Just bought a Vectrex. Is there anything I should know about this system?

[Steven Pendleton]

Vectrex is in the mail now. I've never used or had a Vectrex before and it is quite unique, so is there anything I should know about this system?

 

This Vectrex does not have functioning audio, so I will have to fix that. The parts I need were included with the system, but I don't know how to solder or anything, so this will be interesting.

[+jgkspsx]

Woohoo!
 

The most important thing to know as an owner is that you shouldn’t use the power/volume switch - just leave it switched on and plug it in or unplug it. I got a short switched extension cable.

 

The most important thing to know as a technician is that CRTs are high voltage. If you are adjusting the CRT trim pots with the power on, wear leather gloves and don’t use both hands near the business end at one time.

 

The most important thing as a player is to get a multicart. The Jason Kopp/Ralph Kornmann multicart is cheapest and has a really nice menu. The Sean Kelly multicart has all the official games and some exclusives. The @Richard H. VecMulti is essential if you want to keep up to the minute with new WIPs and the dozens of one-shot programs people make for it every year.

 

The most important thing as an internet user is that this forum is sadly pretty quiet. The most active group is “Vectrex fans unite” on Facebook (there are two by that name - the bigger one is the better one). The most active internet forum is Vector Gaming on ProBoards.

 

The most important thing as a collector is that the Japanese Bandai Vectrex releases are all worth their weight in platinum, so if you ever see one buy it.

[Dieter Laser]

On 4/20/2022 at 6:52 AM, jgkspsx said:

The most important thing to know as an owner is that you shouldn’t use the power/volume switch - just leave it switched on and plug it in or unplug it. I got a short switched extension cable.

 

Dude, good point. I cut the cable and put a switch in between, because I got annoyed by the subtle buzz when its off. will only use this switch from now on

[+jgkspsx]

I should say, go ahead and use it for volume control - just don’t use it to turn the unit off.

[Quetzalcoatl]

11 hours ago, Dieter Laser said:

 

Dude, good point. I cut the cable and put a switch in between, because I got annoyed by the subtle buzz when its off. will only use this switch from now on

The transformer on the Vectrex never fully powers off when the unit is plugged in. I was told by the more knowledgeable Vectrex owners that it's best to unplug a Vectrex whenever it's not in use. This will increase its lifespan. Adding a switchable extension cord or power strip is another option for this. As for not using the actual power / volume knob though, I've never heard this before. Someone was saying that using the power/volume knob actually helps keep it working properly. It's one of those parts that if unused, is more likely to deteriorate due to lack of use (supposedly).

 

What's there to say about the Vectrex? Prices have gotten pretty insane in the past several years. Controllers are over $100 in decent working condition, and systems are $300-400. In 2011 I sold a perfectly working Vectrex with controller for $100, and that's what they were going for at the time. Controllers are a major problem with the Vectrex because they have centering springs that wear out over time, and it's not easy to disassemble the controllers. You have to remove the top label of the controller to get to the screws in order to get inside the controller. Which means you need to buy a replacement overlay if you want to do this. The alternative is using Sean Kelly's printable controller screw position overlay and using an exacto knife to cut out the overlay over the screws. This is what I plan on doing if I ever replace the springs on my controllers, which have fairly bad drift and don't recenter perfectly. The other thing about controllers is that there are homebrew controllers that people in the community sell. Unfortunately though I still have not found one that is a suitable replacement for the original Vectrex controllers. The one I got a year or 2 ago is nicely built but the joystick used on it feels way too stiff and makes my gameplay worse, not better. I've got a couple nice 6 button Sega Genesis arcade sticks that I'm considering converting to work on the Vectrex.

 

As others mentioned, you should get a multicart or flashcart. The Sean Kelly Multicart 3.0 is very worthwhile, I'm not sure that the Jason Kopp multicart ever released (no offense to Arcade Jason but he seems to be one of those tinkerers who doesn't usually end up releasing a finished product...still waiting on his repro Vectrex board among other things). What I have is the Vextreme and VecFever, both of which are difficult to come by. Vextreme gets sold in small batches once in a blue moon, and VecFever seems to always have a long waitlist to buy. But if you can get one from Thomas, the VecFever is the killer app of the Vectrex. The main feature that everyone wants it for is that it can play all classic vector arcade games at a full speed, with extremely high emulation accuracy. There is also the Pitrex which is much more readily available, although their arcade emulation is more of a work in progress. https://www.vecfever.com/

 

The homebrew community for Vectrex is one of the best around. When someone releases a new homebrew game with a box and overlay in limited quantities, it's an easy choice to always buy a copy if you can. Many of these games end up reselling for stupidly high prices on Ebay after the initial run sells out. In my opinion it's bad form to buy these games with the intent of reselling them later in order to profit on them. It's a very touchy subject within the homebrew community. The VecFever especially sells for ludicrous prices on Ebay, and I happen to know that this bothers the creator quite a bit.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Quetzalcoatl

[ledzep]

3 hours ago, Quetzalcoatl said:

The homebrew community for Vectrex is one of the best around. When someone releases a new homebrew game with a box and overlay in limited quantities, it's an easy choice to always buy a copy if you can. Many of these games end up reselling for stupidly high prices on Ebay after the initial run sells out. In my opinion it's bad form to buy these games with the intent of reselling them later in order to profit on them. It's a very touchy subject within the homebrew community. The VecFever especially sells for ludicrous prices on Ebay, and I happen to know that this bothers the creator quite a bit.

 

Agreed about reselling for profit.  That's like scalping front row concert tickets.  Very annoying and expensive for those people who legitimately want one.

 

As for the VecFever being sold for ludicrous prices on eBay, there's a very simple solution to that - offer more for sale at the normal price so people who legitimately want one don't have to go to the Moon to get one.  I understand people making their own gear out of their own garage or whatever don't have tons of supplies or time, but a run of like 200 of them would satisfy a lot of collectors and tamp down the crazy eBay prices.  Not completely, of course, because some of those resale assholes would find a way to get a few, but I for one would happily buy one for myself and then not engage in that eBay option.  I actually prefer to buy from the original homebrew sellers whenever possible.  I've had to buy a few older boxed games off eBay simply because I wasn't into the online homebrew world when some of those earliest games came out in limited runs.  Same goes for the Atari 5200.  I hate paying double or triple because I was late to the game, too.  Better to buy when the game first appears.

 

Nothing is cooler than getting a boxed homebrew game (with overlay) that looks natural next to the official released games.

[Steven Pendleton]

Thanks, everyone. Vectrex is still in the mail. Probably not going to pick up much for it yet since I have LOTS of Toaplan stuff coming over the next 2 weeks, but I'll start looking into everything once the Vectrex arrives.

[Quetzalcoatl]

12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Thanks, everyone. Vectrex is still in the mail. Probably not going to pick up much for it yet since I have LOTS of Toaplan stuff coming over the next 2 weeks, but I'll start looking into everything once the Vectrex arrives.

Toaplan stuff as in the original boards? Are you the guy who has been providing the Toaplan footage on actual hardware for Shmup Junkie on Youtube?

[Steven Pendleton]

45 minutes ago, Quetzalcoatl said:

Toaplan stuff as in the original boards? Are you the guy who has been providing the Toaplan footage on actual hardware for Shmup Junkie on Youtube?

Lol no. Not yet, anyway. I do plan on buying a Slap Fight PCB this year eventually, and I'd also like to get a Same! Same! Same! 2P PCB if I ever find one.

 

There is the new collection releasing on Thursday, of which I am buying both versions, plus I'm going to see Uemura-san and his band play live on the 8th and hang out with them for a little while, and I'm also planning on buying the Toaplan game soundtracks that I don't have already, which is going to cost like $300 or so.

 

Oh, yes, and the Slap Fight 3671 Kickstarter, which I'm planning on donating somewhere around $400~$500 to whenever it finally starts, so yeah, I'm spending nearly $1000 or so on Toaplan stuff just in the next few days.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[Keatah]

On 4/19/2022 at 4:41 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

Just bought a Vectrex. Is there anything I should know about this system?

..just that it's pretty neat. A novelty in early consolaria to be sure.

[+jgkspsx]

Also there are a number of “whole brain replacement” cartridges now that just use the Vectrex’s CPU as a dumb screen writer and do all the processing on the cartridge. The Vectrex32 is a BASIC cartridge with a few great games available including a port of Lord British’s Akalabeth. (There is a different port by @Malban called Vecakalabeth that runs on real hardware.) The PiTrex is a Raspberry Pi adapter that has a number of custom games and is working towards arcade vector game emulation. The VecFever is the gold standard with a lot of games available exclusively for it and full emulation support for many vector arcade games.

 

Homebrew is the best reason to get and play one. The original games are almost all great but there aren’t very many. Unfortunately many of the best homebrew games aren’t available for download, and some are out of print, but many are still in print and new games are coming every few months. Malban just released a port of the classic DnD game Telengard, although it does not run on the multicart I have. I really need to get my PiTrex up and running.

[Quetzalcoatl]

On 5/1/2022 at 11:49 AM, jgkspsx said:

I really need to get my PiTrex up and running.

If you have the Raspberry Pi Zero WH, Pitrex cartridge, and a MicroSD card, it's as simple as plugging the Pi Zero into the cartridge, formatting the MicroSD card to FAT32 (takes 5 seconds with a utility), and copy and paste the Pitrex folders onto the MicroSD card. It really doesn't take long at all. Although there were some reports of issues with the most recent Baremetal release of Pitrex.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

@Steven Pendleton if it is the same one I'm thinking of... then you might be in luck as the sound IC chip might be in a socket on the Vectrex (Mine was...). Otherwise, you will have to disassemble the Vectrex to be able to get at the chip. I think you can access the pins to the chip from the bottom without too much issue once you have the cover apart. You will need a fairly long shaft #2 phillips (crosstip) driver to get at some of the screws.

 

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:04 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

@Steven Pendleton if it is the same one I'm thinking of... then you might be in luck as the sound IC chip might be in a socket on the Vectrex (Mine was...). Otherwise, you will have to disassemble the Vectrex to be able to get at the chip. I think you can access the pins to the chip from the bottom without too much issue once you have the cover apart. You will need a fairly long shaft #2 phillips (crosstip) driver to get at some of the screws.

 

 

 

Great, thanks. I'll take a look when I get it. It will likely show up tomorrow or Sunday... and I have work tomorrow and I'm going to go see U-Brand play live on Sunday, so I won't be at home on those days, so I'll probably end up getting it on Monday.

[+GoldenWheels]

There is nothing like firing up a Vectrex in a dark room. A truly unique gaming experience.

[Steven Pendleton]

On 5/6/2022 at 8:37 PM, GoldenWheels said:

There is nothing like firing up a Vectrex in a dark room. A truly unique gaming experience.

Well, I'm probably going to find out tomorrow; I was gone all day today and missed a delivery that I am assuming is the Vectrex.

[Rogerpoco]

@Quetzalcoatl - 

It's actually possible to remove and reuse the original label on the controller, if you need to take it apart for repairs, you just have to be careful.

This is incredibly low-tech, befitting my own skills, lol, I only made the vid because I saw another where someone careless had mangled the label and scared people off-it's really not that difficult to do, tho I understand it being intimidating.

No repairs, just simply a vid on how to safely get inside a controller housing.

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

Vectrex get!

 

Sound works. Not sure why, but it does. Image seems a bit... jumpy, I guess. I'm assuming that since it's an American thing it wants 120v but in Japan we only have 100v and that's why. Any ideas?

[Steven Pendleton]

Well, the image seems to have stabilized. The sound cut out just now, but a restart seems to have fixed it.

 

It cut out again lol

Edited May 9, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[Steven Pendleton]

Damn, I seem to have lost all video. Audio works on and off, though I do have the parts for the audio fix. Any advice for getting the picture back?

[+jgkspsx]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Damn, I seem to have lost all video. Audio works on and off, though I do have the parts for the audio fix. Any advice for getting the picture back?

Are you using the power/volume switch? Don’t use the power/volume switch except for volume.

 

I would leave it turned on for a while.

 

A lot of different things can cause video issues on the Vectrex. Could you try turning up the contrast knob on the back and posting a photo of the screen? Is it just a dot in the middle?

[Steven Pendleton]

21 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Are you using the power/volume switch? Don’t use the power/volume switch except for volume.

 

I would leave it turned on for a while.

 

A lot of different things can cause video issues on the Vectrex. Could you try turning up the contrast knob on the back and posting a photo of the screen? Is it just a dot in the middle?

Yeah, I am just leaving it unplugged and just plugging it in when I want to use it.

 

As for the contrast knob... it's not there. Just a hole where it should be, it seems. There's no dot, and it looks identical turned on and off. I'll leave it plugged in for a while.

 

I trust the ozone smell when on is normal, right?

[Steven Pendleton]

Oh yeah, I should probably describe what I saw with the screen.

 

So basically the first time I turned it on, the lines were like all wobbly, but I played it for a few minutes. Power cycled, still wobbly, then it got better after I played it for like 5 minutes or so.

 

Audio cut out, so I power cycled, which fixed the audio temporarily, but this time the screen had a dark spot in the middle where nothing could be seen. The dark spot eventually grew and covered the entire screen and now I have no video at all.

 

At least I got to play it for about 20 minutes in perfect order until this happened. 40 year-old hardware, so not surprising. I've heard the system is actually fairly easy to work on aside from the whole thing where the thing can literally kill you when you adjust the screen, so that's good, I guess.

 

I left it on for a while (30~40 minutes or so) and nothing changed. Unplugged, replugged, so I'll wait some more with it plugged in, I guess. The system looks like it's turned off when it's on, though. Only way you can tell it's on is the buzzing sound and the smell.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[+jgkspsx]

I wouldn’t say the smell is normal. Sounds like an electrolytic capacitor may have burst

[+jgkspsx]

The contrast knob is infamous for disappearing into the case. It was probably disassembled and then put back together, and the knob is hiding inside the case. The way it’s usually dealt with is putting a drinking straw on the knob when reassembling it so it can’t get away.