge of the 2600 hardware is limited) this is due to the timing within the Atari. The Atari only has 20 bits of video ram, and you generally fill up those 20 bits according to what you want on a specific scan line... then the Atari draws them, then you change them before the Atari draws the next line. You have to keep one step ahead of the display in order to actually draw anything on the screen.

 

The problem is that you don't get an awful lot of time to do anything between scan lines. In addition to drawing the screen, you also have to worry about sprite movement, sound and other such things. From what I can tell, these black bars show up because the game itself can't always keep up with the display, and can't get everything moved in time... however, the display doesn't wait for it, and ends up drawing a black bar before the program can catch up with it. If you look at that Space Invaders screenshot, you'll notice that the black bars show up between rows of invaders... My guess is that redefining the graphics is causing the delay in this case.

 

It looks kind of ugly, especially when it's as bad as it is in Space Invaders, but it's a small price to pay, and it can be avoided with good programming (But hey, even Atari can't always avoid it).

 

--Zero