More info on Joust Evolution

New screenshots on Vectorzoa. Looking very promising, combination of vector and bitmaps.

Expected release october 2006.

posted by Vectrex @ 11:54 AM 0 comments links to this post

Baby son

Daan with Quinten, my two sons! Quinten was born today at 17:10. All is OK with baby and mother.

posted by Vectrex @ 9:38 PM 2 comments links to this post

Joust Evolution

The Eurocon Mystery game from Vectorzoa will be Joust Evolution. I will post more info when available.

"JE is the first game to effectively combine Rasters and Vectors to any significant degree, benefitting from the strengths of each. The animated flame pits are another great example of this."

Joust is a classic Arcade game from Williams (1982). Info on Joust can be found on KLOV.

posted by Vectrex @ 1:24 PM 1 comments links to this post

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 2 comments links to this post

New server

The site has been moved to a more stable server. Still busy to make all the links work again. I have also moved the blogger pages to this server, but this had some side-effects which i am still looking at.

Everything looking alright now. If you see some broken links, please report them to me.

posted by Vectrex @ 10:41 PM 0 comments links to this post

RSS on www.vectrex.nl

www.vectrex.nl is powered by blogger but also by rss. If you click the orange button on the right you can add www.vectrex.nl for example on your google startpage (or other rss-readers). More info on rss on wikipedia.

posted by Vectrex @ 10:35 AM 0 comments links to this post

3D Lord of the Robots

Fury Unlimited has opened pre-ordering for a new 3D game (also 2D version included), named Lord of the Robots. This is the first 3D homebrew game. Packaging in Fury Unlimited style, this time finished with a cool metal engraving plate.

I have pre-ordered mine! Only 100 games made.

The first new 3D Imager game in over 20 years!!!

• Top-notch graphics & animation
• Goal-driven game play
• 3D game play*
• Full-color game play*
• Intense musical score + tons of sound fx
• 2D version also included
• Illustrated instruction manual
• Box packaging with a special engraved metal lid

*Requires a 3D Imager + color wheel (specific wheel to be determined)

posted by Vectrex @ 12:16 PM 0 comments links to this post

Spike Circus overlay revealed

Vectorzoa has put pictures on his site with the Spike Circus overlay and packaging in the final status.

The overlay has very high details, as you can see. The new clear box is also a new design for homebrew games. These boxes are also nice to use for your unboxed games. Vectorzoa has put 10 of the clear boxes on ebay.

I have pre-ordered my copy!

Still some games left in the limited numbered edition. Check the site and place your order before they are sold out.

posted by Vectrex @ 9:43 AM 0 comments links to this post