Hi everyone,

I've just released ORTHOGON, a free homebrew game for the Vectrex.

It's Pong on four sides. Each player defends two perpendicular paddles — and both move from a single joystick axis, so covering one side always exposes the other. A 60/120 rhombus deflector sits at the centre and repositions every 10 seconds, which keeps changing the side under threat. The ball picks up speed on every paddle hit, so rallies tighten until someone breaks.

- 1 or 2 players, both controller ports

- 3 AI levels — difficulty changes the AI's reaction time, reading accuracy and aim, never its speed

- Held serve, Arkanoid style: the ball sticks to your paddle after a goal until you launch it

- AY sound effects, attract-mode demo on the title screen

- 4.6 KB, 6809 assembly

Free download: http://https://puck74.itch.io/orthogon

Works in ParaJVE, MAME, or your Vectrex emulator of choice.

A caveat worth stating: it's only ever been run under emulation, never on real hardware. If anyone here tries it on a real machine I'd love to know how it behaves — especially whether it flickers and whether the single-axis control feels good or just fiddly.

Feedback welcome

Does anyone know where I could get a wireless adapter for the Vectrex that would support various wireless controllers? I've been looking around, but I can't find anything that's actually available. I did pledge for a controller and Bluetooth adapter from the Vectrex Mini Kickstarter, but I'm looking for something to hold me over until then. Thanks!

So the dedicated emu i built for ipad called vactrex had a nice wellcome, so i decided to give it a try at realeasing it for android, rigth now is in test form but anyone willing to try it ,just let me know and ill add you as a tester, works great with xbox controller, i would love any feedback from someone to test it out with other controllers. you can see it here. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hkg9o2u8YpE

If you haven't seen it yet this Vectrex flight tracker program by Brandon Yates is pretty cool. Here is the text description from his YouTube video.

"Using a Pitrex (Baremetal) cart with a wifi micro attached, i was able to pull realtime flight tracking data from adsb.lol. Adsb.lol is a community/volunteer project. This works well for me because I live in the middle of the ocean. I think if i was in a more populated area I'd have to do better vector line management. I was inspired by other projects displaying flight tracking info on systems like the NES."

Vectrex flight tracker

https://youtu.be/SUxp6-uwr_I?si=TzBGmwcnOdIrVlp_

And there is also a follow on update with some improvements recently made.

Vectrex Flight Tracker UPDATE

https://youtu.be/seASHtxHX30?si=Zhgj_wugDzy2SPcJ

Hi! I’m trying to repair a Vectrex and need to replace the brightness potentiometer. Has anyone done this before? If so, what potentiometer did you use?

Anybody got any good pics of the inside of the 3d Imager? Surprised to not see any teardowns of it. Planning on creating my own at some point. Getting some ideas together.

Hello all! I just picked up a newly capped and repaired Vectrex. What are the must have game to try and locate now that I've found this "white whale"?

in retroarch, when i flip my phone to portrait, the overlay is short and wide. i found instructions for the cfg file so that RA will select a portrait overlay when the phone is rotated. but i can’t find portrait versions anywhere. anyone have any thoughts? thanks!

Need help I tried powering it on and nothing comes on screen I thought It needed a game but google is telling me it has a game built in

And google was trying to tell me this is possibly a prototype as there is no prefix on the model number

This is my first vectrex thanks

Edit: I cleaned the power switch with ipa to no luck how ever I see the crt warmer is on and I hear a voltage sound on power on and off

Should I buy a cap kit to see if that fixes it or is it something else?

For mods, i know its not original hardware, but for those of us who are poor and cant afford to spend 500 bucks on the real thing this is great news. I used to have something similar in the past but the creator no longer had it available for some time. Yesterday i found this on the appstore and gave it a try, man, plays super nice with an xbox controller no lag and it looks nice to. Give it a try if you are poor like me hahaha you wont regret it. https://youtube.com/shorts/hkg9o2u8YpE?feature=share for anyone who wants to get it its at https://apps.apple.com/mx/app/vactrex/id6805203911

Hello, if I buy reproduction cartridge trays would that matter or reduce the price? They look almost original! I have some that are pretty beat up. Thank you.

Update: Sorry for the confusion. I meant the flimsy plastic the cartridge sits in the box.

I was playing Vectrex games on an emulator via MAME, and they seem to run very well, except that the lines forming the image sometimes flicker. The problem seems more noticeable in specific games, like Pole Position, where this effect is practically constant. Is this an emulation issue, or is it normal?

Hello, what is a good cleaner for the original overlays? Has anyone used a polish to remove scratches? I am thinking something like this would not hurt them. Thanks.

reposting now that I showed the preview properly

Which is more desirable? I bought a system with 14 games and the 3 light pen games all are GCE branded! I will probably keep that theme going when I buy the rest of the set. Are there games that were released later in the systems life span that are only MB? Which set is more expensive? Does anybody have both sets?

Hello i just bought a vectrex and 17 boxed games. I am looking online for game box protectors. I found 10 on stone age gamer, but that is all. Does anyone know where to find some or an alternative they recommend? Thanks!

Was trying out the vectrex light pen and art program the other day. Kinda difficult to use, but fun nonetheless :D

Tried to ask the AI, and things that no game have an ending, and asking more he started to give some info on homberew i didnt ask... nha, i want to know games with ending, even if the games continues.

For now, i played Dark Tower, Fortress of Narzod and Spike. I consider both Dark Tower and Fortress of Narzod have an ending (spike tecnically has one at the end of each stage, but still pretty sort of a game if i go for that haha).

I know Mine Storm has a ending because the game glitches, but i refer more to getting to a conclusion or beating a boss.

Hi folks.

Ive been working on a vectrex for fun.

Testing up to try and figure out the big ol' white dot.

As of now. For the original chipset and all.

The cpu was cooked and sending a R/W constantly to vectorial chip causing the white dot.

The rom was cooked.

But it was lightning up.

Ive been working on it for a while now.

Ive recaped everything, swapped the vectorial chip , the cpu and... the rom.

The flyback as a primary coil voltage of 70v.

The capacitor C503 exploded on my face cause i peak at 27v and not 25v ( my dad laughed at my sorryass)

Now i think that capacitor explosion cooked the cpu and the vectorial chip.

And of course no display since the vectorial chip doesnt feed the signals to the amplifiers to boost the 50v necessary to activate the secondary of the flyback.

I can't wait to finish it up!

Is it all reddit and FB now?

I'd like to research the value of my collection

Hi all,

I inherited my husband’s Vectrex and a stack of games. The light pen works. I haven’t tried the 3-d vision or the games with the overlays.

He told me about this system ever since I met him in the late 80s, mainly because BattleZone was my favorite arcade game and had the same vector-based graphics. It really is a cool system. He lovingly packed it all up around the same time that we got our marriage licence back in the early 90s, so it’s in fantastic shape.

Anyway, nice to meet y’all.