gliptitude Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 In response to a tiny bit of renewed interest, I am starting this thread for: NEW VECTREX GAME IDEAS This had previously taken place in a thread that was not really intended for this. Well THIS is the thread for anybody's ideas. Programmers of course are welcome, but I wanted to set aside a place for the novices (idea peddlers) as well. I'm interested in sharing my own ideas, which range from fairly complete concepts to simply vague ideas and untapped genres. Personally, I am most interested in new concepts, rather than ports/clones. Please post any ideas you have and join the discussion! I'll start posting my own soon if you don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) Mother of creatures great and small GET THIS GUY to finish Vectrex BASIC. Then hobbyists could make games instead of bleating opinions about what could be. http://www.revival-s...com/vexosbasic/ Edited October 17, 2012 by theloon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliptitude Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Mother of creatures great and small GET THIS GUY to finish Vectrex BASIC. Then hobbyists could make games instead of bleating opinions about what could be. http://www.revival-s...com/vexosbasic/ Probably not a very efficient way to program Vectrex, even if the project were completed and released. There are people who know how to program Vectrex in assembly, and some of them are pretty accessible people, and generous with their knowledge. Also other tools exist, including some highly recommended tutorials and easy to use sprite drafting software. I have ZERO programming experience and I can fairly easily get the sprites I design to display on my Vectrex. I'm confident I could teach anyone how to do this much. Of course this is not game programming, but it is useful when collaborating with a programmer to be able to supply him with code ready sprites (I know because I am working with an experienced programmer). ... The Vectrex Basic project I think was intended as more of a fun tool for the "hobbyist" like you say, and I doubt that any serious game programmer would try to write a Vectrex game in basic. Maybe I'm wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) I hear there exists a fast BASIC compiler for the Atari 2600. Rumors are you can create some pretty respectable games with it. I bet that success could be repeated. Edited October 17, 2012 by theloon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lentzquest Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 The Vectrex would be the perfect platform for a really good tube shooter. Not necessarily a Tempest or Gyruss port, but something original of that same little genre. The vector graphics are just begging for it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I guess I didn't make my game/app opinion clear. I don't care if it's BASIC per se. I think if the effort is going to be put into Vectrex related software than you should get the most bang for your buck. If a decent game making tool and "sprite" creator could be made MANY games would spring up. What could be better than that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Oooh! An idea peddler thread! Such threads are rare, so even if I'm not technically a Vectrex fan, I'd like to honor this opportunity to flex my creative muscles! So I'm going to post a few ideas off the top of my head, without knowing if these proposed ideas already exist in some form on the Vectrex, so please excuse any redundancy. IDEA #1: A submarine simulation game. Not an arcade-style shooter like Seaquest on the Atari 2600, but rather something more cerebral and technical, which would make good use of all 4 fire buttons on the controller. IDEA #2: Elite. Has this been done yet on the Vectrex (and I mean more than just the space battle aspect)? Seems like a no-brainer to me, Elite is a huge classic! IDEA #3: Tron: Lightcycles on the Vectrex screen, gotta love that idea! Or maybe a simplified version of Discs of Tron? IDEA #4: Zaxxon. Well, it could be Zaxxon, or some other kind of isometric shooter. Sounds like a challenging project to me... IDEA #5: Boulder Dash. If not the original Boulder Dash, then something along the same lines (pun intended). Seems like the kind of puzzle game that the Vectrex should be able to handle, in some form. Or better yet, maybe a clone of Solomon's Key? I love that game! IDEA #6: Night Golf. Imagine a fully 3D golf game where the players play clandestinely in the middle of the night, just for fun! This would explain the rendered objects (player, trees, flag, etc.) set on a black screen. I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of golf, but I think a golf game would be cool on the Vectrex. IDEA #7: Battleship: A one-player version of the famous boardgame! It would be totally irresistible with a proper screen overlay! IDEA #8: BlackJack: Yes, the card game. It would make good use of all 4 buttons as well as a screen overlay. I don't think I've seen any type of card game on the Vectrex yet. I'm sure I can come up with more, but that's it for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 What about a Treasure of Tarmin clone? Make it stuffed with randomly generated content! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 How about a Rogue-like game? The idea would be to have the player character, enemy creatures and objects rendered as simple symbols on the screen, and let the player's imagination do the rest, just like the original ASCII-based Rogue game. This is another game that would make good use of all 4 fire buttons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warmachine Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Sinistar! It's practically begging to be ported to the vectrex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I have another idea, and this one would be pretty cool on the Vectrex. I think the attached image below is worth a thousand words. Essentially, you could have a Vectrex screen overlay that looks like the two screens of the original Game & Watch (united into a single screen, of course), and instead of black shapes, you'd have vectored shapes drawn on the screen. The game itself would play exactly like the original. The Vectrex version could be called "Spike Vs Kong", where Mario would be replaced by Spike. Lots of other Game & Watches could be "Vectrexized" this way. And I'd bet the programming wouldn't be all that complicated to do either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliptitude Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 The Vectrex would be the perfect platform for a really good tube shooter. Not necessarily a Tempest or Gyruss port, but something original of that same little genre. The vector graphics are just begging for it. Ever seen Web Wars? It's one of the original Vectrex games, and it is THE best game ever for this console, as well as one of the top ten video games of all time, in my opinion. Better than Tempest for me. You're right that this sort of game is very well suited to Vectrex. ... Perhaps more of this type could be made, but it would be very hard to top Web Wars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliptitude Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 I guess I didn't make my game/app opinion clear. I don't care if it's BASIC per se. I think if the effort is going to be put into Vectrex related software than you should get the most bang for your buck. If a decent game making tool and "sprite" creator could be made MANY games would spring up. What could be better than that? I don't know of any 'game making tools', but like I already mentioned there is some really accessible stuff for making "sprites". V-Model is a FREE vector drawing tool for PC, which exports Vectrex ready code: http://www.playvectrex.com/designit/christumber/vmodel_4a.zip It has some glitches and you might need some pointers to get started, but it is a very lean and straightforward program. ... I admit that I don't really know what to do with the resulting code. But what I do is view the 'exported sprite' (text file), and I invert the x,y values, and paste them in this template from Vectorzoa: http://vectorzoa.com/vecdraw/vecdraw.zip This is a neat little kit that Vectorzoa made for a contest, for fans to design a character for his game. There are instructions and tips on the website for using Vecdraw. ... Start out drawing on graph paper. ... Everything needed to produce a playable ROM is included in that zip file, and it really doesn't require comprehension to use. ... Play the ROM on a Vectrex emulator, or a Vectrex flash cart if you have one. ... The template allows you to display two sprites. You can toggle visible/invisible with each (using Vectrex controller buttons 1 and 2), you can move them around on the screen (using the joystick) and you can scale larger and smaller using buttons 3 and 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliptitude Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 Oooh! An idea peddler thread! Such threads are rare, so even if I'm not technically a Vectrex fan, I'd like to honor this opportunity to flex my creative muscles! heh, you should be a Vectrex fan. Some of your ideas have approximately been done before (Polar Rescue, Royal 21) and others exist almost exactly as you describe them (Discs of Tron demo). But I've never seen an isometric shooter for Vectrex. I've thought that before too. Could be really cool. ... I wonder if the vertical orientation of the Vectrex screen would be troublesome though? Night Golf is a cool idea. I really really really hate the actual sport, but I do think it could translate well to a video game, especially if it was like a fantasy scenario, maybe with obstacles like in mini-golf. Could be a game kind of like Marble Madness. At any rate it could be much less frustrating than real life golf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorf68 Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I guess I didn't make my game/app opinion clear. I don't care if it's BASIC per se. I think if the effort is going to be put into Vectrex related software than you should get the most bang for your buck. If a decent game making tool and "sprite" creator could be made MANY games would spring up. What could be better than that? Don’t be afraid of assembly! The Vectrex is a very good machine to practice Assembly on. It has a variety of good ROM routines that let you get things up and moving relatively quickly. I knocked up my first (very simple) program over a couple of days, maybe just 5 or 6 hours programming, and that included the time taken to read Vectrex tutorials. The first thing I usually do when programming for a new system or language is to write a pong program, this was extremely simple on the Vectrex. So I bypassed pong and started playing around with other things almost straight away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorf68 Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 (edited) The Vectrex would be the perfect platform for a really good tube shooter. Not necessarily a Tempest or Gyruss port, but something original of that same little genre. The vector graphics are just begging for it. I'd be interested in what you would add/do to this: It's a very basic and unfinished idea I was playing around with some time ago, but I dropped it. I can post some binaries of what little I had if you like... Ever seen Web Wars? It's one of the original Vectrex games, and it is THE best game ever for this console, as well as one of the top ten video games of all time, in my opinion. Better than Tempest for me. You're right that this sort of game is very well suited to Vectrex. ... Perhaps more of this type could be made, but it would be very hard to top Web Wars. I was thinking of something like that... but what if it was on a road that rises and falls, where you could jump your ‘car’ over certain obstacles whilst avoiding things in the air, as well as trying not to fall off the sides of the ‘road.’ This sounds doable, although it may be difficult to keep the on-screen action (amount of drawing required) down enough to avoid flicker! Maybe I could try a simple fly-through-the-tunnel game. Although it would help if it were a square tunnel... e r. Ventilation-duct flyers maybe I don’t think I could beat Web-Wars for playability though Edited October 18, 2012 by gorf68 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lentzquest Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I'd also like to see a game that'd be kind of a combination of Tower Toppler-ish gameplay combined with that scene from the Dark Knight Rises where Bruce Wayne had to platform out of that prison pit. Where Tower Toppler rotates around the outside of a cylinder, this game could instead make its way around the inside surface of one. Spike could be used as the character with the goal ouf getting up and out of each tube. On the way could be simple ledges, ladders, baddies to jump over, etc. The above picture looks cool too if Spike was doing a Lando style Death Star run, dodging obstacles and taking out enemies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I was thinking of something like that... but what if it was on a road that rises and falls, where you could jump your ‘car’ over certain obstacles whilst avoiding things in the air, as well as trying not to fall off the sides of the ‘road.’ This sounds doable, although it may be difficult to keep the on-screen action (amount of drawing required) down enough to avoid flicker! Maybe I could try a simple fly-through-the-tunnel game. Although it would help if it were a square tunnel... e r. Ventilation-duct flyers maybe I don’t think I could beat Web-Wars for playability though Huh, that kind of sounds like a first-person version of Scramble. I wonder how hard that would be to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Don’t be afraid of assembly! The Vectrex is a very good machine to practice Assembly on. It has a variety of good ROM routines that let you get things up and moving relatively quickly. I knocked up my first (very simple) program over a couple of days, maybe just 5 or 6 hours programming, and that included the time taken to read Vectrex tutorials. The first thing I usually do when programming for a new system or language is to write a pong program, this was extremely simple on the Vectrex. So I bypassed pong and started playing around with other things almost straight away! I'm not afraid of assembly! I look into its cold, dark eyes every night and stare it down. Although it came for my grandfather and his father before him it wont take me tonight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorf68 Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I look into its cold, dark eyes every night and stare it down. Ah, one of the remaining 'few brave men' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BinaryStar Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I've been writing a game for the Vectrex (in assembly) lately, in fact I've already started a couple others too Been a bit distracted of late after buying a ZX spectrum and doing a little programming on that but I'm hoping to have something ready for Vectrex in the coming months. Most games I have planned are arcade-style shooters though, as that's my favourite genre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BinaryStar Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I have another idea, and this one would be pretty cool on the Vectrex. I think the attached image below is worth a thousand words. Essentially, you could have a Vectrex screen overlay that looks like the two screens of the original Game & Watch (united into a single screen, of course), and instead of black shapes, you'd have vectored shapes drawn on the screen. The game itself would play exactly like the original. The Vectrex version could be called "Spike Vs Kong", where Mario would be replaced by Spike. Lots of other Game & Watches could be "Vectrexized" this way. And I'd bet the programming wouldn't be all that complicated to do either. Brilliant Idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sega_SHARK Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 What about a Treasure of Tarmin clone? Make it stuffed with randomly generated content! I would break down and BUY a Vectrex for this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 I like the idea of a Tron adaptation for the Vectrex! It would be a cool game to adapt to the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blazing Lazers Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) ^ Whoa, awesome ideals, all! Here's a few of mine: Board game adaptations: Stratego Chess Connect 4 Checkers Operation w/ Lightpen support Jenga Breakout a lumberjack game involving tree toppling a horror game various card games besides Blackjack Biorhythm Mario Bros. (this will likely happen at some point) Donkey Kong Guitar Hero w/ the Lightpen an FPS game Edited October 21, 2012 by Blazing Lazers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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