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Vectrex queries...


Spector

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I walked into my local Gamestation store last week and sitting at the back powered up with an Asteroids clone running on it was a Vectrex. I had never seen one in action before. Better still, anybody could go and play it. So I had a go at Minestorm and I thought it was really good. So bloody smooth because of the vectors, but the control of the ship is far better than on 2600 Asteroids in my opinion, it just feels so much more satisfying. I'll need to go back and play it some more :)

 

Question number 1 - there was a white dot in the middle of the screen. Is that common for the Vectrex? A bit like a dead pixel on a Game Gear (though of course the Vectrex has no pixels), I'm guessing it was caused by the demo mode of minestorm with the ship permanently in the middle.

 

Question number 2 - I used one of the fire buttons to thrust when I expected up on the joystick to do this. Is this correct? Or is there a fault in the joystick on this model? Both up and down had no effect on the game.

 

Not that I'm thinking of buying it or anything - too expensive, but I'm interested to know a bit more having played it. One day in the distant future I will own one of these babies. I can only imagine how good a proper conversion of Star Wars would look on this screen. Pity it never happened.

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1) Some screen burn perhaps, or the monitor suffering from too much brightness over the years. Sounds like it's had a lot of use.

 

2) Yep, joystick just rotates. Buttons thrust, fire and hyperspace in Minestorm.

 

How much was Gamestation selling it for btw? You should be able to get a standalone Vectrex now for under £75.

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About the white dot, that was probably due to the brightness being turned up too high. There should be a knob or something on the back to turn down the brighness. That should make the dot go away.

 

See how much they want for that Vectrex. It's one of the most unique home consoles ever made, almost legendary. And make sure you ask if they have any game cartridges for it.

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Question number 1 - there was a white dot in the middle of the screen. Is that common for the Vectrex? A bit like a dead pixel on a Game Gear (though of course the Vectrex has no pixels), I'm guessing it was caused by the demo mode of minestorm with the ship permanently in the middle.

Brightness was too high. If it'd been burn-in, it would've been a "phantom" ship.

You know what burn-in looks like, I'm sure.

 

Question number 2 - I used one of the fire buttons to thrust when I expected up on the joystick to do this. Is this correct? Or is there a fault in the joystick on this model? Both up and down had no effect on the game.
Totally 100% correct. It's the standard behavior for Vec games with "Asteroids" control.

 

Remember, pressing up to thrust was a hack to get around the fact that the 2600 joystick only had 1 button. The Vec has no such issues. RipOff had 2 free buttons, so 1 and 2 were coded as optional rotate controls for even closer to arcade gameplay.

 

...

 

The controller design is insane from a usability perspective, though. It's too thick for gamepad-style usage(and the buttons are too spread out), but that damned analog nub is too small for joystick usage. Not to mention of you use it "arcade-style" fire winds up being under your pinky(or ring finger, depending on how many buttons are used).

 

For rotation/thrust games, I hook my thumb under the stick, put it between my pointer and middle fingers, and rock my left hand back and forth to steer.

Right end I rest on a desk, with my hand moving across the controller so I can fire with my pointer when I'm not thrusting and firing at the same time.

It works, but it's not pretty(and I've hurt my left thumb more than one time by crushng it under the controller)

 

 

Not that I'm thinking of buying it or anything - too expensive, but I'm interested to know a bit more having played it. One day in the distant future I will own one of these babies. I can only imagine how good a proper conversion of Star Wars would look on this screen. Pity it never happened.

GET IT NOW!

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