Agreed. But an important note on the latter part: the "video game" crash was a North American thing, and largely only affected consoles. Computers and computer games were mostly unaffected. Just figured I'd mention that, as it's often omitted
@@slipknotboy555 Yeah. If anything, the "video game crash" may have been what made PC gaming viable in the US. Up until then, consoles had been so dominant that home computer gaming really hadn't gotten much of a foothold. It's actually kind of interesting, just how *different* the history of 80s gaming is, whether you're looking at the US or Europe.
@@jasonblalock4429 Yeah, britain especially was dominated by cassette tape gaming moreso than the consoles of the day, especially as those could be duplicated by pretty much anyone.
@@jasonblalock4429 yea, and even Japan. Japan was heavily invested into home consoles with very few on the market with the only computer getting some mainstream foothold being the MSX. (not to mention quite a few dedicated machines) Europe had a shit load of computers with giant libraries and even more, often really weird, local and licensed consoles with a tiny library and american consoles. The US on the otherhand was more like Japan, few consoles and even fewer (notable) computers and after the crash getting dominated by Japan and the local market moving to the, at the time, business machines with poor audio and visuals.
I played one Vectrex in a videogame museum once in 2017. I still vividly remember how clean and bright the graphics and screen in the console were. Also, the analog controller and movement of the spaceship on the built-in game was oddly very satisfying. It was one of the coolest pieces of tecnology i ever used. One year later i returned to the museum to discover the same Vectrex stoped working, i could just look at it.
Same here. I think what makes this channel unique is the creator's genuine interest and dedication to technology. He can talk about 15 year old tablets in a fashion that keeps me engaged so much, I find myself rewatching it every now and then. Great vids.
And you didn't even mention how that DAC allowed the Vectrex to be probably the first home console with digitized speech. (Eeek! Help! Spike! ... Oh no! Molly!)
This is my most treasured console. And the modern game programmers releasing games for it kick major butt! Amazing how they can draw so much faster (i. e. make more lines run smoothly).
Got one at a thrift store a while ago for $10.00. I did'nt really know how popular it was. But learner quickly just how great of a deal I had found, Who knew?
I freaking LOVE this console. It's such an underrated gem. I really want to get my hands on one, and maybe even reverse-engineer one to make an upgraded version.
Wow! I have never heard of this console and just watching this UA-cam video makes probably everyone (including me) become impressed by the fact that this can run 3d and run smoothly!
Excellent Vectrex video! Except of the "Public Domain" comment. Still not public domain. Jay Smith holds and retains the rights to the Vectrex intellectual property.. But Jay Smith does allow for royalty-free and fee-free software and hardware development. He also allows for the original era games and materials reproduction for sale at a low cost.
Man, Vectrex is so cool. My brother had one when I was a kid, so I grew up with the thing, and even back then, it was clear just how special a console this thing was. I collect retro games, and while I absolutely love pretty much anything retro, I have a lot of friends who don't see the appeal. The one exception is Vectrex. I don't think ANYONE can see the Vectrex and not be impressed by it, especially when they hear how old it is! Even by today's standards, it's just... neat! It turns heads, and is just impossible not to be fascinated by. Among retro systems, it is such a huge standout, and anyone who's got one nowadays should hang onto it and take very good care of it, as it's genuinely one of the coolest retro items you can own, and will never NOT be valuable and collectible.
Great video about the technical aspects of the Vectrex, 100 % the right way to go with this giving the content a unique and interesting slant on usual Vectrex coverage. Thanks
You keep saying that the other home consoles of the era had framebuffers. That's just wrong. They worked with raster patterns, and had pixels and resolutions. But they didn't have framebuffers, which would be regions of memory an entire frame was drawn on. They instead had pretty precise control of what would happen in any scanline, and could manipulate their video generators even during the period a scanline is being drawn on the screen
I've heard people requesting a Vectrex mini but I would love a Vectrex 2.0. Same size but more powerful and reliable, imagine what could be produced on that monitor! Vector graphics are so cool. Who would buy one?
I met one of those consoles just once in my life in the electronics repair shop of a friend. Regardless it was monochrome at the time I got amazed with the high quality of the graphics on how smooth it looked. I remember my friend explaining to me that it was that smooth because basically they used oscilloscope display technology. It made all sense to me. EDIT: The one I played with was "Asteroids".
It's a shame vector displays didn't catch on for some applications, they would be fun to program today. Maybe an obscure go-fund-me vector smart watch?
Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact
Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact
@@gyroesehni I actually have a couple of those and it didn't really cross my mind when I wrote that. I guess they could have crammed the extra circuitry in there back then if they really tried.
I am curious, in these days where everything from game graphics to GUIs are going for "minimalism", if vector graphics could make a comeback at all? I guess a vector monitor wouldbe both too expensive and bulky since we'd have no choice but to go backwards from our flat LCD/OLED panels to CRTs again. I wonder, if the tech to stuff a vector beam into the thinness of a modern monitor? (Still a little chunky. Not the paper-thin stuff in phones and roll up TVs of today, more like an $100 LCD monitor.)
I really wish that the Vec had been marketed less as a console and more as a microcomputer. The BASIC that would have come with such a machine would probably have been the most fully-featured graphics environment ever released up to that point.
I always wonder how the world would look had technology pursued vector graphics as the primary display technology. Could you get a full colour image on a vector monitor? Dual-beam oscilloscopes exist, so what could you do with 10 or 100 beams? Fun to imagine.
I wish you mentioned the demo rom climax because it really pushes the vectrex to it’s limit by drawing scanlines to simulate raster graphics rather then vector graphics,now while theres a wheel knob to turn the brightness up or down,however as far as i do know, changing the brightness cannot be done trough software, it’s either on or off. Besides, while color crt tv sets can control the brightness individually per color beam, the more more brightness levels it can control, the more colors it can view on screen, i suppose the first color tv’s can only handle a limited amount of levels thus showing not more then 4096 colors onscreen while last gen color crt tv’s could handle waay more brightness levels,thus viewing 16,6 millions of colors atonce,digital tv sets work with colorpallets instead rather then using different voltages.
There's a few emulators for it, mednafen and mess both have a vectrex core. And it works by rasterizing the vector graphics, which is simple, just look at the line tool in MSpaint.
I wonder what a digital vector display made today would look like with our more powerful graphics and the ability to track the beam as well as more cycles per frame and higher frame rates.
Yes but only for metric electricsity as fur I'm aware There is a device that I know how the call oscilloscope that measure the Wave off the electricsity and the have a vector display but this display is usually integrated in the device also this display have boxes on the panel if not mestaiken
I own one of these. Unfortunately the controller no longer works. I've got myself a few games too. I'd get a new controller but I don't really see me playing it and they are quite pricey.
I found one sitting in the trash outside a crack house and it works perfect , guessing the crack heads had no idea what they had as this was 1 year before the pawnshops did start buying retro game systems.
The consoles were quite impressive back in the day, when the programmers had to do ALOT with practically nothing. As compared today when everything including codes are horrendously bloated - and buggier than the bible
I always loved this console, it's such a great concept, unfortunately 1983 wasn't the best time for videogames
Agreed. But an important note on the latter part: the "video game" crash was a North American thing, and largely only affected consoles. Computers and computer games were mostly unaffected.
Just figured I'd mention that, as it's often omitted
@@slipknotboy555 Yeah. If anything, the "video game crash" may have been what made PC gaming viable in the US. Up until then, consoles had been so dominant that home computer gaming really hadn't gotten much of a foothold.
It's actually kind of interesting, just how *different* the history of 80s gaming is, whether you're looking at the US or Europe.
@@jasonblalock4429 Yeah, britain especially was dominated by cassette tape gaming moreso than the consoles of the day, especially as those could be duplicated by pretty much anyone.
@@jasonblalock4429 yea, and even Japan.
Japan was heavily invested into home consoles with very few on the market with the only computer getting some mainstream foothold being the MSX. (not to mention quite a few dedicated machines)
Europe had a shit load of computers with giant libraries and even more, often really weird, local and licensed consoles with a tiny library and american consoles.
The US on the otherhand was more like Japan, few consoles and even fewer (notable) computers and after the crash getting dominated by Japan and the local market moving to the, at the time, business machines with poor audio and visuals.
Especially not vector based video games, as they never made it over to Japanese arcades.
I played one Vectrex in a videogame museum once in 2017. I still vividly remember how clean and bright the graphics and screen in the console were. Also, the analog controller and movement of the spaceship on the built-in game was oddly very satisfying. It was one of the coolest pieces of tecnology i ever used. One year later i returned to the museum to discover the same Vectrex stoped working, i could just look at it.
I love how I just randomly found this channel a year ago and i still love it
Same here. I think what makes this channel unique is the creator's genuine interest and dedication to technology. He can talk about 15 year old tablets in a fashion that keeps me engaged so much, I find myself rewatching it every now and then. Great vids.
@@levako05d Yes!! Do you still re-watch his vids?
And you didn't even mention how that DAC allowed the Vectrex to be probably the first home console with digitized speech.
(Eeek! Help! Spike! ... Oh no! Molly!)
What about the Imsai 8080 (1975)?
I got one of these for $4 at a swap meet. My parent thought I just bought an old junk tv until I showed them what it actually was
SO LUCKY 4 BUCKS ON EBAY ITS 2000 BUCKS
I’ll pay you 8 bucks for it!
Even $4 for a tv would have been a good deal tbh
I was only born in 92 but my grandmother had one of these and I had soo much fun with this console as a kid xD
my 7th grade computer teacher had one of these in perfect condition. i don't think he knew how much it was worth.
Yeah that's why it was in good condition
I have a computer from 2007, and it isn't worth much.
@@CoasterMan13Official this is a vectrex not a computer
@@spaceghostmiid Vectrexes aren't really consoles to me. More like high strength gaming PCs
This is my most treasured console. And the modern game programmers releasing games for it kick major butt! Amazing how they can draw so much faster (i. e. make more lines run smoothly).
Time to rewatch all thoes old Classic Game Room videos.
I miss Derek.
Mark is not interested to gaming anymore 😒
I miss CGR so much.
@@christianmoore7109 ah yes the intergalactic space game room. Needs more truxton
Got one at a thrift store a while ago for $10.00. I did'nt really know how popular it was. But learner quickly just how great of a deal I had found, Who knew?
Holy!
I forgot UA-cam had actually good content... Almost lost hope there...
Keep up the *great* work man!
I freaking LOVE this console. It's such an underrated gem. I really want to get my hands on one, and maybe even reverse-engineer one to make an upgraded version.
Wow! I have never heard of this console and just watching this UA-cam video makes probably everyone (including me) become impressed by the fact that this can run 3d and run smoothly!
It's a CNC machine for your eyeballs.
Excellent Vectrex video! Except of the "Public Domain" comment. Still not public domain. Jay Smith holds and retains the rights to the Vectrex intellectual property.. But Jay Smith does allow for royalty-free and fee-free software and hardware development. He also allows for the original era games and materials reproduction for sale at a low cost.
Man, Vectrex is so cool. My brother had one when I was a kid, so I grew up with the thing, and even back then, it was clear just how special a console this thing was. I collect retro games, and while I absolutely love pretty much anything retro, I have a lot of friends who don't see the appeal. The one exception is Vectrex. I don't think ANYONE can see the Vectrex and not be impressed by it, especially when they hear how old it is! Even by today's standards, it's just... neat! It turns heads, and is just impossible not to be fascinated by. Among retro systems, it is such a huge standout, and anyone who's got one nowadays should hang onto it and take very good care of it, as it's genuinely one of the coolest retro items you can own, and will never NOT be valuable and collectible.
Nice I love this design it reminds me the Xerox Alto
Great video about the technical aspects of the Vectrex, 100 % the right way to go with this giving the content a unique and interesting slant on usual Vectrex coverage. Thanks
Damn! Science Elf actually uploaded a video?!
Very well explained and a joy to watch
Really awesome! I Still prefer pixel-graphics though.
For my Oculus Rift in the 80s video I used a Vectrex game.
Hello! Love your channel! Would like an VR in the 90’s rather than the 80’s this time.
@@KyureiProductions the nintendo virtual boy
Loved the technical explanations ! This is super inspiring
A concise but accurate overview of the Vectrex
Now explain the genius of the Atari 2600's video chip, the TIA!
Give everybody a reason to respect the programmers who worked on that machine
😮What if the vectrex was used in combination with a see-through oled display? It would allow for a lot more interesting ideas to be implemented.
Holy shit, I've owned a vectrex all my life and I never knew you could fold the controller up like that.
Finally a new video!
Just WOW! That was super-interesting!
Man i love your videos, i just wish i didnt have to rewatch all your videos when im done with the new ones.
Good job!
You keep saying that the other home consoles of the era had framebuffers. That's just wrong. They worked with raster patterns, and had pixels and resolutions. But they didn't have framebuffers, which would be regions of memory an entire frame was drawn on. They instead had pretty precise control of what would happen in any scanline, and could manipulate their video generators even during the period a scanline is being drawn on the screen
*CLASSIC GAME ROOM.*
Really wish we still owned ours. I loved that little thing.
Had one when I was a kid. My brothers and I loved it, had limited games though. Still was fun!
I remember seeing one at an antique shop for a crazy chunk of change... it was awesome to see it in person though!
I've heard people requesting a Vectrex mini but I would love a Vectrex 2.0. Same size but more powerful and reliable, imagine what could be produced on that monitor! Vector graphics are so cool. Who would buy one?
I met one of those consoles just once in my life in the electronics repair shop of a friend. Regardless it was monochrome at the time I got amazed with the high quality of the graphics on how smooth it looked. I remember my friend explaining to me that it was that smooth because basically they used oscilloscope display technology. It made all sense to me. EDIT: The one I played with was "Asteroids".
It's a shame vector displays didn't catch on for some applications, they would be fun to program today. Maybe an obscure go-fund-me vector smart watch?
How did you make the tech demos in your video?
Came for the curiosity, stayed for using 'Cream of the Earth" as the background tune
Its all fun and games until you realize this thing retails for around 900$ :(
@@einariepakesko9862 2019 is where. This thing is a collector's item.
GregDoesThings there is a shop near where I live selling them for $300 each
Omg one of my favorite consoles 😂
Handheld Vectrex? With a CRT?
That also caught me off-guard. Sure, the CRT can be made small, but it will still be about as thick as it is wide...
Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact
Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact
@@gyroesehni I actually have a couple of those and it didn't really cross my mind when I wrote that. I guess they could have crammed the extra circuitry in there back then if they really tried.
the vectrex reminded me from elementary school in 2018, when a friend brung the thing to school because it was a special day
Great episode.
I am curious, in these days where everything from game graphics to GUIs are going for "minimalism", if vector graphics could make a comeback at all? I guess a vector monitor wouldbe both too expensive and bulky since we'd have no choice but to go backwards from our flat LCD/OLED panels to CRTs again. I wonder, if the tech to stuff a vector beam into the thinness of a modern monitor? (Still a little chunky. Not the paper-thin stuff in phones and roll up TVs of today, more like an $100 LCD monitor.)
Vectrinitron?
1:15 what is the game you’re playing here
I really wish that the Vec had been marketed less as a console and more as a microcomputer. The BASIC that would have come with such a machine would probably have been the most fully-featured graphics environment ever released up to that point.
I always wonder how the world would look had technology pursued vector graphics as the primary display technology. Could you get a full colour image on a vector monitor? Dual-beam oscilloscopes exist, so what could you do with 10 or 100 beams? Fun to imagine.
Or just 3
I saw the color 3D display at CES, it was cool!
My parents had a Vectrex. Two actually. Only one of them still works though. I keep them both in my closet for safe keeping
You are fu!@#&* lucky
The TV console in one device
Great UA-camr
There are no pixels on a CRT either; it's just 200 lines with smooth curves for brightness changes. That's the beauty of analouge.
This is a badass vid though
I wish you mentioned the demo rom climax because it really pushes the vectrex to it’s limit by drawing scanlines to simulate raster graphics rather then vector graphics,now while theres a wheel knob to turn the brightness up or down,however as far as i do know, changing the brightness cannot be done trough software, it’s either on or off.
Besides, while color crt tv sets can control the brightness individually per color beam, the more more brightness levels it can control, the more colors it can view on screen, i suppose the first color tv’s can only handle a limited amount of levels thus showing not more then 4096 colors onscreen while last gen color crt tv’s could handle waay more brightness levels,thus viewing 16,6 millions of colors atonce,digital tv sets work with colorpallets instead rather then using different voltages.
Vetrex cool
Why did I just now notice the new intro?
It cn work lyk emulator or connect android? Just putting mem. Card or external hdd? Then lyk arcade w interne or lan?
internet*
it cn bcome heartrate n bloodpressure checker too maybe?
My brother had this I loved playing it. When we moved it was left in the loft. A pity, wonder what it would be worth now.
How do I contact you as I have this complicated science theory that I think might be wrong.
It was based of one of your videos
With ParaJVE, there's even an *emulator* for this thing.
Wait, but HOW? How do you emulate vector graphics on an LCD/IPS or OLED?
@@JamesR624 Magic
There's a few emulators for it, mednafen and mess both have a vectrex core.
And it works by rasterizing the vector graphics, which is simple, just look at the line tool in MSpaint.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresenham%27s_line_algorithm
Easily the coolest name for a game console
We need to bring back limitations line this to force such creative solutions.
I wonder what a digital vector display made today would look like with our more powerful graphics and the ability to track the beam as well as more cycles per frame and higher frame rates.
There's some cool tech demos that display on oscilloscopes. Try searching for "oscilloscope music."
Science elf is back!
*Aw man!*
So
Science Elf
Back in the mine
I wonder if vector displays are still being made.
Yes but only for metric electricsity as fur I'm aware
There is a device that I know how the call oscilloscope that measure the Wave off the electricsity and the have a vector display but this display is usually integrated in the device also this display have boxes on the panel if not mestaiken
An analog console, how curious!
Man, I miss Classic Game Room Suddenly.
I unironically want to make a rasterizer for the Vectrex so that you can output a video capture directly to a CRT.
You could do what the original maker did and work on the CRT itself
I can see how a handheld version could have been made: Flat right angled CRT like in a Sinclair pocket TV
wow
Post Malone, is that you? Or maybe it's Owen Wilson?
I own one of these. Unfortunately the controller no longer works. I've got myself a few games too.
I'd get a new controller but I don't really see me playing it and they are quite pricey.
Cool
LGR and you uploaded at the same time and next to each other in my reccomendations
"Request vector. Over."
"Flight 2 0 9'er , clear for a vector at 3 2 4."
"You have clearance, Clarence."
"Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?" [link to clip]: ua-cam.com/video/fVq4_HhBK8Y/v-deo.html
Where are you???
the colors you see on a crt display are *not* pixels
👀👀👀👀🤠
Always wanted one, could never afford a good one. Alas.
You know you're early when there are no views
OH FUCK YEA ITS NOT BEDTIME JUST YET
4:40 REAL-TIME RAYTRACING
Hello my friend
Nvidia have Ray-Tracing. See 4:35
Hoi noice vid but....
I was here. Still this vid is great
Be the og man
The og commenter after 1 second
I found one sitting in the trash outside a crack house and it works perfect , guessing the crack heads had no idea what they had as this was 1 year before the pawnshops did start buying retro game systems.
They were just trying to get rid of the evidence, after the wife crushed her husband with it for calling her a skank.
real time ray tracing
RTX ON
John Ross?
BOB ROSS’S BROTHER!!!
am i early, idk cause other people are early
lil bro just said the vectrex looks better than the nes lmao. 8/10 bait
But can it run Windows 10?
Even better, will is play Doom/Crysis? Lol
The consoles were quite impressive back in the day, when the programmers had to do ALOT with practically nothing. As compared today when everything including codes are horrendously bloated - and buggier than the bible
Wahwepop
Technically it would be Infinity x Infinity pixels.
No views 6 likes
But can it run crisis 🤔🤔🤔
Vextrex >>>>>> nintendo switch
Lol you should probably put an epilepsy warning on this video
I own a Vectrex! #brag
me to