Release Pandora-Vectrex : Vectrex Emulator For Pandora V1.1.0

[zx-81]

Oh, does this Emulator also emulates these colored Overlay Foils that came with each game?

overlays are not supported in this version

 

[Jumpman]

Sadly, I'm in the process of trying to sell my Mr. Boston cart and overlay(1 of only 4 or 5 known to exist in the world), as funds are very tight right now, and that game is the Holy Grail of my collection and I figure I can get the most for it. It's good to know I can still play it in the palm of my hand thanks to you ZX. Your work is greatly appreciated, keep em coming!

Chris

 

[DaveC]

I think there may be a bit of a sound bug to look at some sounds are odd, try Berzerk there is a strange buzzing in the background.

According to Something I Read On The Internetz(tm), that was a problem of the original hardware (insufficient shielding between the monitor cable and the audio circuit), so perhaps it is just very, very faithful emulation?

No that is not what it is. I have a real Vectrex and know what you mean. It isn't that. There is a hum in the background in Berzerk (it curiously stops humming/buzzing when you shoot) that shouldn't be there. Other sounds are off as well and the digitized sound isn't working either (Spike), I think it is a timing bug of some kind.

Oh, does this Emulator also emulates these colored Overlay Foils that came with each game?

That would be cool if it was supported. Some games used those for maze walls etc. That should not slow things down too much if the Pandora GPU was used right?

 

[torpor]

I wonder what the name of that Vectrex game was, that had these giant 3D tripod thingies you had to shoot at .. that really was an awesome game. I'll have to go find it .. I think it was an arcade conversion in the 90's, hmm ..

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Doesn't sound familiar, although spookily, this would fit the bill:

http://geovector.tripod.com/_sgg/m1_1.htm

 

[fusion_power]

Oh, does this Emulator also emulates these colored Overlay Foils that came with each game?

That would be cool if it was supported. Some games used those for maze walls etc. That should not slow things down too much if the Pandora GPU was used right?

I don't see a problem in this. Just add a simple Pixel-image as background. I'm sure our Pandora can handle a static image without melting down.

 

[Blue Protoman]

*snip*

Delete this post, please!

 

[zx-81]

I don't see a problem in this. Just add a simple Pixel-image as background. I'm sure our Pandora can handle a static image without melting down.

It will slow down a bit since you need to scan the background image while you copy the vectrex bitmap to the screen, but you're right it should not affect the global performance on the pandora

 

[moxie]

No that is not what it is. I have a real Vectrex and know what you mean. It isn't that.

I know, just being silly. Therefore smilies

 

[fusion_power]

I don't see a problem in this. Just add a simple Pixel-image as background. I'm sure our Pandora can handle a static image without melting down.

It will slow down a bit since you need to scan the background image while you copy the vectrex bitmap to the screen, but you're right it should not affect the global performance on the pandora

Hm, I wonder if there is a hardware function in the OMAP for stuff like that. I guess, today everything has a HW function.
Oh, it comes in my mind, that the folis were actualy in front of the Screen. Are there Vectrex Games where the overlay foil affect the color of the Vector beams? In this case I guess it is a little bit more complicated to add these images correctly. h34r:

 

[Gruntfuggly]

They were simply plastic overlays with transparent colouring. In the vectrex there is only one vector 'beam' and it's white. Some arcade games (Star Wars for example) had multiple colour beams though...

 

[zx-81]

Hm, I wonder if there is a hardware function in the OMAP for stuff like that. I guess, today everything has a HW function.
Oh, it comes in my mind, that the folis were actualy in front of the Screen. Are there Vectrex Games where the overlay foil affect the color of the Vector beams? In this case I guess it is a little bit more complicated to add these images correctly. h34r:

You're right, it's more complex. First, the image overlay are generally not in the proper size, it has to been cut & stretched to fit the emulator render bitmap. The second point, is that it not so simple to put overlay pixel when it's black & gray color when it's not. We can use a simple xor function between overlay & emulator background but it's not really accurate. We need to find a simple function to modify the 'intensity' of the overlay pixel, given the beam vector gray color.

 

[DaveC]

Since the vectors on a Vectrex are monochrome and not color themselves I think that makes it a bit easier. All that it would need is a color transparency post process overlay over the greyscale vectors. If the GPU supports transparencies there should be little hit.

Since there are basically two render modes, vertical and horizontal two overlays could be drawn, one for each mode, then there would be no need for any code to stretch anything (that wouldn't look so great anyway). Overlays could be a feature, then the art for the overlays themselves could be left up to the community to draw (I realize that would be allot of work for you to draw as well as code everything). All that would be needed is a specified target resolution to draw at for both horizontal and vertical mode.

If there was such a feature I would do some of the art for these. Rather than just digitizing I would actually trace then create 1:1 pixel perfect overlays so it would look nice and clean.

 

[torpor]

I went to bed after a few hours of Vectrex playing, thinking it might be nice to use Cairo in this emulator .. (i.e. 'real' vectors for the display..)


Gruntfuggly: that looks similar! I also played that game in the Arcade, actually maybe that is the game I'm thinking of, and it wasn't on the Vectrex .. but I'm happy to hear that it soon may be! Wow!

 

[Gruntfuggly]

I found a zip of overlays (.png) for the original games here:

http://interbutt.com/mess/

(3rd from bottom)

 

[fusion_power]

Since the vectors on a Vectrex are monochrome and not color themselves I think that makes it a bit easier. All that it would need is a color transparency post process overlay over the greyscale vectors. If the GPU supports transparencies there should be little hit.

I remember that the vectors were bright blue onto the Vectrex, looked really cool. Does the Emulator here let you choose the color of the Beams or are they really just white/grey over black background?

 

[Gruntfuggly]

The built in game (Minestorm) had a blue overlay - that was used in the adverts at the time...

 

[torpor]

With this emulator you can choose the color of the beam - blue or white. I prefer blue myself.

 

[fusion_power]

The built in game (Minestorm) had a blue overlay - that was used in the adverts at the time...

Ok, I didn't knew that. ^^" It was exactly the game I've played, didn't noticed the overlay in that case.

With this emulator you can choose the color of the beam - blue or white. I prefer blue myself.

Cool, problem solved.

 

[zx-81]

here is a first beta with overlay support :
http://zx81.zx81.free.fr/public/pandora/vectrex/pandora-vectrex-v1.1.1-pnd.zip

You may need to remove the appdata/vectrex from the previous version.
the folder 'over' contains overlay. You need two images for the overlay for the two render modes (rot90 and normal). The filename must be the same as rom file with _rot90.png and _norm.png added at the end.
I've added an example for the game 'armor' (over/armor_rot90.png and over/armor_norm.png) You need to activate 'overlay' in the settings menus.