VectrexMad!

Hello Rob, When this project started nearly two years ago it began with a survey to gauge the "most wished for" overlay. The survey came back with Mine Storm, Pole Position, Star Castle, Protector as the top four. Mine Storm and Pole Position are now finally here. We looked at doing Star Castle and this one had the hardest graphics to reproduce - so we pushed that to the bottom of the list. We thought about doing Protector and we did get permission from Alex Hubert the author of Protector. But then there were concerns raised by some persons who own the limited edition of Protector not wanting to see their prized limited edition collectable loosing value. So instead the next two overlays won't be reproductions but rather new artwork overlays. It all depends on Peteski the other guy in this project, but the next two overlays he has started work on are YASI and Protector. The artwork will be inspired by the orignal arcade video game artwork from Space Invaders and Defender. Ian

bump!

Left/right joystick is on pin 6 Up/Down is on pin 5. So check connections to those pins. And also pin 7 (+5V) and pin 9 (-5V) which are connected to the joystick. Sorry maybe a silly question, how do you know that your joysticks are fine? If I remember rightly, if there is only one joystick connected, one of the graphic boxes will light up for the other joystick because of pull up resistors inside the Vectrex. I believe that was stated in the service guide or trouble shooting guide.

Hello Vectrex fans, This project that started around two years ago has finally come to fruition. I am happy to say that I am now selling reproduction overlays. Graphically reproduced by Peteski and brought to you by VectrexMad! Reprodcution MineStorm & PolePosition Reprodcution Overlays: -Professionally screen printed -4 Colour overlay -Better colour regsitration then the original overlays -White ink on the back layer (as per the original overlays) -Die cut Price for one set of overlays comprising one Mine Storm and one Pole Position and standard postage is: US £18.69 EC £17.21 UK £16.43 With normal postage I will not be responsible for loss or non arrival of package. I highly recommend recorded signed for postage method for countries other than the UK. Price for one set of overlays comprising one Mine Storm and one Pole Position with recorded signed for postage: US £23.62 EC £22.16 UK £18.21 If you want to purchase a set please send an email to [email protected] stating your country, and which delivery method you want (standard, or recorded signed for). In return I will send you a PayPal request (from a different email) which will request the amount in your country's currency. Overlays will be shipped in a card board backed envelope. VectrexMad!

I have just had a bunch of Mine Storm and Pole Position overlays professionally screen printed and die cut. I am currently selling them in pairs. See vectrex.co.uk shop for more info. Price for one set of overlays comprising one Mine Storm and one Pole Position and standard postage is US £18.69 EC £17.21 UK £16.43 With normal postage I will not be responsible for loss or non arrival of package. I highly recommend recorded signed for postage method for countries other than the UK. Price for one set of overlays comprising one Mine Storm and one Pole Position with recorded signed for postage US £23.62 EC £22.16 UK £18.21 If you want to purchase a set please send an email to [email protected] stating your country, and which delivery method you would like (standard, or recorded signed for). In return I will send you a PayPal request (from a different email) which will request the amount in your country's currency.

Nice looking front cover!

What is the middle right most cardboard/paper. The one that says "Special....Vectrex...Cartridge"?

The speculation is that the so called mini vex as you have called it is just an alternative design that MB considered when they took over the rights of the Vectrex from GCE. According to the Vectrex FAQ, a truly much smaller Vectrex design was under consideration by Smith Engineering. This would have been based on a very small flast TV tube. Here's the text from the FAQ: 1988: Western Technologies/Smith Engineering tries to resurrect Vectrex as a handheld unit. It is to be based on the Sinclair flat TV tube, which has fast static deflection at low power consumption and low cost. However, the impending introduction of GameBoy (1989) eventually causes the idea to be scrapped.

I had contact with the owner of that Flickr page and he told me he had a close look at the original photographs and that it definitely says "Vectrex Video System". He's going to chat with his dad (who took the photos) soon to see if his dad can remember anything.

Desfeek & rmaerz, You mind if I add your top scores to my hiscores page on my website? www.vectrex.co.uk

I wanted to participate, but simply ran out of time, what with all the other things going on at Christmas. I started playing MineStorm and got 45,400. But I didn't have the chance to get the other games out. May be in future more time and less games?

I used to have the Multicart and the game is as bad as they say it is being slow and all... Yes indeed. Four to five levels into the game when you have lots of enemy robots on the screen, game speed slows down, and the robots become really flickery. I've have played both on the Vectrex and on an emulator, and you don't see the flickery effect on the emulator.

No worries about the association, I guess "mad" was the common identifier >Thanks for the info, its interesting that he only included 8 games in his multicart, it must have been way before the innovations in multicart Well yes, the reason for only 8 games is that the game selection is done by switches/jumpers and this has to follow logic. I.e. there are 3 switches (S1,S2,S3) each which can be on (1) or off (0). Therefore this gives a possibility of 8 choices. S1 S2 S3 0 0 0 - game 1 0 0 1 - game 2 0 1 0 - game 3 0 1 1 - game 4 1 0 0 - game 5 1 0 1 - game 6 1 1 0 - game 7 1 1 1 - game 8 Modern day multicarts allow the game selection via onscreen menus and are not limited by having a number of physical switches present.

Those are high scores recorded on Vectrex Wow, that means I need to get more practice

Hey VMad, I may be completely wrong about this, but you are responsible for madtronix, correct? I came across an interesting multicart with madtronix printed on the board, and was wanting more information about it. It doesn't just have dip switches, you must reorganize little pieces on the board (not incredibly mechanically inclined here) to choose which game you want to play. It came with a little instruction sheet, but no names are printed on the cart or the instructions, other than "special thanks to madtronix" printed on the PCB. Is this an early version of Sean's multicart? Or a completely different one? To be honest I didn't have time to boot up the cart and play around with it, but I can definitely go back to check it out if necessary. Also the madtronix website lists either Richard H.'s or Kevin H.'s 3D imager for sale, for 0,00 euros. Is this actually available, or is it only there to tease the possibilities of me ever playing 3D Vectrex? If you have no idea about any of this stuff, sorry for associating you! Sorry, I've nothing to do with Madtronix. He was active a couple of years ago but then dissappeared. That website of his was made in 2009, but doesn't seem to have been updated since September 2009. The imager he lists on his website is his product. I was lucky to get one of those first time round. In the past, he did make a multicart too, which allowed a choice of 8 supplied games. Games were selected via three jumper connections.

Nice initiative for the festive period - hopefully I find time to participate. The only thing is that I guess the high scores recorded by Twin Galaxy are for the original arcade machines rather then the Vectrex? If thats the case although game play is similar between original arcade and Vectrex, they are not the same, so those high scores may never be possible on the Vectrex.

but there are also some outstanding games which in my opinion really make this console standout from the rest: Protector - see youtube: Vectrexians - see youtube: Gravitrex - see youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfvKOueoj8 And the soon to be released VectorPilot (from the same authour who made Vectrexians) VectrexMad!

That's the one I have added the details of my 8 Vectrex to. Its also the one I recommend on my website. It has a few more parameters, which are useful to know, and which might help to make conclusions about the different production types once there is enough data present. VectrexMad!

Yes you can, and only for a few pounds too.

I try to update my website news at least every month. If the VecMulti is released it will definitely be on the news page of my website http://www.vectrex.co.uk VectrexMad!

I have the Sean Kelly v1 mulit cart, the 72:1 Multicart and the VecFlash. The first two are just multi carts with the games/program binaries available as supplied (i.e. you can't change or add new binaries) whereas VecFlash allows you to choose which games/programs you put on it. Out of the Sean Kelly cart and the 72:1 Mulit cart I would say the 72:1 Mulit cart is defintely much better - easier menu selection and more games/programs plus some programs unique to that cart alone - also the 72:1 is available now and much cheaper. Here is a review I wrote about the 72:1 a long time ago (see pages 11-12): http://publishing.yudu.com/Aembd/VGTrader6/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.videogametrader.com%2Fvgtrader%2Findex.htm It is still available forsale and you can buy the lite version (comes uncased but will fit into any vectrex cart case) for £29.99 http://www.playntradeonline.com/vectrex/shop.html The VecFlash was more expensive (compared to the 72:1 cart) but that is because it has extra functionality i.e. you can copy new binaries onto the cart from your PC via USB. As mentioned in another post the VecFlash is no longer being produced (although an email to Richard H might reveal he has one or two left that he may sell you). His new product will be the VecMulti. Details can be found at http://vectrex.biz/ . It is currently undergoing final testing. And although I already have enough multicarts I can't wait to get my hands on the finished VecMulti product. This will be the multicart champion. It will be the cart that can hold the most programs and the cart which will allow new programs to be added. Also it will allow the games that required additional RAM (e.g. Animaction) to work. Disadvatages? The only disadvantage I can see when compared to the VecFlash is that you will need a MicroSD card reader/writer to add new programs. You will phyiscally have to remove the SD card from the VecMulti and insert it into your reader/writer - all time consuming stuff. With the VecFlash you simply connected the cart to your PC with a USB lead. However, I guess for most, the frequency of adding new programs will not be that high. VectrexMad!