Only one of my friends had one and was the only one I saw in person. Somehow I ended up with it and just dug it out of the closet. It was shot. Totally corroded board. I ended up cleaning it and jumpering broken traces, socketing all the chips, replacing bad cpu and sound chip, recapping everything and was finally able to get it running again. Gnarliest repair job to date!
Great find and you're a brave man to do a total tear-down to clean it! I was lucky enough to pick one up way back in 1986 at a college auction for £40 and loved it ever since. Recently got it down out of the loft and it works a treat. There's a great marketplace for parts and games - so I am now the proud owner of a dozen games with fresh overlays (newly fabricated by an eBayer) and a second controller. I haven't got round to fitting the anti-buzz kit - I may just bundle it if I sell as there is always the 'factory standard' aspect. Great work!
Another good video. I remember playing on a friends, and thinking just how cool it was. I'm sure if it was my only games machine in the 80s it would get boring quickly. Seattle mug! Have you ever been here?
My best mate owned a Vectrex growing up. He’s not a retro computer guy so I knew he wouldn’t care much for it now. I asked him if he still had it (in the hope I might be gifted it) and he told me he threw it out a few years ago! Ahh!
I love the way you had so much enthusiasm and excitement when exploring this new thing. That's really what retro collecting should be about and it was great to see. I firmly believe that once you modify something to the extent the Raspberry PI solution does, you lose the feeling of playing on bare metal. Lose that and you may as well be playing an emulator.
I remember seeing this for sale in a shop when I was a student back in 1985... I really, really wanted one but despite being heavily discounted it was still too much to afford. Certainly a distinctive and unique machine, its one a collection like yours needs, I'd go the multicart route, unless the Pi one is a plug in cart too, given that the machine is 100% functiional. If you want to run an emulated version of a game, well emulators are available,,,,,, I'd love to see how you make the overlays, as thia is a huge part of the appeal of the machine. I understand that many of the manuals are available too for download, so you could make the books as well....
I bought a Vectrex together with a multi-game cart back in the days before Ebay. Great fun. And I probably payed way less than this machine goes for today.
great job you did there, years ago i found a fully working Vectrex on a pile of junk that was going to a landfill, gave the guy a Bottle of Porto Wine , apart from dust she was great
That's an awesome find. Congrats! Wow, that was a wee bit dusty inside {cough}. Oh, yes, curious how you made the overlays. Funny, a near-mint (on the outside) Vectrex popped up on Fb Marketplace from a local-ish seller a few weeks ago for $100 CAD! It was sold by the time I responded. That said, a Vectrex remains on my WANTED list.
You will really enjoy owning a Vectrex console for sure! Nicely done on the clean up. As for cartridges, I would suggest getting a VecMulti which will use a micro SD card, that way you can have all the original releases and add homebrews as you see fit. The Sean Kelly multicart is another good choice. On the Battlezone front, check out Stramash Zone which is an awesome Battlezone clone that was done a few years ago. The Pi-Trex is a neat piece of kit if you want to run vector arcade ROMs, but IMHO it takes away the original charm of the Vectrex. Disclaimer I do own a Pi-Trex because I did want to check it out. Last, I decided to keep the Vectrex "buzz" with my unit. I feel it's part of the charm.
@@MrLurchsThings you are already a winner by owning a Vectrex console. I multicart is a great choice. As for borrowing my PiTrex for a video, not a problem. Let me know 🙂
Wow I played with this thing when I was in the second grade, I went to this dentist one time to get a tooth removed, they had to gas me to remove it, and as they were gassing me they told me to tell them when my toe started to feel a tingle, well I kept lying to them and telling them I didn't feel anything, they started getting so upset with me, next thing I know I was tripping, I was high as a kite I was infinitely falling backwards through the operating chair, felt like I was in outer space, it was amazing never forget it. My mother tells me the doctor and the nurse for fighting to hold the in place cuz I was trying to swim through the air and I was laughing and move my head around while the dentist was trying to carefully pull my tooth out with a wrench LOL, it was great! But yeah I got to play this weird thing while I was in the waiting room and I never forgot about it, that was 30 years ago...
I had one of these fine machines, was complete too, still had all the manuals, overlays and some of the boxes and all the games and by all I do mean all including Minestorm II. The only thing I was missing was the 3D glasses, I had the light pen as well. It was given to me by some guy from a US airforce base. Now the sad bit is my mother sold it all to the neighbour for something stupid like £30 back in 1995, said neighbours destroyed the whole thing in weeks. If not for that I would have still had it today.
Ah, the Vectrex: the console I've wanted ever since I discovered that they existed about twenty years ago but never could stomach the price of buying one. 😛 As to what to do with yours, PLEASE do not go the Raspberry Pi route! If the machine's original motherboard were dead, that would be different, but yours is working, and unique machines such as these are far more interesting when running as original as possible. 🙂 Buying a multicart and buying or making the overlays is definitely the way to go!
Wow, you need to be careful posting filth like this on TH-cam! Seriously though great job on the cleanup. The Vectrex is one of those mythical machines and as you say - certainly unique. I remember there being one for sale in the window of our local "retro shop" for years when I was a teenager, whenever I see one of these it takes me straight back to those days. 😁
So Jelly. A Vectrex has been on my want list forever. This and an Atari 800 (beige) are the only must gets I really have. A colour laser printer with overhead transparencies designed for laser printers which can withstand the fusing heat would possible make easy overlays.
@@MrLurchsThings Yeah, I so wanted an 800 as a kid. I got a C64 for Xmas so I can't complain. In the 90's I set a soft goal of acquiring all the computers I wanted as a kid. Mostly because they were dirt cheap at that time. I've managed to get most, I have a Atari 800XL and 600XL, but it was always the beige 800 I was looking for. #8BitLifeGoal
It's actually unsafe to use a air compression blower to dust off any circuitry or for that matter anything else indoors. What happens to the dust particles? They scatter all over the rest of the room as well as into your lungs when you breath them in as they float around. Next time bring the items outside when cleaning for your safety and also prevent dust from accumulating around the rest of your gadgets in your room.
Absolutely love this machine. Been lusting after one for a very long time. Absolutely wonderful system that really could have been something were it not for the terrible timing of it's release :/ It really is an old idea of the "modern bartop" arcade cabinet. A literal way to bring the arcade home. Coupled with it's vector graphics that still look just as sharp and clean as the day they first rolled out, the wacky peripherals that actually worked, the homebrew scene, it's small size, not needing to source a monitor or mod it for HDMI, no region-locks -- it really is an amazing little machine. All of that being said, I would love to see a handheld version of this, using an authentic mini CRT tube that we did get on things like camcorders (or maybe even a mini Plasma, as those were slimmer but still worked in similar ways to CRTs) . I know, stupid dream, but I would love it.
Great video Jason. I love my Vectrex but I've never had it apart, should I ever need to your video will be the first port of call. One thing I did notice, towards the end of the video where the Vectrex is running in the back ground some of the graphics appear to be breaking up. As the ship disappears into the screen parts of it's outline seem to vanish. Just checked on mine and that doesn't happen. Anyway, thanks for the video. Cheers, Alan.
The PiTrex and the prom cart both sound really great for different reasons. Wonderful. Wonder if you could talk to ..one of those other ACT people with them should they come out of the woodwork? Really enjoyed this one! Thanks!
You don't need to do the paper rub thing. I've restored more than 250 Nintendo consoles for resale and dish soap and water on the rubber followed by IPA on the rubber and circuit board has worked 100% of the time, provided that there are no tears in the rubber. Your rubber is in good shape. You never need to remove carbon by force. Myth busted.
I've always heard that air compressor air is not very clean and one should avoid blowing high-pressure air compressor air over sensitive electronics. YMMV.
Depends on if you have an oil catch i suppose. But what would it not be 'clean' otherwise? They usually have filters on intake to not ruin the compressor. If its too strong you could bend stuff and such or have the crud thats on there already sandblast rest of the board
Obviously (depending on the compressor) you don’t want it on full blast. My typical garage compressor, I have the regulator down to about half. As for throwing gunk, depends on the condition of your compressor. But also remember that I only used it as “step one” followed with a more thorough clean.
@@MrLurchsThings Maybe you could use an anti-static vacuum cleaner, like a Data Vac? Where I have worked (production electronic engineering facilities), compressed air is *VERBOTEN* for removing dust because it creates lots of ESD potential, so we use anti-static rated vacuum cleaners. Not just that, but blowing dust out of dirty equipment simply transfers the dust/fuzzies to everything else in the room. Sharing is caring, but I think all of your things don't want Vectrex dust in them. Great video, though, and I sincerely appreciate all the work you put into your content. You help the community far more than we nit-picky commenters help you. Cheers!
@@MrLurchsThings It's highly theraputic. I love my compressor. Saw a nice moisture trap add-on recently.. so it traps it from firing compressed liquids it creates.
There was actually a Vectrex at the preschool when I was a tiny one. Was really neat to fiddle with, especially playing a bit of Minestorm.
I'm old enough to have lusted after one of these as a kid in our local department store. I was absolutely fascinated by it. Never did get one.
Only one of my friends had one and was the only one I saw in person. Somehow I ended up with it and just dug it out of the closet. It was shot. Totally corroded board. I ended up cleaning it and jumpering broken traces, socketing all the chips, replacing bad cpu and sound chip, recapping everything and was finally able to get it running again. Gnarliest repair job to date!
@@sideburn Good on you for taking the time and effort to save it. Always a satisfying feeling when resurrecting something others would surely bin.
Great find and you're a brave man to do a total tear-down to clean it! I was lucky enough to pick one up way back in 1986 at a college auction for £40 and loved it ever since. Recently got it down out of the loft and it works a treat. There's a great marketplace for parts and games - so I am now the proud owner of a dozen games with fresh overlays (newly fabricated by an eBayer) and a second controller. I haven't got round to fitting the anti-buzz kit - I may just bundle it if I sell as there is always the 'factory standard' aspect. Great work!
Another good video. I remember playing on a friends, and thinking just how cool it was. I'm sure if it was my only games machine in the 80s it would get boring quickly.
Seattle mug! Have you ever been here?
Unfortunately no. My brother in law works for Amazon there and sent it as a gift a few years ago.
My best mate owned a Vectrex growing up. He’s not a retro computer guy so I knew he wouldn’t care much for it now. I asked him if he still had it (in the hope I might be gifted it) and he told me he threw it out a few years ago! Ahh!
I love the way you had so much enthusiasm and excitement when exploring this new thing. That's really what retro collecting should be about and it was great to see. I firmly believe that once you modify something to the extent the Raspberry PI solution does, you lose the feeling of playing on bare metal. Lose that and you may as well be playing an emulator.
Great I played this game as a kid. Brings back memories
The buzz I can remember to :)
Awesome. Vector graphics are special. Big fan of XY mode demos on my CRO.
I remember seeing this for sale in a shop when I was a student back in 1985... I really, really wanted one but despite being heavily discounted it was still too much to afford. Certainly a distinctive and unique machine, its one a collection like yours needs, I'd go the multicart route, unless the Pi one is a plug in cart too, given that the machine is 100% functiional. If you want to run an emulated version of a game, well emulators are available,,,,,, I'd love to see how you make the overlays, as thia is a huge part of the appeal of the machine. I understand that many of the manuals are available too for download, so you could make the books as well....
I bought a Vectrex together with a multi-game cart back in the days before Ebay. Great fun. And I probably payed way less than this machine goes for today.
great job you did there, years ago i found a fully working Vectrex on a pile of junk that was going to a landfill, gave the guy a Bottle of Porto Wine , apart from dust she was great
That's an awesome find. Congrats! Wow, that was a wee bit dusty inside {cough}. Oh, yes, curious how you made the overlays. Funny, a near-mint (on the outside) Vectrex popped up on Fb Marketplace from a local-ish seller a few weeks ago for $100 CAD! It was sold by the time I responded. That said, a Vectrex remains on my WANTED list.
You will really enjoy owning a Vectrex console for sure! Nicely done on the clean up. As for cartridges, I would suggest getting a VecMulti which will use a micro SD card, that way you can have all the original releases and add homebrews as you see fit. The Sean Kelly multicart is another good choice. On the Battlezone front, check out Stramash Zone which is an awesome Battlezone clone that was done a few years ago. The Pi-Trex is a neat piece of kit if you want to run vector arcade ROMs, but IMHO it takes away the original charm of the Vectrex. Disclaimer I do own a Pi-Trex because I did want to check it out. Last, I decided to keep the Vectrex "buzz" with my unit. I feel it's part of the charm.
The comments seem to lean towards a multicart. I might just have to borrow your PiTrex for a vid :)
@@MrLurchsThings you are already a winner by owning a Vectrex console. I multicart is a great choice. As for borrowing my PiTrex for a video, not a problem. Let me know 🙂
Wow I played with this thing when I was in the second grade, I went to this dentist one time to get a tooth removed, they had to gas me to remove it, and as they were gassing me they told me to tell them when my toe started to feel a tingle, well I kept lying to them and telling them I didn't feel anything, they started getting so upset with me, next thing I know I was tripping, I was high as a kite I was infinitely falling backwards through the operating chair, felt like I was in outer space, it was amazing never forget it. My mother tells me the doctor and the nurse for fighting to hold the in place cuz I was trying to swim through the air and I was laughing and move my head around while the dentist was trying to carefully pull my tooth out with a wrench LOL, it was great!
But yeah I got to play this weird thing while I was in the waiting room and I never forgot about it, that was 30 years ago...
I had one of these fine machines, was complete too, still had all the manuals, overlays and some of the boxes and all the games and by all I do mean all including Minestorm II. The only thing I was missing was the 3D glasses, I had the light pen as well. It was given to me by some guy from a US airforce base. Now the sad bit is my mother sold it all to the neighbour for something stupid like £30 back in 1995, said neighbours destroyed the whole thing in weeks. If not for that I would have still had it today.
Ah, the Vectrex: the console I've wanted ever since I discovered that they existed about twenty years ago but never could stomach the price of buying one. 😛 As to what to do with yours, PLEASE do not go the Raspberry Pi route! If the machine's original motherboard were dead, that would be different, but yours is working, and unique machines such as these are far more interesting when running as original as possible. 🙂 Buying a multicart and buying or making the overlays is definitely the way to go!
Wow, you need to be careful posting filth like this on TH-cam!
Seriously though great job on the cleanup. The Vectrex is one of those mythical machines and as you say - certainly unique. I remember there being one for sale in the window of our local "retro shop" for years when I was a teenager, whenever I see one of these it takes me straight back to those days. 😁
excellent stuff thanks!
So Jelly. A Vectrex has been on my want list forever. This and an Atari 800 (beige) are the only must gets I really have.
A colour laser printer with overhead transparencies designed for laser printers which can withstand the fusing heat would possible make easy overlays.
The 800 is a beautiful machine. Also on my want list (although I have other machines) I absolutely adore the Atari 8-bit line.
@@MrLurchsThings Yeah, I so wanted an 800 as a kid. I got a C64 for Xmas so I can't complain. In the 90's I set a soft goal of acquiring all the computers I wanted as a kid. Mostly because they were dirt cheap at that time. I've managed to get most, I have a Atari 800XL and 600XL, but it was always the beige 800 I was looking for. #8BitLifeGoal
Where did you get the replacement overlay for the joystick
It's actually unsafe to use a air compression blower to dust off any circuitry or for that matter anything else indoors. What happens to the dust particles? They scatter all over the rest of the room as well as into your lungs when you breath them in as they float around. Next time bring the items outside when cleaning for your safety and also prevent dust from accumulating around the rest of your gadgets in your room.
7:50 did a label fly off an eeprom?
You are correct it seems. I did spot it missing later and recovered it.
Absolutely love this machine. Been lusting after one for a very long time. Absolutely wonderful system that really could have been something were it not for the terrible timing of it's release :/
It really is an old idea of the "modern bartop" arcade cabinet. A literal way to bring the arcade home. Coupled with it's vector graphics that still look just as sharp and clean as the day they first rolled out, the wacky peripherals that actually worked, the homebrew scene, it's small size, not needing to source a monitor or mod it for HDMI, no region-locks -- it really is an amazing little machine.
All of that being said, I would love to see a handheld version of this, using an authentic mini CRT tube that we did get on things like camcorders (or maybe even a mini Plasma, as those were slimmer but still worked in similar ways to CRTs) . I know, stupid dream, but I would love it.
I want to try smthg like this: sensor at points at pathway then it is displayed like this. But sensor can be mistaken as camera?
I'd love to see "both".. Ofiginal games and the RPi stuff, after all it's not permanent but cartridge(?)
Great video Jason. I love my Vectrex but I've never had it apart, should I ever need to your video will be the first port of call. One thing I did notice, towards the end of the video where the Vectrex is running in the back ground some of the graphics appear to be breaking up. As the ship disappears into the screen parts of it's outline seem to vanish. Just checked on mine and that doesn't happen. Anyway, thanks for the video. Cheers, Alan.
Probably just the camera slightly out of sync with the screen.
@@MrLurchsThings That could be it.
The PiTrex and the prom cart both sound really great for different reasons. Wonderful. Wonder if you could talk to ..one of those other ACT people with them should they come out of the woodwork? Really enjoyed this one! Thanks!
Mark?
@@MrLurchsThings 😶
@@MrLurchsThings Nope. Al from Lane Cove North.
Wonder how well inkjet transparency film would work in the laminator.
Can you use IPA in a spray bottle and the air blower to "wash" it all off?
I reckon you'd just be trying to blow away lumps of dust that have turned into mud. When its this dirty at least.
@@MrLurchsThings I mean after you've blown as much off first?
Another vote for a multicart, not the Pitrex
At first I was a bit envious. Then you kind of revealed what you have paid...
DOOD!
You don't need to do the paper rub thing. I've restored more than 250 Nintendo consoles for resale and dish soap and water on the rubber followed by IPA on the rubber and circuit board has worked 100% of the time, provided that there are no tears in the rubber. Your rubber is in good shape. You never need to remove carbon by force. Myth busted.
“Drops Mic”, huh?
Simply a wash and alcohol. The carbon may develop a shiny look. Does not affect functionality.
私のもやってもらえないかなぁ･･･
I've always heard that air compressor air is not very clean and one should avoid blowing high-pressure air compressor air over sensitive electronics. YMMV.
Depends on if you have an oil catch i suppose. But what would it not be 'clean' otherwise? They usually have filters on intake to not ruin the compressor.
If its too strong you could bend stuff and such or have the crud thats on there already sandblast rest of the board
Obviously (depending on the compressor) you don’t want it on full blast. My typical garage compressor, I have the regulator down to about half.
As for throwing gunk, depends on the condition of your compressor. But also remember that I only used it as “step one” followed with a more thorough clean.
@@MrLurchsThings Maybe you could use an anti-static vacuum cleaner, like a Data Vac? Where I have worked (production electronic engineering facilities), compressed air is *VERBOTEN* for removing dust because it creates lots of ESD potential, so we use anti-static rated vacuum cleaners. Not just that, but blowing dust out of dirty equipment simply transfers the dust/fuzzies to everything else in the room. Sharing is caring, but I think all of your things don't want Vectrex dust in them.
Great video, though, and I sincerely appreciate all the work you put into your content. You help the community far more than we nit-picky commenters help you. Cheers!
Lots of people have 'heard' lots of things. Unless you've experienced it yourself, don't spread hearsay.
@@MrLurchsThings It's highly theraputic. I love my compressor. Saw a nice moisture trap add-on recently.. so it traps it from firing compressed liquids it creates.
I almost forgot, there is a pdf of the service manual available here console5.com/techwiki/images/a/a7/Vectrex-Service_Manual.pdf