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Vectrex Shells and PCBs interest check (colors, multi-carts too)


5-11under

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This is the New Golden Age of Vectrex Development. I've seen more people emerge within the last few months than in the last several years and we need it. Who is still developing from all the past generations? Chris Tumbler, Manu, Alex Herbert, Clay Cowgill, ect have long stopped. It seems as though Martjin Wenting and Alex Nicholson are done, John Donzilla recently retired and how much longer is George Pelonis going to be doing it? With the dozens of new people making games that seem to be coming out 2 or even 3 a week, there just might be more of a need for shells than ever in the past.

 

While I respect your desire to not fund the competition Sean, I do have a few arguements. How often do you list Multicarts anymore? Are you intending to make them available again soon? I haven't seen you sell any in quite some time.

 

Whether or not you want others to make Multicarts, they still are. If they really want them to be in original or original style shells, they will get them. And if not, then the gamer will get them, but really your just making it more difficult on the enthusiasts in the end. Isn't the spirit of gaming what you were focusing on the beginning?

 

Is there anyway to keep people from buying other multicarts? Is there anyway to inform them that your Multicart may be better than another BEFORE they buy it? People are going to buy them even if it may be of less value, less functionality or less quality (and I'm not saying anyone is better even though I have tried them all). Why not sell them carts, and at least you'd be getting a cut of their sales which is more than you get now? It's a win-win for you. Easier and cheaper to get carts made because you have more people buying them from you, you get all the profits of yours and something from theirs and it helps out the gamer all around. Maybe then we can see cart shells in all kinds of colors.

 

Here's the flip side Sean. Say some one else gets a mold made. Not only does it make it more difficult for you to get carts made because now developers are divided but also there's competition which means that it some, maybe even most, are going to go with either the cheapest or the one who offers more value. Then, someone is going to lose out.

 

My suggestion is to you, is to open another group buy, take orders from everyone including other Multicart developers, everyone who couldn't get in on the first group buy, maybe even make this a color run, and make it all cheaper than it would be for making a new mold, or scraping together a few people whod be interested in a color run AFTER someone else grabs Multicart developers and people who'd be interested but got in on 5-11under's group buy.

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I do think the embargo against mulit-cart makers is silly as well. Who does it hurt, not the multi-cart maker. They'll sell anyway. Instead it hurts the end user like myself who now has to hunt down a shell.

I kept looking for multi-carts and couldn't figure out why no one had shells. I had no idea it was an embargo against all of them. I even looked for a SK multi-cart but they aren't made anymore as far as I've found.

 

It also hurts Vectrex collectors because instead of CIB now they shell-less carts since end users are forced to scavenge shells. Like the OP said, shells are hard for people to find.

 

I'd suggest selling the mold to someone who is willing to keep an active website and deal with programmers and end users alike.

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The way I read Sean's past posts, he has not been against an individual buying a shell to use on their own in order to case a Multi-Cart they obtained from another seller.

 

As for an actual embargo I think the word is a bit strong and out of place.

 

I have heard he has asked other multi-cart makers to refrain from using his case in bulk sales of their own purchases specifically for the purpose of building and selling a multi-cart. As far as I know all have respected this. But they also know shells are available and provide things like a cart label to go along with the purchase of their multi-cart.

 

As for finding shells a person just had to search the internet to find Sean was the source as well as find his current email address. People focused only on one specific forum are likely to miss out.

 

Personally speaking I want to see Sean retain ownership of the mold. He has been a reliable source of shells over many years. When the community is actually ready to make a bulk order Sean has been ready to collect the responses and make a new production run for gray shells and for colored shells. Early on I think he funded the whole order. For later orders Sean has personally funded large parts of each order. And when others have dropped out of commitments made to Sean it made no difference as he covered their part of the order anyway.

 

The only requirement for Sean making a new order in the past was the order has to be large enough to justify the time and expense on the part of the manufacturer. This usually means and order of 1000's of carts or or more for gray along with an order of hundreds of carts or more for other colors. I can tell you from personal experience few people have actually stepped up with the cash when it came time to place a large order.

 

Note above I said "with". The colored cart runs are only practical when made along with the gray carts. If a single short run were to be made then all setup costs for the run have to be rolled into the final price for single color. Plus the minimum order would be at least 1000 carts. And were back into funding commit issue again.

 

Sean might have a correction to what I have said above. If I have wrongly spoken on any topic I do apologize.

 

 

Once again I wish the best for an alternate mold and run being made. But development costs (design, sample, revise, and repeat) plus production run costs have definitely been the roadblocks in the past.

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Perhaps communication is part of the issue then? The old timers all know each other and where to go and people trying to get in now including end users don't know the secret handshake.

 

Going to google just brings up a list of people looking for shells and forum posts telling people they aren't made. Even your site Chris doesn't list them for sale. I had to contact Roland (VectrexRoli) to find out where he got his from.

 

Perhaps the word embargo is strong but it took me almost six months to find a shell for my multi-cart .

Edited by mkiker2089
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They are available currently from Chris Romero but I don't know who his supplier is. I think he uses the Sean Kelly mold. I paid 3.75 for a grey / black shell just this week. the blue ones are slowly being sold on Ebay as most are gone and I think Chris is stretching the last out. I don't know, just saying.

 

Anyway, you can get in touch with Chris at

 

http://vectrex.com/

mailto:vectrexer@gmail.com

I paid $2 for some shells a few years back direct from Sean but it has been some time. Not sure what he charges these days.

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Quick update:

 

The current funding status is at almost 34%, although I should re-confirm the pre-orders. Thanks to all who have helped, either through pre-orders, support, or getting the word out! The 34% doesn't yet include any involvement from CollectorVision yet - that could change the status a fair bit.

 

So far the most requested colors are translucent clear and translucent red. Probably I'll ignore black/gray (my kids say it's not a color anyway), and go with a different color for the 3rd selection.

 

If anyone else would like any shells and/or PCBs, feel free to drop me a line. Any quantity.

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I've seen that. It's pretty cool. It's fancier, because it has USB, and doesn't need an EPROM programmer. I see that product geared more toward final users, where mine is perhaps geared more toward producers. Both are useful for programmers.

 

Thank you very much 5-11under.

 

I am just a newcomer in the Vectrex scene (only a year old), trying to offer something new with my inventions.

 

The burner you are offering, is compatible with mac OS and Linux? Does it need additional software?

 

I would advice you to make the copper pcb contacts a bit wider.

 

 

 

 

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Thank you very much 5-11under.

 

I am just a newcomer in the Vectrex scene (only a year old), trying to offer something new with my inventions.

 

The burner you are offering, is compatible with mac OS and Linux? Does it need additional software?

 

I would advice you to make the copper pcb contacts a bit wider.

 

I'll revisit the copper. Thanks!

 

The burner is just a TL866CS. You can get them on eBay just as easily. If I sold a bunch of them, I might have been able to get a deal to provide a few extra dollars to the project. I'm not sure if it works for MacOS or Linus. I don't think so. You'd need a different EPROM programmer, I guess.

Edited by 5-11under
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  • 2 weeks later...

Have you considered foregoing the grey run and instead picking a translucent color and going with that? I know I'm very much on the outside but from what I've heard translucent ones are what the developers want. I guess RetroUsb can be to blame for that ;)

 

I'm not in direct contact with David from Pakrat VG but he mentioned on his facebook that he'd like translucent ones.

 

I also know the cost up front is getting the tooling done and production started. This really needs to go through though since most of the Vectrex developers now like Madtronix and Richard H. are impacted by the Kelly Embargo.

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Have you considered foregoing the grey run and instead picking a translucent color and going with that?

 

Yes. The grey/black color is open to being changed to a different color... to whatever is requested the most.

Edited by 5-11under
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  • 3 weeks later...

Tow questions

 

1- what was the final update on the shells? Are you going to push forward with the mold?

 

2- Packrat mentioned working with a friend in Canada on PCB boards. I hope that's you as I wish you much success and hopefully boatloads of money in your future. Am I correct in my assumption?

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Tow questions

 

1- what was the final update on the shells? Are you going to push forward with the mold?

 

2- Packrat mentioned working with a friend in Canada on PCB boards. I hope that's you as I wish you much success and hopefully boatloads of money in your future. Am I correct in my assumption?

 

1- I've been busy with a few other things over the past few weeks... hopefully within a week or two I'll have a better answer on the status of this project.

 

2- I did just send Packrat a couple of different sample PCBs, including one of the Vectrex prototype PCBs I have.

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Tow questions

 

2- Packrat mentioned working with a friend in Canada on PCB boards. I hope that's you as I wish you much success and hopefully boatloads of money in your future. Am I correct in my assumption?

 

Yes, it is Packrat, as this is very interesting. If these boards work out, hope to be doing some long term business here. :)

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Just a quick update: I've assembled and tested a few production PCBs, so now I'm ready to accept orders for any quantity you want, 1 and up

The price is $5.50 US each for the PCBs, plus shipping. Shipping is a couple of dollars for very low quantities, or typically $10-20 for quantities of 30 and up (price will be actual costs).

These can be programmed and re-programmed using a $8 connector (one-time charge) and using any EPROM programmer that can handle the SST/Microchip SST39SF010. Otherwise, I can program the PCBs for you, at no additional charge.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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