Category: Vectrex

Merry Christmas! 2023

December 25, 2023
GamesVectrex
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Santa is running behind schedule and needs your help delivering presents. Get in your biplane and deliver twenty presents by dropping them in each chimney. If you miss one it will take longer as you will have to make another attempt to deliver a present to that house.

Watch out for obstacles like trees and birds as you try to deliver the presents.


Merry Christmas! 2023 was made for the VFU gift exchange. It was gifted in a clear shell with a color changing LED. If there is interest in the game I can list some for sale in a black shell.

Beluga Dreams #100 Charity Auction

December 3, 2023
BlogVectrex
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The Beluga Dreams Charity Auction ended at $922. 100% of this is going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Thank you to the participants and the winning bidder. The winner has paid and the charity will be collecting soon.

For reference, here are images and the description of the auction:

This is a charity auction for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The items include the following:

  • Beluga Dreams #100 game in translucent blue shell with case and cover art.
  • My personal copy of Super Smash Blocks.
  • An early alpha/idea of a game called “Bail-Out” on a PCB.
  • A Beluga Dreams shirt (Size: XL)
  • 6 Beluga stickers (2 of each type of sticker that was made).
  • 1 Vectrex Console sticker
  • 1 Beluga Magnet
  • 1 Vectrex Logo Checkerboard Magnet

Beluga Dreams

Take control of Mr. Beluga as he dreams of flying. Try to avoid the obstacles to keep him in his wonderful dream.

This game includes Beluga Dreams and two other mini games (Beluga Drop and Arctic Derby) hidden on the cart.

This is #100 and the last of the clamshell case version. I still have PCBs so will likely sell shell only/PCB only until I run out.  

Gameplay footage can be seen here: https://youtu.be/XDrNs-6BCkQ?t=19

Super Smash BlocksSuper Smash Blocks is a “platform fighter” game I made to play with my kids. Only three copies exist at this point. It does not include a 4-player adapter but it can be played solo and two players with bots. The four player adapter is simple enough for anyone with basic soldering skill to make. I can give more info if interested.
I don’t know what I’m doing with this game in the long run. I may work on it more and release it at some point or I may not touch it again, I’m honestly not sure yet. If I do anything with it it won’t be happening for a while as I have other projects going on.


Gameplay footage can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVEs932O4hA
Bail-OutBail-Out is an arcade game in which you need to keep your motorcycle on the road for as long as you can. It will not likely be released in this form or it may end up being a part of a bigger game so this might be your only chance to play it as is.

You can see a few seconds of gameplay footage in this video (Look for the motorcycle game): https://youtu.be/M_iuqlTSB04?t=20

Sticker & Magnets

The “Normal” (White) Beluga stickers are the ones I gave out with the game. The hologram Beluga stickers I gave with the Dev Editions when I traded with other developers. The glitter Beluga is new but I will likely be sending those out in the future. The magnets will likely be sold in the future.

If you have any questions for me please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Beluga Dreams Overlay

November 29, 2021
GamesVectrex
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A few people have asked me about an overlay for Beluga Dreams. I decided to go ahead and make one. It can be downloaded here. You can use it in an emulator, print one out yourself, or pay someone who knows what they are doing to print it for you.

I purchased this one from Kray Kray overlays on Vectrex Fans Unite (Steven Kray on Facebook). You can also see the various overlays he has up for sale on eBay.

This is what it looks like in an emulator:

I might make a box next if there is interest.

Beluga Dreams – VEXTREME Edition

March 29, 2021
GamesVectrex
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This is the Free version of Beluga Dreams with the following changes:

  • LED functionality (Will not work with SW v.23 and lower)
  • High scores are now placed in the standard location ($CBEB) which the VEXTREME looks at to save high score data. In short, high scores are now saved when using the VEXTREME.
  • When the high score is loaded from RAM upon startup there will be a line underneath the high score until it is beaten.

VEXTREME – Vectrex Multicart

Merry Christmas!

November 20, 2020
GamesVectrex
2 Comments

Over the last few weeks I worked on a Vectrex Christmas PCB.

I made a few odd design choices but it works well. It is designed for the 27C256 32kb EPROM, 5 805 resistors, and 5 603 LEDs. The LEDs are a little odd. They are double-wide, slow flashing, 603 LEDs. Hand soldering them is kind of a chore. I should have used 805 LEDs or larger.

The EPROM contains a little animation I threw together. I finished just in time for a Vectrex gift exchange.

Update (12/6/20): In the end, Brett ended up being my giftee. Knowing he would probably want to solder it up himself I sent him a kit.

Here is a video of his installation:

Now I need to figure out what to do with the remaining PCBs…

Project Information

  • PCB designed with KiCad.
  • PCBs manufactured by JLCPCB.
  • Based off of Brett W’s Vectrex PCB design.
  • Flashing LEDs purchased from LighthouseLEDs.com. (Red, Green, Blue)
  • “Animation” created with Vide using 6809 ASM.

Vectrex 2×4 (Simple Vectrex Multitap)

October 20, 2020
HardwareVectrex
2 Comments

I decided to do something ridiculous for a potential upcoming project… I made a 4-player Vectrex game. I know, four players on a Vectrex sounds strange and very few people have four controllers. I just really wanted to make something that my kids and I could play together on the Vectrex.

Although I have some ideas on how to do a proper multitap I decided to cheat. The interest in something like this is not very high so I don’t feel too bad about going the easy route. Instead of four players having use of all directions and all buttons, each player gets two directions and two buttons.

Not much happening here…

In this game, “Super Smash Blocks”, each player can go left and right as well as jump and hit. Left and right on player 3 / 4 controller is connected to what is normally up and down for player 1 / 2. Buttons 3 and 4 on player 3 / 4 controller are connected to buttons 1 and 2 on player 1 / 2 controller. Players 1 and 3 plug into port 1. Players 2 and 4 plug into port 2.

Aside from making it easy to design and code for, it is also easy for anyone to wire up their own adapter if they want one.

Since I’ve become interested in designing my own PCBs, I decided to take a crack at making one for this project. Big thanks to Brett W. for helping me with KiCad.

Vectrex 2×2 Prototype PCBs

Each board, which I called a “Vectrex 2×2” (2 buttons/directions x 2 controllers), is meant for one joystick port. Either players 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. The idea is to combine two boards in a case to create a “Vectrex 2×4”. If only one board is needed for three player gaming, or just to use the light phaser port, that is okay too.

The test batch of these boards had an issue that I overlooked but it is easily fixed by cutting a trace and adding a jumper. The issue will not be hard to fix for future boards if I decide to make more.

This is just something I felt like doing and will not necessarily be releasing. Sometimes you have to get things out of your system, no matter how silly it is.

New Beluga Dreams PCBs!

October 10, 2020
Vectrex
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New Beluga Dreams PCBs designed by Brett W.

Universal Game Case Spacer

June 15, 2020
3D PrintingVectrex
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I designed these spacers to keep Vectrex cartridges centered and protected in the most common universal game case. It has not been tested in every iteration of the UGC.

The original (left) will keep your game centered and protected somewhat but it won’t take much of a drop without cracking.

Original Vectrex Universal Game Case SpacerDownload

Because I needed something more durable during shipping I created the newer one (right). It is deeper but takes about 40% longer for me to print.

New Vectrex Universal Game Case SpacerDownload

Demons!

November 6, 2019
GamesVectrex
1 Comment

Another project I started before finishing my previous ones…


Inspired by a certain game in which demons (space ships?) attack you. This game is very early in development but the base game is there. I don’t have a name for it yet so I’ll refer to it as Demons! for now.

Not coming anytime soon…

Fastball

November 6, 2019
GamesVectrex
1 Comment

A Home Run Derby game for the Vectrex

Grab a cold one and prepare yourself to be transported back to the 80s where you can become the champion of your local bowling alley or dive bar.

Play against a friend in Vs. mode or race against the clock in Arcade mode.

Coming soon.