Top 5 Vector Games Of All Time

[Michael_]

Elite uses vector line graphics on a raster monitor. Not really the same thing.

 

Would you not classify it as a vector graphics game then?

[Flojomojo]

Elite uses vector line graphics on a raster monitor. Not really the same thing.

 

Would you not classify it as a vector graphics game then?

I wouldn't put it in the same category as Battlezone, Asteroids, and other games on XY monitors, no. Call it "early polygon," maybe.

[JB]

Elite uses vector line graphics on a raster monitor. Not really the same thing.

 

Would you not classify it as a vector graphics game then?

I'd call it "simulated vector"

[Matt Fisher]

I guess I'm kind of bitter because there is no sound emulation on the cinematronics emulators so you can't really judge them unless you've played the real thing.

 

Why not use MAME? Almost all of the Cine vectors have sample sets, well, the one's you'd want to play, anyway...

 

Armor Attack

Rip Off

Solar Quest

Space Wars

Star Castle

Sundance

Tailgunner

Warrior

 

I'm pretty sure that leaves only Barrier, Starhawk, Speed Freak, and War of the Worlds (maybe I missed one). The ones that don't have them support them, but the samples just need to be taken. Anyone got a Speed Freak and WOTW handy? A while back I asked Zonn Moore of Zektor about this, and he said that he had all the boardsets and had intended to make the sets but had fried his rig for taking samples. I guess those Barrier lovers among us will just have to suffer in silence... Of course, someone could put together a fake set from other sounds.

 

By the way, you can use the Star Castle set for WOTW. I noticed that all the individual sounds in the SC set are the ones needed by WOTW, so I just renamed the zip and it seems to work. I have no idea if they are the actual sounds from WOTW, but they work OK.

 

I was one of the apparent few who got to play the '93 Star Wars arcade, and it rocked. They had one at the Block Party in Indianapolis. I liked it far better than the Vector game (blasphemy, I know), as you could freely fly around (for the most part), it had a two-player option where one would be the gunner, and it had like a huge 60" screen. Block Party is now long gone, I wonder what happened to that game.

[Flojomojo]

I was one of the apparent few who got to play the '93 Star Wars arcade, and it rocked. They had one at the Block Party in Indianapolis. I liked it far better than the Vector game (blasphemy, I know), as you could freely fly around (for the most part), it had a two-player option where one would be the gunner, and it had like a huge 60" screen. Block Party is now long gone, I wonder what happened to that game.

I'd love to take "Virtua Star Wars" for a spin. I've played the 32X port, which is supposed to be pretty faithful (and enhanced). The main problem I have with it is the limited field of movement -- you're stuck on more or less the same vertical plane and can't go up and down very far. It feels like driving the Space Bus, not nearly as 3D as I'd like.

[Lord Helmet]

I've never even seen that Star Wars game in person. I'd love to play it.

[Matt Fisher]

[quote name='Matt Fisher' post='1334926'

I'd love to take "Virtua Star Wars" for a spin. I've played the 32X port, which is supposed to be pretty faithful (and enhanced). The main problem I have with it is the limited field of movement -- you're stuck on more or less the same vertical plane and can't go up and down very far. It feels like driving the Space Bus, not nearly as 3D as I'd like.

 

KLOV sez only 12 made it to the States. If I'd known it was so uncommon, I'd have played it alot more. Yeah, the flight in the arcade version is much more free, although I can't remember if it was totally free in all directions.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Matt Fisher

[Inky]

Ooohh...

 

 

1) Tempest

2) Star Wars

3) Asteroids Deluxe

4) Black WIdow

5) Quantum

 

 

Honorable mentions:

 

Star Castle and Tac-Scan

 

 

I far preferred Asteroids Deluxe to the first. That damn hexagon made the game so much more fun IMHO

[The Eidolon]

Most of these lists are limited by what I have played and know personally rather than

what is the best overall. But from what I actually have played...

 

1) Star Wars

2) Major Havoc

3) Tempest

4) Red Baron

5) Lunar Lander

[Lord Helmet]

Seems the consensus is that Star Wars is the best vector game ever

[Matt Fisher]

Seems the consensus is that Star Wars is the best vector game ever

 

While most seem to feel that these two are among the best, here are the votes for best vector so far:

 

Tempest-7 (a couple also refer to it as the best game ever, period, myself included)

Star Wars-5

Assorted others-maybe 1 or 2 or 3

 

Several who picked one best picked the other number two. I'd call that, based on the small sample set, pretty much a toss-up.

[daneyul]

Where's the mention of Gravitar? Got to make it somewhere in the top 5.

[MrAtari2600]

#1 asteroids

#2 starwars

#3 tempest.

:]

[gliptitude]

Heh, dead thread, but it interests me so...

 

1) Web Wars (vectrex)

2) Battlezone (arcade)

3) Space Duel (arcade) (best looking Asteroids type game in my opinion)

4) Fortress of Narzod (vectrex)

5) Asteroids (arcade)

 

I can only claim to have encountered vector graphics in retrospect, after they were "surpassed" with better hardware. Have only played Space Duel on my iPad, but my introduction to vector games was an awesome exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens (NYC), (then the "American Museum of the Moving Image") in 1997, in which many old game cabinets (mostly vector graphics) were displayed and playable. It made a big impression on me, which was reprized recently when I played the Atari Greatest Hits games on the iPad, which led to my discovery (and acquisition of) the Vectrex console.

 

Web Wars immediately entered my pantheon of Best Videogame Experiences Ever, (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Bionic Commando, Advance Wars Dual Strike, WEB WARS...) Coming from a point in time when the NES was the major videogame phenomenon of my childhood, and the subsequent advancement of video games was perceivable to me growing up, the vector games represent to me the most essential presentation of video games.

 

I'm anxious to substitute a game that I haven't played yet, such as I, Cyborg, in place of Asteroids on my top 5 list. But I include Asteroids presently because of it's immense influence, although it is sufficiently represented by Space Duel already. Among the small number of games listed in other people's entries in this thread which I have not played, Star Wars is the only standout that I haven't played or even seen. But Star Wars and even Star Wars influenced games are kind of disqualified by me for idiosyncratic reasons.

 

I love the vector!

[gliptitude]

Heh, dead thread, but it interests me so...

 

1) Web Wars (vectrex)

2) Battlezone (arcade)

3) Space Duel (arcade) (best looking Asteroids type game in my opinion)

4) Fortress of Narzod (vectrex)

5) Asteroids (arcade)

 

I can only claim to have encountered vector graphics in retrospect, after they were "surpassed" with better hardware. Have only played Space Duel on my iPad, but my introduction to vector games was an awesome exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens (NYC), (then the "American Museum of the Moving Image") in 1997, in which many old game cabinets (mostly vector graphics) were displayed and playable. It made a big impression on me, which was reprized recently when I played the Atari Greatest Hits games on the iPad, which led to my discovery (and acquisition of) the Vectrex console.

 

Web Wars immediately entered my pantheon of Best Videogame Experiences Ever, (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Bionic Commando, Advance Wars Dual Strike, WEB WARS...) Coming from a point in time when the NES was the major videogame phenomenon of my childhood, and the subsequent advancement of video games was perceivable to me growing up, the vector games represent to me the most essential presentation of video games.

 

I'm anxious to substitute a game that I haven't played yet, such as I, Cyborg, in place of Asteroids on my top 5 list. But I include Asteroids presently because of it's immense influence, although it is sufficiently represented by Space Duel already. Among the small number of games listed in other people's entries in this thread which I have not played, Star Wars is the only standout that I haven't played or even seen. But Star Wars and even Star Wars influenced games are kind of disqualified by me for idiosyncratic reasons.

 

I love the vector!

[SnapCraft]

Most under appreciated = Lunar Lander.

 

A thinking man's game. I loved the zooming in the closer you got to landing.

[Drixxel]

Purists may consider it blasphemy to play the game not only on a raster display but also on a handheld but the port of Lunar Lander available on GBA is my favourite way to lunar land. It's a great game to have portable.

[earthdefence]

1) Tempest

2) Star Wars

3) Red Baron

4) Armor Attack

5) Demon

[ledzep]

1) Tempest

2) Star Trek SOS

3) Space Duel

4) Space Wars

5) Red Baron

 

Those are my favorites but I like all the ones I've ever played, even the ones that owned me (like Battlezone). And there is a special place in my heart for two-player games like Space Wars and Rip-Off and especially Space Duel with the two players connected.

 

Thank Odin that the Vectrex was made so that some of these games could have a shot at being accurately presented on a home console!

[Cynicaster]

What, no love for Boxing Bugs?

 

I think vector games rock. Most probably think they're a bit obsolete nowadays with modern 3D gaming tech being what it is, but back in the day, the only way to get smoothly rotating and zooming objects on the screen in a convincing 3D way was to go vector.

[ledzep]

What, no love for Boxing Bugs?

 

I think vector games rock. Most probably think they're a bit obsolete nowadays with modern 3D gaming tech being what it is, but back in the day, the only way to get smoothly rotating and zooming objects on the screen in a convincing 3D way was to go vector.

 

That's one of the vector games I never got to play in the arcades. As has been said by many before me, nothing looks quite like an actual vector game on a vector monitor. It's the same as saying no digital guitar amp can do what a tube amp does or no digital camera can match actual film. There's a certain something to a real vector monitor game that cannot be beat (if you're a fan of them). It's why I didn't care how much they cost, I was buying one of those Zektor Vector Generator boards when they came out again recently in order to eventually make a VectorMAME cab. I know it will suck to make one compared to just a regular MAME cabinet with a rastor monitor but it will be worth it!

 

I really wish someone would make a new vector arcade game. You know, to kick-start that genre again, get new monitors made. Or a new home console, a Vectrex with a bigger screen and faster hardware. I also wish Kate Beckinsale was my wife so we see what my wishes get me, haahaha.