Should I open and play this sealed copy of Vectron?

[Intelligentleman]

Or should I tuck it away and find an opened copy?

[jcalder8]

Open that baby up, let it breathe!

[Intelligentleman]

5 minutes ago, jcalder8 said:

Open that baby up, let it breathe!

I love that idea!

[+intellivotion]

at your own risk: Vectron doesn't have many friends

[Kiwi]

Make sure read the manual first before playing this weird and crazy game.

[Intelligentleman]

9 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Make sure read the manual first before playing this weird and crazy game.

I love last bullet point on the box... "Simple controls let you concentrate on not-so-simple gameplay"

[ls650]

It's not worth much even sealed, so you might as well let that cart out of its prison.

[+BiffMan]

Agreed on opening.  Rather than worry about loss of value, treat yourself to actually opening up a sealed Intellivision game!  🙂 

[GenetixJ]

I used to gift myself an unopened version of a game I liked for Christmas, to experience the thrill of opening a game like when I was a child.

[Intelligentleman]

Glad I opened this. It's such an odd, quirky game. Really gives the controller a workout, which is its main drawback, if you ask me. I still need to try it on my player 2 controller. The side buttons on that one still have a nice "click" to them when you push them.

[Zendocon]

Let us know how far you get.

[Intelligentleman]

2 hours ago, Zendocon said:

Let us know how far you get.

I'll update this thread as soon as I have some real play time with it. It's sort of like a really weird fixed shooter / puzzle hybrid.

[Intelligentleman]

On 2/15/2020 at 4:18 PM, BiffMan said:

Agreed on opening.  Rather than worry about loss of value, treat yourself to actually opening up a sealed Intellivision game!  🙂 

It was so fun to open this and see everything positioned as it would have been back in the day.

[+save2600]

1 minute ago, Intelligentleman said:

It was so fun to open this and see everything positioned as it would have been back in the day.

And *that's* as much fun as you'll probably have with this game.  🤣

[Intelligentleman]

1 minute ago, save2600 said:

And *that's* as much fun as you'll probably have with this game.  🤣

Haha, I'm not ready to write this one off... What I played was admittedly discouraging, but I'm holding out hope that I can "learn" (adapt?) to this one. lol

[mr_me]

What catalog revision was in the box?

[Intelligentleman]

28 minutes ago, mr_me said:

What catalog revision was in the box?

Where would I find it? Looks like the promo catalog has a 1982 date on it.

[mr_me]

Part number and revision will be at the bottom of the back cover.

[Intelligentleman]

3 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Part number and revision will be at the bottom of the back cover.

00007-3350G3

[Intelligentleman]

1 minute ago, Intelligentleman said:

00007-3350G3

or, 5788-0920

[+wongojack]

I like that people will always be discovering this game for the first time.  There's always hope when playing an underappreciated game that it will turn out to be something special.

 

Unfortunately, this one is more like an experiment in using the 16 directions on the dial than a real game.  Sure there is some enjoyment to be had from it, but it could use some "quality of life" updates for sure.  Here are my notes I dig up on Vectron whenever this comes up:

 

The game begs for twin stick control. This would be a fun one to see for Xbox Live or the PSN.

 

It feels like a sort of design project rather than a playtested game. It manages to use all of the side buttons and the 16 directions, but the gameplay mechanic of not being able to move just stinks. I found myself wondering if I was in "freestyle" or the other movement mode and ended up testing my controllers on other games to make sure my side buttons were working (they were). I can respect what they were trying to do here, but a few simple changes/hacks would really help the game.

 

1) Play a sound or give me a visual cue when I switch into freestyle. If I know what mode I am in, I can actually plan what to do.

2) Use the upper half of the disk to switch to freestyle

3) Just get rid of the movement limitation completely. Let's try to play with precise & slow free movement and add a game variation that requires switching (or don't because that part is not fun).

4) What should I do when the E-Pak is not reinforced besides wait? This is a bad design choice that the player will lose a life and must avoid yellows. Give me a way out of this no win situation besides waiting for an reinforcement that may never come OR I may not be able to pickup.

[mr_me]

The main problem with this game is the choice of left/right buttons.  Otherwise it's a good game.  I wish you could choose what level to start at.  There's six sets of enemies and most people won't get to see most of them.

[Zendocon]

There are a lot of suggestions I had once made to make this game more playable.

 

Yes, a "trainer" mode to allow you to try out higher levels would be nice.  Also a few different control schemes, and a way to know when you're in Freestyle and when you're not.

 

Obviously, it should be tweaked so the Prizum levels are beatable.  As it is, nobody can clear Level 16 without ROM hacking or some kind of emulator tool to selectively disable collision detection.

 

I think the game should be remade in 3D on newer consoles, leaving the "base" and Energy Block movement 2-planar while the Nasties move within all 3 dimensions, kind of like how it appears on the box front.  That way, the Nasties don't just move across the screen and wipe out half your base in the space of one second (save for the Sweeps, since that's their intended movement pattern), but instead only destroy a few pieces at a time.  The only consideration would be how your Energy Blasts would connect with the Nasties, unless collisions with the Energy Blasts are somehow done in 2D.

 

The game would greatly benefit from an interactive tutorial, giving you all the terminology along the way and having you practice moving the Energy Block and shooting at it, and also the behavior of all the different types of Nasties, as well as the E-Paks and what happens when Nasties "pollute" them.

 

Finally, choose between "Arcade Mode" where you try to survive through all 99 levels as before, or "Trial Mode" where you can start at any level you've reached, and have the maximum number of Energy Blocks for that level and try to clear one level at a time.  Each level would retain a Best Score and Best Time.  Maybe add a 2-player cooperative option where one player moves the Energy Block while the other player fires the V-Gun.

 

We could also have some fun and put in a hidden feature to slip in "psychotronic" subliminal messages during gameplay in the spirit of the Polybius urban legend.  Make it so it's activated the same way you uncover the "Mark Urbaniec" easter egg message.