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VEXTREME for Vectrex


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" Tomorrow Dec. 29th 12pm CST / 6pm GMT, Only 7 VEXTREME v0.2's are on sale at a secret link within this Youtube Premiere video: VEXTREME v0.2 - FOR SALE NOW! | Premieres Dec 29, 2019 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32MLj5ue76A

Be sure to subscribe, and ring the bell for instant notification when it goes live. Set yourself a reminder. FYI, I'm only posting this right here. Feel free to share if you want competition racing to the checkout 1f603.png

Pro Tip: sign into Paypal a couple minutes before the video goes live. Once it's sold out you'll be notified when you click on the Buy Now link, or at some point in the process. Hopefully Paypal doesn't let it oversell, or I'll have to process refunds. Good luck!

Pro Tip #2, you don't have to watch the whole video to find the link. But come back and watch it after you purchase one 1f603.png

I'm posting this 24 hours ahead of time, so that all time zones have a chance to get one. Just trying to be fair to our huge worldwide Vectrex community! ❣️ and not give special priority to those that send me super nice private messages.

I'll post a picture of what the purchase page will look like in the comments below.

If you see one of these on eBay for an insane price, message me and I'll try to get you one for $40 as soon as I can!! "
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Thanks for posting this here, I've really tried to avoid social media where possible, so haven't joined the facebook group.

 

Saw this a bit late, and there were only 7 in this batch, so missed out. Although I'm not active enough to do enough with it to deserve an early one anyway.

 

It all looks very interesting though.

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On 1/5/2020 at 10:39 AM, Richard H. said:

Why have you tagged my carts onto your page ? -

 

https://www.retrorgb.com/tag/vecmulti
https://www.retrorgb.com/tag/vecflash

 

That's bad form :thumbsdown:

Hi Richard! Oof, I agree that IS bad form. That site is not mine or Rattboi's though.  I'll contact Bob for you and have him remove that.  BTW, if there's any feedback you have about VEXTREME, please feel free to contact me directly so I see it sooner (my email is "technobly" at your favorite gmail website).  I believe we can all make cool products for the Vectrex and work with and support each other and not have to compete.

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  • 2 months later...
27 minutes ago, schnuth said:

Looks like this is up for sale again:

https://www.game-tech.us/product/vextreme/

Looks very cool, can’t wait to try it out!

FYI: These are not sold by myself or anyone working on developing VEXTREME currently.  Also please read the following note from the official VEXTREME project page.

 

⚠️ As of v0.2, this project is a work in progress, and is not ready for mass production. Please observe the currently posted issues and there may be more lurking that are not yet identified. The hardware and software is evolving. You are free to build any version, contribute and/or follow along. Please note that support of these pre-releases will be very limited and if you embark on an epic adventure to build one or a few, you should feel comfortable with this type of embedded hardware and software development. There will be road bumps, but the journey is half the fun of the destination. When things appear to be stable and we've worked out most of the kinks, we'll change the version to v1.0. Only then is it advisable to mass produce.

 

Official Project page here: https://github.com/technobly/vextreme

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just now, Sbeehive said:

Now is that the solder-mask for all of the fingers or half of them? The picture in the github shows half - but the video looks like all of them. Asking before I inevitably wreck this PCB by being overzealous with the scraping.

All 36 of them :D The picture is just to show a splitscreen view of what GOOD vs. BAD looks like.

-------------

 

In other news, I have released v0.21 VEXTREME compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/vextreme/releases/tag/v0.21

There is an updated menu: multicart.bin and updated STM32 firmware: veccart.bin along with some LED enabled games (Veccy Bird 1.5 and a demo app I wrote).

See the changes in the release notes above, but the TL;DR, is:
1. Polar Rescue is fixed
2. A quick tap of RESET will reset the game, but holding it for a longer time will RESET to the VEXTREME menu.
3. LED control was added, and some demo games.

Instructions on updating are easy enough:
1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root, and new LED/ folder to the roms/

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey gang,

 

I have released VEXTREME v0.22 compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/vextreme/releases/tag/v0.22

 

v0.22 Changelog:

  • ignore all file extensions that are not .bin or .vec (case insensitive), PR #49
  • increased quick reset delay to 700ms, PR #45
  • adds HW/SW version to VEXTREME menu and games, PR #48 (see example in LED Test v1.1.bin)
Instructions on updating are easy enough:
1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root, and new LED Test v1.1.bin to the roms/LED/ folder
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey gang, I have released VEXTREME v0.23 compiled binaries here: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/releases/tag/v0.23

 

v0.23 Changelog:
1. Fixes issue where VEXTREME takes several minutes to mount as USB drive on Windows #53

 

Instructions on updating are easy enough:
1. Install the JP1 jumper and power cycle.
2. Use dfu-util to flash the veccart.bin like this:
dfu-util -a 0 -d 0483:df11 -s 0x08000000:leave -D veccart.bin
3. Remove the jumper again, and mount the USB drive and copy over the multicart.bin to the root

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  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

What's the best way to purchase a VEXTREME at this time? I see what appears to be a third-party selling them on eBay but I would rather support the developer directly if possible. Cheers. 

I would wait for v0.3 ... and the ones on eBay have the soldermask problem.  Best to avoid them.  When we make up a batch of v0.3's, I'll be sure to post about it here.

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34 minutes ago, xrbrevin said:

dam, i just ordered a PCB to assemble one up

any idea when the 0.3 will be available?

UHG, did you remove the soldermask around the fingers by chance?  You can track v0.3 progress here: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/projects/1  This is a hobby project, so it's hard to say when v0.3 will be done, but most of the software tasks (and many extras that there were not planned) have been completed.  This is giving me all of the ammo needed to make whatever v0.3 hardware changes are necessary.

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4 minutes ago, playvectrex said:

UHG, did you remove the soldermask around the fingers by chance?  You can track v0.3 progress here: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/projects/1  This is a hobby project, so it's hard to say when v0.3 will be done, but most of the software tasks (and many extras that there were not planned) have been completed.  This is giving me all of the ammo needed to make whatever v0.3 hardware changes are necessary.

thanks for your reply. the board hasnt arrived yet, its still in transit. i still have to order the components too.

ive seen a video of someone using a craft knife to remove the soldermask so i know i have a tedious task ahead!!

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I sold all the 100 I had made, which BTW were made before any solder mask warnings were put out, but i've only had one returned with roms crashing or not booting.

For this one berzerk would crash during play and pole position would not start.

I was able to recreate the issue, cleaned the cart, and my console, and issues persisted.

I updated it's firmware to v.23 and that fixed those issues totally!

Solder mask was not cut back.

Now the only known issue seems to be cart detection, sometimes his console will not know the vextreme cart is there and will boot straight to built in game.

I could see this still being a solder mask issue, but not on all pins, could it be just pin 32 of the cart?

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7 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

I sold all the 100 I had made, which BTW were made before any solder mask warnings were put out, but i've only had one returned with roms crashing or not booting.

For this one berzerk would crash during play and pole position would not start.

I was able to recreate the issue, cleaned the cart, and my console, and issues persisted.

I updated it's firmware to v.23 and that fixed those issues totally!

Solder mask was not cut back.

Now the only known issue seems to be cart detection, sometimes his console will not know the vextreme cart is there and will boot straight to built in game.

I could see this still being a solder mask issue, but not on all pins, could it be just pin 32 of the cart?

Nope pin 32 isn't connected to anything on the vextreme....

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2 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

Nope pin 32 isn't connected to anything on the vextreme....

Also seeing this in changelog:

- Made the contacts on the edge connector thinner (1.52mm) and made sure they were
   spaced properly (2.54mm).

Maybe they are too thin now?

How wide are the original contact pads?

 

I also noted obvious line in the contacts made from the console's fingers, all were on the contact pads, none were out on the solder mask...

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