GCE's Mad Hack of a Console

In 1982, the Vectrex was leaps and bounds ahead of its home video game console contemporaries in terms of graphics. All it took was some unique video hardware, and a few clever programming tricks.
Music Used:
Cream of the Earth - Romeo Knight (0:00, 7:24)
No Good Right - Freedom Trail Studio (2:56)
Clips in Order of Appearance:
Atari Tempest Arcade Video Gameplay - • 1981 Atari Tempest Arc... (1:14, 2:14)
(Arcade) Battlezone - • (Arcade) Battlezone (1:56)
Lineart Vectrex Demo - • Lineart by Nuance & ME... (4:44)
Vectrex light pen and programs - • Video (7:55)
Vectrex 3D Imager Review - • Video (8:55)
Demos tested (in order of appearance):
Where Have all the Pixels Gone? - cmucc (3:41, 10:18)
EigenVectrex - cmucc (4:35, 5:34)
Lineart - MetalVotze (4:44)
Raiding Party - Rift (6:29, 10:10)

[@aTaryum]

I always loved this console, it's such a great concept, unfortunately 1983 wasn't the best time for videogames

[@slipknotboy555]

Agreed. But an important note on the latter part: the "video game" crash was a North American thing, and largely only affected consoles. Computers and computer games were mostly unaffected. Just figured I'd mention that, as it's often omitted

[@jasonblalock4429]

@@slipknotboy555 Yeah. If anything, the "video game crash" may have been what made PC gaming viable in the US. Up until then, consoles had been so dominant that home computer gaming really hadn't gotten much of a foothold. It's actually kind of interesting, just how *different* the history of 80s gaming is, whether you're looking at the US or Europe.

[@ExtremeGamer9951]

@@jasonblalock4429 Yeah, britain especially was dominated by cassette tape gaming moreso than the consoles of the day, especially as those could be duplicated by pretty much anyone.

[@relo999]

@@jasonblalock4429 yea, and even Japan. Japan was heavily invested into home consoles with very few on the market with the only computer getting some mainstream foothold being the MSX. (not to mention quite a few dedicated machines) Europe had a shit load of computers with giant libraries and even more, often really weird, local and licensed consoles with a tiny library and american consoles. The US on the otherhand was more like Japan, few consoles and even fewer (notable) computers and after the crash getting dominated by Japan and the local market moving to the, at the time, business machines with poor audio and visuals.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Especially not vector based video games, as they never made it over to Japanese arcades.

[@ShinyElGhosteo]

I got one of these for $4 at a swap meet. My parent thought I just bought an old junk tv until I showed them what it actually was

[@nithpro1385]

SO LUCKY 4 BUCKS ON EBAY ITS 2000 BUCKS

[@agentred8732]

I’ll pay you 8 bucks for it!

[@Z64sports]

Even $4 for a tv would have been a good deal tbh

[@CanaldoZenny]

I played one Vectrex in a videogame museum once in 2017. I still vividly remember how clean and bright the graphics and screen in the console were. Also, the analog controller and movement of the spaceship on the built-in game was oddly very satisfying. It was one of the coolest pieces of tecnology i ever used. One year later i returned to the museum to discover the same Vectrex stoped working, i could just look at it.

[@jasonblalock4429]

And you didn't even mention how that DAC allowed the Vectrex to be probably the first home console with digitized speech. (Eeek! Help! Spike! ... Oh no! Molly!)

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

What about the Imsai 8080 (1975)?

[@d_9294]

I was only born in 92 but my grandmother had one of these and I had soo much fun with this console as a kid xD

[@marisaeggs]

I love how I just randomly found this channel a year ago and i still love it

[@levako05d]

Same here. I think what makes this channel unique is the creator's genuine interest and dedication to technology. He can talk about 15 year old tablets in a fashion that keeps me engaged so much, I find myself rewatching it every now and then. Great vids.

[@ananttiwari1337]

@@levako05d Yes!! Do you still re-watch his vids?

[@spaceghostmiid]

my 7th grade computer teacher had one of these in perfect condition. i don't think he knew how much it was worth.

[@NoNoseProduction]

Yeah that's why it was in good condition

[@CoasterMan13Official]

I have a computer from 2007, and it isn't worth much.

[@spaceghostmiid]

@@CoasterMan13Official this is a vectrex not a computer

[@CoasterMan13Official]

@@spaceghostmiid Vectrexes aren't really consoles to me. More like high strength gaming PCs

[@SensibleChuckle]

This is my most treasured console. And the modern game programmers releasing games for it kick major butt! Amazing how they can draw so much faster (i. e. make more lines run smoothly).

[@quirble]

The weird speaker hum that changes as the graphics change is also something I love of the vectrex, iirc something about grounding (or the lack thereof). Will always be my favorite 80s console, suck it nintendo!

[@Quietruck]

Got one at a thrift store a while ago for $10.00. I did'nt really know how popular it was. But learner quickly just how great of a deal I had found, Who knew?

[@4.0.4]

It's a CNC machine for your eyeballs.

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

I freaking LOVE this console. It's such an underrated gem. I really want to get my hands on one, and maybe even reverse-engineer one to make an upgraded version.

[@ExperimentLife]

Time to rewatch all thoes old Classic Game Room videos.

[@ff_crafter]

I miss Derek. Mark is not interested to gaming anymore 😒

[@christianmoore7109]

I miss CGR so much.

[@Trekeyus]

@@christianmoore7109 ah yes the intergalactic space game room. Needs more truxton

[@Wyrdwad]

Man, Vectrex is so cool. My brother had one when I was a kid, so I grew up with the thing, and even back then, it was clear just how special a console this thing was. I collect retro games, and while I absolutely love pretty much anything retro, I have a lot of friends who don't see the appeal. The one exception is Vectrex. I don't think ANYONE can see the Vectrex and not be impressed by it, especially when they hear how old it is! Even by today's standards, it's just... neat! It turns heads, and is just impossible not to be fascinated by. Among retro systems, it is such a huge standout, and anyone who's got one nowadays should hang onto it and take very good care of it, as it's genuinely one of the coolest retro items you can own, and will never NOT be valuable and collectible.

[@sgs_]

Wow! I have never heard of this console and just watching this KZbin video makes probably everyone (including me) become impressed by the fact that this can run 3d and run smoothly!

[@dan3a]

Nice I love this design it reminds me the Xerox Alto

[@zachsteiner]

Damn! Science Elf actually uploaded a video?!

[@duccie]

Holy! I forgot KZbin had actually good content... Almost lost hope there... Keep up the *great* work man!

[@AiOinc1]

Now explain the genius of the Atari 2600's video chip, the TIA! Give everybody a reason to respect the programmers who worked on that machine

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

Really awesome! I Still prefer pixel-graphics though. For my Oculus Rift in the 80s video I used a Vectrex game.

[@KyureiProductions]

Hello! Love your channel! Would like an VR in the 90’s rather than the 80’s this time.

[@nathanpixelkid]

@@KyureiProductions the nintendo virtual boy

[@vectrexer]

Excellent Vectrex video! Except of the "Public Domain" comment. Still not public domain. Jay Smith holds and retains the rights to the Vectrex intellectual property.. But Jay Smith does allow for royalty-free and fee-free software and hardware development. He also allows for the original era games and materials reproduction for sale at a low cost.

[@noomeron]

Holy shit, I've owned a vectrex all my life and I never knew you could fold the controller up like that.

[@RobertBlow]

Great video about the technical aspects of the Vectrex, 100 % the right way to go with this giving the content a unique and interesting slant on usual Vectrex coverage. Thanks

[@AristAristA]

Loved the technical explanations ! This is super inspiring

[@Tangobaldy]

Very well explained and a joy to watch

[@mikiex]

A concise but accurate overview of the Vectrex

[@skyway73]

I've heard people requesting a Vectrex mini but I would love a Vectrex 2.0. Same size but more powerful and reliable, imagine what could be produced on that monitor! Vector graphics are so cool. Who would buy one?

[@soyuzistrepublic9771]

Man i love your videos, i just wish i didnt have to rewatch all your videos when im done with the new ones.

[@alexandermirdzveli3200]

Just WOW! That was super-interesting!

[@vlweb3d]

*CLASSIC GAME ROOM.*

[@mrcrisplinuxuser4180]

Finally a new video!

[@JRCSalter]

Really wish we still owned ours. I loved that little thing.

[@martylovesmusic]

Came for the curiosity, stayed for using 'Cream of the Earth" as the background tune

[@dzvxo]

I remember seeing one at an antique shop for a crazy chunk of change... it was awesome to see it in person though!

[@chrisray9653]

It's a shame vector displays didn't catch on for some applications, they would be fun to program today. Maybe an obscure go-fund-me vector smart watch?

[@kantdiego]

Its all fun and games until you realize this thing retails for around 900$ :(

[@grass1092]

@@einariepakesko9862 2019 is where. This thing is a collector's item.

[@noahblount3309]

GregDoesThings there is a shop near where I live selling them for $300 each

[@goldfish8196]

Great episode.

[@cekingdevinity5253]

Had one when I was a kid. My brothers and I loved it, had limited games though. Still was fun!

[@rocketlollie499]

Vetrex cool

[@DankMozart]

Good job!

[@Motocicleiros]

I met one of those consoles just once in my life in the electronics repair shop of a friend. Regardless it was monochrome at the time I got amazed with the high quality of the graphics on how smooth it looked. I remember my friend explaining to me that it was that smooth because basically they used oscilloscope display technology. It made all sense to me. EDIT: The one I played with was "Asteroids".

[@charliekahn4205]

I really wish that the Vec had been marketed less as a console and more as a microcomputer. The BASIC that would have come with such a machine would probably have been the most fully-featured graphics environment ever released up to that point.

[@bosch5303]

Omg one of my favorite consoles 😂

[@InterstellarStarSailor]

My parents had a Vectrex. Two actually. Only one of them still works though. I keep them both in my closet for safe keeping

[@dan3a]

You are fu!@#&* lucky

[@56independent42]

There are no pixels on a CRT either; it's just 200 lines with smooth curves for brightness changes. That's the beauty of analouge.

[@gandalfgaming4575]

the vectrex reminded me from elementary school in 2018, when a friend brung the thing to school because it was a special day

[@joshuascholar3220]

I saw the color 3D display at CES, it was cool!

[@TylerFurrison]

Why did I just now notice the new intro?

[@AdvancePlays]

I always wonder how the world would look had technology pursued vector graphics as the primary display technology. Could you get a full colour image on a vector monitor? Dual-beam oscilloscopes exist, so what could you do with 10 or 100 beams? Fun to imagine.

[@charliekahn4205]

Or just 3

[@brandontechnerd]

How did you make the tech demos in your video?

[@Haggart]

😮What if the vectrex was used in combination with a see-through oled display? It would allow for a lot more interesting ideas to be implemented.

[@lpcamargo]

You keep saying that the other home consoles of the era had framebuffers. That's just wrong. They worked with raster patterns, and had pixels and resolutions. But they didn't have framebuffers, which would be regions of memory an entire frame was drawn on. They instead had pretty precise control of what would happen in any scanline, and could manipulate their video generators even during the period a scanline is being drawn on the screen

[@AlvaroR04]

The TV console in one device

[@AlexwithaB]

Great KZbinr

[@procommentr]

With ParaJVE, there's even an *emulator* for this thing.

[@JamesR624]

Wait, but HOW? How do you emulate vector graphics on an LCD/IPS or OLED?

[@procommentr]

@@JamesR624 Magic

[@noomeron]

There's a few emulators for it, mednafen and mess both have a vectrex core. And it works by rasterizing the vector graphics, which is simple, just look at the line tool in MSpaint.

[@noomeron]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresenham%27s_line_algorithm

[@zachsteiner]

This is a badass vid though

[@johneygd]

I wish you mentioned the demo rom climax because it really pushes the vectrex to it’s limit by drawing scanlines to simulate raster graphics rather then vector graphics,now while theres a wheel knob to turn the brightness up or down,however as far as i do know, changing the brightness cannot be done trough software, it’s either on or off. Besides, while color crt tv sets can control the brightness individually per color beam, the more more brightness levels it can control, the more colors it can view on screen, i suppose the first color tv’s can only handle a limited amount of levels thus showing not more then 4096 colors onscreen while last gen color crt tv’s could handle waay more brightness levels,thus viewing 16,6 millions of colors atonce,digital tv sets work with colorpallets instead rather then using different voltages.

[@JamesR624]

I am curious, in these days where everything from game graphics to GUIs are going for "minimalism", if vector graphics could make a comeback at all? I guess a vector monitor wouldbe both too expensive and bulky since we'd have no choice but to go backwards from our flat LCD/OLED panels to CRTs again. I wonder, if the tech to stuff a vector beam into the thinness of a modern monitor? (Still a little chunky. Not the paper-thin stuff in phones and roll up TVs of today, more like an $100 LCD monitor.)

[@charliekahn4205]

Vectrinitron?

[@lutello3012]

Handheld Vectrex? With a CRT?

[@4.0.4]

That also caught me off-guard. Sure, the CRT can be made small, but it will still be about as thick as it is wide...

[@gyroesehni]

Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact

[@gyroesehni]

Sony Watchmans were a thing, the earlier ones had reallu unique CRTs that were very thin. The actual CRT was below the screen instead of behind it, making it much more compact

[@lutello3012]

@@gyroesehni I actually have a couple of those and it didn't really cross my mind when I wrote that. I guess they could have crammed the extra circuitry in there back then if they really tried.

[@clochard4074]

An analog console, how curious!

[@TheConfusingOpinion]

Man, I miss Classic Game Room Suddenly.

[@michaelelsy2209]

My brother had this I loved playing it. When we moved it was left in the loft. A pity, wonder what it would be worth now.

[@awayforthewin1325]

Easily the coolest name for a game console

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

We need to bring back limitations line this to force such creative solutions.

[@Jaysjunk]

wow

[@Psythik]

Post Malone, is that you? Or maybe it's Owen Wilson?

[@AmaroqStarwind]

I unironically want to make a rasterizer for the Vectrex so that you can output a video capture directly to a CRT.

[@charliekahn4205]

You could do what the original maker did and work on the CRT itself

[@javaaugustus4469]

Science elf is back! *Aw man!*

[@naxzed_it]

So

[@naxzed_it]

Science Elf

[@naxzed_it]

Back in the mine

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool

[@wisteela]

I can see how a handheld version could have been made: Flat right angled CRT like in a Sinclair pocket TV

[@msinfo32]

LGR and you uploaded at the same time and next to each other in my reccomendations

[@MrDoom234]

I own one of these. Unfortunately the controller no longer works. I've got myself a few games too. I'd get a new controller but I don't really see me playing it and they are quite pricey.

[@queenbiscuit311]

I wonder what a digital vector display made today would look like with our more powerful graphics and the ability to track the beam as well as more cycles per frame and higher frame rates.

[@noomeron]

There's some cool tech demos that display on oscilloscopes. Try searching for "oscilloscope music."

[@matthewdavies2057]

Always wanted one, could never afford a good one. Alas.

[@eternal7015]

👀👀👀👀🤠

[@joeyhillers9460]

Hello my friend

[@anasqai]

It cn work lyk emulator or connect android? Just putting mem. Card or external hdd? Then lyk arcade w interne or lan?

[@anasqai]

internet*

[@anasqai]

it cn bcome heartrate n bloodpressure checker too maybe?

[@athens2513]

1:15 what is the game you’re playing here

[@km_ox446]

How do I contact you as I have this complicated science theory that I think might be wrong. It was based of one of your videos

[@cathacker13]

You know you're early when there are no views

[@tomservo5007]

I wonder if vector displays are still being made.

[@watercat1248]

Yes but only for metric electricsity as fur I'm aware There is a device that I know how the call oscilloscope that measure the Wave off the electricsity and the have a vector display but this display is usually integrated in the device also this display have boxes on the panel if not mestaiken

[@3maticod]

OH FUCK YEA ITS NOT BEDTIME JUST YET

[@alexisburkhalter8061]

John Ross? BOB ROSS’S BROTHER!!!

[@treborironwolfe978]

"Request vector. Over." "Flight 2 0 9'er , clear for a vector at 3 2 4." "You have clearance, Clarence." "Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?" [link to clip]: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIfUZZJ-nad-brs

[@datoaster4991]

4:40 REAL-TIME RAYTRACING

[@SuperM789]

lil bro just said the vectrex looks better than the nes lmao. 8/10 bait

[@abdallahali2]

Wahwepop

[@lolbytheundying8136]

Hoi noice vid but.... I was here. Still this vid is great

[@Mr_Fancypants]

I still got mine in the travel case. But the number of games for it is dissapointing

[@anonymousidea9119]

Still better library than the virtual boy imo especially when you add homebrew

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

real time ray tracing RTX ON

[@NOELQUEZON]

Nvidia have Ray-Tracing. See 4:35

[@Nyges]

Be the og man The og commenter after 1 second

[@VoxelPrismatic]

the colors you see on a crt display are *not* pixels

[@Thrakus]

I found one sitting in the trash outside a crack house and it works perfect , guessing the crack heads had no idea what they had as this was 1 year before the pawnshops did start buying retro game systems.

[@jessragan6714]

They were just trying to get rid of the evidence, after the wife crushed her husband with it for calling her a skank.

[@zennb]

am i early, idk cause other people are early

[@fart_m0nster_420]

Sounds like its very hard to code for I mean coding for nes wouldnt be easy but geez

[@charliekahn4205]

With an FPU on the cartridge it shouldn't be that difficult

[@srmedia91]

Where are you???

[@cst1229]

Technically it would be Infinity x Infinity pixels.

[@donnell760]

Lol you should probably put an epilepsy warning on this video

[@gesho7598]

No views 6 likes

[@Tyrfingr]

The consoles were quite impressive back in the day, when the programmers had to do ALOT with practically nothing. As compared today when everything including codes are horrendously bloated - and buggier than the bible

[@tomtanaka841]

I own a Vectrex! #brag

[@Zzantzanter]

me to