Vectrex - Gaming Historian
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ย. 2011
- Gaming Historian takes a look at the history of the Vectrex, one of the most unique consoles to ever be released. Featuring vector line graphics and a built-in monitor, the Vectrex was like a mini-arcade.
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My dad's first job was fixing vectrex machines. I'd really like to get him one, but as stated in the video, they're pretty expensive.
so? buy it. he will appreciate it. these machines are cheaper than the lowest capacity iphone or android phone. come on.
***** I don't have the money for one.
iphones are expensive
Get him a broken one. It's not like he wouldn't know how to fix it.
First job? What are you jesus
Classic Game Room's favorite console
Im surprised somebody noticed that!
yeeeeaaaa
Or the Genesis.
👍
Zombie Killer true
"You bet your ASSteroids"... impecable marketing.
I am Hit-Girl Truly impeccable.
Impeccably impeccable
The Dank Knight P' L
That's amazing marketing what are you talking about
The Dank Knight like something from avgn
Vectrex games were challenging and fast! This little machine has it's unique personality. It is a outstanding piece of equipment!
Sad that it wasn't succesfull, the games look great compared to atari.
***** what the ass arw you talking about?
Its a no funny joke on TH-cam.
well they couldn't do anything with the crash of 1983
Every game is a space shooter.
chuckobscure only half of the games were space shooters. Both football and soccer we're better than early nes sports games. Analog input and rendering make for much better gameplay than most early consoles. The drawback was the black and white only.
My local game shop has one of those in its retro corner. I always wondered what that thing was, but none of the store people seemed to have any idea of what that was..
Wow you're kidding. It's a must for a game collector.
The Vectrex was way before its time. I want one so bad, with the light pen, but it's pretty pricey on ebay, even for some of the games alone.
I saw one today with the controllers and manual for $250. The games were separate with no boxes or overlays, too.
Yeah I usually see them go for 300, but typically not with any games, so that's a good deal. Sadly, I won't be able to afford chucking 250 at something like that. I just hope I get to try it out at least once in my lifetime. :) You're lucky you came across one! I only see them on ebay, and there's barely any on ebay as it is.
Mrs. Yellow_Ledbetter 250 to 300 plus shipping. Thats a hefty price for a 80's console. All the same its a sweet looking piece of retro!
As much as emulation does work to PLAY the games, it doesn't feel anything like playing the actual system. It makes me sad.
+Wflash00 ahh man that sux..
I'm still kicking myself for selling mine back in 92 or 93, I loved mine growing up and played the piss out of it. If I could ever track another one down I will definitely pick it up. The only thing I have left is the box. That was such a cool era of gaming.
since the piss was already taken out of it, it's probably a good thing you sold it.....
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been hunting for a quality vectrex for 18 months now, i have 6 grand invested so far and keep coming up short. Every model i’ve gotten my hands on is missing it’s piss
@@barrybicepsakafreddyflapja1399 sounds like a waste of money. Seems like a testament to your love of the thing. I hope you find one soon.
And Vectrex is a telling example of how disastrous a failure a console could be. It was ridiculously expensive to make, meaning it was born a disaster. I have to chuckle at whatever knucklehead at Milton Bradley got sold that song and dance.
@@barrybicepsakafreddyflapja1399 Just put new piss into it.
I got one of these for Christmas in 1983.I still got it with 7 game cartridges plus the game it came with. Super fun games. Played it for years.
Did you have the colored screens you could put over it? I had a couple but never really used them
Man, I love the Vectrex. The vector graphics amazed me even in around 2000, when I saw it for the first time ever. Gorgeous.
Glad to join the old schoolers who also play Vectrex.
My fav 5:
1. Cosmic Chasm
2. Armor Attack
3. Fortress of Narzod
4. Clean Sweep
5. Web Wars
I still own one, still working, with 7 games but no more controller :(
LONG LIVE THE '80s!!
Still have mines
I also still have mine, bought from Federated Department Store in Cerritos, CA in 1982. It also has 7 games. They all work but some of the copper contacts have rubbed thin and it takes some precise fiddling to load properly sometimes. I haven't taken it out of the box in a long time (several moves later).
Another fun fact about this console is that it was used on X-Wing Targeting System...
Mind blowing
No it wasnt...the game Star Hawk is basically a ripoff of the trench run. A friend has a beautifully restored arcade version of Star Hawk and I always love playing it.
@Something Studios He's joking, the Vectrex was 5 years after Star Wars
Wow, the 3d imager games look better than the virtual boy. Go figure
Sauron Damn it is smexy, this is one of the few systems in its day that had music I believe and well, something called voice samples and cutscenes, this is the future of the past. :(
LOL, no, kid.
@@MaoRatto Unfortunately, all that meant Vectrex cost way too much to produce, which means that it was born a failure. It wasn't cut out for the real world.
And to was 10+ YEARS BEFORE!
That machine was at its time better than most arcade machines no doubt. I have not played it since 1983, but I never forgot how badly I desired to own one at the age of ten.
I kind of like the illuminating graphics, it reminds of those good old 70s 80s sci-fi movies like Alien.
It's great the way you can take a subject I've never heard of and make it interesting. That's the point of history lessons after all. Well done.
I have to give you massive kudos for that Donkey Kong Game Boy theme cover you had in the video. It took me by such surprise and I was so happy to hear it that I had to back up the video a little to listen to the dialogue, because when that song came on it's all I could listen to. Too cool.
Wow actually the sound is pretty damm good!
It uses a General Instruments AY-3-8912 sound chip, the exact same (or very close to) as used in other systems like the ZX Spectrum 128k, or the Atari ST. The Sega Master System also had a very similar sound chip
Man I still can't get over your channel. I'm usually not a fan of history, but I love video games! :3
Never thought putting the 2 together would actually work.
Thanks Norm! ^3^
thanks for the videos man! love your channel
I'm glad you're making videos and reviews again! Keep it up! I'm always a fan!
7:21 Ha! For once WE'RE the ones who gets something released exclusively here, and not Japan!
The explosions look awesome in the games, especially Asteroids.
My grandfather bought one of these at a yard sale for me to play at thier house when I was a kid. I remember him setting it up on the kitchen table when I was like 6or 7. It wasn't my nes but since I wasn't allowed to take it to thier house I remember playing it with him and having a lot of fun. Awesome video. Thanks!
Do I want a Vectrex? You bet you're assteroids!
it's impossible to not love the vectrex.
Shoo hoo I don't like the controller, but I agree the console itself is great
Unless you're whatever executive at Milton Bradley got conned into green-lighting a system so expensive to manufacture that it had zero chance of turning a profit, even taking games into account. Make no mistake: Vectrex may be a fun system, but it was a _terrible_ idea in practice, a born failure.
Except if you're the market that was intended to buy it, sure, or people who invested in the company that made a console too expensive to ever turn a profit, and so on...
you bet your asstroids
@@MegaZeta You do realise much more expensive stuff succeded, right?
Wow! This looks legitimately amazing!
Though I must ask: How exactly did they even manage it? How does one make a screen that produces vector graphics?
In a normal CRT display a beam of electrons scans across the screen and is rapidly turned on and off producibg rows of on/off pixels. All they had to do is scrap the original driver and replace it with a custom one that can move it to any place on the screen
BrownieComicWriter when you turn up the brightness, you see the two points that are key, then the line between is scanned. The limit is number of lines and occasionally it lags due to complex drawings
BrownieComicWriter an oscilloscope-like display.
By building a home system that was so expensive to produce, it would have been guaranteed to fail even if it sold well. This was the age of high con artistry in video game companies.
Mega Zeta vector monitors are cheap.....even than.
Happy to see that you're still uploading. Keep up the good work!
I had one back in the day..loved it..was easy to take over to friends houses..and as you said monitor included!
Vectrex was the Wii U of 80s
how?
+Eazy-E Gaming
Revolutionary but not the best selling console of the era
+ooo 52 how the hell is the wii u revolutionary lol?
failing really bad?
+Carson Chiu Look at the GamePad. It seems a little gimmicky, but I think Nintendo may have something there; we won't really know its impact for years.
Talon's Electronics Mods, Repairs, and Reviews A. tablets and streaming was not invented by nintendo
B. lol no, its one of the reasons why people did not want to buy the wii u, unlike the wii which people bought it because they WANTED the motion control (until most people realized its a garbage way to play most games)
oh and let's forgot even nintendo themselves have cut off the wii u and is going to leave it to burn, delaying zelda u again, few new games down the line etc
I live in England and unfortunately I've never seen or played one of these.
I'm going to have to get one imported, it looks and sounds amazing!
They are. I have one and I must say that for storage and cleaning, this thing is one of the easiest to store and clean. Even the cartridges are a piece of cake to disassemble and clean.
Europe got them under Milton Bradley
THANK YOU for posting this video. I remember one of my uncle's owning this and I was fortunate enough to play it. However, I couldn't remember the name of the system. Nostalgia trip all over again.
I love the opening when you combine the majestic music from 2001 space odyssey & the anticlimatic boot up sound of vectrex. Amuses me everytime i watch this video.
I have a vectrex , still own to this day
Can I have it ??????
i wonder what a modern version of this technology would look like
probably like a vr headset
Wouldn't that pretty much be a portable game console, or do you mean the specific tabletop design?
Mono chromatic, doesn't hook up to a tv but isn't exactly portable either, unique display, doesn't have third party support. Not today modern, but the Virtual Boy would be more modern.
It was portable enough. It was small and didn't really weigh anything. We used to take it back and forth to our great grandmother's when we didn't feel like hooking up the Nintendo over there. It also allowed us to play nonstop, since the tv was free.
Unfortunately, most if the games are pretty lean.
probably a flat screen monitor and small area behind it for the guts of the system, it would probably take up as much space as a mini PC.
Really love and enjoy your work. Please keep it up and increase it as well. I enjoy it perhaps more than any single other channel. Thank you for bringing back so many great memories. My dad died two weeks ago and I’ve enjoyed listening to your videos while being busy and have gone back and played some of the classics I used to play with him since you reminded me of them, Mario and Mario 3. Some others I can’t remember the names of. There was one he and I played more than any other game. I think it was NES and was a top down shooter about perhaps two angels? It was I think a blue pants wearing angel man and maybe a green pants wearing angel man. They shot upward toward the top of the screen and flew over distant lands below while constantly traveling upwards. I can’t for the life of me remember the title but we loved it. I remember hours with him next to me and all the frustrations and laughs and beating our chests. And of course Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, but I was a year or two older then and he couldn’t keep up anymore since I had so much practice while he was working. Anyway, thanks for your hard work. Keep it coming!
I have come across this after scrolling through your channel... and I have to say, glad you changed the intro
I've played on one before its pretty fun!
Still mad at my dad selling this thing for a bargain in the early 90's...!!
You do a AWESOME job bro! Great Work 👍
man been loving your videos found one last night and i've just been on a mission to watch em all keep up the good work =D
i didnt know vectrex had such history, i loved it as a kid still have it sitting in my closet. Football on this was quite fun.
ill have too loo into it idk if id be able to part with it lol
You bet your ASSteroids
Yes it is me Jesus Christ your argument is invalid
Sounds like what the AVGN would say!
Awesome video as always Ryan! thanks a lot for them!
It's a mesmerizing visual display... definitely a cool piece of tech.
I got mine with 2 games and 3 slides for $2 at a yard sale a couple years ago ^.^
Lucky.
How i'd love a vectrex 2!
My parents rented this for my birthday as a kid. Great memories and lots of fun.. wish I had one now.!
I was 4 years old and I loved Vectrex!! I can't remember where I played it, but it was amazing and ahead of it's time. I also loved playing the old Vector graphics games like Star Wars in the arcades.
Mark from CGR would approve of this. Truxton for life!
Lord Karnage approves of this video.
you do a great job! i'm not even into retro gaming and still watch you channel!
This looks absolutely incredible! The pulsing brightness of the lines and the sound. I want one
It doesn't pulse in person. It's just how a rolling shutter effect looks with vector graphics.
Vectrex Master race! Fuck the PS4 and the Xbone, WE WANT THE VECTREX! (the Wii u is nice tho :D)
Yeah, Bring back the Vectrex!
synth505 Have you even played with one?
Nostalgia Works "Back in the day"... lol... I started playing consoles before the 8-bit generation. Atari 2600 and Intellivision were my first consoles. Nintendo Wii U has absolutely no third party developer support. The only descent games are first party and those are very limited. So if games are your argument, then that falls flat on its face. The Wii U console sucks. I still have a Wii and I see no reason whatsoever to buy a Wii U. I hope Nintendo gets it right with the next one.
synth505 Everyone (that i've seen) that says that it sucks haven't played with one
TBH the xb1 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but its missing something. Games. If it had games it could be a better console but the only games it has are FPS games. I went to my friends last weekend and played it and messed around with it and realized it was pretty neat but its not a game console without games. But still. LONG LIVE THE VECTREX
There is a Vectrex iPad app now.
I still have one with all the games.. I remember going to my grandmother's house and playing this all the time.. She gave it to me a few years ago before she passed away..
A local game store by me actually has one of these.
It's interesting to know about this systems existence and then stumble on seeing one later.
Out of my price range but every time I go there for either retro games or miniatures I can't help but just take a glance at it behind their counter
This was one of my favorite systems during that time, as it was the only system prior to Nintendo that actually had games which were close to a direct port of their arcade counterparts.
that's what I thought too. it was nice to have it all in one location and you could transport it, hassle free. It was a pain in the ass finding games for it, for me anyway. Sears was the only one around us that sold them and they were always out
3:20 is that chronotrigger's battle theme?
yep :)
yes! that's my favorite game in the whole world!!!
Never finished it I don't like jrpg's but maybe one day.
Came here looking for this very comment. The music caught my ear and I was like son of a bitch.
great video as usual Norm, i learned a lot about how awesome the vectrex is! I even made a presentation in college informing everyone on the vectrex thanks to your video, keep it up!
I still own the Vectrex I received for Christmas 1983. I now boot it up each Christmas eve with my Children. Still a complete joy to play after all of these years!
ALL HAIL THE VECTREX!
Picked one up at a garage sale saturday for 100 bucks :).
Dang that's a really nice find !
rc addict found one in at my local elektronics dumpster in full working condition with overlay
kevin holsteyns Found one in a museum, tho I had to break the glass of the display box in order to get it
found one washed up on the beach in a bag in like new condition
peepsmith
There was a stray cat in the alley behind 7/11. She was giving birth and out came a Vectrex !! I was amazed. I fished around in the afterbirth but I still couldn't find all the accessories. Still a great find.
Great video man keep it up
love your videos, appreciate your work, they are entertaining
4:15, so Nintendo wasn't the first company to put a handle on their console.
I'm so lucky I got my hands on one!
MINE! YOU CANT HAVE IT!
+TheEmeraldStar i want it
El Lano AW HELL NAW
AW HELL YEAH
El Lano Nope.avi
Great video, missed you at Retropalooza hope you can make it next year.
I adored this game. I have some good memories, some of the few with my father. I really want to play and hear those sounds again. Talk about better times...
U bet your asteriods! Lol!
You bet your asteroids!
thanks for another great episode. i've always wondered about the vectrex. i do remember having some game watches, but from a different company.
Finally!!! I had totally forgotten what this was called but played it a lot.
vector graphics are still superior to pixel graphics. In fact all 3d models are a type of vector graphic and vector graphics are the precursor to them. But the really nice thing about vector art is that it does not loose data when it's scaled in size. For example have you ever taken a gif, or jpg and doubled it's size and seen how blurry it gets? Vector graphics don't do that. They are just as sharp and clear no matter what size you scale them to. Also they aren't just a bunch of lines like you see in video games from the 70's. That is all that the game systems were capable of rendering with their budget hardware. High end computers at the time designed for graphics development could shade them and they would be solid shapes either flat 2d or simple 3d. And of course now modern vector based graphics programs are no different than what you can do in photoshop or corel draw. It just works a little different because it plots vectors rather than using brushes. It works kind of like using the line and freeform polygon tools to draw all your line art and then you fill it with either flat colors and textures. Anyone running Linux and is into art should check out Inkscape. That is a nice free vector art program. And I am sure there are others that are similar for windows and mac OS systems too.
Raster graphics are far easier to program and much more compatible. Vector graphics have tons of issues.
I just bought one off ebay for $250 with five games :-)
+Dennis Neo
LOL Dumbass
One of the graetes childhoodmemories of mine is batteling for a MineStorm Highscore with my cousin. I couldnt beat the fourth level but it was fun. Its the crown of my videogamecollection today. Thanks for the memories
my nephew had a vectrex; when i was young i always wanted to go to said nephew; as i really loved playing the machine... I had my own console a few years later (a sega master system) but i never forgot about that chrystal-sharp image of the vectrex... the built-in game was my favorite game; since the vector gfx lend themselves perfect for this game!
Also, no other console released since the vectrex was able to draw diagonal lines without jaggies; a diagonal line on the vectrex was like you would draw it with a pen; razor-sharp from edge to edge.
I really loved this machine... (my nephew had like 15 games for it) I remember there was a game with speech in it; it was a platformer where in the beginning your girlfriend was kidnapped and she said 'Eek, help Spike' and you said "Oh No, Molly"
MY GREAT UNCLE HAS A FACTORY SEALED VECTREX IN BOX!
Lucky
***** I don't believe so. He also has a SMS and a Dreamcast factory sealed.
Ok
If it was successful what would games be like today
George Boulter I imagine VR gaming would have happened generations ago.
Basically the polygon graphics of early 3d are just vectors filled in. It took pixels getting small enough to emulate vector graphics. Pretty much all 3d graphics are based on this concept
My brother and I each got one for Christmas in 1982. I wanted one so badly and I spent that entire summer having endless anticipation, TV commercials were being aired but wasn't released yet. Within a few months both our monitors burned out 😞
I have this system. Just now played it. Still holds up.
Damn why do you have to show me more retro games consoles to put in my collection.
They could have ported Polybius to this
+K. “Dwessie” Charrette
*That* could have been a neat _Warehouse 13_ episode, but a dedicated "Polybius" system would probably carry more impact. Say, a competitor wanted to discredit the Vectrex, so the company somehow acquired the plans and built a "Polybius Home Game" prototype, but it never got anywhere because it worked a little _too_ well.
first off polybius isn't real and second polybius is colorful abd looked like LSD
@Simply Ravishing
>links to wikipedia
lol, no it isn't. It you want to know more about that false myth i recommend you Ahoy's video about it.
@@nicholastosoni707 There's an episode of "Dimension 404" about Polybius. I found it fun.
My uncle had one of these still around in the 90's I used to play it whenever I went to his house as a kid
someone gave me one of thesee when i was 15 and ive had it ever since, love it. still works!
I hate Atari
And Atari doesn't care.
Too bad Vectrex didn't have ClassicGameRoom or Mark as advertisers for it back in the day, because they sure as shit made a lot of people believer the Vectrex was better than it is.
Unfortunately Mark doesn't actually review game or hardware, at least not anymore, he just talks about things and makes a whole bunch of bad jokes. The fact of the matter is, the Vectrex was a bad console even at the time. It was vastly inferior to its competitors which had much more advanced hardware and software. The Vectrex merely has appeal today due to its compact all in one design, sharp vector graphics, and of course Mark who won't stop making bad jokes about it in every review he does.
Really well done! I sill have mine in the box!
I always wanted one of these!
Jesus... sounds like the Wii U.
Unique.. costs a lot to produce.. no third party support.
Nintendo needs to start looking at things that went wrong in the past, when looking to the future.
***** They should of been doing that since the N64
Sad but true.
They cocked up by sticking with carts.. then when they DID include an optical medium in the Game Cube, they half assed it.. and went with a small disc with very limited data capacity.. they finally did that right with Wii but a day late and a dollar short.. and they ignored HD... then when the Wii U came out.. they messed with some pad... and.. yeah.. they seem to always be a day late and a dollar short.. half assing things.
+The Goof a day late and a dollar short ? the wii sold 10's of millions of units. it has outsold the PS3 and the xbox 360.
I'm not talking about the WII!!!!!!!
I'm talking about the WII U!!!!!!!!!
They did things wrong with the Wii U!
I'm blocking you just cause i rather not deal with this sort of garbage from a fanboy who's not paying attention...
I recall this being around and never had a chance to even watch it action. Interesting to see, would have enjoyed the idea then of my own screen and no hogging living room tv.
I love the sound these things make
"What's this?"
"A Vectrex. Go ahead, turn it on."
"What's that sound?"
"OMG!!! You broke it!!!!....Nah, just kidding."
Thanks for doing a review on the vectrex I had no idea there was a 3D peripheral for this system till Sean Orange mentioned it on Famicom Dojo
I still have my Vectrex and game library. Spent many, many happy hours on that thing back in the day. Now that I'm living in the UK, I really need to get an adaptor for it so I can play with it again.
I played a Vectrex once, in the early 90's. Some kid I was visiting had one. I've never been in the same room as one since.
Hey man if your still around i hope you are well. I can watch your videos all day. If you ever do another video can you do one on the atari lynx. Stay safe
There used to be a board called the Zektor Vector Generator that could plug up to various vector monitors and even included a cable to allow it to be directly plugged into the Vecterex. The board was used with a computer running MAME to allow the vector arcade games to be played on a vector monitor.
I love my Vectrex! I own over 20 games from the original library and I've even started looking into the fan-made games recently. It is amazing that there are programmers out there that are still dedicated to making games for this system. I ordered Vector Pilot from a fellow in Germany named Kristof and it has since become my favorite game for the system.
My Grandfather has an original 'Asteroids' arcade at his house and it plays sooooo smooth. It's hard to explain how smooth some of the older games/arcades were..
Hi from Germany. My friend and I had one Vectrex each. I think it was 1984 or so. I had Srcamble and Berzerk and he had a football game among others. Since we both had a controller, we could play 2v2 games. It was amazing. We both loved the Vectrex!
I had one of those game watches! I mostly played it at school. Eventually the joystick wore out but I remember that it lasted for a long time anyway.