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VecFever


TomSon

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On 12/28/2019 at 8:08 AM, Richard H. said:

It needs to be called the Jeroen Domburg or Spritemod Vextreme cart, so the original creator doesn't get forgotten about in the process.

Jeroen Domburg (aka Sprite_tm) is attributed front and center at the top of the github repo for VEXTREME, and I spoke to him about the project and he's 100% behind the development effort we're undertaking.  I would like to think Jeroen's work also inspired VecFever, so we all have a lot to thank him for!

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For those like me that value their privacy it wasn't til today when I checked http://vectrex.co.uk/ that I learned that Thomas set up a site and posted his new/current goods here:  https://www.vecfever.com/

 

Of course the biggest addition is the whole cinematronics/vectorbeam CCPU game collection, this goes great for exploring the original coin op games that led to ports of the GCE games of the vectrex. I've seen some cool UV overlays done by Laurence, but I wanted to create some overlays that gave a nod to the original coin op overlay schemes that were used. With my little cutter I came up with a nice set for myself.

 

Star Wars and ESB is some exciting stuff, was able to get to do some testings of Star Wars over the summer and actually found myself addicted to the game (not a bad little shooter), gotta get my ESB on now.

 

Another great new FW setting is the orientation for the menu, no more taco neck while rockin' the SBT horizontal games.

 

The horizontal SBT games also got the brain power flowing to come up with a better stand than the 3D print thingy. Wanted it to be minimal, safe, fold-able and a sturdy stand for horizontal gaming. Height of stand was determined by the center of the screen in vertical mode, so the height of screen is same when on the stand.

 

 

good day.

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4.3.jpg

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On 1/1/2020 at 4:14 PM, chopperthedog said:

For those like me that value their privacy it wasn't til today when I checked http://vectrex.co.uk/ that I learned that Thomas set up a site and posted his new/current goods here:  https://www.vecfever.com/

 

Of course the biggest addition is the whole cinematronics/vectorbeam CCPU game collection, this goes great for exploring the original coin op games that led to ports of the GCE games of the vectrex. I've seen some cool UV overlays done by Laurence, but I wanted to create some overlays that gave a nod to the original coin op overlay schemes that were used. With my little cutter I came up with a nice set for myself.

 

Star Wars and ESB is some exciting stuff, was able to get to do some testings of Star Wars over the summer and actually found myself addicted to the game (not a bad little shooter), gotta get my ESB on now.

 

Another great new FW setting is the orientation for the menu, no more taco neck while rockin' the SBT horizontal games.

 

The horizontal SBT games also got the brain power flowing to come up with a better stand than the 3D print thingy. Wanted it to be minimal, safe, fold-able and a sturdy stand for horizontal gaming. Height of stand was determined by the center of the screen in vertical mode, so the height of screen is same when on the stand.

 

 

good day.

7.1.jpg

7.3.jpg

7.4.jpg

4.3.jpg

want to make me a set of overlays?  :)

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5 hours ago, jemilambi said:

Can the VecFever production files (schematic, layout, devices list, drill list, 3D print) be downloaded somehow somewhere?

 

No

 

BTW if you are wanting it just to play vector ROMs, there's another (much cheaper solution) here -

 

http://vide.malban.de/pitrex

 

http://vectrex.malban.de/tmp/RockSolid.mp4

Edited by Richard H.
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3 hours ago, Vectrexer said:

If anyone would like some extra VecFever cart label stickers for free let me know. I have some extras I will not be using.

Send a PM.

 

FYI: the finish is a mid-glossy black. Definitely not a flat black.

 

 

IMG_20200202_003010.jpg

 

Edited by Vectrexer
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On 1/1/2020 at 6:14 PM, chopperthedog said:

The horizontal SBT games also got the brain power flowing to come up with a better stand than the 3D print thingy. Wanted it to be minimal, safe, fold-able and a sturdy stand for horizontal gaming. Height of stand was determined by the center of the screen in vertical mode, so the height of screen is same when on the stand.

 

I posted a design for a laser-cut version at: vectrex-stand-laser-V5.svg

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On 5/21/2017 at 2:02 PM, TomSon said:

Hi,

 

I just wanted to quickly introduce my finished Vectrex project, called ‚VecFever’.

 

So, what is it meant to do ? Well, basically anything I could think of so far - it’s my development system, it’s a usb stick, it’s a

usb ramdisk, a multicart, a video player, a music player, a ‚magically change old games into games with hiscore tables,

that are also saved’ cart. etc.

 

So it can run any Vectrex binary - and you can .always. go straight back to the menu via the reset button w/o any patches

needed - plus allow games to store data on it, or use more than two 32k banks, or load variable-sized, tiny data packets ideal for videos.

One thing I should probably mention specifically is how the multicart. part works: the VecFever includes a file browser that let’s you

navigate and start anything on the filesystem of the disk; entries are automatically sorted.

 

And as I said: this is my development system; I’ve finished three big, time-consuming games so far: Robot Arena, Head On and

‚the Core‘, all of which haven’t been released since they merged with the VecFever, too.

 

The pcbs underwent a few iterations, mainly for production purposes and to get the dimensions perfect so that it fits into

both old and reproduction cases and I’ve received the first larger run of final pcbs a few weeks ago and tested them successfully.

 

So, what now ? I am still having trouble getting usb-shaped holes in cases made (and don’t want to cut them myself). This will .hopefully.

be settled one way or the other in the next two weeks but if it keeps dragging on I might reevaluate whether to get cases anytime

soon. Plus summer (vacation..) is coming which might delay things even more. So I do want to make them available but don't know yet when.

And it all hinges on the cases since everything else is finished.

 

Anyways, this is meant to be a short introduction so I should stop now,

 

Thomas

p.s.

Here’s what they look like in four different cases, plus the games that now are part of it - and a special VecFever (with addition serial port)

 

 

post-50731-0-77851800-1495371475.jpeg

VecFever FAQ.rtf 22.6 kB · 656 downloads

Hi Tom, 

Great work! I'm really interested in one of these. I always wanted a Vectrex as a kid, remembering it advertised in the Argos catalog, the place to buy consoles and games back in the day. Decades later, I finally have one and it has not dissapointed. Scramble is still addictive! This would be a great add on to my Vec.

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ChopperTheDog: I didn't notice when you posted this that you were doing colour inlays in your overlays.  I'd considered that but thought (without actually testing it) that they would be likely to pop out under minimal wear.  What are you using to glue them in place robustly?  Or are you sandwiching them under a clear layer, in which case you would need a glue that invisibly attaches the layers together?

 

I've only used my cutter for monochrome overlays, with a paper printed layer on top for the opaque border.  I'ld quite like to try some dual colour ones if you could share your secrets on how they're put together!

 

Graham

Edited by gtoal
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@gtoal On the back side I just used some good clear label/packaging tape. Doesn't show up when installed on vec. If I was going to go further with these, was thinking of getting sheets of paper backed label covers and cutting custom shaped pieces for the smaller items. Battlezone and others with score window at top is just one long piece trimmed to edge of overlay. The trick to using rolled tape is to pull a long length off swiftly to not damage the glue on the tape so that you have a clean clear piece. Armor attack is just the grid cut out in blue and with small pieces of tape affixed to the reverse side of yellow. :p Same with WoW. 

 

Hot lamination would not go well for sure. Edge to edge gluing crossed my mind, but never attempted knowing that would fail as well. They do hold up well though, never considered the custom ones as a polished product though. I enjoy the hell out of them for myself. And sadly I'm sitting on material to make 20 more sets of the colored overlays I was selling before, but it is all garbage, warps in colors, not fully transparent, was a gut punch and huge money loss. :(  Experimented with some other sources and it's like everyone has the same bad batch.

 

 

good day.

7.2.jpg

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On 4/24/2020 at 3:38 PM, chopperthedog said:

@gtoal On the back side I just used some good clear label/packaging tape. Doesn't show up when installed on vec. If I was going to go further with these, was thinking of getting sheets of paper backed label covers and cutting custom shaped pieces for the smaller items. Battlezone and others with score window at top is just one long piece trimmed to edge of overlay. The trick to using rolled tape is to pull a long length off swiftly to not damage the glue on the tape so that you have a clean clear piece. Armor attack is just the grid cut out in blue and with small pieces of tape affixed to the reverse side of yellow. ? Same with WoW. 

 

Hot lamination would not go well for sure. Edge to edge gluing crossed my mind, but never attempted knowing that would fail as well. They do hold up well though, never considered the custom ones as a polished product though. I enjoy the hell out of them for myself. And sadly I'm sitting on material to make 20 more sets of the colored overlays I was selling before, but it is all garbage, warps in colors, not fully transparent, was a gut punch and huge money loss. :(  Experimented with some other sources and it's like everyone has the same bad batch.

 

 

good day.

7.2.jpg

@chopperthedog Sorry to hear that.  Any recommendations here, or ones to stay away from?  Or is it just a gamble? Thanks!  https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=Transparent+Color+Correction+Light+Gel+Filter+Set&ref=nb_sb_noss

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On 4/24/2020 at 3:38 PM, chopperthedog said:

@gtoal On the back side I just used some good clear label/packaging tape. Doesn't show up when installed on vec. If I was going to go further with these, was thinking of getting sheets of paper backed label covers and cutting custom shaped pieces for the smaller items. Battlezone and others with score window at top is just one long piece trimmed to edge of overlay. The trick to using rolled tape is to pull a long length off swiftly to not damage the glue on the tape so that you have a clean clear piece. Armor attack is just the grid cut out in blue and with small pieces of tape affixed to the reverse side of yellow. ? Same with WoW. 

 

Hot lamination would not go well for sure. Edge to edge gluing crossed my mind, but never attempted knowing that would fail as well. They do hold up well though, never considered the custom ones as a polished product though. I enjoy the hell out of them for myself. And sadly I'm sitting on material to make 20 more sets of the colored overlays I was selling before, but it is all garbage, warps in colors, not fully transparent, was a gut punch and huge money loss. :(  Experimented with some other sources and it's like everyone has the same bad batch.

 

Good hints! I had been thinking maybe you were using LOCA (liquid optically clear adhesive - the UV curing stuff) so I got one to try - will report back when I do.  I'm lucky I bought a bunch of gels last year that I haven't used yet - wasn't aware of the QA problem.  Typical of Chinese suppliers.

 

On 4/24/2020 at 3:38 PM, chopperthedog said:

good day.

7.2.jpg

 

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On 5/10/2020 at 10:21 PM, gtoal said:

 

Good hints! I had been thinking maybe you were using LOCA (liquid optically clear adhesive - the UV curing stuff) so I got one to try - will report back when I do. 

 

 

Well, this actually shows promise.  Admittedly I made a bit of a rough job of it and there's some visible glue on this test scrap, but it is holding really well and I think with a little practice at application this could be a winner.

 

cutout.jpg

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1 hour ago, funcool said:

It seems like it sold for over a thousand dollars.

 

I've been looking to buy Vecfever for a long time. I hope it comes up for sale again.

 

 

 

Did it actually end or was it ended early?  Its saying no longer available which I thought meant the auction was ended by the seller.

 

Btw anybody know whatever happened to the VecFever 2?  Haven't heard anything about it in ages since the info leaked.

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2 hours ago, 128Kgames said:

Did it actually end or was it ended early?  Its saying no longer available which I thought meant the auction was ended by the seller.

 

Btw anybody know whatever happened to the VecFever 2?  Haven't heard anything about it in ages since the info leaked.

Upon looking at the listing again, I am not sure if it sold or if it was ended by the seller.

Edited by funcool
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