Vectrex Controller

[tantone56]

Does anyone know where to get a Vectrex controller these days or even a homemade substitute? I see some on Ebay, but they cost an arm and a leg. I just really want to play my system, and let my little nephew play with it as well. If anyone has any thoughts about this, please let me know.

[PAC MAN FEVER]

Unfortunately most vectrex controllers any where will pretty much cost an arm and a leg

I think you mod a sega genesis controller though....

[fiddlepaddle]

I've see various handmade substitutes, almost always using a digital directional control (eg, genesis or jaguar controller conversions). Should be pretty straight forward. It seems though that a better one would have an analog joystick; doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but I think I've only heard of one (handmade, and not for sale). A full size, arcade cabinet style analog joystick with four quality arcade buttons and a long cord would be great. Bet if someone designed it and built some, they would sell fairly easily.

Edited April 2, 2011 by fiddlepaddle

[SRGilbert]

The stupid thing is that you are almost better off just buying a whole second Vectrex. That way you at least have a backup unit. Or try to keep an eye out on ebay for a broken system, you might get a deal that way.

[Catsmasher]

You can modify a Sega Genesis controller.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3649819692/in/set-72157620164985374/

 

My 17 yr old son did the conversion for me in a couple of hours. Definitely worth doing. They work better, are more comfortable and the Vectrex controllers are too expensive to risk messing up.

[fiddlepaddle]

You can modify a Sega Genesis controller...

Unfortunately, you can't do analog that way...

[Matt Fisher]

You can modify a Sega Genesis controller...

Unfortunately, you can't do analog that way...

 

True, but of the original games, only Hyperchase and game 2 of Starhawk use the analog function. Of those two, only Starhawk is two-player simultaneous. Not a huge loss, in my opinion.

 

I made a controller a while ago using the same circuit as used in the Genesis mod but I built a little box and used an arcade joystick from Happs and arcade buttons. I even put in extra left and right buttons so I could turn without using the joystick, a la the arcade versions of Asteroids, Ripoff, Space Wars, etc. That reminds me, I need to make a better box for that...

[hwj_chim]

A video of a genesis controller on a Vectrex

Edited April 8, 2011 by hwj_chim