Yay! I backed it! You can, too! I’ll tell you about it in a second, but first, I want you to take a good look at the header image.
The two consoles to the left are the Vectrex Mini prototypes. The next one to the right is a modded Vectrex, with the UV lights and UV reflective overlay, and I am not 100% sure, but I think it is shown playing a homebrew game. The room is darkened because the Vectrex likes dark rooms. The Mini the dude is playing also has a reflective overlay, but the UV light is provided by that lamp clamped to the table. The floating effect is much more pronounced on the genuine Vectrex next to it.
I was going to do an article called “Pimp My Vectrex” that would go over all the cool things you could do to and with your forty-three year old console, but I honestly thought it might just be a little… much. I was more interested in the unofficial arcade ports, like Battlezone and Star Wars and Omega Race. I’d still like to get my hands on those.
But none of that is important. Today, the Kickstarter for the Vectrex Mini went live. If you really need to know about my Vectrex, posts should be popping up at the bottom of this blog. It’ll get you up to speed about what makes this ancient console so special.
What it is
The Vectrex Mini is a 50% reproduction of the original Vectrex, and that’s the important bit. Actual Vectrexes are built around CRTs, a technology that is all but dead these days. They are heavy, fragile, and filled with high voltage electric current when they’re going. All of this is part of their charm, like finding an original Walkman at a Goodwill. You just want it.
The Vectrex was the only home console based around vector graphics. These are only possible with CRTs. The Vectrex Mini doesn’t use a CRT; it uses a 5" 800x600 AMOLED panel, chosen for the dramatic contrast between blacks and whites in order to best match the Vectrex display. Inside, it is driven by an “ESP32” processor running the VecX emulator – the same emulator you can get for your regular computer, if you just wanted to play the games without the plastic box.
I’ve used that emulator; it’s fine. It’s a little sterile. The physicality of the Vectrex adds excitement to the games you play on it. Most of the games on the Vectrex, especially the original games, aren’t really that amazing. Even the best of them are more tech demos than anything else. Hobbyists have done a lot of good work in this area. But played on the Vectrex, these games just send me back to the arcades and I love it. The challenge for the Vectrex Mini is to bring these games back into their proper context.
Games can be loaded with a micro SD card, and power is via USB-C. The pack-in controller charges separately and talks to the console over Bluetooth. You can pledge for an additional controller that will come with a dongle allowing the controller to be used with your original Vectrex.
The console also has HDMI output, so you’ll be able to play Vectrex games without really involving the Mini Vectrex at all. Might as well just run the emulator at that point, to be honest. But, it’s there.
The Games
While you’ll be able to load any Vectrex game you can find onto the machine (and I believe all the original commercial releases are free and legal to distribute), the console itself comes with twelve built-in games. Fourteen, if the stretch goal is reached, and I think that goal has been reached, so fourteen games.
We don’t know what all of those games will be, yet. They’ve mentioned Bedlam, Hyperchase, Cosmic Chasm, Spinball, Rip Off, and Spike. *Spinball *is a superior pinball game. *Spike *is a weird 2.5D platformer. Rip Off is a Space War clone. *Hyperchase *is an auto racing game. *Bedlam *is a cool little arcade shooter. Cosmic Chasm is like a 2D version of Descent.
If the campaign hits a million Euro, they will develop a brand new game for the console.
I don’t believe the light pen or 3D attachment will work with the Mini. Which is sad, if true, because light pen-using Mail Plane is, I think, one of the better Vectrex games.
The Deals
The console comes in your basic black or brilliant white. The white edition is limited and numbered and comes with extra swag, like a keychain. I had to make a hard decision about whether or not to back this limited edition, white one (and as of this writing, they are still available). There’s also a bunch of different T-shirt designs, and a coffee table book talking about the development of the original console, stickers and a bunch more stuff.
Black or white? Definitely, the regular black version is more authentic, and the decision would be a no-brainer, except…
What happens when you’re not playing it?
Get this. The Vectrex Mini knows that you don’t want to be playing Vectrex games all the time. For those times when you manage to tear yourself away from your Spinball high score and do something else, the Vectrex Mini can be a clock, or a weather station, or just show a screensaver of a Vectrex game playing itself.
This elevates it beyond any of the other “mini” retro consoles I’ve seen, which are fine but get put away after awhile. This machine wants to earn a permanent place on the desk.
So, black is a good color, very authentic, very Vectrex. But white… would match my desk.
Not worth another hundred Euro though.
Will this ship?
It’d better. I paid for it. It uses off-the-shelf components with open source software; the design itself is simple. Manufacturing is the issue, but they have already talked to their factory in China and things look good on that front. Come next September, I should have it.
By that time, I should have played all the Nintendo 64 games I have saved up to play when my Analogue 3D gets here.
