When Chemists Attack

Some of my favorite arcade games from my chlldhood were Major Havoc and Star Wars. Both of these games featured vector graphics, which meant that the lines and curves drawn by the game on the screen were vivid and sharp, withoiut the blockiness that plagued the graphics of many early arcade games.

Even though the Atari 2600 and Intellivision let us kids play arcade games at home, they couldn’t deliver anything as neat looking as the vector games from the arcade. For that, you had to go to the arcade and put in your quarters. Or, if you were very lucky, you could get your parents to buy you a Vectrex, a system from GCE that brought vector graphics home.

My Vectrex

Unlike the other home systems of the time, the Vectrex sported a built-oin monitor and sound system, making it much more like a true arcade system than the Atari or Intellivision offerings. Looking at it, you might even mistake it for a black version of an early Macintosh computer.

Side view of the Vectrex

The Vectrex drew curves that didn’t end up looking blocky, as you can see in this screenshot of Pole Position. Diagonal lines were also sharp.

A curvy road from the Vectrex version of Pole Position. If you look closely enough, you can also see me with the camera.

Graphics on the Vectrex were bright and vibrant, but only came in one color – white.

Dead meat in Vectrex Star Trek

I didn’t take a picture of it, but to get color in a vectrex game, you placed a colored overlay on top of the screen, much like some of the early arcde games and handheld games did. The overlays were removable, but I figure a lot of people didn’t bother with the overlays when they played the Vectrex. The overlays dimmed the screen and tended to get scratched in storage.

I saw the Vectrex for the first time in my hometown mall’s toy store in 1983 and immediately wanted one. My parents didn’t pay much attention to that want, probably because the Vectrex was expensive and I already had an Atari 2600. Fair enough, I suppose – but I did get my own Vectrex in 1997, along with a multi-cart that contained all but one of the original Vectrex games. I’ve also managed to scrape together some of the original Vextrex games with boxes, instructions, and overlays. It only took fourteen years from when I first saw the system on display!

Here, almost ten years after that, I still have my Vectrex. As you can see, it still works – despite being over twenty years old! The volume knob is a bit touchy, but the buttons and controls work well, and it’s still fun! I wonder what my children will think of the Vectrex …

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.