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VecFever


TomSon

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The developer has backed away from all contact with the public Vectrex community so I assume he has no interest making Vecfever a widely available commercial product.

 

Sadly I think our only hope is if someone else see the cash to be made and produces a clone product. Hopefully with mame capabilities.

 

 

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

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I wouldnt say hes backed off from the community, I exchanged a few PMs a couple months ago with him myself. Seemed nice enough too.

I understand the frustration but spilling negativity on this thread is unlikely to get him to make it available to the public though (not directing this at any specific person, just something to consider).

Edited by asra
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Yeah it really is a slick set up. The original test vids from malban 6 months ago really got the loins tingling, tomson dropped some bread crumbs on me about a month ago and I upgraded my cart. Did tests with a full desktop but wondered how small could I go with it. Loaded the drivers and vecmame on a $80 windows tablet with the mgalaxy front end a small bluetooth kb and can speaker. Been testing a fw that adds the Atari driving controller "spinner" support for the og spinner coin op games and newer image calibration settings options. Just visually jaw dropping fantastically fun stuff.

 

Would you mind sharing the setup?

 

I have it running off a laptop, but I like your idea much better :)

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Would you mind sharing the setup?

 

I have it running off a laptop, but I like your idea much better :)

It's a WinBook TW102, microcenter has em for $80. Got mine around "back to school" time and had a coupon to get the keyboard for an extra $10, sadly attached the keyboard doesn't play nice with the uart drivers when used at the same time, so that's where the BT keyboard was needed. The speakers in the tablet suck but any little can speaker will do, great for the bass of some of these games. If you have already set up on laptop, copy over to new toy as is, I didn't have to mod it in any way. I like these WinBook thingy's, I have one mounted on my wall as a dedicated touch screen jukebox, another that is a remote for my garden railroad and now a vecfever one.

 

 

good day.

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Darn,

 

They are "in store only" and there isnt a Microcenter near me :(

 

It's a WinBook TW102, microcenter has em for $80. Got mine around "back to school" time and had a coupon to get the keyboard for an extra $10, sadly attached the keyboard doesn't play nice with the uart drivers when used at the same time, so that's where the BT keyboard was needed. The speakers in the tablet suck but any little can speaker will do, great for the bass of some of these games. If you have already set up on laptop, copy over to new toy as is, I didn't have to mod it in any way. I like these WinBook thingy's, I have one mounted on my wall as a dedicated touch screen jukebox, another that is a remote for my garden railroad and now a vecfever one.

 

 

good day.

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This is one of those frustrating parts of retro gaming. It’s usually done on spare time, which most people don’t have a lot of. Ofcourse, it would be nice to have access to this through another means. Maybe someone who already has a VecFever could get it reproduced somehow as the original creator seems uninterested or unable to find the time to do so. There certainly seems to be enough interest of the last one sold on eBay for over a thousand dollars. I’ve recently decided to get back into playing some Vectrex thanks to the Excellent new Kristof Tuts game Vector Patrol. Man Kristof is plain gifted, and a real inspiration to me. There are so many interesting ideas coming about with the Vectrex like the upcoming Binary star software game that utilizes a light gun. It’s to bad most of these European projects usually stay mostly in Europe, but it’s a tight group for sure and they all have lives to live. This is why I drifted out of Vectrex collecting about a year ago. That and Vectrex Collector’s need to have deep pockets. I’m not sure why it commands such a premium? Also, I really get tired of playing on a 9inch screen after a while. Where’s the FPGA Vectrex with a 20 inch Vector Monitor? I’m sure with people paying over a grand for a VecFever theirs certainly a market. GCE needs to come back and compete with Sony and Microsoft. They could just bring the 3d goggles with a couple new games to CES next year. Then maybe we could finally see some decent production numbers and hit the pre-order button on amazon. The Collectorvision Phoenix is pretty cool, but if it was a Vectrex Phoenix then I would be much more interested. Because ofcourse they would have to include some kind of built in Vector Monitor.

Edited by adamchevy
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Arcade Jason used a 19" vector monitor with a Vectrex. He even went on to use a "36 converted Crt as a vector monitor. Its definitely possible! ;)

 

https://youtu.be/Gj1tC_QvIKQ

 

https://youtu.be/Mni5y54U_qs

 

There's more Vectrex/arcade stuff on his channel.. Check it all out if you haven't already. It's fascinating stuff! :)

 

This is one of those frustrating parts of retro gaming. It’s usually done on spare time, which most people don’t have a lot of. Ofcourse, it would be nice to have access to this through another means. Maybe someone who already has a VecFever could get it reproduced somehow as the original creator seems uninterested or unable to find the time to do so. There certainly seems to be enough interest of the last one sold on eBay for over a thousand dollars. I’ve recently decided to get back into playing some Vectrex thanks to the Excellent new Kristof Tuts game Vector Patrol. Man Kristof is plain gifted, and a real inspiration to me. There are so many interesting ideas coming about with the Vectrex like the upcoming Binary star software game that utilizes a light gun. It’s to bad most of these European projects usually stay mostly in Europe, but it’s a tight group for sure and they all have lives to live. This is why I drifted out of Vectrex collecting about a year ago. That and Vectrex Collector’s need to have deep pockets. I’m not sure why it commands such a premium? Also, I really get tired of playing on a 9inch screen after a while. Where’s the FPGA Vectrex with a 20 inch Vector Monitor? I’m sure with people paying over a grand for a VecFever theirs certainly a market. GCE needs to come back and compete with Sony and Microsoft. They could just bring the 3d goggles with a couple new games to CES next year. Then maybe we could finally see some decent production numbers and hit the pre-order button on amazon. The Collectorvision Phoenix is pretty cool, but if it was a Vectrex Phoenix then I would be much more interested. Because ofcourse they would have to include some kind of built in Vector Monitor.

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It’s to bad most of these European projects usually stay mostly in Europe

 

I'm interested to know which European projects have stayed in Europe... I can't think of one at all but maybe I missed something... everyone I know who has released a game or hardware in Europe has made it available Worldwide.

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Well that’s a hard statement to prove, but I have seen a few hardware items in different forums that have never made it to the US to my knowledge. Either due to my ignorance or lack of timing. I don’t fault the creators, it’s hard to produce large quantities of products for sale when it’s done by one person in their spare time. This is one of them:

e8597d74b2426d17b6e37bfadbd466c9.jpg

Edited by adamchevy
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Well that’s a hard statement to prove, but I have seen a few hardware items in different forums that have never made it to the US to my knowledge. Either due to my ignorance or lack of timing. I don’t fault the creators, it’s hard to produce large quantities of products for sale when it’s done by one person in their spare time. This is one of them:

e8597d74b2426d17b6e37bfadbd466c9.jpg

 

11 of those were made, the original two guys making them have kept (at least) one each and they fell out during making them... some or all of the others were sold (so 9 maximum) and at least one of the two sellers offered them up on the Vectrex fans Unite page on Facebook to anyone in the world... from mine and everyone else I speak to about sales numbers, at least half of all games are shipped outside of Europe, mostly to the US.

 

Maybe it's not what you meant but your statement implied some tight knit cabal of European home brewers usually keeping most of what they make inside of Europe which really isn't the case so I just wanted to add some facts around that :)

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The scene has changed because of facebook and the VecFever is a monument to that.

 

There is an idea of a "community" but that community is instantly subject to universal access and crowd-based consensus building. So when there is something like the VecFever which is actually perfect, it is completely consumed within moments of being revealed, or even before it is revealed.

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It’s nice that all of these great things exist, Im just not sure why the original creators wouldn’t want to make more of them, especially the VecFever. These are tremendous products that obviously have an active base of users that is bigger than the little niche that we see on Atariage. I sold a copy of Pole Position for the Vectrex to Peer Schneider of IGN for example. Every time I list a Vectrex item of any kind on eBay it has more watchers and bidders than for any other retro system.

Edited by adamchevy
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Well that’s a hard statement to prove, but I have seen a few hardware items in different forums that have never made it to the US to my knowledge. Either due to my ignorance or lack of timing. I don’t fault the creators, it’s hard to produce large quantities of products for sale when it’s done by one person in their spare time. This is one of them:

e8597d74b2426d17b6e37bfadbd466c9.jpg

 

11 of those were made, the original two guys making them have kept (at least) one each and they fell out during making them... some or all of the others were sold (so 9 maximum) and at least one of the two sellers offered them up on the Vectrex fans Unite page on Facebook to anyone in the world... from mine and everyone else I speak to about sales numbers, at least half of all games are shipped outside of Europe, mostly to the US.

 

Maybe it's not what you meant but your statement implied some tight knit cabal of European home brewers usually keeping most of what they make inside of Europe which really isn't the case so I just wanted to add some facts around that :)

That’s really good information. I always wondered what happened there. I tried to convince them to make more. But they were uninterested. I’ve been a Machinist for nearly 10 years now. I could have seen these get into some kind of production run in the 100s. These are some beautiful controllers. And being a Machinist I could have made sure the cost stayed as low as possible while maintaining rigid quality requirements. That was my main interest in acquiring one.

That and who doesn’t want one of those controllers? They do look a bit bulky, but I’m sure they were pretty stable when set on a surface of some kind. Do you happen to know what they sold for?

 

We could have run them on our new horizontal Mill or are Dura.

 

724a735f28690b853cae1c40761ef689.jpg

83e02e2cc0b7b728ac9c97a0e99bd25d.jpg

 

I guess the design actually isn’t to complex. I could easily create the same thing in Gibbscam. Alright, project time! I’m just not sure about the electronics part. They look to be about 3x8 inches unfinished and about 2.25x6.5 finished. And probably about 1.125 deep on the inside. I’m not to sure I like the color that much. Maybe give some options on that.

Edited by adamchevy
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d06bf9cb7143379a8ac8b2dba8a43619.jpg

 

The other part I’m not sure about is why he went with a plastic top instead of machined aluminum? Atleast it looks like plastic. Maybe I could work out something with someone who could do all of the electronics, if I handle all of the machining and anodizing. I think you could do these for $135 shipped. I’m not sure exactly on the electronics cost. But the machining and anodizing would be around $70-75. Once we had a proven program we could probably get the cost down near $60.

Edited by adamchevy
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Nice looking controller, just looks rather uncomfortable to play. Maybe someone who owns one could chime in, and we should probably take the controller talk to a new thread.

 

 

good day.

Good plan, I thought it looked a bit uncomfortable as well. Seems like I did an interest check on these a while back now that I recall and there wasn’t a lot of interest. Maybe that’s why Victor only made 11. It’s amazing that a system with so few games has such a following. I guess VecFever is real. Edited by adamchevy
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Good plan, I thought it looked a bit uncomfortable as well. Seems like I did an interest check on these a while back now that I recall and there wasn’t a lot of interest. Maybe that’s why Victor only made 11. It’s amazing that a system with so few games has such a following. I guess VecFever is real.

 

It would be great if you could make something similar, looks like you have the skills and machine access... Vic similarly handed off the electronics side to someone else although with the readily available PCBs and so many people making the workings on various projects that should be the "easy" part.

 

Comfort wise it plays really well but I mostly use it sat on a desktop rather than handheld... it just feels so nice, heavy, and high quality and just looks beautiful. I think only 11 were made just because of the time incolved in the various stages of making the machined and anodised part.

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The scene has changed because of facebook and the VecFever is a monument to that.

 

There is an idea of a "community" but that community is instantly subject to universal access and crowd-based consensus building. So when there is something like the VecFever which is actually perfect, it is completely consumed within moments of being revealed, or even before it is revealed.

 

 

I'm not sure if the creator of VecFever still plans on making more, and I'm speaking more in general here, but if/when someone truly abandons a novel project, it is a tremendous gift to the community if they release it into the open source so that others can carry it on. I am hoping that if the VecFever is done, that the creator does release it so that other can produce (and maybe enhance) it. Of course they have no obligation to do so, but the community would benefit.

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Good plan, I thought it looked a bit uncomfortable as well. Seems like I did an interest check on these a while back now that I recall and there wasn’t a lot of interest. Maybe that’s why Victor only made 11. It’s amazing that a system with so few games has such a following. I guess VecFever is real.

 

Making the bases wasn't cheap. I guess you're going to make a few as proof of concept, work on the project, gauge interest (there was certainly a lot!) and see how the initial batch sells before thinking of continuing. Except the two guys fell out before any were totally complete and ready to roll, so that nixed any sort of continuation on the project past what had already been produced. Can't say if the offer to buy them had been extended more widely they would have sold quicker, given the price, but seeing how many Radpads have sold to date, and they were not much cheaper to buy than the price I paid for the one you referenced, then maybe price isn't a factor here.

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