First impressions of another grail.
A couple of years ago I posted this entry about a personal grail acquisition; now I can check off another personal grail from my obsolete list of home video games.
The machine in question can be seen in a place of honor atop the shelf in this picture:
Yep – the mighty Vectrex graces my game collection at last, after about 23 years of having heard so much – and having seen so little. To put things in perspective, aside from magazine articles, photos and other second-hand accounts, the first time I ever saw and played a real live Vectrex in the flesh was at CGE in 2003 – and even then I didn’t get to see it in action up close. The first time I played one was at OKGE 2004, thanks to Brad Prillwitz, and I was hooked. Man, I wanted one so bad – it’s just such a cool little setup!
A recent fortuitous eBay auction landed me not just a Vectrex, but a boxed Vectrex, complete with five carts (Scramble – loose, Hyperchase – boxed but no overlay, Star Trek – complete, Vix – complete, Omega Chase Deluxe – complete). And, of course, Minestorm built into the machine. All at a fairly reasonable price, I thought, and the machine arrived today in fantastic shape. Othello gave it the once-over and rubbed his face on the top of the machine to give it his approval (and to claim it too) while it was sitting on the floor, and then I decided to perch it on the shelf unit next to my Kick machine, where it can be played at standing height – seems appropriate, somehow. The triangular shelf was a perfect fit, too – it contains the machine without it “hanging off” at any point, and makes for very easy stowing/unstowing of the controller. Here, it stays.
First impressions:
I love the vector graphics. Emulation simply doesn’t do them justice, can’t even begin to. This is the real deal, and it’s great. My one problem is that, for the games that have no overlay, I literally have to wear my sunglasses or I’ll wind up with a headache after two minutes of play. Yow! Especially when everyone knows how dark I like to keep my game room:
This, of course, will actually require me to wear my sunglasses at night. Cue the music.
The controller is nice – it’s instantly become one of my favorite 80s controllers, hands down. Very comfortable to hold, responsive buttons, very smooth joystick action. I like how Hyperchase requires some very, very subtle joystick movement.
I love the games, each and every one of them. I don’t normally go on “acquisition binges” for a specific system, but for the Vectrex I may well make an exception. I want to see more of what this machine can do. Christopher Tumber has a gift for making some damn fine homebrews for this system; I recently have read that he’s disappeared, and I hope he’s not dropping out of the scene. To be exposed to the machine’s first-party and homebrew games side-by-side on the same day is a bit strange, but I could detect no difference in quality between the two.
I love the thick plastic overlays. No doubt about these staying in place whatsoever. Odyssey, eat your heart out.
Once again, I’m very pleased with my new adoptee. I’ve picked up several new – well, old as dirt but new to me – consoles from the 70s and 80s recently, but out of all of them, the Vectrex has impressed me the most.
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