Benutzer:Schnurrikowski/V
Vortrag Jay Smith entwicklung etc. Vectrex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBtFJjTnE6w
https://web.archive.org/web/20200216162348/http://othes.univie.ac.at/53599/1/56496.pdf
Minor Platforms in Videogame History J Švelch - 2020 - JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/26983763 "The first chapter of the book analyses Vectrex, a 1982 video game machine that ended up ..."
Classic home video games, 1972-1984: A complete reference guide B Weiss - 2011
https://www.videospielgeschichten.de/vectrex-vorhang-auf/
History of Video Games https://archive.org/details/ultimatehistoryofvideogamesrevisited/page/n245/mode/2up?q=vectrex
(Wolf Vectrex https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/document/doi/10.7560/791480-013/html nix besonderes)
Überblick Wolf Lexikon https://www.google.de/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Video_Games_The_Culture/fc0vEAAAQBAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=%22vectrex%22&pg=PA400&printsec=frontcover S. 400
-> M. Allen: "Retroinspection: Vectrex" In: Retro Gamer 35, 2007, S. 18-25.
Entwicklung Details (umfangreich, Zahlen scheinen aber nicht zu stimmen: Nov. 82 als Verkaufsstart angegeben): https://www.google.de/books/edition/Classic_Videogame_Hardware_Genius_Guide/QZS_gXpshd4C?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=vectrex+bradley&pg=PT153&printsec=frontcover
Test 1984 (Erweiterungen, Spiele) https://archive.org/details/VidKidsBookOfHomeVideoGamesRawsonStovall1984/page/n129/mode/2up?q=vectrex
1999 Kurzüberblick Geschichte https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorldMagazine/PCW%20199910%20October%20Created%20From%20PCW%20Cover%20CD/page/n177/mode/2up?q=vectrex+bradley ---
"color version" CES Juni 83 https://web.archive.org/web/20080405124839/http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Writings/VideogameImpact.pdf S. 118 Technik
"Unlike traditional raster-scan televisual displays, vector monitors do not fill the entire screen with pixels.", "Vector graphics arguably reached their highest expression in the arcade culture of the 1970s and 1980s, when companies such as Atari utilized vector monitors in the design of videogames such as Asteroids (Atari, 1979) and Tempest (Atari, 1981).6" S. 50 "To reiterate, raster-scan CRTs follow a scanning pattern—they build images row-by-row, filling in every pixel on the screen—while the Vectrex’s random-scan vector generator commands the beam to skip points of the screen where lines are not required." S. 51 "Although it is technically possible for vector-based devices to display in colour (which would require three separate electron beams for red, green, and blue), the Vectrex can only display images monochromatically, meaning that its graphics simply appear as white lines on a textureless CRT backdrop. GCE did produce a dubiously named ‘full-colour’ 3D headset peripheral for the Vectrex that enables the user to perceive colour in selected videogames." S. 51
"Despite these limitations, the Vectrex also has a number of unique affordances. For example, because the platform’s electron beam can randomly access any coordinate on the screen, it is possible for the monitor to depict multiple objects moving seamlessly and in arbitrary directions. This capacity for ‘random access’ is particularly advantageous for space shooting videogames, a genre that dominates the platform’s software catalogue.", "This kind of random on-screen access is much more challenging to achieve on raster-based consoles such as the Atari 2600.", S. 52
Service Manual https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6882265/page/n1/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Controller
"The notion that the player’s left thumb should control the joystick and the right thumb the buttons was, according to Smith (in Allen, 2007: 20), inspired by the placement of flight stick and throttle in fighter aircraft." S. 50
Spiele
"the Vectrex’s grid-based graphical system similarly influenced the design of its videogames." S. 59
"Mine Storm comes accompanied with a transparent plastic overlay that superimposes a simple grid onto the screen, slicing the play area into a series of identifiable coordinates. In the opening moments of the videogame, a spaceship known as the ‘minelayer’ flies in from the foreground of the screen, seeding bits of light around the play area until it recedes into the darkness. To achieve the effect of the minelayer ‘approaching’ and ‘receding’ from the foreground of the screen (in a manner very similar to the opening scene of Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope [Lucas, 1977]), Mine Storm takes advantage of the monitor’s scaling capabilities" S. 59
"The player’s task is to survive by piloting their spaceship around the screen while avoiding and destroying active mines. The spaceship can be piloted to any area of the display, and seamlessly rotated 360 degrees to fire luminous shots in all directions. If one of these shots makes contact with and destroys an active mine, two more dots will hatch into mines, which then split into two smaller mines when shot. Once all the bits of light have hatched into mines, the minelayer returns to the screen and frantically seeds more unhatched mines until destroyed by the player. Once all hatched and unhatched mines are cleared, the player moves to the next round, and the process is repeated ...The videogame increases difficulty round-by-round by introducing mines with more challenging attack patterns. For example, rather than simply floating around the screen, in later rounds some mines will actively pursue the player. " S. 59 f
"Much like the artwork that decorated arcade cabinets such as Asteroids, the Vectrex’s plastic overlays had a dual purpose. They added visual flourishes to the platform’s screen and its videogames, and also sought to convey information to players about controls and inputs. Every Vectrex videogame came with a unique overlay." S. 64
"The Vectrex was not the first videogame device to use plastic overlays in this way. Arcade machines such as Star Castle and Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) utilized overlays to achieve similar visual effects. The first commercially available home videogame console, the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, also came packaged with translucent television overlays as well as physical peripherals such as plastic chips, cards, and play money." S. 65
Erweiterungen
"The Vectrex’s short-lived light pen and 3D imager peripherals reveal further methods of player-machine interfacing that the platform sought to accommodate.7 Much like Sutherland’s Sketchpad, the light pen gives", "players the ability to ‘draw’ vector lines directly onto the Vectrex screen (Figure 3). Much like Sketchpad, it was created as a tool for producing ‘artistic’ drawings, underscoring the tactility and performativity of the vector line. The 3D imager, meanwhile, is a headset that allows players to experience selected videogames in stereoscopic 3D and colour.", "The Vectrex 3D imager is an early example of a stereoscopic videogame technology—not the first," S. 61
Rezeption
Zeitgenössisch
82 Newsweek https://archive.org/details/sim_newsweek_1982-10-25_100_17/page/n85/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Vorstellung in Byte Dez 82 s. 92 f. https://archive.org/details/sim_byte_1982-12_7_12/page/n93/mode/2up?q=vectrex+bradley
Test November 82 (viel Spiele): https://archive.org/details/electronic-fun-with-computers-and-games-volume-1-number-1-november-1982/page/n33/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Dez 82 Bernstein Report https://archive.org/details/198401271983VideoGameMarketSurvey/page/n61/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Vor-Nachteile Dez 82 https://archive.org/details/198401271983VideoGameMarketSurvey/page/n61/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Test Januar 83 UK https://archive.org/details/tv-gamer-magazine-1983-01/page/n11/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Test Juli 83 (Erweiterungen, Spiele) https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_10_1983-07_Pumpkin_Press_US/page/n73/mode/2up?q=vectrex
83 Frankreich Marktübersicht https://archive.org/details/LeMondeDiplomatique1983FranceFrench/Jul%2012%201983%2C%20Le%20Monde%20Diplomatique%2C%20%2311960%2C%20France%20%28fr%29/page/n43/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Juni 83 Kurzvorstellung https://archive.org/details/RadioElectronics_422/RadioElectronics1983-06/page/n65/mode/2up?q=vectrex+bradley
BRD 83 https://archive.org/details/TeleMatch.N06.1983.10-KCz.pdf/page/n7/mode/2up?q=vectrex
Spieletests 1983 BRD https://archive.org/details/TeleMatch.N05.1983.08-KCz.pdf/page/n51/mode/2up?q=vectrex
"The Vectrex was viewed by magazine writers as an exceedingly novel videogame platform when it was first released. Its portable screen was widely celebrated (Clark, 1982: 92; Goodman, 1983: 68), as were its ‘brilliantly luminous’ vector graphics (Davidson, 1982: 25) and ‘marvellous 3-D effects’ (Goodman, 1982: 25), the likes of which had ‘to be seen to be believed’, according to one magazine writer (Clark, 1982: 93).4 Vector graphics were not new in the early 1980s, but the Vectrex was the first videogame platform to bring them into the home. The console’s screen was, therefore, seen as profoundly at odds with other domestic televisual displays. ‘It’s not really a TV game at all’, wrote TV Gamer magazine in 1983, ‘it doesn’t even work like any other TV game’ (‘Vectrex System Review’, 1983: 12, italics in original). With its searingly bright screen and ‘very, very fast’ refresh rate (‘Vectrex System Review’, 1983: 13), the Vectrex’s random-scan CRT differed substantially from domestic television sets, on which raster-based home consoles such as the Atari 2600 would be played. For one writer, the Vectrex’s graphics seemed to ‘pop into life’ and ‘create movement and action with a high degree of urgency’ (Worley, 1984: 84). Another journalist postulated that the platform’s portability would ‘liberate’ players from their ‘traditional dependence on the availability of the family television set’ (Davidson, 1982: 24), forecasting a shift wherein videogame players symbolically and physically disassociated from traditional familial spaces. Many journalists also praised the Vectrex for bringing ‘arcade-perfect’ ports of vector videogames such as Star Castle (Cinematronics, 1980) into the home (Goodman, 1982: 24; Goodman, 1983: 68; Ahl, 1983: 56). The desire to bridge the gap between the arcade and the home proved to be enduring ‘imaginary’ that outlasted the Vectrex and became fully articulated with SNK’s Neo Geo AES in 1991." S. 49
"Perhaps the main limitation of the Vectrex monitor is that it cannot feasibly depict objects with solid or shaded areas, due to the sheer complexity of the process and the platform’s lack of memory space. Several videogame magazines and trade publications identified this as a serious limitation of the 52 Minor Platforms in Videogame History console (Goodman, 1982: 24; Takoushi, 1983: 118; ‘Vectrekking!’, 1982: 35)." S. 51
"The Vectrex was also the first home console to use a rectangular controller that could be held between both hands, which many publications took to calling a ‘panel’ (Goodman, 1982: 24; ‘Vectrekking!’, 1982: 34)." S. 49
"Given that this was the first instance of such a control scheme in videogame hardware design, many players found the new layout somewhat jarring. One writer, who was accustomed to manoeuvring arcade-style joysticks with several fingers, complained that the Vectrex’s joystick was ‘too small and difficult to control accurately’ (Goodman, 1982: 25). Another publication claimed that the controller favoured left-handed people because of the joystick’s placement on the left-hand side of the controller (Ahl, 1983: 56)." S. 49
"Although the Vectrex was the first videogame console to domesticate vector graphics, the basic technology underlying its display had existed for decades." S. 49
"By bringing vector graphics into the home, the Vectrex challenged the ‘visual regime’ of raster-based home consoles and posited an alternative means of player-machine interfacing. It pioneered the rectangular controller and portable videogame screen, as well as interfacing peripherals such as the VR headset and haptic interface (discussed in the next section). The Vectrex performed important transitional work in videogame history—sealing the fate of vector graphics as a distinct mode of visualization ‘between the acts’ of arcade and home videogames." S. 53
"The Vectrex is a platform that attempted to negotiate a number of transitional moments in videogame history, such as the migration of arcade videogames into the home, the domestication of mobile screens, and the displacement of vector graphics. It is a unique interfacing device that enabled developers and players to ‘think differently’ about the interaction between opticality and tactility in videogame play. It inherits—and experiments with—multiple methods of visualization from the histories of art and computer graphics. As an intermezzo, it performed important ‘narrative work’ for videogame history. For every interfacing technique it laid the groundwork for, it sealed the fate of another. It is, therefore, a historically vital yet ultimately expendable videogame platform. Although it challenged the visual regime of raster-based home consoles, its commercial failure ultimately helped reinforce an emergent structure of feeling in videogame culture; one that would shape the look and feel of home videogames in the years to come. A number of aesthetic and technical traditions converge in the Vectrex interface, ..." S. 68
Vectrex flopped https://archive.org/details/strategicmanagem0000harr/page/n283/mode/2up?q=vectrex+bradley