Turbogfx Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Hi all you Vectrex enthousiasts, Last weekend I bought a perfectly working Vectrex with 6 games for € 25 (less than 33 USD !!!) from some guy who thought it was broken. Excited as I was, I finally got a chance to test all the Vectrex I had collected up to that point. I recently purchased a Star Castle cartridge. FYI, it looks clean and fine from the outside. But whe I start it up on my Vectrex, the machine shows the game's title screen, then loads the first stage, but it only loads the "sprite" of my space ship. The machine doesn't load the Star Castle, none the of the "shields" and non of the hostile projectiles. On top of that, the game lets me rotate my ship, but when I push the "thrust" button, my ship ONLY moves from left to right over the center horizontal axis of the screen, no matter what direction the ship is pointed at. Is this a glitched/buggy/faulty cartridge? I cleaned it multiple times and all my other games work perfectly. It's strange that I can start the game, but that the machine doesn't load the game properly. Could this be the result of some region protection? I have a PAL Vectrex (I live in Belgium). Has anyone encountered this type of issue? Could you share your experiences on this topic with me? Thanks a lot in advance! Cheers, Turbogfx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Fisher Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Hi all you Vectrex enthousiasts, Last weekend I bought a perfectly working Vectrex with 6 games for € 25 (less than 33 USD !!!) from some guy who thought it was broken. Excited as I was, I finally got a chance to test all the Vectrex I had collected up to that point. I recently purchased a Star Castle cartridge. FYI, it looks clean and fine from the outside. But whe I start it up on my Vectrex, the machine shows the game's title screen, then loads the first stage, but it only loads the "sprite" of my space ship. The machine doesn't load the Star Castle, none the of the "shields" and non of the hostile projectiles. On top of that, the game lets me rotate my ship, but when I push the "thrust" button, my ship ONLY moves from left to right over the center horizontal axis of the screen, no matter what direction the ship is pointed at. Is this a glitched/buggy/faulty cartridge? I cleaned it multiple times and all my other games work perfectly. It's strange that I can start the game, but that the machine doesn't load the game properly. Could this be the result of some region protection? I have a PAL Vectrex (I live in Belgium). Has anyone encountered this type of issue? Could you share your experiences on this topic with me? Thanks a lot in advance! Cheers, Turbogfx As long as the other carts work OK, I'd still say there is a good chance that your SC cartridge is not yet clean enough to work 100%. I have a few games on my Vectrexes that will sometimes not work properly until the cart has been seated a few times, but I can always get it to work. I've never had to aggressively clean any of the contacts, but if I did, I would use something like solvent or magic eraser to do so. (I beleive magic eraser is called something else in Europe. It's melamine foam.) I suppose it's possible that the cart may be bad, but I don't think that happens very often. I think it's also possible to open the thing up and adjust the connector for better contact, but I've never tried it. I know one thing for certain--that's it's not a region lockout. No such thing as a PAL or NTSC Vectrex, as it's a vector monitor that conforms to no broadcast video standard. Any cart will work in any Vectrex, assuming everything is working properly. It's worth noting that for less that the price of a new Star Castle cart, you could get a multicart with every original release. Strongly recommended. Good luck, and welcome to the wonderful world of Vectrex, the best home video system ever, in my opinion. Edited March 13, 2012 by Matt Fisher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128Kgames Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Try a cotton swap dipped in rubbing alcohol on the contacts, that usually does the trick. I have never had an issue with Vectrex carts, but I have with other systems, and from what you described I would have to agree with Matt that its most probably dirty contacts on the cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbogfx Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 Thanks Matt and TMOSteel. I'll clean the cart again and retry tonight. If that doesn't work I'll consider opening the cart or getting the multicart. You're absolutely right Matt, the Vectrex is a wonderful home console. It's captured my attention from the moment I first learned about it (about one year ago), and now I finally have a working copy in my game room, and I've absolutely fallen in love with its style, gameplay, graphics and sound design. Everything about this console just feels so right, if you know what I mean. In only a few days time, it's become my favorite console, hands-down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Fisher Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Thanks Matt and TMOSteel. I'll clean the cart again and retry tonight. If that doesn't work I'll consider opening the cart or getting the multicart. I'm afraid I wasn't clear before about just what thing you should open up. I dont think that opening the cart will help. You should be able to access the contacts without doing that. Opening the console should allow you to access the connector inside, which I believe has metal parts that can be bent or cleaned for better contact. Having said that, if you don't know how to work on video monitors, DON'T DO THAT. Cathode ray tubes can carry a potentially lethal charge long after the unit has been off and unplugged. If you touch the wrong thing, you could seriously injure yourself or perhaps worse. I don't feel comfortable advising you how to do this safely, but you can google this topic if you must. Some on the internet downplay this risk, but I am not one of them. No video game is worth a trip to the hospital. I have never heard of anybody actually getting killed, but many who have worked on video monitors have been thrown across the room, had broken bones when their arm was slammed into a wall, etc. Edited March 13, 2012 by Matt Fisher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbogfx Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 Alright guys it worked. I thoroughly cleaned the SC cart one more time and that did the trick. Man, is that game hard! Matt, yeah I know, some parts of the monitor carry a current of about 4800 Volts, so I'm definitely not touching that because I don't have enough knowledge of that kind of stuff. A very good friend of mine who is an absolute prodigy in electronics is working to repair a second Vectrex unit, and he's being really cautious too. We'll see what he can do but he's taking it slow to avoid accidents. Thanks for the help again guys. My Star Castle cartridge is now fully operational. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifershalo Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Hello, to you compatriot;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.