Collaborate Disseminate
The Vectrex was a unique console from the early 1980s. Developed by a company you’ve probably never heard of—Smith Engineering—it was put into production by General Consumer Electronics, and later …read more Continue reading Supercon 2023: Building a Portable Vectrex, The Right Way
Sometimes the simplest of projects end up revealing the most interesting of things, as for example is the case with [Ryo Mukai]’s light pen for the Vectrex console. It’s an …read more Continue reading Vectrex Light Pen Works Without a Raster
It appears that every great console is bound to get a miniature remake: we’ve had the PlayStation Classic, the Mini NES and SNES, and even a miniature Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. …read more Continue reading Finally, the Venerable Vectrex Gets a Mini Makeover
Acorn BBC Master. Apple IIe. Ampex 270 Terminal. Vetrex game console. You’d be hard pressed to find a more diverse hardware collection in the average hacker’s lab. When you add …read more Continue reading Interactive Musical Art Installation Mixes Vintage, Modern, Lasers, and…Bubbles? Bubbles.
Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams explore the coolest hacks of the past 168 hours. The big news this week: will Wink customers pony up $5 a month to turn their lights on and off? There’s a new open source design for a pick and place machine. You may …read more
You’ve always wanted a game console at your bench, but maybe you haven’t had space for a monitor or TV set? Wouldn’t it be useful if the screen you do have on your bench could also play games? [Tube Time] has fixed this problem, with Scopetrex, a vector graphic console …read more
Continue reading Scopetrex Is A Game Console… For Your Oscilloscope!
Unlike most old consoles, the Vectrex is unique for having a vector-based display. This gives it a very different look to most of its contemporaries, and necessitated a built-in display, as regular televisions aren’t built to take vector signals. Not one to be limited to the stock screen size, [Arcade Jason] decided the Vectrex needed a projection upgrade, and built exactly that.
The build relies on a lens that [Jason] salvaged from an old rear-projection TV. These units used CRTs with big lenses which projected the image onto a screen. That’s precisely what is happening here, with a vector display …read more
Continue reading The Vectrex Projector We’ve Been Waiting For
The crash of the videogame market in 1983 struck down a slew of victims, and unique products such as the Vectrex were not immune to its destructive ways. The all-in-one console featured a monochromatic vector display and offered an arcade-like experience at home complete with an analog joystick controller. It sadly never made it to its second birthday before being axed in early 1984, however, thanks to the [National Videogame Museum] we now how a glimpse of an alternate history for the Vectrex. They posted some photos of an unreleased Vectrex prototype that was restored to working order.
Little was …read more
Continue reading Mini Vectrex Prototype Restored By National Videogame Museum
For Hackaday readers which might not be so well versed in the world of home video gaming before the 1983 crash, the Vectrex was an interesting attempt at bringing vector graphics into player’s living rooms. Priced around $500 in today’s dollars, the machine was unique in that it included its own black and white CRT display rather than requiring the owner to plug it into their television. To spice things up a little bit, games would include a thin plastic overlay you could put over the screen to give the game faux colors. What can we say? It was the …read more
Continue reading Digital Picture Frame Turned Vectrex Overlay
We’ve all had the heartbreak of ordering something online, only to have it arrive in less than mint condition. Such are the risks of plying the global marketplace, only more so for used gear, which seems to be a special target for the wrath of sadistic custom agents and package handlers all along the supply chain.
This cruel fate befell a vintage Vectrex game console ordered by [Senile Data Systems]; the case was cracked and the CRT was an imploded mass of shards. Disappointing, to say the least, but not fatal, as he was able to make a working console …read more
Continue reading Trashed Vector Game Console Revived With Vintage IBM Monitor