Anyone remember the Vectrex pictured below? I wanted one of these bad as a kid but never could afford one. I never knew there was a light pen for it, let alone a music program. Title link takes you to more info on this program and the Vectrex in general. Check out the games section.via André.
Cool,
ReplyDeleteI was playing my Vectrix about 4 hours ago.
They are nice. If you're using it for music, you'll want to do the Vectrix mod to reduce the noise from its powersupply.
There are two ways to do the 'quite vectrex' mod with the second being the most involved and requires you to completely disassemble it. Its highly recommended that you discharge the tube before doing this. I've done the modification on about 6 Vectrexes and its highly recommended. The reason why? First of all there is a ground loop that inadvertently introduced in the design to meet the UL requirements. Second, was just a design flaw in that the video signal is not significantly isolated from the audio circuit. You can get around both of these issues and significantly quite the vectrex.
ReplyDeleteAs for the music program, you can't save .. you can play two voices plus a noise generator .. You'd have more fun with a C64 unless you want to hack around in Vectrex assembly with a flash rom cart.
Light pens can be made very easily with an LED, a tube to hold the LED (like a sturdy plastic straw or pin) and a joy stick cable from an Atari or a wire and a DB 9 connector.
how is a led light sensitive? should it be a photo cell?
ReplyDeleteIt's a photodiode.
ReplyDeleteHow much do vectrex consoles run and can you buy them from a dealer (as opposed to ebay)?
ReplyDelete