The Vectrex Computer
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The Vectrex Computer
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#2I got to play on a Vectrex back in the day, it was super-fun -- especially because I had worked at Cinematronix before that. I really wish Vectrex was more successful, but vector displays were just super-limited. The positive of being pseudo-high-res wasn't enough to overcome the fact that you literally couldn't draw more than about 40-80 lines (depending on how long the lines were and how far apart they were).
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#36809 was really easy to do vector graphics with ASM, far more than pixels. Guess why. You only had to track X and Y...
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#4I got to play on a Vectrex back in the day, it was super-fun -- especially because I had worked at Cinematronix before that. I really wish Vectrex was more successful, but vector displays were just super-limited. The positive of being pseudo-high-res wasn't enough to overcome the fact that you literally couldn't draw more than about 40-80 lines (depending on how long the lines were and how far apart they were).
I've also heard (not sure if true or not) that General Consumer Electronics got a really good deal on the 9in vector displays for the first batch run which made production a lot less economically viable later.
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#5The storage device being 'wafer tapes' of 128k would suggest it was to be based on the Exatron Stringy Floppy. Although exatron only sold 75'/64k tapes, Rotronics/BSR sold a 128kB (presumably ~160') format version of it for the ZX Spectrum (Wafadrive) and Vic-20/C-64 (QDD).
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#6I got to play on a Vectrex back in the day, it was super-fun -- especially because I had worked at Cinematronix before that. I really wish Vectrex was more successful, but vector displays were just super-limited. The positive of being pseudo-high-res wasn't enough to overcome the fact that you literally couldn't draw more than about 40-80 lines (depending on how long the lines were and how far apart they were).
My uncle had one and he wouldn't let anyone touch it.
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#7I got to play on a Vectrex back in the day, it was super-fun -- especially because I had worked at Cinematronix before that. I really wish Vectrex was more successful, but vector displays were just super-limited. The positive of being pseudo-high-res wasn't enough to overcome the fact that you literally couldn't draw more than about 40-80 lines (depending on how long the lines were and how far apart they were).
I've also heard (not sure if true or not) that General Consumer Electronics got a really good deal on the 9in vector displays for the first batch run which made production a lot less economically viable later.
I recall reading that the design kicked off because of some stock of surplus CRTs but that didn't ultimately end up used.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/a-history-of-gaming-pla...
> The system got its start in late 1980, when one of the hardware designers at Western Technologies (Smith Engineering), John Ross, had a light bulb go off -- or, to be more precise, a surplus one-inch Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).
> Western Technologies redesigned the system as a tabletop, and later that year General Consumer Electronics (GCE) licensed it for production -- though now with a nine-inch screen.
More of that history here https://www.vectrex.be/vectrex_jay_smith.html
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#8I really enjoyed my Vectrex, I had every cartridge and every peripheral AFAICT. I ended up selling it to offset the cost of a fancy monitor for my Amiga :-).
Related Steve Ciarcia did a vector display which was a lot of fun back in the day. You can find it in the back issues of BYTE but here is a scan https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y6SfEN8idhdZ7Y_rNh0zD9uzHEC...
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#9So what exactly is a vectrex computer? My real question is what’s the limits of a vector display and why didn’t it take off?
Re: The Vectrex Computer
#106809 was really easy to do vector graphics with ASM, far more than pixels. Guess why. You only had to track X and Y...
The 6809 also had two hardware stacks making it excellent for Forth programming.