Zaxxon

Can't you fit an eraser in there to clean without opening them up?

Why do you want to open it? If it's just to see what it looks like inside, I'm sure there's a pic around somewhere of the insides so you don't have to damage a cart.

I think Epyx must've been cheapskates because they could've enhanced the graphics for the CV. They could've made their games up to 32k in size but their CV games only use about 12k.

You can remove just the power supply section from the ADAM printer and throw away the rest. This will save space and will also make it easier and cheaper to ship. I've asked a seller on Ebay to do this for me. It's easy, you don't need to be an electrical engineer to figure it out. You need to cut the purple wire that is on the PS board. If you don't the system will be waiting for the printer head to return and the ADAM won't boot to the word processor but the CV part will still work.

I think whether it's set at .25 or .50 is really a non-issue. I don't think Taito/Namco are thinking there are 10,000 arcade operators out there hankering for this. I think this aimed more at restaurant/bar owners who may have 1-3 machines, a pinball and a jukebox. The bar/restaurant owners put these in their businesses not just for the pure sake of making money but to keep patrons happy, entertained and coming back. Sure, they may not make any money off a brand new SI machine but that's not really the point. If it were aimed at arcade operators who have to maximize the income from every square foot of space since their only source of income is arcade games, it wouldn't be a great investment for them. The fact that these games are really old and can be played on every home system/pc for free may not matter much either. I still see old Centipede, Galaga and Ms. Pac Man machines all the time, everywhere. People are still willing to pay to play them even though they're 20+ years old.

I hope so! Then they'll have to slash the price way down just to unload these things. This would make a cool MAME cabinet. I wonder if they're releasing this in Japan as well and if it's made to look like the JPN version.

You guys are missing half the story. This is a SI/Qix combo machine like the Galaga/Ms. Pac Man machine so you're not just getting SI. Plus it'll more than likely have another hidden game included (ZooKeeper?) just like Pac Man was hidden in the other Namco machine. That price is the list price, not the actual street price which should be much, much lower.

My brother owns a pair of JVM's and it seems everyone who used to hang out at JI2 had at least one. We got them to work, two phone lines in the same house. B&C was selling these cheap at a recent CGE show. They had box(es) of 12. They weren't all working but I read they were easily repairable.

Then what has Scato got to fear? Surely you're not suggesting that they're a prominent developer. Since Scato. aren't successful they shouldn't have to worry about that either. Good thing Scato/4Play aren't successful. The Battlesphere source code is safe from thieves.

Go to the Jagu-Dome at http://jaguar.holyoak.com/jagu-dome.html. There's a bunch of screenshots plus an interview with Steve.

What's wrong with the colors? All you would need is blue, black, white and yellow. I think the CV can do that. I don't know how hard it would be just digitize the artwork/jpeg into low CV res. They have programs to do this I believe. It would just give it it that added arcade look. Like your really looking at an arcade monitor.

The ADAM got a bad rep because it's early tape drives were prone to malfunction. They later fixed it but now it had that rep. If you bought a disk drive for it, it was a non-issue. The ADAM was/is a cool and powerful computer. Don't just take the word of someone whose never used one. Look around on the net for ADAM pages or go to ecoleco.com and look at some of the many items available for it. It does have a monitor/AV outs built into the standalone version. I don't know about the version that plugs into the CV. It seem it's like the Jaguar or 32X in that some think it's trendy to rag on it even though they never owned one, used one or knew anyone who had one. I had one back in the day and though it never had the software support of the C64(I wish) we still managed to have a lot of fun with it and have good memories of it. There's several cool public domain Coleco releases for the ADAM and those arcade Super games are great. Those arcade super gmaes were originally programmed for the unreleased CV super game module.

Opcode, It would be cool if you could put in the Pac Man arcade monitor bezel artwork on the sides of the screen where there is just black blank space, like in MAME.

I had this problem with my 2 Vectrex systems back when I had them and I never could figure out as to what was causing it. I had one Vectrex that was made in Japan IIRC and the other was made in Honk Kong or Taiwan. They were made in different countries but appeared identical in every way. On one system, I don't remember which it was, Clean Sweep would not display the walls of the maze. It was NOT a brightness setting issue. I tried the system with 2 different multicarts and it did it with both carts. Then I bought an original boxed Clean Sweep, thinking maybe the ROM was copied wrong to the multicart, even though it worked correctly on my other system. It did the same thing with the original Clean Sweep cart. Every other game displayed fine, no problems, text was fine too. Has anyone ever experienced an incompatibility like this?

AMEN!!

er.. ehm... THE VECTREX IS THE BEST GAME SYSTEM EVER MADE. I WOULD MUCH RATHER PLAY BERZERK ON VECTREX THAN FRENZY ON COLECOVISION. IT'S MUCH BETTER BECAUSE IT USES VECTORS. I WILL SACRIFICE MY FIRST BORN SON, Victorex, IN HONOR OF THE VECTREX. How's that?

I never said the system is bad. It helps if you read my posts. I never said I didn't like the system. I like it but I'm not in love with it. The original poster is asking for opinions on the Vectrex. It's good but not as good a system overall as other systems available in 1982. It's not the best classic system IMO. Try looking at it objectively, not from a fanboy perspective. You've convinced yourself it's much, much better than it really is. It's vector based and that makes it unique.

I admit, after I got tired of playing the 3-4 games that are decent for the system, it bored my ass! yeah.. Where were they 20 years ago, 10 yrs ago, 5 yrs ago? Now? I can't count games I can't play as part of it's game library. I'm working on porting the entire PS/PS2 library to the CV so the CV stomps the Vectrex library once again. I won't be finished until the year 7879 but just you wait, they're coming, I promise. Don't get rid of your CV yet! Grand Theft Auto Vice City for CV is coming!! so The Vectrex can't even handle Asteroids or other B&W arcade games. So you're stuck with first gen. only. What happens when you tire of that B&W look? Color overlays won't work for a lot of games(Tempest). You're just going to reject ANY criticism of flaws in the Vectrex hardware or software by saying "it's about gameplay". I'm responding to the claims that the Vectrex is the "best" of the classic systems and it's far from it IMO. Why would I buy a vector game system to play raster games? I can play an arcade perfect version of SI on CV AND play it in COLOR if I want. On the weak Vectrex hardware you don't have the option of sprucing your game up with color or in-game music so every game is stripped to the bare essentials. eh... "Clone"? I think not. Are you excited about this? MMmmmm.... No. In the works!! That's all I needed to hear. I'm buying a Vectrex NOW! I don't even like Battlezone. All the homebrew programmers in the world aren't going to turn the Vectrex into more than what it is. It's weak and VERY limited compared to the other classic consoles. That hasn't changed. I don't see anything that's been released or "in the works" that makes me regret selling my systems. You guys are welcome to them. Knock yourselves out.

I used to own two Vectrex systems and two multicarts with every game released. I sold both setups within the past year, year 1/2. I am not one of those rabid fans who are constantly blathering that this is the best system ever. It's a neat, unique footnote in videogame history, a Virtual Boy-like oddity, a collectors piece. A great game system compared to all the others released(CV, INTV, 5200, 8 bits, C64)? No. Do you really want to play flickery, black and white only games on a tiny screen, with buzzy noise and no in-game music? I've owned them all and I've played all the Vectrex games so I know what I'm talking about. All this hype about how awesome the system is is going to leave you very disappointed when you try it out. Back in '82 I had the choice of either getting a Vectrex or a Colecovision. I chose a CV. Years later I wondered if I made the right choice. After buying the systems and all the games and trying them out I definately made the right choice. Mind you, the system doesn't suck, it's greatness is just GREATLY exaggerated by enthusiasts. Out of all the games made for it I found myself only wanting to play Armor Attack, Minestorm, Space War and maybe a little Fortess of Narzod. I'd take the system out of the closet maybe once every 6 months-year when I'd get my multicart updated with the latest releases. I'd try out the latest John Donzilla and others games. I'd play some Armor Attack, space war and Minestorm and then put it back in the closet for another 6-12 months, and I wouldn't miss it. Do you really want to play inferior, black and white vector versions of raster arcade games like Space Invaders, Pac Man(Clean Sweep), Pole Position, Frogger, Galaxian, Missle Command, Defender, which is what most of the new homebrews coming out seem to be? I sure as hell don't. It's neat that someone programmed a vector game but WHY vector versions of games that were done 10X better in color raster form? Why not port vector arcade games that couldn't be done justice on raster systems? The Vectrex would've been much cooler if: 1. MB had gotten Atari, Sega and others to port their Vector arcade games to the system. Without any of the Atari vector arcade games ported to it, it's a huge example of wasted potential. MB should've had deals lined up before they even released the system. No Asteroids, Red Baron, Tempest, Battlezone The Cinematronics games are cool but there's a bunch they didn't port they could've. 2. it were in color(I know there's a color proto). 3. It needs a faster CPU(s). It's just not up to the task of doing a decent version of Red Baron and others because it can't draw vectors fast enough. It'd be too flickery. It can't do good versions of raster arcade games and it can't even do arcade accurate ports of vector arcade games. The graphics have to dumbed down, simplified for it to be able to draw them without being too flickery. 4. It always bothered me that none of the games, that I recall, had music during play. Most CV games had music and sound fx at the during gameplay. Vectrex apparently can't do both and it makes these black and white games even more dull and lifeless. If you like your games to not have any color, no music, flicker, have to be played on a tiny screen, with sound only from a small built-in speaker that has to be turned up over the buzz of the system and choose from a limited library of titles then you'll love the Vectrex. It was neat to play around with my Vectrex a bit for nostalgia but I didn't use it much and I don't miss it. If I have a hankering for Armor Attack I'll play it on MAME and not on a Vectrex or Vectrex emulator. I know a bunch of people here will flame me for not saying it's the greatest ever but it's not. You're not really missing out IMO. I'm a big fan of vector graphics and vector arcade games. Tempest is my fav. arcade game of all time. Still the Vectrex isn't THAT great to me. You would be better served by buying almost any of the classic systems before this one. Would you want the Virtual Boy to be your only game system?

I'd go with the Jaguar. It's 68000 based so you would be off to a good start, it has the most memory and best capabilities to work with and there's a lot of Jag fans willing to pay for new, good Jag games. There's a lot of info and people that can help you with programming info and getting carts made for it.

Hi, What is the Gamefilm engine and American Hero? I've never heard of it.