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new addition to my collection! A Vectrex!


Kid A

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Got mine Christmas 1982.....was stolen 12/12/91 (just the console - I still have all my games!)....then one of my first eBay purchases in 1998 got another for about $110 with 3 games. Awesome system!

Just picked up "Space Wars" cart at GameOver Videogames store in Houston for $10 last November. My best Vectrex score since 1983-84 when Lionel Playworld and Children's Palace were clearenceing out the games for $4.99 each!!

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

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I've got one -- the cream of my collection. Love it. Make sure to get yourself a multi-cart. Every single game with a menu driven interface.

I would love to pick up a multi cart. Any suggestions on where to buy one? a lot of websites. that I find or no longer working

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Look on Ebay.  Set up a search for the "Sean Kelly Vectrex".  They get sold there once in a while...usually around $60 I think.  Look for them sold in bunches, buy-it-now.  Stay away from the individual sales as they tend to go pretty high. 

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Highway robbery. 

I got my Vectrex a few years back with a multi-cart for $150 shipped.  I love that thing.  But mine is kind of flaky.  It takes a long time for the screen to turn on if you haven't used it in a while.  Probably some bad capacitors or something.  I fear it will die on me someday. 

Anyhoo, set up a search on ebay and have it e-mail you when it finds a new matching item.  They come up every few months. 

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Do the Vectrex monitors generally hold up well over time? I know vector monitors in arcade machines at times can be finicky and expensive. The Vectrex has always seemed amazing, I'm wondering if there was a downside.

 

Mine has held up over the years.......but I only use it once every 5-6 years. I guess the more you do use it, the higher chance it will stop working - plus how you store it would effect it too.

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

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The tube on the Vectrex is the same as you'd find on a black and white TV.  Nothing special about it.  I'd suspect the tube itself almost never will go bad.  But the electronics driving it?  That's a different story.  Most likely thing to go wrong is old capacitors that dry up.  Those are not too hard to replace if you can find someone with skill willing to do it. 

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Highway robbery.

 

I got my Vectrex a few years back with a multi-cart for $150 shipped. I love that thing. But mine is kind of flaky. It takes a long time for the screen to turn on if you haven't used it in a while. Probably some bad capacitors or something. I fear it will die on me someday.

 

Anyhoo, set up a search on ebay and have it e-mail you when it finds a new matching item. They come up every few months.

I know this isn't the Sean Kelly multi cart but what do you think about this one for the price?

 

http://r.ebay.com/QIqU8Z

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I would stay away from that one.  DIP switches are no fun.  And it doesn't have ALL the games.  There are two different multi-carts that have a menu...the Sean Kelly one, and the "other" one whose name I can't remember.  It's from the UK.  I actually have the UK one, and it's just fine.

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The tube on the Vectrex is the same as you'd find on a black and white TV.  Nothing special about it.  I'd suspect the tube itself almost never will go bad.  But the electronics driving it?  That's a different story.  Most likely thing to go wrong is old capacitors that dry up.  Those are not too hard to replace if you can find someone with skill willing to do it.

I didn't realize they were CRT monitors I thought they were Vector monitors. Craziness!

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I would stay away from that one. DIP switches are no fun. And it doesn't have ALL the games. There are two different multi-carts that have a menu...the Sean Kelly one, and the "other" one whose name I can't remember. It's from the UK. I actually have the UK one, and it's just fine.

Vecflash?

 

also, thanks for pointing out the switches. I thought that was just like a picture printed on the label on the little monitor on the Vectrex

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I didn't realize they were CRT monitors I thought they were Vector monitors. Craziness!

From the Wikipedia page for Vectrex:

 

The cathode ray tube is a Samsung model 240RB40 monochrome unit measuring 9 × 11 inches, displaying a picture of 240 mm diagonal; it is an off-the-shelf picture tube manufactured for small black/white television sets. The brightness of the CRT is controlled using a circular knob on the back of the display. A vector CRT display such as the one in the Vectrex does not require a special tube, and differs from standard raster-based television sets only in the control circuits. Rather than use sawtooth waves to direct the internal electron beam in a raster pattern, computer-controlled integrators feed linear amplifiers to drive the deflection yoke. This yoke has similar, if not identical inductances, unlike a TV deflection yoke. The yoke uses a standard TV core. The high-voltage transformer also uses a standard core and bobbin. There is special circuitry to turn off the electron beam if the vector generator stops or fails. This prevents burning of the screen's phosphors. This design is a great deal smaller than the electronics found in the free-standing, full-sized Asteroids.

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Vecflash?

 

also, thanks for pointing out the switches. I thought that was just like a picture printed on the label on the little monitor on the Vectrex

This is the one I have.  Did I mention it's pretty old?

 

http://vectrex.playntradeonline.com/

 

Looks like the bare version is still for sale for a decent price.  You might e-mail the person selling to see if they can suggest a proper case for it.  I'm not sure about your options there. 

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This is the one I have. Did I mention it's pretty old?

 

http://vectrex.playntradeonline.com/

 

Looks like the bare version is still for sale for a decent price. You might e-mail the person selling to see if they can suggest a proper case for it. I'm not sure about your options there.

Oh man! This is the website that I've been looking for when I saw this the day I got my Vectrex! I tried going through my web history and I couldn't find it! Definitely going to look into getting this one! Thanks!

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Vectrex is awesome.  I really like the controller.  They pretty much invented the gamepad with that thing.  A small stick and 4 buttons.  Pretty cool.  Need I bring up how a company new to videogames made a better controller than industry leader Atari (with the 5200 and 7800)?

Minestorm is probably one of the best games for the system.  I also really like Berzerk.  Star Castle is way too hard.  Honestly, you are going to have a lot of fun once you get the multi-cart.  Please make sure to post what you think! 

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Vectrex is awesome.  I really like the controller.  They pretty much invented the gamepad with that thing.  A small stick and 4 buttons.  Pretty cool. 

 

That's a really good point. Not a lot gets said about Vectrex but their controller nearly nailed it. What a cool machine, so different from everything else. The games were great and they deserve  a lot of credit for making great stuff that was better than the industry leader.

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That's a really good point. Not a lot gets said about Vectrex but their controller nearly nailed it. What a cool machine, so different from everything else. The games were great and they deserve  a lot of credit for making great stuff that was better than the industry leader.

 

From what I heard back then in 1982-1983, was that Atari was putting it to retailers, "either you carry Atari OR you carry GCE Vectrex!". They couldn't carry both and by this point Atari was too popular and that is what pretty much killed GCE. Damn shame!

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

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