Vecvoxx review

I received John's VecVoxx (developer edition), including a very smart lightpen. The Vecvoxx works very well, with the build in speaker and volume control. I tested it with Debris, Color Clash and Spike Circus. The Vecvoxx can produce some nice soundeffects (speach mostly, but also other effects), and a game like Debris or Spike Circus are more fun to play with the Vecvoxx. With Debris there are sounds effects for the shooting, explosions, level is announced, game over is announced, and many more effects. With Spike Circus you get the Darnit, and more (there should be a song, but i haven't found it yet).

The Vecvoxx is a nice piece of hardware to add to your collection, and to get the most out of the new games. The extra lightpen is also very handy, so you can keep your original pen in it's box.

Give John an email and he will make one for you (John is having exams until end of september). The following versions are available:

base (euro 35):
VecVoxx in plastic case with build in speaker and colume adjustment, loopthru for player 2 (except buttons 1&2)

standard (euro 45):
base+ earphone jack + lightpen port + lightpen

developer (euro 55):
standard + serial interface (usb is for powering the device)

The info from John's site says it all: VecVoxX is a speakjet based device that allows Vectrex games to use synthesized speech! Richard Hutchinson from www.vectrex.biz (sells Flashcarts btw!) engineered a brilliant piece of Vectrex add-on called VecVoice. Years later he did a VecVox based on the speakjet and added a chip for VecVoice compatibility. Unluckily his VecVox never had a plastic casing with build in speaker so I redesigned the PCB, added a build-in speaker and called it VecVoxX (X stands for extended). The VecVoxX is 100% compatible to the VecVox and VecVoice. The VecVoxX plugs directly into the Player2 Port of the Vectrex. It has loopthrough for directional pad and buttons 3&4 so future games (Debris2?) can support 2 Player games with VecVoxX support. You could even think of 3D or lightpen games with VecVoxX support!

Games using Vecvoxx hardware (as far is I know):
Debris, Color Clash, Yasi, Spike Circus, Space Frenzy and some games in the making.

posted by Vectrex @ 11:22 AM