Vectrex repros that haven't yet been made

[Blazing Lazers]

I have an almost complete Vectrex set, minus the homebrews. All I need are a Minestorm II cart, a boxed 3D Imager, and a complete Mr. Boston. I could swing the Imager, but not a Minestorm II cart at $4,000 like a recently ended listing apparently sold. I might settle for identical repros. Looking around online, I don't see any being offered, even though boxes for common games and even system boxes are available. If nobody is offering such, surely it couldn't be too difficult to make them. If anyone knows of a person selling the above, or can easily make one on commission, please let me know. 

 

[hcmffm]

IIRC, maximum that I've seen during the past for a Minestorm II cartridge was $1000 - even that is a very high price, I think. During the past 15 years prices for Vectrex stuff have increased significantly and there are a many Vectrex fans around who have big pockets and are willing to pay a fortune. My recommendation: Wait for the right time and the occassion. $4000 for a Minestorm II cartridge is definetly not the right occassionm, yet.

Edited November 13, 2023 by hcmffm

[Vectrexer]

16 hours ago, Blazing Lazers said:

I have an almost complete Vectrex set, minus the homebrews. All I need are a Minestorm II cart, a boxed 3D Imager, and a complete Mr. Boston. I could swing the Imager, but not a Minestorm II cart at $4,000 like a recently ended listing apparently sold. I might settle for identical repros. Looking around online, I don't see any being offered, even though boxes for common games and even system boxes are available. If nobody is offering such, surely it couldn't be too difficult to make them. If anyone knows of a person selling the above, or can easily make one on commission, please let me know. 

 

 

There have already been attempted sales of Mine Storm II carts by scumbags out there who did not identify their cart as a reproduction. 

 

For the most part , no one wants to make potentially scammy "identical" reproduction cart.

 

But I would be happy to slap a Mine Storm II image onto a cart for you that states "repro" on the front, back. and EPRPOM window sticker.

 

Packrat Video games would also take the image an put it onto a cart for you. But once again, don't expect an "identical" reproduction cart.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Vectrexer

[LimitZer0]

Binarystar was selling Minestorm II with a high score save. His labels were foil I believe so obviously not original.

[Blazing Lazers]

8 hours ago, Vectrexer said:

 

There have already been attempted sales of Mine Storm II carts by scumbags out there who did not identify their cart as a reproduction. 

 

For the most part , no one wants to make potentially scammy "identical" reproduction cart.

 

But I would be happy to slap a Mine Storm II image onto a cart for you that states "repro" on the front, back. and EPRPOM window sticker.

 

Packrat Video games would also take the image an put it onto a cart for you. But once again, don't expect an "identical" reproduction cart.

 

 

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the repros. It is a concern of mine. I have a lot of rare stuff across several systems but most of it I've had long enough to be sure that it's genuine. I know I eventually will have a real Minestorm II cart and ideally it would have some small sign of age that no repro could mimic. 

[50TBRD]

I've not seen any original Minestorm II cart sell for 4K. Mr Boston has sold for that though. 

[gtoal]

On 11/12/2023 at 5:35 PM, Blazing Lazers said:

I have an almost complete Vectrex set, minus the homebrews. All I need are a Minestorm II cart, a boxed 3D Imager, and a complete Mr. Boston. I could swing the Imager, but not a Minestorm II cart at $4,000 like a recently ended listing apparently sold. I might settle for identical repros. Looking around online, I don't see any being offered, even though boxes for common games and even system boxes are available. If nobody is offering such, surely it couldn't be too difficult to make them. If anyone knows of a person selling the above, or can easily make one on commission, please let me know. 

 

I made a couple of Mr Boston repros last year as fun items for the Vectrex Fans Unite! Secret Santa present swap.  They look good under glass but wouldn't stand up to close hands-on inspection (they contain an obviously modern PCB for example, and the edge connector is visibly different even from from the outside) but if you just want something cool to put on your shelf, they're not too hard to make and look good.  I posted all the artwork on the VFU group (links below).  I'm not offering to make one though, you'll need to expend some effort yourself.  Given the strong feelings in this community about reproductions you might want to write REPRO in large friendly and indelible letters on the inside of the cart, if not also the outside, should you build one yourself.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=6084626221601414&set=p.6084626221601414&type=3

 

All the real carts have pretty shitty looking labels so I used the well-known old antique faker's trick of tea or coffee staining the paper parts. (You have to love those Lovejoy novels!) Carrying the labels around in your pocket for a week helps too 🙂  (Just be aware that raster-printed labels are clearly recognisable under a magnifying glass, and there are other ways to easily distinguish real Mr Boston carts by anyone who knows the key telltale.)

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004289553114745/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004290273114673/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004292616447772/
https://gtoal.com/vectrex/MR-BOSTON-NOTES.txt

https://gtoal.com/vectrex/print-manuals/MISSING/rebuilt-print-Clean-Sweep-two-up.pdf

 

The box is just a standard Clean Sweep box with an added label (above) and I suspect a Clean Sweep overlay could probably be modified with white Letraset but I didn't go that far myself since my effort was just for fun and not an attempt to create a passable fake.  Sean Kelly sells a very nice repro overlay that is clearly marked as such - that would be your easiest option.  Add a bottle of hooch and a Mr Boston bartenders' guide and you'll have quite a nice display in your game room.

 

G

 

Edited January 5 by gtoal
added manual

[Blazing Lazers]

3 hours ago, gtoal said:

I made a couple of Mr Boston repros last year as fun items for the Vectrex Fans Unite! Secret Santa present swap.  They look good under glass but wouldn't stand up to close hands-on inspection (they contain an obviously modern PCB for example, and the edge connector is visibly different even from from the outside) but if you just want something cool to put on your shelf, they're not too hard to make and look good.  I posted all the artwork on the VFU group (links below).  I'm not offering to make one though, you'll need to expend some effort yourself.  Given the strong feelings in this community about reproductions you might want to write REPRO in large friendly and indelible letters on the inside of the cart, if not also the outside, should you build one yourself.

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=6084626221601414&set=p.6084626221601414&type=3

 

All the real carts have pretty shitty looking labels so I used the well-known old antique faker's trick of tea or coffee staining the paper parts. (You have to love those Lovejoy novels!) Carrying the labels around in your pocket for a week helps too 🙂  (Just be aware that raster-printed labels are clearly recognisable under a magnifying glass, and there are other ways to easily distinguish real Mr Boston carts by anyone who knows the key telltale.)

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004289553114745/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004290273114673/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/posts/2004292616447772/
https://gtoal.com/vectrex/MR-BOSTON-NOTES.txt

https://gtoal.com/vectrex/print-manuals/MISSING/rebuilt-print-Clean-Sweep-two-up.pdf

 

The box is just a standard Clean Sweep box with an added label (above) and I suspect a Clean Sweep overlay could probably be modified with white Letraset but I didn't go that far myself since my effort was just for fun and not an attempt to create a passable fake.  Sean Kelly sells a very nice repro overlay that is clearly marked as such - that would be your easiest option.  Add a bottle of hooch and a Mr Boston bartenders' guide and you'll have quite a nice display in your game room.

 

G

 

I don't know if I'll ever mock up a repro of Me. Boston but if I do you'll have made it possible. Thank you immensely for the information. I might be able to content myself with something I made until I can finally get a real version. I know I'll have one eventually, no matter how long I have to wait.

[playvectrex]

Oh the touchy subjects  to chime in or not to chime in... that is the question.

Making your own well labeled "repro" for your own collection seems okayish, but you'll always know it's not real.  I guess whatever... there are different levels of collectors out there.  I would definitely not consider myself a collector so don't take my word for it.

 

But making a repro, documenting the steps and sharing it for anyone to make... goes a bit far in my opinion, respectfully.  I wouldn't want to enable the lazy scammers with easy money making opportunities.

 

I do support open source though... just not for repros of holy grail collector items.  I don't see the fun in "printing out" your collection anyways.  Actually that's a good idea... just print a photo out of the real deal... and stick it up there on the shelf.  Easy!

[Blazing Lazers]

On 2/13/2024 at 9:47 PM, playvectrex said:

Oh the touchy subjects  to chime in or not to chime in... that is the question.

Making your own well labeled "repro" for your own collection seems okayish, but you'll always know it's not real.  I guess whatever... there are different levels of collectors out there.  I would definitely not consider myself a collector so don't take my word for it.

 

But making a repro, documenting the steps and sharing it for anyone to make... goes a bit far in my opinion, respectfully.  I wouldn't want to enable the lazy scammers with easy money making opportunities.

 

I do support open source though... just not for repros of holy grail collector items.  I don't see the fun in "printing out" your collection anyways.  Actually that's a good idea... just print a photo out of the real deal... and stick it up there on the shelf.  Easy!

I'm lucky enough to have completed several full sets years ago, and before prices reached the current levels of unaffordability. There are other sets that I could easily have gotten in the past but really can't justify at today's price points, so I have some sympathy for fellow collectors that missed out on the easy days of collecting. 

 

That being said, I would definitely want my eventual copy to come from an established collector or vendor. Over a certain price point there is always a concern about fakes, though at least for something as rare as Mr. Boston there are so few copies that it wouldn't be the easiest thing to fake, and a community as strong as the Vectrex community would have plenty of people that could authenticate all of the future copies that will inevitably come up for sale.