Vectrex - MAME machine

Console published 42 years ago:

Vectrex - Arcade System © 1982 GCE [General Consumer Electric].

Vector display-based home video game console.

TECHNICAL
Model HP 3000

Circuit board
CPU: Motorola 68A09 @ 1.5 MHz
RAM: 1 KB (two 4-bit 2114 chips)
ROM: 8 KB (one 8-bit 2363 chip)
Cartridge ROM: 32 KB
MOS 6522 Versatile Interface Adapter (VIA)

Sound
Sound: General Instrument AY-3-8912
MCU controlled sound
3-inch electrodynamic paper cone speaker

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.

In order to enhance the display visuals of the Vectrex, every commercially released game included its own unique translucent plastic screen overlay that accompanied the cartridge. Instead of physically touching the CRT screen, four tabs on the Vectrex console securely held them in place in front of it, with a small gap between the actual screen and the overlay. Made up of one to three colors for the play field area, these overlays provide the illusion of simple color graphics (on an otherwise black and white screen), helped reduced glare, flicker and gave the appearance of a flat screen. They also allowed changes in brightness intensity of vector graphics to be more visually distinctive. In some cases game designers created pseudo color cycling effects, for a sense of movement, by using alternating colored patterns. In addition to players' score areas, some overlays also contained additional artwork and patterns, to add to the game's play field. Across the bottom of each overlay are game-specific joystick and button functions as a guide for the player. Each overlay also displayed the title and logo of each game, along with a colored border or design, to add cosmetic flair to the Vectrex (much like an arcade machine with its marquee or side art). Overlays were not required, but added to the experience in terms of the visual look of game graphics and the overall display appearance of the console.

TRIVIA
It was first released for the North America market in November 1982.

The only Vector display-based ever designed and released for the home market.

The Vectrex was conceived by John Ross of Smith Engineering in late 1980. He, Mike Purvis, Tom Sloper, and Steve Marking had gone to Electro-Mavin, a surplus warehouse in Los Angeles. They found a 1-inch cathode ray tube (CRT) and wondered if a small electronic game could be made of it. A demonstration of a vector-drawing cathode ray tube display was made by connecting the deflection yoke in a standard television to the channels of a stereo amplifier fed with music program material. An auxiliary yoke was used to keep the raster television's horizontal fly-back high-voltage system running. The demo led to a system originally conceived as a handheld called the Mini Arcade but, as Smith Engineering shopped the idea around to developers, it evolved into a tabletop with nine-inch screen.

The system was licensed to General Consumer Electronics in 1981. After a brief hardware and software development period, the Vectrex was unveiled on 7 June 1982 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. It was publicly released in November, just in time for the holidays. The launch sales were strong enough that Milton Bradley bought out General Consumer Electronics in early 1983.

The computer and vector generator were designed by Gerry Karr. The computer runs the game's computer code, watches the user's inputs, runs the sound generator, and controls the vector generator to make the screen drawings. The vector generator is an all-analog design using two integrators: X and Y. The computer sets the integration rates using a digital-to-analog converter. The computer controls the integration time by momentarily closing electronic analog switches within the operational-amplifier based integrator circuits. Voltage ramps are produced that the monitor uses to steer the electron beam over the face of the phosphor screen of the cathode ray tube. Another signal is generated that controls the brightness of the line.

During development, for a short period of time, the possibility of using the 6502 processor was considered, but later its performance was considered insufficient.

Milton Bradley's greater resources allowed the Vectrex to be released in parts of Europe by mid-1983 and, through a co-branding agreement with Bandai, in Japan as well. However, the video game crash of 1983 turned Milton Bradley's support of the Vectrex into a costly mistake. In May 1984, Milton Bradley merged with Hasbro, and the Vectrex was discontinued a few months after. Over its lifetime, it had cost Milton Bradley tens of millions of dollars.

Prior to the Vectrex's discontinuation, a successor console with a color screen had been planned. After the rights reverted to Smith Engineering, the company made plans to revive the Vectrex as a handheld, but the imminent arrival of Nintendo's Game Boy put an end to those plans. In the mid-1990s, Jay Smith, then head of Smith Engineering, allowed new hardware and software development on a fee- and royalty-free basis. Smith has also allowed duplication of the original Vectrex software on a not-for-profit basis to allow Vectrex owners to obtain the original titles at low cost or for free.

UPDATES
Early units have a very audible buzzing from the built-in speaker that reacts to the graphics generated on screen. This is due to improper production grounding of signal lines of the low-level audio circuitry, and was eventually resolved in later production models.

STAFF
BY: Jay Smith, John Ross

CONTRIBUTE
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