Vectrex
Vectrex Specifications
The Vectrex was designed by Smith Engineering and released by General Consumer Electronics (GCE) in November 1982. Unlike every other home console, it came with its own screen: a black and white vector monitor that drew lines directly, like the arcade versions of Asteroids and Tempest.
Colour came from plastic overlays that fitted over the screen for each game. It came with Mine Storm built in, and a 3D Imager headset and a light pen were released later.
Milton Bradley bought GCE in 1983 and launched the Vectrex in Europe and Japan, but the video game crash that year hit it hard. It was discontinued in early 1984.
The Vectrex’s rights holder later allowed its games to be shared freely for non-commercial use, and a keen homebrew community still releases new games. ParaJVE, a freeware emulator that simulates the vector screen and the overlays, is one of the best ways to play it, alongside MAME.
Advertisement
Vectrex Emulators
MAME is the open source reference emulator for arcade machines. It also emulates hundreds of consoles, handhelds and computers.
ParaJVE is a freeware Vectrex emulator written in Java that recreates the vector screen, the colour overlays and the 3D Imager, with many games included.
