First off, how cool is it that they call the Vectrex “光速船” (kou-soku-sen = “light speed ship”) in Japan?
This more recent campaign locks down some things that were left up in the air in the original campaign. The screen is now decided to be a 5″ AMOLED screen, chosen for its deep blacks in order to better mimic the original display. There will be video out, if you’d rather not play on the built-in display; the campaign states they still have not decided upon HDMI or USB-C. The picture shows a full-size HDMI socket, but I have seen with my Raspberry Pi experiments that there is a whole galaxy of different HDMI connectors. Mini? Micro?
There will also be a plug-compatible socket that will support the original, full size controllers, a micro SD slot for loading your own games, and a USB-A slot for… I don’t know what that is for, to be honest.
Japanese backers have the option of getting the much cooler (imho) T-shirt with the “Light Speed Ship” logo on it. The campaign photos feature the same green/white branding on the console and the Bluetooth controller, but I believe I read that all backers, including those in the original campaign, will get stickers to personalize their consoles in a variety of ways, so I imagine all backers, including me, will be able to opt for the Japanese-style branding.
The game list in the header image shows a good range of classic Vectrex games, including the two I wrote about Saturday:
- ベドラム → Bedlam
- ブリッツ → Blitz!
- クリーンスウィープ → Clean Sweep
- コズミックカズム → Cosmic Chasm
- ハイパーチェイス → Hyper Chase
- マインストーム → Mine Storm
- ポーラー・レスキュー → Polar Rescue
- リップオフ → Rip Off
- スパイク → Spike
- スピンボール → Spinball
- スター・ホーク → Star Hawk
- ウェブ・ウォーズ → Web Wars
They also mention that they will be including Mine Storm II in the collection. Spinball is one of the best video pinball simulations I’ve ever played, not so much for the playfield (which is very simple), but for the physicality of the controls. I’ve written about some of the other games before.
Japan is also getting their own custom case color — a deep navy blue. This will not be offered to Western backers, and their FAQ suggests it will be difficult to ship this out of the region, as the packaging will be entirely in Japanese.
The original was black; not sure why you’d want another color, to be honest.
One of the potential backers was unhappy that the Light Speed Ship was half size. I can’t help but feel the same way. I will treasure my not-quite-so-fragile Mini, but the original is not really all that large, what with the huge beveling. The actual screen size is a lot smaller than a regular sheet of paper.
Still looking forward to it, though as a collector, I’m still on the lookout for original games and overlays. Who knows, someday maybe the 3D attachment…
Vectrex is such an interesting peice of gaming history. I can’t imagine many peaple have as large of a collection as you do.
I have most of the consoles than came out between the original Nintendo and the X-box 360/ PS3 era sitting in a closet here. However, the only console I own from the pre-Nintendo era is an Atari 5200. The last time I plugged it in (maybe 15 years ago?) the analogue sticks still worked, but it has been a very long time since I’ve tried it.
There’s lots of people who have better collections, I’m sure. Newer looking boxes, too. I saw an entire Vectrex collection for auction at a con once, the desired price was eye-watering.
It’s hard to play a lot of older consoles because the video is just so incompatible. At least the Vectrex came with its own monitor 🙂