Sunday, November 15, 2015

At Flashbak: Remembering the Vectrex



My second article at Flashbak this week looks back the "high performance" game system from 1982: Vectrex.




"In the late seventies and early eighties, the first generation of video-gamers could select between the Atari 2600 (The Atari Video Computer System), Intellivision and Colecovision.

But there was one more unique option: Milton Bradley and GCE’s Vectrex, a “Graphic Computer System.”

This distinctive game console was constructed with a built-in monitor, described in the adverts as “arcade style.”  In short, this meant no TV -- or pesky TV antenna -- was required for game play. The “Vector Monitor” instead made it possible to pick up the unit and “play it almost anywhere.”

This "revolutionary" console design also featured "line graphics" for "laser sharp visual effects" rather than the standard pixels we associate with other game systems of the day.  Vectrex was also manufactured with a “panel controller” rather than a joystick, and came with two unique accessories.

The first was a 3-D imager: a set of eye glasses that could provide a “real 3-D experience…in color!”  The second was a stylus or “light pen” that allowed users to write directly on the monitor."

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