Vectrex: Lines of Force

Microvision box, Milton-Bradley 1979

Games for the Microvision, in the 1979 Sears Christmas Wishbook, pg. 665

The Microvision handheld LCD game, with Block Buster cartridge and without, 1979

To talk about the Vectrex, one must start with Microvision, designed by Jay Smith. It is the first ever cartridge-based handheld gaming system. Sporting a 16×16 pixel LCD grid for a display, it is released by Milton Bradley in 1979. In early 1981, as head of Western Technologies/Smith Engineering, Smith and his staff conceptualize a portable vector scan home game machine, which they label the Mini-Arcade. Toy maker Kenner options the rights to the system under design, but eventually their interest wanes on the concept. Under the official designation HP-3000, the self-contained system is to consist of a 5″ black and white monitor and attached joystick unit with four buttons. By mid-year, Santa Monica-based General Consumer Electronics licenses the concept, a company founded by former executives from Mattel in 1980, including Ed Krakauer, former chairman of Mattel Electronics, who takes the title of president of GCE; his new company is known at the time as the makers of hand-held games, as well as LCD gaming watches such as GameTime.

Ed Krakauer, former chairman of Mattel Electronics, here president of GCE, shown with Creative Computing magazine editor Betsy Staples, 1983

SportsTime, GameTime and ArcadeTime LCD game watches by GCE, 1982

Krakauer requests that monitor size for the new system is increased to 9″. Moving from a cancelled project to reverse engineer the Atari VCS in order to produce games for it, John Hall, Mark Indictor and Paul A. Newell begin work on building the Mini-Arcade. John Ross puts together the hardware, consisting of an advanced 8-bit 1.5 MHz Motorola 68A09 CPU, accompanied by the versatile 3-voice AY-3-8192 sound chip by General Instruments. Gerry Karr and Hall work on the software to control all this, known in the industry as the “Executive”. Later additions to the team include Georgia Tech co-op students William Hawkings and Chris King, who end up staying on with the project.

Vectrex

Hey Dad, didn’t you buy any more games for the Vectrex other than the built-in Minestorm? Yeesh. (1982)

Vectrex, the King of the Stand-alones

Built into what will become the Vectrex is the Asteroids-like Minestorm, with other games available via plug-in cassettes. Although the vector scan system cannot generate colours, transparent mylar overlays are included with each game, placed over the monitor screen in a cardboard frame to add static spots of colour for gameplay, as well as instructions for some games. Most of the available cartridges are coin-op conversions, with a specialty in vector coin-op maker Cinematronics’ library including Space Wars, Star Castle, Rip Off, Armor Attack, Solar Quest and Star Hawk.

Click button to play arcade game Star Castle on the Vectrex. Hit Tab to configure controls

Also included are some valiant attempts at reproducing raster graphics games in vector form, such as Stern Electronics’ Scramble and Berzerk, along with a translation of Atari’s hit racing game Pole Position. As the system develops, the GCE marketing department isn’t too impressed with the original name of the project, and through an evolution from the suggested title Vector-X, deemed too “50’s sci-fi”, the machine is finally labeled the Vectrex.

It debuts at the 1982 summer CES in Chicago, and the Vectrex is then initially released to dealers in eight major U.S. markets: New York, Philadelphia, L.A., San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Chicago and Boston, at a suggested retail price of $199 USD with the games going for $35. The product is certainly unique among big-guns like the VCS, Intellivision and ColecoVision, and meets with critical approval from video game and electronics magazines. Electronic Games declares the system The King of the Stand-alones, and creates the new category Best Mini-Arcade Game in its yearly arcade game awards to accommodate the system’s excellent Scramble conversion.

Click button to play arcade game Scramble on the Vectrex. Hit Tab to configure controls

The Vectrex home video game console: bad news in 1983

Electronic Games magazine declares the Vectrex the King of the Stand-Alones, Nov. 1982 edition

Behold the magnificent Vecto! Guardian and mascot of the Vectrex, as seen in the premiere issue of the Vectrex Owner’s Club Vectrex Passport magazine, Summer 1983

In the summer of 1982 Milton Bradley purchases GCE for $4 million and additional considerations, but as the video game market spirals into a drastic depression, not even the 3-D Imager for adding 3D effects to the graphics, or the Light Pen for drawing images on the screen, can increase public interest. The following year, at the 1983 Summer CES in Chicago, Milton Bradley gamely announces a prototype Vectrex Graphic Computer System in development. The computer add-on is to offer 16K RAM expandable to 64K, include BASIC for programming, an 80 column by 40 line text mode, a 6809 CPU and a full-stroke keyboard. The add-on is estimate to be priced at around $100. Unfortunately, due to tumbling prices through 1983, Milton Bradley is forced to slash the price of the Vectrex itself to $100. Due to the high cost of producing the vector graphic monitor, the company loses 31.6 million dollars in production costs with the Vectrex, and after abortive attempts at developing a colour vector system, new Milton Bradley owner Hasbro ceases production of the Vectrex in early 1984, after the system builds up a library of 29 games. The remaining inventory of the world’s first, and only, home vector arcade system and its games are dumped onto the market at rock-bottom prices.

The Vectrex video game system in the pages of the Autumn/Winter 1983 Argos catalogue (UK)

The Vectrex Light Pen and 3D Imager, 1983 image

The Vectrex Light Pen, 1983

Trackball for Vectrex

A montage of games for the Vectrex console, 1983

In 1988, an attempt is made by GCE to bring back the Vectrex in hand-held format, but they are foiled as the release of Nintendo’s extremely popular GameBoy device sucks all of the oxygen out of the hand-held market. Eventually, all rights to the ROM game images and system schematics are allowed to revert to public domain by the copyright owners, allowing for legal emulation and ROM distribution. The Vectrex gets a slick emulation package for iOS devices in the shape of Vectrex Regeneration, by Rantmedia Games. Via a florid user interface, players can browse the history of the device, check out game box covers and instructions, and play the games, of course. The emulator itself is free, along with Minestorm. Other games are available via in-app purchasing. 

The Vectrex video game. Now in Scandinavia. (1983)

Vectrex designer Jay Smith (standing) and Gerry Karr at CGE 2014