Favourite Vectrex Games

[Squidge]

A few weeks ago I started a Vectrex emu from scratch, and now I have it at a decent speed, I want to support a few more games than just Mine Storm

Since there's not many Vectrex games out there, and they are all freely distributable, I was thinking of integrating them into the emu.

Unfortunately, I've no idea which games are the best and don't really have time at the moment to play them all, so I thought I'd leave it open to the forums to choose.

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Secondly, would you prefer the vectrex's screen using half the gp32's screen (dpad on left, buttons on right) or rotated 90 degrees so it uses more of the screen, but the dpad on the bottom and buttons on the top ?

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For the curious, you can download a techdemo of the emulator (ie. non-playable):

16-bit graphics version
8-bit graphics version

There are too versions for speed testing, but I don't see any real difference between them (maybe you will). Both versions require a machine capable of 166Mhz. Although my BLU crashes at 166Mhz in OSnes, it seems to run this quite capably for some weird reason.

The 8-bit version will have a strange color scheme, as I've not actually setup a palette for the 8-bit mode, just wanted to see if it was any faster.

 

[TelcoLou]

WOW!!

This is great! Didn't they make a version of Tempest?? I think it was called "web Wars"

And I'd like the vertical-oriented sceen.

 

[Jarska333]

I happen to have a Vectrex, unfortunately it has been broken for some time... Wonder if anyone fixes these? A bit too heavy to send to consolefix. <_<
And I doubt they could do anything with it.
Anyways, I only had the game that came with it, and it wasn't that good... I can't even remember the name.

About the screen, would it be difficult to make it adjustable from preferences?

 

[gaterooze]

Good Vectrex games I've played on the real hardware:

Fortress of Narzod
Web Wars
Bedlam
Scramble
Berzerk
Star Castle
Flipper Pinball/Spinball
Spike

Ones I've heard are good but not played:

Polar Rescue
Star Ship/Ssar Trek
Solar Quest

Also check out some of the "modern" releases for Vectrex on this site:

http://vgdb.vectrex.com/index.pl

Some of them look brilliant!

Good luck with the emu, Squidge!

 

[Vimacs]

wow, a (not terrible slow) vectrex emu for gp, thank you so much, pleas finish this project
will there be a way to load foregrounds? (the color thingees you put over it)
couse they are not the full fun without the colors.
and could you change the white to a soft blue?
well that should all be very low priority, you can add it when its finishd

 

[Hwrd]

Wow, definitely looking forward to this emulator!

>>vectrex's screen using half the gp32's screen (dpad on left, buttons on right)

That's what I'd prefer.


It might be better to allow the user to select the ROM's, since there are still new Vectrex games coming out, and they are excellent.

Thanks.

 

[falken80]

Web Wars Web Wars Web Wars Web Wars Web Wars Web Wars Web Wars !!!!

very nice.. GREAT WORK !

I hope to see nice opacity sprite delay.. like the real vectrex.. in next version

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Armour Attack is one of my favourites.

There's also a fair few homebrew games available now - check out Tsunami for a real Tempest clone...

Hope this gets completed!

As ever, great work Squidge!

 

[ralp99]

awesome. can't wait to play with Scramble.

weren't you the guy doing a Lynx emu? Maybe i should go check out that intvw.

thanks for the hard work!!

 

[TelcoLou]

WOW²

Those demos look great, just one note:

There are too versions for speed testing, but I don't see any real difference between them (maybe you will).

The 8-bit version has very dim dark-blue vectors, the 16-bit version is white (and much more visible).

I tested on a 166mhz BLU.

 

[DaveC]

There were a lot of cool Vex games out there. Armor attack was good, honestly I liked the Built-it Minestorm alot too. I liked webwars too. This would be an awesome emu to have on the GP32 as it is so much different than other systems. I really hope this one gets finished.

It is more comfortable to play the GP32 in landscape mode. But I think you should have an option to switch back and forth rather than lock to one orientation only. If I were to pick a favorite though it would be to play in standard GP32 orientation, it is just more comfortable. Also I think you should have the ROMs separate so that more could be added.

I have tried the demo and it is promising as it is running at a pretty good speed. Although that is with no audio, hopefully it will run at that speed with audio.

I do know that it is a demo and very early but I do have a few suggestions for the more final releases. I noticed that it doesn't fill the screen vertically, I think it should go all of the way to the top and bottom, and have bars on the sides (centered).

I really hope that the more final versions of this will have sound. I don't like to play emus that don't have sound as that is a big part of game playing. Many times sound is left out of even "final" versions of emus for some reason unfortunately.

Overlays would be cool as someone suggested, but that would require transparencies which I would expect would slow it down.

 

[Mark1970]

90 degrees rotated screen option would be very nice. Even then it's also possible to use more than just the start button as action button.
Cheers, Mark

 

[Jarska333]

Hey, just out of curiosity, Mark1970, but does that array of icons on you signature represent your current machinery?

 

[Ringo]

The 2 demos simply doesn't run on my GP32 - I winder if that too will be the case for the emulator itself.

I don't usually have a problem with 166 Mhz, but anyway...
Just wanted to mention this - It's not THAT important to me (I don't even know the console), but now it's reported.

Cheers

Edit: oh yeah... I'm using Slubmans firmware.

 

[Drumaster]

My BLU is "only" 166 Mhz capable, not 168 Mhz, I have Slub's fw and yet it runs on my GP.

 

[Squidge]

ok, thanks for the responses people, I'll try and get web wars running first, and then add a file selector or some such so you can load various ones. Probably be good to get the controls working too

 

[Squidge]

Question:

Is it worth adding save states, or are most games in the style that they are not needed?

 

[Gruntfuggly]

I wouldn't bother - I can't think of a single Vectrex game that you'd play for longer than a standard arcade game type session. There are a few homebrew games which have passwords to select levels, but certainly nothing worth saving state for...

Any new betas available yet?

 

[Squidge]

Not really any new betas as such. Full joystick support is now included, and it's possible to play games properly now. Just need to find time to do the title screen and I'll release a beta.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Excellent - Consider yourself encouraged...