+-----------+
| Vectrex |
| +-------+ | Vectrex "Frequently Asked Questions" List! Created: 9/1/92
| | # + *| | version 4.0 Copyright worldwide (c) 1992, 1996
| | : X | | Created and maintained by Gregg Woodcock (woodcock@bnr.ca)
| | : . .| |
| | A <=>| | This list will be reposted on the first day of every month.
| | . | |
| | X + | | @@@
| | * x | | @@ @@@
| +-------+ @@@ +---@----+
| ### # Q@@ / ! oooo /
| ### OO | +--------+
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<duhn duht duhn duht ... duhn duht duhn dit dut>
This file is copyrighted (c) 1996 by Gregg Woodcock but may be
distributed in part or in whole by anyone for any purpose (commercial or
otherwise) provided proper credit is given to me and the individual
contributors. If you do use the FAQ, I would appreciate it if you send
me a copy of whatever you are doing with it. Special thanks to Tom
Sloper for correcting many mistakes and providing insightful
explanations on several parts of earlier FAQ versions!
Q. What is Vectrex?
Here it is in layman's terms:
Vectrex is one of the most inspired video game machines ever produced
(but similar things were said about the Edsel and Titanic). Its point
of distinction is the fact that it uses vector "line" graphics (as
opposed to raster "pixel" graphics). This is the same type of screen
used in such arcade classics as Space Wars, Asteroids, Battlezone and
Tempest. The machine has a 9 x 11 inch black and white screen and comes
with a built-in Asteroids clone called Minestorm. The games come with
plastic overlays that slide over the screen to cut down on flicker and
give some illusion of color. It uses one of the most advanced 8 bit
processors, the 68A09 (6809 with 1.5MHz clock speed), and a popular and
excellent sound chip, General Instruments AY-3-8192, which can produce a
wide range of noises. Also included is a 1.5 inch, self-centering,
joystick with 4 buttons on the right. It uses an analog/potentiometer
system allowing differing degrees of directional input.
The machine's footprint takes up a little less than a square foot on a
desk (in fact, it quite resembles a jet black Macintosh SE sans mouse
and keyboard), and can be operated easily in that area. The joystick is
connected via a springy telephone-like cord and can be folded into the
base of the machine for portability. The machine is moderately
transportable and very well constructed but, alas, very much extinct.
It made its debut late in 1982 and was quite scarce by the end of 1984
due to the Great Video Game Depression of '82 which forced Milton
Bradley (who bought the rights to the Vectrex from General Consumer
Electronics (GCE)) to discontinue production due to to poor sales.
After this, the rights to the Vectrex and all related materials were
returned to the original developers, Smith Engineering. Smith
Engineering has graciously condoned the not-for-profit circulation of
any duplicatable materials including games and manuals and is happy to
see it is still 'alive' in certain circles.
Here are some more detailed snippets from the service manual:
As a general description, the HP3OOO is a self-contained video game
system intended for home use. The system includes its own 9" B&W
monitor screen and 3" permanent magnet speaker. Plug-in ROM type
cartridges are available offering arcade type video and sound game play.
No external TV receiver hookup is needed or provided for. A front panel
storable controller allows control over the game via joystick and push
button action switches. For two player operation a second controller
identical to the single player controller is available as an accessory
product. Both controllers attach to the main game console through nine
wire coiled telephone style cables. There is a consumer power
switch/volume control on the front panel as well as a game reset button.
A consumer adjustable brightness control is located on the main console
rear housing.
For the technical description which follows, the reader is encouraged to
refer to the block diagram and schematic [not included here].
The HP3OOO is a microprocessor based, vector scan system using a
standard 9" black & white CRT as its video display device. The
microprocessor (MPU) is the Motorola 68A09 device. The MPU operates at
1.6 MHz from a 6 MHz external Xtal. An internal divide by 4 circuit
generates the MPU 1.6 MHz "E" clock signal used in the system. Program
memory is stored in the 8K x 8 bit 2363 type ROM. This ROM contains
common subroutines, the "executive" or assembler instructions plus one
complete game.
Two 1K x 4 bit 2114 type static RAMs provide storage locations for data
indicative of locations of objects, game status, and various other
information needed by the microprocessor during game operation.
Peripheral Interface Adapter (PIA) Chip, has two 8 bit peripheral ports
which interfaces the MPU with peripheral devices and external signals.
One of the PIA ports interfaces the General Instrument AY-3-8912
sound-I.O. chip with the MPU and also drives the digital to analog
converter chip MC1408. The other PIA port is used as control lines for
the sound chip, selector control for the multiplex chip and as a means
to read the A/D comparator that's used in the joystick successive
approximation circuitry. Sound is either MPU generated directly or by
use of the AY-3-8912 sound chip.
The AY-3-8912 sound chip is a programmable sound generator containing 3
tone generators and wave shaping circuitry. This chip also has a single
8 bit I.O. port used to read the status of each of the hand controller's
4 action switches.
The standard TTL device types 74LS00 and 74LS32 are used as control line
decoders to allow the MPU to select the appropriate circuit element to
be addressed at any particular time.
The analog processing section includes digital to analog converter (DAC)
chip type MC1408, dual 4 channel multiplexer/demultiplexer chip type
CD4052, and dual channel op-amps types LF353 and LF347.
DAC chip MC1408 receives an 8 bit word at data terminals D0-D7. DAC
output (pin 4) is current source. One section of IC LF353 is used to
change this current to a voltage representative of the 8 bit digital
word received by the DAC chip. The LF353 voltage is applied to an input
of the dual 4 channel multiplexer (MUX) chip CD4052. This same voltage
(designated "DAC" on the schematic) is the X-axis drive signal.
The CD4052 MUX chip serves two purposes: it selectively couples, under
MPU control, the output of the DAC current/voltage converter to one of 4
places and is used to selectively couple the inputs from the joystick
pots to the voltage comparator IC LF353.
Q. What games were released or on the drawing board before Vectrex died?
Production # Name (Notes) [Size or NR=Not Released]
------------ ----------------------------------------------------------
VT 3000 Minestorm (built-in game; Asteroids clone) [4K]
VT 3000 Minestorm/II (bug free version in cart form) [4K]
VT 3101 Cosmic Chasm (1st home game ported to arcade) [4K]
VT 3102 Rip Off (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3103 Scramble (Konami arcade port) [4K]
VT 3104 Solar Quest (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3105 Space Wars (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3106 Starhawk (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3107 Star Trek (AKA Star Ship in Europe) [4K]
VT 3108 Web Wars (AKA Web Warp in ?????) (best game?) [8K]
VT 3109 Star Castle (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3201 Hyperchase (very bad driving game) [4K]
VT 3202 Blitz! Action Football [8K]
VT 3203 Heads-Up Action Soccer (Soccer Football in Europe) [8K]
VT 3204 Spinball (Flipper Pinball in Europe) (has PAUSE!) [8K]
VT 3205 Pitcher's Duel -OR- Batter Up Action Baseball [NR]
VT 3206 Pole Position (Atari/Namco arcade port) [8K]
VT 3301 Armor Attack (Cinematronics arcade port) [4K]
VT 3302 Berzerk (Stern arcade port; high levels crash) [4K]
VT 3303 Clean Sweep (Pac-Man clone) [4K]
VT 3304 Fortress of Narzod (great shooter) [8K]
VT 3305 Bedlam ("inside-out" Tempest derivative) [4K]
VT 3306 Spike (It talks; well it sort of does :) [8K]
VT 3307 Dark Tower (ONLY 1 PROTOTYPE EXISTS!) [12K=8K+4K]
VT 3308 Polar Rescue (Good sub hunt game) (has PAUSE!) [8K]
VT 3600 Light Pen (Hardware; required for 360X games)
VT 3601 Art Master (light pen) (pack-in game) [4K]
VT 3602 Melody Master (light pen) [8K]
VT 3603 Mail Plane (light pen) (100% completed) [NR]
VT 3604 Animaction (light pen) [8K+2K RAM]
VT 3630 3-D Imager (Hardware; required for 363X games)
VT 3631 3-D Pole Position (3-D) (completed?) [NR]
VT 3632 3-D Minestorm (3-D) (pack-in game) [8K]
VT 3633 Narrow Escape (3-D) (same color disk as CC) [8K]
VT 3634 Crazy Coaster (3-D) (same color disk as NE) [8K]
VT ???? Test Cartridge (issued to repair centers only) [4K]
VT ???? Tour de France (100% completed) [NR]
VT ???? HangMan (Touch Screen) (pack-in game; complete) [NR]
The following games and accessories were planned but never released:
Cartridges:
Art Master II
Art Master III
Art Master IV
Basic Science
Create-A-Game/Maze
Exploring the Solar System
Flipout
Hangman (game developed for use with Touch Screen)
Imagine
Pitcher's Duel
Pole Position (for 3-D Imager)
Power Trip
Sock It
Accessories:
Touch-Sensitive Screen (prototype known to exist)
Computer Adapter with BASIC (prototypes rumored to exist)
Computer Keyboard
Printer
Disk Driver/Wafer Tape Drive
Modem
Computer Software:
Create Your Own Video Game
Music Maestro
Art Program in LOGO
Basic Science
Solar System
Word Processing
A company called Roy Abel & Associates also commercially exploited the
Vectrex by using it as a text terminal (which is about the worst thing
it can do) to perform the "Luscher Color Test" after you put a quarter
into a coin device which activated the unit. You would pick colors in
the order that they appealed to you (again, why did they use a black and
white display for this job?), and it would tell you about your
personality. Actually, no matter what you picked it would tell you
something that you could identify with; all of the statements were
pretty vague. The guy that programmed it did not understand the
hardware; the text scrolled up the screen, but lines popped on at the
bottom and disappeared near the top instead of scrolling on and off from
offscreen. Roy had GCE's permission and blessing to do the project. In
fact, some former WT personnel (Sidleys and others) as well as Lee
Chaden (big guy at GCE) were at Abel & Associates at the time.
Q. How does the 3-D imager work?
Robert Stickles <sutekh@feldspar.com> explained it very well like this:
The 3-D imager spins a disk which is 1/2 black and 1/2 colored bands
that radiate from the centre (Usually red, green and blue) between your
eyes and the vectrex screen. The Vectrex is synchronized to the
rotation of the disk (or vice versa) and draws vectors corresponding to
a particular color and/or a particular eye. Therefore only one eye will
see the vectrex screen and its associated images (or color) at any one
time while the other will see nothing.
A single object that does not lie on the plane of the monitor (i.e. in
front of or into the monitor) is drawn at least twice to provide
information for each eye. The distance between the duplicate images and
whether the right eye image or the left eye image is drawn first will
determine where the object will appear to "be" in 3-D space. The 3-D
illusion is also enhanced by adjusting the brightness of the object
(dimming objects in the background). Spinning the disk at a high enough
speed will fool your eyes/brain into thinking that the multiple images
it's seeing are two different views of the same object, and voila!
Instant 3-D and color.
Q. I see double images and blurry objects; is my 3-D imager broken?
Robert Stickles <sutekh@feldspar.com> answered this very well like this:
Probably not. There are problems with the basic design of the imager as
implemented. When the imager displays red objects, especially those
that are to appear in the foreground, it's very difficult for your eyes
to resolve the two images and you end up seeing double. Two things
contribute to this: When your eyes naturally try to focus on an object
that is supposed to be in the distance the objects close up become out
of focus. This makes games that have 3-D objects deep "into" the screen
(such as Narrow Escape) have double images for the foreground objects
(such as your ship).
The second factor is the "ghosting" created by red (and oddly enough,
only red) images seen through the imager. For example, the red tracks
in Crazy Coaster are hard to visualise because my eyes can see white
ghosts of the image intended for the opposite eye, and consequently you
interpret the jumble as two different objects and not one. I am not
completely sure what causes this, but it may be due to inaccuracies in
the synching of the wheel. I do believe that the reason why the 3-D
Minestorm color wheel is different from the one used for the other games
(it has little red and the sync hole is slightly offset) is to show off
the imager at it's best, with lots of green and blue (or maybe the
coders just wanted lots of green!). I will make a homemade color wheel
similar to the CC/NE one, but with different colors to determine for
sure if the color red is the problem or it is a sync problem. The 3-D
Minestorm wheel differs too much from the other wheel to make a good
judgement.
I have found two ways to remedy this problem:
1) The further your eyes are away from the screen, the easier it is to
resolve the double images. So sit waaaay back and enjoy. This helps
the focusing problem.
2) Using an overlay on the screen tends cut down on the red "ghosting".
I use a Spinball/Flipper pinball overlay , but any of the single color
overlays (Berserk, Blitz, etc) will work just as well. This seems to
cut down the the intensity of the ghosts (and using the brightness
control wouldn't hurt either)
I now really enjoy playing Narrow Escape as it was intended (sort of a
head-on Zaxxon) and play this game more often than Web Wars or Armor
Attack. I'm not as thrilled with Crazy Coaster as it seems to have an
unpolished feel to it. Besides, it looks *nothing* like the screen
shots. :-)
Q. I have a 3-D game but no imager. When I play the game it doesn't do
anything; is it broken?
Probably not. The 3-D games all start out by trying to spin up the 3-D
wheel so before an image is displayed so that it will look 3-D right
away. They send power to the motor and then check they sync pulse to
see how fast the wheel is spinning. If it isn't spinning fast enough,
it increases the voltage to the motor gradually until it is. If the
voltage gets maxed out and the wheel still is not spinning fast enough,
the game will try to run but at a reduced frame rate. If there is no
3-D imager attached then there is no sync pulse and the speed of the
wheel will always be interpreted as zero. The game will not run until
it sees a sync pulse of some kind.
William Howald <howald@u.washington.edu> did find a way to get 3-D games
to run without the imager though. If you plug a controller into port 2,
and bash away at the 4 button, after 1-2 minutes (be patient) the game
will start running but -s l o w l y-. Every tap on the button will
"flash" one frame on the screen and the sound if playing will advance to
the next step. The wire for the 4 button is the one hooked up to the be
hooked up to a optical sensor that reads light through the hole in the
disk which is used as a sync pulse. I think you could build a
oscillator(about 10 Hz?) and pulse the 4 button to "play" without
glasses!
Q. What is Minestorm/II?
As we all know, the very first Vectrex units were shipped with a flawed
version of Minestorm. Evidently nobody ever though that any player
could ever get to, let alone survive wave 12 so they only included data
for 12 waves. Predictably, most players found that their game crashed
after wave 12 (the "wave 13" bug) because the software indexed off the
end of the table which contains the information about what items were to
exist on each wave. It reads in garbage which usually causes the game
to crash.
I have in my possession a cartridge that originated from a private owner
on the East Coast of the USA (who was recently identified) which has a
fully produced label that says "Minestorm". The title screen of this
game says, "Minestorm II". This is a bug free version of Minestorm as
you can easily play past wave 13 (I will read in the ROM data as soon as
I can). It would seem that if you contacted GCE/WT about the bug,
instead of swapping out the Executive/Minestorm ROM inside the Vectrex
unit, they simply sent you a production Minestorm cart. Evidently the
cart did not come with a manual or box all the other games in this
private collection still had these things. If you want to see what it
looks like, there is a JPEG in the archives.
Q. What is the Minestorm "Wave 13" bug?
Fred Taft <fred@cv.hp.com> explained it to me very well like this: Each
level of Mine Storm is described by an entry in an array of structures;
the array entry described such details as the types of mines at the
level, etc. Unfortunately, the array was only defined to contain 13
entries! That's why the first 13 levels work as expected. However,
once you got past level 13, the game ran out of array entries, but
because it did not check for this, it simply used the next block of code
after the array, as the information describing the next level. The code
was smart enough to skip levels if there were no valid mines; that's why
it occasionally skips levels.
As for sometimes jumping back to the startup screen after you've
completed a level, that is also a 'feature' of the code. Once a level
is cleared, it jumps to some code which looks to see if any buttons are
pressed; if they are, then it assumes the user wants to start a new
game; this is code which should have only been executed when a game was
over, but it gets checked after completing a level also. Keep in mind
that this is the very first release of the Minestorm and later versions
had various portions of the bugs patched out.
Q. Well how many released versions of the Minestorm software was there?
There were at least 3 versions. Two with the "Wave 13" bug which are
different in that waves 2 and 3 are swapped and one with the bug fixed.
The test cart checksum will give a different value for different ROM
versions so this is a way for you to check.
Q. What miscellaneous Vectrex items might my collection be missing?
Here is a list of most of the extra stuff that isn't a cart, overlay,
box or regular manual...
* Orange 5"x3.75" sheet notifying us of GCE's change of address
* "IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS" addendum to Owner's Manual
(No. 98722-072). This listed 17 things you shouldn't do
* Canadian addendum to Owner's Manual for warranty info (pg. 11/12)
* Manual for the Control Panel (Joystick)
* White 5.5"x3" manuals for the Light Pen and 3-D Glasses
* White 3"x4" 3-D Imager addendum describing how to work the color disk latch
* White 3.5"x4.5" 3-D Crazy Coaster addendum telling how to survive underpasses
* White 4"x6" Minestorm addendum (P/N 140028-1) describing wave 13 bug
* White 2.5"x2.5" addendum to the Star Trek manual describing self-play bug
* A catalog of games (same size as regular manuals) from "Triton"
* A catalog of games (same size as regular manuals) called "Passport"
* A 7.5"x3.5" pamphlet listing HW and games called "High Performance Machine"
* Vectrex unit warranty registration card (and Owner's Club form)
* Electronic Games Magazine subscription form (44% off for Vectrex players)
* Custom Designed Accessories for your Vectrex Arcade System order form
listing a collapsible carrying case ($14.95) and a vinyl dust cover
($5.95).
* carrying case for the Vectrex
* protective dust cover for the Vectrex
* Service Manual
* Test Cart
* The first (and only?) issue of the Owner's Club magazine "Passport"
Q. Where is the Vectrex FTP archive and what is there?
The ftp Vectrex information archive is at ftp.csus.edu (130.86.90.1) in
the pub/vectrex directory. It is maintained by John F. Sandhoff
<sandhoff@csus.edu>.
There are binary listings (2 flavors; pure binary from the ROMs, and
Motorola "S-format" dumps) for most of the games along with instructions
on how to burn EPROMs. There are several commented examples of code
demonstrating how to write both music and graphics. There is also a
copy of the service manual and much more. Almost all of the stuff is
bundled into a compressed file called "vectrex.tar.Z". There are plenty
of experiments to keep an eager hacker busy including schematics of the
3-D goggles (very simple circuit to build). Recently, some GIF/JPEG
files were added showing some of the screen overlays (there are also
GIFs of the 2 color wheels). Also, text files of the manuals for most,
if not all, of the games are there.
David Wright <davewt@NCoast.ORG> will be putting the Vectrex stuff up on
his Email server. If you don't have FTP access, this may work for you.
If you want to try and get at it, the Email server is at
"impinfo@Prism1.COM". If your site doesn't like that, try
"prism1!impinfo@NCoast.ORG". To receive a list of the files available
place "send vect.index" in the message body. You can also add "send
help" to get a complete set of instructions. Be aware that some of
these files are huge and may push you over your mailbox or disk space
quota immediately.
Q. Isn't copying the games by burning EPROMs stealing or violating a
copyright?
If the system is "dead" then no money is lost by making copies of
something which otherwise would never be available. Even so, it is a
fuzzy matter and technically the answer should probably be, "YES."
Fortunately, Smith Engineering has given Usenetters permission to make
copies of all Vectrex related materials (manuals, games, overlays, etc.)
as long as it is for distribution to members of the group and as long as
it is not for profit.
Q. OK, I want to make a copy of a game; what is the pinout of the port?
The even pin numbers are on the top while the odd are on the bottom.
one and two start on the right side (or near side as oriented when cart
is inside the base unit), and 35 and 36 are on the left (or far) side.
36 2
+--------------------+
+--------------------+
35 1
Q. I ordered a multi-cart from Mark Woodward well over a year ago and
paid him in advance. I am having trouble getting hold of him and I
still haven't received my cart. Did I get ripped off?
Here is everything I know. The multi-carts came back from the
fabricator shortly after everybody got their orders in and Mark built
them and started sending them out. It turns out that there are 2
different hardware designs for the Vectrex and Mark had the less
common version. Unfortunately this first multi-cart design is
incompatible with the most common version of the Vectrex hardware and
most of the multi-carts had to be sent back to Mark for repair (and he
stopped sending the originals out, also). Mark then had to do several
expensive and time consuming things; he had to locate and purchase one
of the other versions of the Vectrex, he had to redesign the PCB and
find a way to make the new design backward compatible with the old
design so that he could reuse the PCBs, he had to rewrite the software
which meant he had to unsolder the EPROMs (since they weren't
socketed) and erase them, reprogram them, and solder them back on. He
then has to upgrade the PCB by cutting several traces and soldering on
several jumpers.
As you can see, fixing all these PCBs takes a LONG time and a lot of
effort (and money since he has to pay double-shipping for all the carts
that did go out). To complicate matters, Mark changed Email addresses
(and jobs?), and was blessed with the birth of a new baby creating a
large drain on his "free" time. I am not excusing his tardiness and I
agree that even considering these circumstances the delay is still too
long to excuse. I am just trying to give you all some background as to
how a good idea went very wrong. I talked to Mark sometime around the
beginning of September and he told me that as of that date all
international orders had been filled and that there were exactly 15 USA
orders left to be retrofitted.
I offered to do the retrofits for him and he agreed to send the
materials to me. He decided to send the stuff to be fixed immediately
and it arrived sometime around Halloween and I have been working on them
ever since. I have completed all repairs several times only to have a
couple of other necessary repairs creep up. At the beginning of
December I got MOST of the carts working (all of the 15 except 3) and
sent them out to people the 1st week in December and sent the 3 screwy
ones back to Mark. By the end of December, he had them all working and
sent them to the owners.
So it boils down to this, if you paid for a cart and didn't get one, you
are out of luck because there are no more. You need to contact Mark and
work something out with him.
Q. Do I have to make my own multi-cart; can't I just buy one from
somebody?
No; I mean, Yes, er... There are several people making multi-carts
for resale on the net but the best ones (by far) were being made by Mark
Woodward. He has sold out of the original batch and it was such a
headache that he will not be doing it again. Instead, I have taken over
the project and am working on getting the images to some unreleased, yet
completed games. They are Tour de France and Mail Plane (and perhaps
another "goodie" that isn't really a game but a silly in-house project
never meant for release).
Until I get those images (should be soon now), I will not be building
any multicarts because I don't know how big the images are (the recently
discovered Dark Tower image, for example, is 12K). The reason this
matters is because I am going to be rewriting Mark's menu code to account
for files of flexible length (right now it just uses 8K boundaries and
wastes a large hunk of the EPROM) and I will also need to redesign the
hardware. I plan on using Xilynx chips and reduce the design to
essentially 4 chips so that the PCB will be able to fit inside a
cannibalized cartridge case.
The carts will allow you to select the games via a menu on the Vectrex
screen instead of by flipping dip switches as most others do. The carts
will support the RAM for Animaction and include a 'pause' button
allowing you to pause any of the games. They will contain all the
released games plus the Test Cart and 2 hacked versions of Minestorm
(infinite lives and more shots) and any other goodies I can fit (which
after the redesign should be most of what is at the archive).
The estimated price breakdown is as follows...
$30 PCB + S/W selection
$20 EPROM (unless you can send me one)
$20 Xilynx LCA chips
$10 Donation to charity of your choice
$5 RAM (Optional)
$5 Misc. parts (solder, switches, etc.)
---
$90 Complete, ready-to-play multicart ($10 to charity, $80 to me)
If I build it for you then there will be a $5 charge for miscellaneous
parts and you will be obligated donate $10 to a local charity to cover
my time. This is in the spirit of the Smith Engineering agreement for
'not-for-profit' duplication. The only 'profit' I will get is from the
s/w selection code which I deserve and am entitled to because I licensed
the 100% original code from Mark who wrote (owns) it. The games have
been generously donated by Smith Engineering and the parts will be sold
at cost (with a little to cover shipping).
The PCBs are made at a professional manufacturer and include plated
through holes, etc. No hack and slash job here :>
If you want to build it yourself I will provide you with the PCB, a
programmed EPROM (or image if you can blast your own) and a parts list.
At this point, I am not ready to accept orders but if you want to get on
the waiting list, Email me your name, address and telephone number and
I'll let you know when I begin making them again; hopefully this will be
in the next few months but it all depends on when I get the new games
and how long it takes me to redesign the HW/SW. This FAQ will be
updated as the situation changes.
Q. How do I play <game X>?
Simple, read the manual. WHAT; you don't have a manual? OK then, read
the screen overlay (it lists the functions of all the buttons). You
don't have the screen overlay either? In that case most (maybe all by
now) of the manuals have been transcribed into text files and made
available via ftp. YOU DON'T HAVE FTP EITHER? OK, I'll tell you what;
in the spirit of Smith Engineering's generosity, I will volunteer my
services as Vectrex copy shop.
I have all of the overlays and manuals (as well as some extra stuff like
the service manual, "Passport" magazine, the "Triton" and "Passport"
catalog pamphlets, and the "High Performance Machine" pamphlet) and am
willing to make copies for free to anybody that is willing to play by my
"rules".
You must send a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope (SASE) along with a
listing of everything that you want photocopies of (black and white
copies only; if you want color overlay copies, send $2.50 for each one
since color copies cost $$$). You will receive double sided copies
unless you specifically request single sided ones.
I will fill the orders only about once a month so don't hold your breath
for a quick return. Please note that these will not be replicas in any
particular sense. I will be copying them as you would a book (I WILL
NOT REMOVE THE STAPLES TO REPLICATE THE SHEETS TO FACILITATE MAKING
EXACT DUPLICATES). If you want exact duplicates, you will need to
modify the copies I send you (I am trying to keep my effort to a
minimum).
If I need to fold something to fit it in your SASE, then I will, so keep
that in mind if you want unfolded stuff. The amount of postage is left
up to you to figure out; I am just going to copy, stuff, and send; I
will not verify sufficient postage. Tips are appreciated (particularly
if you are asking for a *lot* of copying) but not necessary nor
required; this is a free service.
Send SASE to:
Gregg Woodcock
2930 Dukeswood Drive
Garland, TX 75040-8770
U.S.A
P.S. If you take advantage of either of these services, it would be
nice if you would "pay the community back" by transcribing at least one
document that is not currently at the ftp site and uploading it (or
Emailing it to me and I will get it there). I am pretty sure none of
the "extra" stuff I have has been transcribed yet.
P.P.S. If you have an original service manual, please contact me so I
can get an copy of it (or buy it from you). The copy I have is Nth
generation and is very hard to read...
Q. Is there a way to make a Vectrex joystick perhaps with autofire
capability?
Brian Holscher <brianh@ichips.intel.com> has designed a flexible way to
convert a Sega Genesis controller for use with the Vectrex. He will
build one for you for a small fee or if you check the archives, you will
find a file describing how to build one yourself (it is more complex
than you will probably be expecting). Here is the first part of that
file:
This information including schematics is copyright 1994 by Brian
Holscher. This information is free for distribution as long as its not
used for commercial purposes.
Using Sega Controllers with Vectrex
(Revision 2.0a)
This Section explains:
1. How to convert a Sega Controller to work with Vectrex.
1. How to make a Sega Controller to Vectrex Adapter.
2. Where to purchase a converted Sega Controller.
3. Where to purchase a Sega to Vectrex controller adapter.
BACKGROUND
Since my Vectrex controller is flaky, I bought a cheap Sega
Controller and converted it to work on the Vectrex. From there I added
some nice features like auto-fire and re-programmable buttons. I decided
to post schematics for those who want to make Vectrex controllers.
After talking with others on the net, I decided to build a Sega to
Vectrex adapter. This is a little harder than converting controllers,
but I got one to work. This posting includes info and schematics for
both.
For those who don't want the hassle of making your own controllers,
I'm offering converted controllers and adapters for sale. I'm also
offering a preprogrammed micro-controller for sale.
LIMITATIONS
The Sega Controller is a digital controller. The Vectrex control
panel is an analog controller. Games like Minestorm don't look at the
analog values of the joystick and only look to see what direction the
joystick is moved. Games like Minestorm work with these converted Sega
controllers. Games like Hyperchase look at how far the joystick moves
in a direction and are not fun to play with these converted controllers.
All (known) games work with these converted controllers and adapters
with 2 exceptions. Hyperchase (all game variations) and Starhawk (game
variation #2 only) are completely unplayable due to the need for analog
controller data.
FEATURES
This design incorporates a micro-controller for additional
functionality. The micro-controller allows the user to program which
Sega Controller button maps to which Vectrex button. This is useful
since the 4th button (called Start) on the Sega Controller is a smaller
and inconveniently located since it is normally reserved for starting
games on Sega systems. The micro-controller even allows reprogramming
of the button assignments in the middle of a game. Another feature is
auto-fire. Any button can be set to auto-fire. This means that the
micro-controller presses the button over and over again instead of the
player.
CONTROLLERS VRS ADAPTERS
Adapters give you the advantage of using any Sega Controller with
Vectrex and still be able to use it on the Sega system. If you don't
have a Sega controller, a converted controller is less cost than an
adapter plus the cost of a Sega controller. Another slight advantage is
that the LED that informs the user during button reprogramming and
auto-fire is easier to see on a converted controller. The
micro-controller is optional if you are converting your own Sega
controller. However, the micro-controller is required for the adapter.
BUYING CONVERTED CONTROLLERS
If your don't want to convert a controller or make an adapter
yourself, you can purchase them from me. You can also purchase a
preprogrammed micro-controller from me.
Source Code for Micro-controller ------- Free if you ask nicely.
Preprogrammed Micro-controller -------- $20
(The includes Xtal and Xtal capacitors)
Converted Sega Controller ------------- $45
Sega to Vectrex Adapter ------------- $45
Shipping is included. Send email to brianh@ichips.intel.com and we will
work out the details.
Q. How can I make a copy of a screen overlay?
With the advances made in the past 2 years in color scanners, copiers
and printers, it is now possible to make a near exact duplicate with the
push of a (few) button(s).
0. First you need an original overlay, preferably one with little fading.
1. If you want a "rough" copy, simply get a good high end color
photocopy onto acetate (those overhead projector plastic sheets).
2. If you want a better copy, you scan the image, preferably in color.
I think 150 DPI is okay though some people may want to go for
maximum resolution.
3. Then you need a good paint program, I used Adobe Photoshop to do some
preliminary clean-up work, but I have a feeling it would take quite
a bit of work to make a perfect overlay.
4. Printing--the critical part. You need a color printer that can do
acetate (animation cel) printouts. Unfortunately, no color printer
can work on thick sheets, which brings us to 5.
5. You need go to a hobby shop and get a piece of .045 thick clear
sheet of [poly]styrene. Its pretty cheap.
6. The only part I haven't worked out, bonding the acetate overlay to
the styrene. It is probable that there are some mucho expensive
color printers that professional print shops use that can print onto
any thickness sheets but I haven't done much looking.
Thanks to Noel <NOEL@UMBC2.UMBC.edu> for this info.
Q. My Vectrex is very noisy; is there anything I can do to make it any
quieter?
Here is what Daniel A. Muntz <dmuntz@quip.eecs.umich.edu> said helped
him: The noise isn't digital in nature and it closely follows the
video. It also isn't a power supply problem; isolating the audio input
of the amplifier from the sound circuit revealed no noise at all. It
seems the noise is generated in two ways:
1: By induction; Moving the audio cable around makes the noise less or
more prominent. It is at minimum when the cable is placed in its
original manufactured groove. Good design since that's farthest from
the CRT yoke.
2: By ground impedance; Although all supplies are clean the hum is still
present in the modulated DC difference between the two boards.
A definite improvement can be achieved by doing the following:
1: Rewiring the ground between the digital and video board.
2: Shielding audio circuit and changing cable to volume pot to a better
shielded one.
Q. My joystick won't auto-center anymore; can I fix it?
(AKA How do I get inside or open up my joystick?)
You can't make it "good-as-new", but you can repair it so that is is
usable again. You must first get past the sticker on the top of the
joystick to get at the 5 screws that hold it together (4 are about 3/8"
in from the sides and 1/2" from the top/bottom and the last is about
1/2" to the right of the cable). Just feel around and you should be
able to find where the holes are. You can either try to peel off the
sticker (difficult to do without damaging it but possible if you are
careful) or simply punch 5 holes in it so you can remove the screws
(leaving most of the sticker intact). Now that you have the joystick
open, remove the broken spring that used to center the joystick.
You then have 2 choices that work equally well.
(1) Sean Kelly <skelly@flood.xnet.com> came up with another great
method. If you are technically inclined, you can open the potientometer
and replace the spring with a spring out of an Atari 2600 cartridge.
The spring that's used to push down the "protective" cover on 2600 carts
fits nicely. It needs a little bending, but I've replaced several
broken ones with them and they work great...
(2) Use the core from the largest available guitar string to replace the
spring you just removed. If you snip off one end you can remove the
(usually gold) wire wrapped around a core wire by pulling on the gold
wire. Credit goes to Dan Muntz once again for this clever solution and
to Mike Packard <lordgen@kaiwan.com> for details about the screws.
Q. My Vectrex just shows a white dot when I turn it on. I can hear the
game playing but there is no picture. Can I fix it?
There is 1 common problem that will cause this symptom. Inside the unit
there is a 4-wire power connector connecting the side board to the
bottom board. Often units with no picture have bad solder joints on
this connector. Try resoldering the pins and see if that helps.
Q. Are there tricks or cheats for any Vectrex games?
YES! (Vectrex had cheats back when they were still known as bugs):
ARMOR ATTACK: If you crank the brightness all the way up, you are able
to see the helicopter's position as soon as you hear it (even though it
is off the screen).
BEDLAM: You can see a special author title screen that proclaims,
"PROGRAMMED BY WILLIAM HAWKINS GT 1982" if you follow the instructions
found in the "STAR CASTLE" entry below. I discovered this by trying the
"original" Star Castle trick on other games that I knew Bill wrote.
This screen is different from all the similar ones in that it plays
music too! You are treated to the chorus line of "Dixie" (Bill hails
from the South). The screen ends when the tune finishes and releasing
buttons has no effect.
BERZERK: The hunt for this egg began thanks to Pete Rittwage
<bushwick@netcom.com> who first reported it but could not reproduce it.
Even after confirming the trick with Chris King, the programmer of the
game, nobody was able to find it because Chris had forgotten exactly
what was required to activate it! Then along came net.hero Fred Taft
<fred@hpcvusc.cv.hp.com> with the answer after disassembling the object
code. Before your man stops flashing when you kill your last man, press
and hold down only the 1, 3, and 4 buttons on the player 1 control
panel. When the "GOT YOU HUMANOID" summary screen appears with your
score, there will be the programmer's initials in the lower right corner
("CMK"). This screen will stay for about 90 seconds before going back
to the game select screen and you cannot get out of it by pressing
buttons.
BLITZ!: If you get a 1st and inches (1 and 0 to go), as long as you
stay on the 0 yard line, you keep getting first downs. Thanks to Adam
Fox <adamfox@super.org> for this one.
BLITZ!: On player 1, game 1, get the kickoff around the 15 yard line
then run the ball back down the middle of the field, and wait for a
while and let the blockers hold the other team. Then go to the far
right of the field (almost out of bounds) and there is a small gap
between that final free defensive player and the out of bounds. You run
down screen, thru that small gap, and you can return the ball from
kickoff to about the opponent's 20 yard line. It's pretty cool because
you can do it over and over, because in the one player game, the
computer's team always kicks off to you. Thanks to Craig
<cbariou@eng.clemson.edu> for this one.
COSMIC CHASM: You can see a special programmer title screen that
proclaims, "PROGRAMMED BY WILLIAM HAWKINS GT 1982" if you follow the
instructions found in the "STAR CASTLE" entry below. I discovered this
by trying the "original" Star Castle trick on other games that I knew
Bill wrote.
FORTRESS OF NARZOD: If you can somehow manage to kill the "Mystic
Hurler" (you know, the BossAtTheEndOfTheWave guy that looks like a
gorilla) at the same time he kills you, your lives remaining will turn
into the infinity sign (oo) and you will have 255 lives. It is not
known for sure if your lives in reserve value has to be zero for this to
work (probably so since this bug is most likely due to an accidental
underflow from 0 to -1 which presumably would trigger the software to be
in virtual infinite play mode to aid play/beta testing). The author
takes credit for this one!
MINESTORM: The brightness trick allows you to see the "invisible"
mines.
RIPOFF: You can see a special programmer title screen that proclaims,
"PROGRAMMED BY WILLIAM HAWKINS GT 1982" if you follow the instructions
found in the "STAR CASTLE" entry below. I discovered this by trying the
"original" Star Castle trick on other games that I knew Bill wrote.
SPACE WARS: Either ship is invincible after being hit, while pieces are
in the air. This may not sound like much, or maybe this was
intentional, but I've played against people who make this their entire
strategy. They skim the edge of the Star in the middle, just to knock
off a tail section or something, and then while they are invincible,
they fly right into you. Not nice, but it works very well. The time
window is surprisingly long.
SCRAMBLE: A quote from Paul Allen Newell, developer of the game: "I
remember going thru long discussions with management about giving the
programmers credit on the games. Western Technologies and/or GCE didn't
approve it and most of the programmers hide their names somewhere in the
games. My 'Easter Egg' can be located in 'Scramble' by doing the
following. If you have two controllers with joystick and buttons, put
them both in; otherwise, use the single one in the usual position.
While 'Scramble' is displaying its 'game # player #' section, move the
joystick so it is 'down'. When 'Scramble' starts, keep it in this down
position so your plane crashes on the floor BEFORE THE MOUNTAINS START.
Do this for all your ships; DO NOT PUSH ANY BUTTONS TO FIRE BOMBS OR
BULLETS. When it is over, the display 'end' will come up. WITHOUT
TOUCHING ANY BUTTONS, unplug the main controller and move it to the
'player two' plug (if you have two controllers, this step is not
necessary). Then, with the 'player two' controller, PUSH ALL FOUR
BUTTONS SIMULTANEOUSLY. They must all go down at the same time. Repeat
until you get all four down at the same time. You'll know when you see
the word 'end' change into something else. This is the first time I
have documented the method, having only mentioned it to friends or
hinted to others. Enjoy!" (Thanks a LOT to Stefan Herr
<Steve@lioness.okapi.sub.org> for digging up this one-of-a-kind gem).
SPIKE: If you position the door ALMOST all the way to the right of the
screen, then jump into it, so as to be jammed between the door, and the
little space that is left; the game freaks out, you will be pushed
forward about 47,000 points, and the difficulty will be increased
proportionally.
STAR CASTLE: This is the most extravagant egg in all the Vectrex games.
The designer put in his own title screen which brazenly proclaims
"PROGRAMMED BY WILLIAM HAWKINS GT 1983". A quick caveat; this only
works on a cold restart (i.e. the first time you turn the game on) and
will not work if you start the game over by pressing the reset button.
However, it will work with the software selectable muticarts if Star
Castle is the first game you select after turning the game on. To get
the screen to appear you must push the 1, 2, and 4 keys on the player 1
control panel before the Star Castle title screen music finishes
playing. If those 3 buttons are down when tune ends, the programmer
title screen will appear. It will last for about 2 seconds or until you
release one of the buttons. It is my guess that the GT stands for
Georgia Tech and the 1983 is the year the software was written. (MANY
thanks to Fred Taft <fred@hpcvusc.cv.hp.com> for discovering this after
disassembling the object code).
WEB WARS: You can see a special programmer title screen that proclaims,
"PROGRAMMED BY WILLIAM HAWKINS DUNCAN MUIRHEAD PATRICK KING GT 1983" if
you follow the instructions found in the "STAR CASTLE" entry above. I
discovered this by trying the "original" Star Castle trick on other
games that I knew Bill wrote. This screen is different from all the
similar ones in that the font size is about 3 times as big.
Q. What is the history of the Vectrex?
A. Thanks a lot to Stefan Herr <steve@lioness.okapi.sub.org> for the
following information he dug up while researching an article for a
European gaming magazine. If you have any additions or corrections,
please contact both of us. Thanks also to Chris King who sent me
personal email to fill some gaps.
VECTREX TIMETABLE
-----------------
End 1980/Spring 1981: The development of Vectrex starts with an idea
from staffers (probably Mike Purvis and John Ross) after brainstorming
about how to use cheap CRTs that were found in a small liquidators'
surplus store. The idea took flight and form under the skilled
cultivation of Jay Smith, head of Western Technologies/Smith
Engineering, guiding his talented staff. The small, vector scan table
top game was originally known by its working title of "Mini Arcade" but
was later officially renamed when the time came to begin making
marketing decisions. A brainstorming session yielded a short list of
final choices and among those was "Vector-X" suggested by Tom Sloper.
This was felt to be too 50's B sci-fi by GCE so it was contracted to the
catchy name we all know and love.
Spring 1981: The Mini Arcade idea is optioned to Kenner (known for
their "Star Wars", "Care Bears", "Batman" and "Batman Returns" figures).
At that time it was planned to have a 5" black and white tube.
06/1981: Paul A. Newell is hired by Western Technologies to join the
"Atari reverse engineering project" group (aim: be able to write games
for the VCS 2600) which at that point consisted of Mark Indictor and
John Hall.
07/1981: Kenner declines to pursue the Mini Arcade.
08 or 09/1981: The Mini Arcade concept is licensed by GCE (General
Consumer Electronics). GCE's president Ed Krakauer had the vision to
see the great potential of the system. To enhance its appeal, GCE asks
that the screen be increased to 9-inches.
Autumn 1981: The Atari project is canceled and the three Atari people
(M.I., P.N., J.H.) start work on the Vectrex project. John Ross
designs the hardware, Gerry Karr works together with John Hall on the
system ROM (called "The Executive"). In the beginning it is planned to
use a 6502 processor which turns out to be too slow. For this reason
the 6809 was finally used.
Jan 1982: Bill Hawkins and Chris King join the Western Tech. They were
both students at Georgia Tech at the time and are hired by Ed Smith as
"Cooperative Education" students. They are supposed to work for three
months and then go back to school. Duncan Muirhead joins a week or two
afterwards. He had just dropped out of a Physics PHD program at UCLA.
??: A strict timetable demands that the first 12 games and the hardware
should be ready in June 1982. The Vectrex name is subsequently chosen,
as already described.
??: John Hall later exclusively works on "Mine Storm" while Gerry Karr
works on The Executive alone. Gerry starts over from scratch and
changes the name to the RUM (Run Time Monitor). In the end, a number of
people contribute to the RUM, most notably Duncan Muirhead who handled
most of the heavy trig stuff.
04/1982: Paul Newell finishes "Scramble". Mine Storm, Berzerk,
Scramble, Rip Off, and Star Trek were all completed at the same time.
06/1982: The Vectrex is introduced to the public at the Summer CES in
Chicago.
Summer 1982: Mark Indictor, John Hall and others are directly hired by
GCE to write more games. Paul Newell and Duncan Muirhead leave Western
Technologies to join Simutrek, a company developing arcade laser disc
games ("Cube Quest"). Chris King leaves 6 months later. Noah Anglin
(former vice president of Atari) was hired by GCE as a consultant to
watch over the development of Vectrex. It was a good deal for him since
he recruited the core of the software guys for his new company,
Simutrek, from Western Technologies. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough.
Simutrek died on the vine.
??: Mark Indictor and his family move about two hours out of Los
Angeles and he writes games in the seclusion of a pine forest at 5,000
feet. He even has an NBC news crew come up and interview him for a news
show on weird computer hackers and their life styles.
Late summer 82: Start of mass production.
11/1982: Vectrex is available in the USA for $199. Very positive
reviews in the magazines. Paul Newell's "Scramble" gets the "Arcade
Award" of the "Electronic Games" magazine for the best "Mini-Arcade
game" (a category which is founded exclusively for the Vectrex).
Spring 1983: GCE is acquired by Milton Bradley (MB).
03/1983: Vectrex is announced in the German "Telematch" magazine for
the first time in Germany.
Summer 1983: Distribution begins in Germany and many other west
European countries by Milton Bradley (German office located in Fuerth).
Summer/Fall 1983: Jeff Corsiglia, having left WT to join Datascan,
produces some additional games for GCE, including 3-D Narrow Escape,
programmed by Richard Moszkowski. (Not all of the Vectrex games were
produced by WT).
1983: Several efforts fail in developing a color Vectrex. One obvious
project is to use a color TV tube; however, this is always too
expensive. Another is to use a projection TV with three vector scan
tubes. It works well but is commercially impractical. Yet another
effort is to use two layers of color phosphor on a black and white type
TV tube. By varying the high voltage level, the electron beam would
excite the bottom layer or the top layer. However the high voltage
cannot be changed rapidly enough to keep up with the scan.
02/1984: "Artmaster Lightpen", "Star Castle", "Polar Rescue",
"Animaction" and "Pole Position" presented on the "Nuernberger
Spielwarenmesse" (Germany's most important show for the toy industry).
around 02/84: 3-D Imager is presented at the Winter-CES in Las Vegas.
31/03/1984: End of Vectrex in Germany: MB in Fuerth announces stop of
sales on this date.
Rest of 1984: Vectrex is phased out as Hasbro buys Milton Bradley and
video game fever comes crashing down (probable causes: home computer
fever, too many mediocre and downright terrible games flooding the
market, fallout from the arcade videogame crash of about a year
earlier). Rummage sales in Germany (mainly in stores of the
METRO-chain, which had bought the rest of MB's stock) close out Vectrex
equipment at bargain prices.
1988: Western Technologies/Smith Engineering tries to resurrect Vectrex
as a handheld unit. It is to be based on the Sinclair flat TV tube,
which has fast static deflection at low power consumption and low cost.
However, the impending introduction of GameBoy (1989) eventually causes
the idea to be scrapped.
10/1993: A feature about the 10th anniversary of the Vectrex is
published in the German "Video Games" magazine. Contains technical
descriptions, pictures of Jay Smith and Mark Indictor, a Vectrex history
and a list of games and accessories. The article is based on
information collected by the author (Stefan Herr) from the Usenet
Vectrex newsgroup, various FTP archives, many Emails from several former
Vectrex developers and a historical overview about the development by
Jay Smith.
There is not very much evidence of the existence of a computer keyboard
with a BASIC cartridge (or something similar) for the Vectrex. The only
known hints are from an article in an old issue of "Creative Computing"
magazine (in the first couple of pages they do a ranking of computers'
speed based on some simple benchmark. There is an entry for the Vectrex
in it using Vectrex basic) and an article about new computers starting
on page 114 of the October, 1983 issue of Popular Science. A chart in
the article indicates that the keyboard was to include 16K of RAM,
expandable to 64K. The article goes in to great detail about the
computer add-on. Thanks to Joshua See who can be reached at
SMTC474@uoft02.utoledo.edu.
It is the issue that reviewed the original Macintosh (1984?).
LIST OF PERSONS INVOLVED IN THE VECTREX DEVELOPMENT
---------------------------------------------------
Lenny Carlson
Musician hired to write game sounds and title tunes
Did finishing touches to Bedlam
Jeff Corsiglia
Main game designer
Designed 3-D Crazy Coaster
Designed 3-D Narrow Escape
Designed and coded Minestorm
Designed Cosmic Chasm
Designed Hyperchase
Designed Blitz!
Designed Clean Sweep
Quit WT in 1982 to go work for Datascan
(contracted with GCE to do Vectrex games)
Miva Filoseta
Designed many, if not most, of the colorful overlays
Now works for Mattel
John Hall (*)
Worked on The Executive
Designed and coded Mine Storm
Bill Hawkins
Coded 3-D Minestorm
Coded 3-D Crazy Coaster
Coded Bedlam
Coded Cosmic Chasm
Coded Lenny Carlson's Greatest Bits (never intended for release)
Coded Rip Off
Coded Star Castle
Coded (with Duncan Muirhead) Web Wars
Mark Indictor (*)
First duties during development:
Software for communication with the ICE (In-Circuit-Emulator)
Star Trek
Games:
for Western Technologies:
Designed and coded Star Trek
for GCE
Designed and coded Spinball
Designed and coded Polar Rescue
Designed and coded Mail Plane (not published, for use with Lightpen)
Designed and coded Tour de France (not published)
Gerry Karr
Took over The Executive project after John Hall concentrated on Minestorm
Chris King
Coded Berzerk
Designed and coded Hyperchase
Patrick King (*not* related to Chris)
Designer of Web Wars
Went on to work for Sega
Ronald J. Logsdon
Designed and coded Melody Master
Kim Martin
Digitized the Scramble landscapes
Beta-tester (mainly for Scramble)
Richard "The Mouse" Moszkowski ("The Mouse" is a nickname, nothing more)
Programmed game watches prior to Vectrex work
Involved with Vectrex since its inception
Coded 3-D Narrow Escape
Coded Art Master
Coded Clean Sweep
Died by his own hand in October 1995
Duncan Muirhead
Joined WT at the end of 1981 (or beginning of 1982)
Coded Armor...Attack
Coded (with Bill Hawkins) Web Wars
Walter Nakano
Model builder
Co-designed Vectrex external case 1-2 years before the Macintosh!
Paul Allen Newell (*)
Coded Scramble
Gary Niles
Vice President at WT during Vectrex era
From there went to Sega, then Revell, and as of 1996 is with Galoob
Mike Purvis
Hardware Tech
John Ross
Developer of the hardware
Tom Sloper
Came up with "Vector-X"
Started out at WT as a modelmaker and then designed watch and
calculator games
Designed Bedlam
Designed Spike!
Played arcade games for programmers since he could "beat" most of
them After WT, worked for Datascan, Sega, Rudell Design, Atari Corp.
and finally ended up at Activision (since 1988) where his title now
is "Senior Producer"
Ed Smith (Jay's brother)
Manager of engineering during early development
Before Vectrex, he worked at Harris in Orlando and frequently used GA
Tech Co-ops
Hired a bunch of ex-Harris guys to work at a new Western Technologies
branch office in Orlando where a number of games were written
Jay Smith
Founder and president of Western Technologies/Smith Engineering
Colin Vowles
Model builder; co-designed the external case 1-2 years before the
Macintosh.
(*): These persons worked on the "Atari reverse engineering" project.
Only one of the three games that were created by that group was released
(the one written by Paul Newell). Anyway, the whole project was
canceled later because the competition (e.g. Activision) was too big.
Other people involved (this list does not claim to be complete) were
David Blair, Alan Cobb, Ed Faris, Joel Hassell, Don Herndon, Ed Horton,
Bill Hudson, Kevin Hudson, Nolan Johnson, Steve Marking, Lori Pearsall,
and Bob Rutkowski.
Sources: Electronic mails from Mark Indictor, Paul Newell, Chris King,
Ronald J. Logsdon, Bill Hawkins and Tom Sloper, personal letter from
Jay Smith, several articles from "Electronic Games" magazine (provided
by Paul Newell), article from "Creative Computing" magazine (provided by
Dion Dock).
Send corrections, suggestions, additions, etc. to woodcock@bnr.ca
--
THANX...Gregg day 214.684.7380 night UNLIST/PUBL TEXAS NOT CANADA!
woodcock@bnr.ca or woodcock@nt.com or bn202@cleveland.freenet.edu
*CLASSIC VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR BUY/SELL/TRADE NON-COMPUTER (ARCADE/HOME)*
"If you quote me on this I'll have to deny it; I won't remember because
I have such a bad memory. Not only that, but my memory is *terrible*."