Certain treasures lie buried
under layers of time and boxes, nested inside dusty cellars and
forgotten like the memory of good friends who moved to another city, in the
middle of our adolescence. And it is precisely in one of those dusty
and dark cellars that Mauro and I, video game archaeologists at Retroedicola, found
our beloved Vectrex, a
wonderful machine destined to defeat oblivion decade after decade.
We are talking about a console in every respect, whose initial concept dates back to the early Eighties,
before being released in 1982
in the States, and throughout Europe the following year. Although it officially belongs to the second generation
and is comparable to 8-bit consoles,
technically we are talking about vector graphics, consequently the project
initially developed by Smith
Engineering charted a very different path for itself from the one later followed by the giants Sega and Nintendo with their video game breakthroughs.
Grafica vettoriale? And what is it? We live
In an era where photorealism is the order of the day and we can easily distinguish
the playful mesh of freckles sprinkled across Ellie’s face in The Last of Us, so
entrusting an entire game library to such a peculiar graphics system, based on
polygons that take shape thanks to precise mathematical calculations, the so-called Bézier curves, was to say
the least a risky gamble.
Via the tooth, away with the pain: the
Vectrex had a canonically short life, just two years before being withdrawn
from the market, but as they say in these cases, it is from this fixed point in
time, Doctor Who ipse dixit, that the legend begins. Today it is one of the consoles
most sought after and loved by retro pop culture enthusiasts, with a game library
perhaps not so large, however titles such as Minestorm, the Vectrex version of the eternal Asteroids (but with some differences), and
the beautiful side-scrolling shooter Scramble (which deserves a separate article) are masterpieces that
should be played at least once in a lifetime.
The Vectrex comes with its own built-in vertical monitor; after inserting the game cartridge, we can interact with a joystick with four rectangular-shaped buttons, much more ergonomic than it looks: of course, we cannot expect the responsiveness of a modern control peripheral, but it did its dirty work and allowed a rather accurate degree of movement for the Minestorm spacecraft.
[Vectrex vintage advertising]
The degree
of immersiveness that the Vectrex offered was total: the Star Wars game, also thanks to the
overlay on the screen of a transparent acetate sheet that provided
the illusion of colors, was so fluid as to seem miraculous,
a Jedi experience that I highly recommend. The introduction of other
sought-after peripherals such as the light pen, essential for being able to work with a couple of graphic applications and even a music creator, made the Vectrex a
multifunctional console, and it was precisely this versatility that contributed to its commercial failure.
Contrasting vector lines with the pixels of its competitors,
the Vectrex certainly succeeded in standing out from the crowd, but as
often happens, emerging with one’s own uniqueness and quality, undeniable elements,
is not always synonymous with success.
Yet, even today, legions of fans and enthusiasts “play” with the Vectrex and the possibility of recreating the games of the past, modifying the levels or even designing new original video games: this is also possible thanks to the licensing of the Vectrex duplication in all its forms, which took place in 1990 by Smith Engineering itself, as the good Mauro, my Deep Throat (the informant, don’t be naughty!) points out to me when it comes to digging into the past.
Exactly as happened for
the Commodore 64 and the Amiga, it is we who keep hardware and software alive, overtaken
by new generations of consoles and gamers, who,
just as the control points of Bézier curves determine the shape of the
vector line, draw an indissoluble link between a bittersweet past and
a present still to be written.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
TGMGrading
Grade your titles
Inspection, sub-grades, seal and display case: every grade comes with the method behind it, written down in full.
![[Vectrex vintage advertising]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fvectrex-la-console-delle-curve-di-bezier-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
