Sorry, all Vectrex development has permanantly stopped as my Vectrex is officially dead, and I'm not prepaired to mortgage the house to buy another one at current prices 😉
I’ll add things as-and-when I ether update any older projects or decide to start something new.
I've gave this page a bit of a tidy up, so the links should work again, and I've added a few new links to some interesting stuff.
I've gave this page a bit of a tidy up, so the links should work again, and I've added a few new links to some interesting stuff.
UPDATE: 09/10/2021
Things currently in progress or still under development...
I'm currently making a vert limited set of 'test' boxed cartridges (no overlay) for the last updated version of 'Circus Vectrex.' These will be going to whoever askes first, for £20 plus around £5 P&P. This is on hold just now as my Vectrex is currently broken, so I have no way of testing the eproms.
I've made one test Cartridge, with a box, but notting will be available untill (if) I can fix my Vectrex.
Secondly I've modified the 'Vec Wars' game to give it a two joystick controlled version, as well as keeping the original button firing method. I stopped making 'Vec Wars 2,' as it just didn't have the playability and wasn't really going anywhere as a game.
And lastly, if the follow up game using the engine behind the 'Trapped' is made/finished, it's looking like it would be released on an eprom that's capable of saving data (not cheep). ** After loosing all the work I had originally done for this I've got some basic engine stuff running again.
Secondly I've modified the 'Vec Wars' game to give it a two joystick controlled version, as well as keeping the original button firing method. I stopped making 'Vec Wars 2,' as it just didn't have the playability and wasn't really going anywhere as a game.
I've started work on a new game, preliminarily titles 'Ship Shape' but ths may also go nowhere without a working Vecterx.
And lastly, if the follow up game using the engine behind the 'Trapped' is made/finished, it's looking like it would be released on an eprom that's capable of saving data (not cheep). ** After loosing all the work I had originally done for this I've got some basic engine stuff running again.
The exact chip used depends on the amount of data I can get away with saving.
The new working title for this is now 'Escaped' but again, withought a working Vectrex work on this is stalled.
So as usual, no promises for any of the future stuff. I've got enough other commitments!
Circus Vectrex v2.0
This is (I think) the most complete version of the Circus Vectrex game.
It is the closest code to end product. And was the first game I intended to make a cartridge release for. Unfortunately all planes to release this were scuppered by various things, mostly revolving around the price to produce a set number of cartridges when I had no idea if any would sell.
It is loosely based on the Atari game, but was never meant to be a clone. The bounce physics are improved in the latest release, but are still based more on bouncing ball physics than jump physics. Honestly, just because I liked it better like that, and it's my game ;)
Gameplay:
The top of the screen consists of three rows of ten targets.
These targets continually move across the screen in the opposing direction of the line above.
The object of the game is to clear as much targets as possible, gaining points for each one hit.
The game speed starts off relatively slow, but increases a little with each target hit.
When a full row is cleared it is replenished, bringing back all the target objects for that row.
The fewer objects there are on the screen the faster the games speed increases.
So replenishing a row slows the game speed down again making it easier to aim and hit the objects.
The targets are removed by catapulting an Acrobat at them using the see-saw at the bottom of the screen.
The Acrobat movement works in a manner similar to a break-out style game, causing the Acrobat to tumble through the targets, clearing them from the screen.
However, the Acrobat may also lose momentum, if it in in the air too long and hits too much targets, causing it to fall.
In order to keep the Acrobat in play you must ensure it lands on the free side of the see-saw, launching the other Acrobat into the air.
The see-saw can be flipped by pressing any button on the controller.
A missed landing will result in the loss of a life.
When all lives are lost the game ends.
Vec Wars: Retro Devolved
This is a basic shooter taking inspiration from the mighty 'Geometry Wars - Retro Evolved.'
This is a very striped down version of a 'Geometry Wars' type concept, with semi-intelligent enemy movement and basic levelling up of enemy types where different types of enemy are gradually introduced during the game until all types are constantly present on screen.Five distinct types of enemy are used in total, each with their own behavioural pattern.
A laser is used to shoot, with a power bar limiting the amount of shooting you can do at any one time. When hit you are re-spawned to a random place on the screen, and all enemy movement is frozen for a limited amount of time in order for you to get out of any trouble you may be in.
You can download the latest (one stick) binary here.
You can download a Two Stick binary here.
Video: Vec Wars, later revision gameplay.
Spike and the Angry Vortex Bird
This was my first semi-serious attempt at making a Vectrex game.
It’s (very, very) loosely based on an old ZX spectrum game called 'Twister: Mother of Harlots' game.
This is basically a dodge-em and collect-em-up. The player has to avoid, or destroy, the flying diamond 'missiles' and the rectangular horizontal and vertical 'walls' that come towards you up the continually moving pseudo 3D corridor, whilst collecting the two-triangular 'timer' objects.
The attack-wave configuration changes four times before the end level 'boss' screen appears, where you have to kick enough of the small 'bird' objects to pass the level, whilst avoiding yet more diamond shaped 'missiles' being fired from the boss in the middle of the screen.
Spike can only avoid being hit by the moving ‘walls’ but can kick out to the left or right to hit the diamond-shaped ‘missiles.'
Enough timers must be collected in each wave in order to move to the next, but the more diamonds destroyed the mote points you get.
Video: You can see the gameplay heer.
Trapped
It is written using a new room-based maze generating engine that I was working on, and may still have a few underlying bugs. Although it appears to play well on a real Vectrex, without any drifting.
There is no scoring in Trapped, as it's more of a free-roaming puzzle and exploration game.
Although there is a timer and an adversary there is no shooting, so you must figure out how to escape from harm in other ways.
It's an attempt at a slightly slower paced, more thoughtful, game on the Vectrex.
Play Trapped On-Line Here.
You can see a video of this game being completed Here.
Monster House
This was a very early learning program, that I wrote a while ago, when first testing out assembly on the Vectrex.
It basically grew out of the ubiquitous 'Pong' type demo program that I usually write as a first game on every new platform I write for.
So, it started off as pong, with some basic drawing and movement routines, before adding the very simple ‘Monster' and 'House’ graphics. This was the first thing I had written where the user interaction had any sort of point or purpose. I wouldn't call this a 'game' exactly, it's just me learning to move things and check for collisions on the Vectrex.
In this example program a ‘monster’ (the block man thing) slowly comes down the screen towards your ‘house,’ which is randomly generated along the bottom.
You have to try and hit the monster with the continually bouncing ball by moving a bat – breakout style ish...
Don’t expect too much in the way of game-play from this though, as I said it was mainly done to get me acquainted with the basic drawing and movement ROM routines used by the Vectrex.
I've put the assembly up here in case anyone wants to look at it for learning purposes.
The code is quite simple (not to mention short) and should be relatively easy to follow.
You can view the Monster House source (ASM) file heer.
N.B. The Monster House code is really only of use for example purposes, and shouldn't be taken as a 'game' although I have seen compiled versions of this out-there on various sites.
Right now this is little more that an attract-screen, a basic idea and some half written movement routines. It was the first game I started that’s based on a modular design, so I may resurrect it and add some more modules to it at some point.
Sorry no working demo is available to download...
Maxwels Daemons - This game is not currently in development.
Currently dropped, but I may resume this using vectors instead of the 'text' for the balls. Trying to move text objects fast seems to slow processing down a lot more than simple drawing objects do.
This was an experiment with using plotted text objects and arrays to make a (bouncing ball) game based on the Maxwell's Daemon thought experiment.
The idea was blatantly nicked from an old Atari 8Bit game of the same name.
I may still do some work on this in the future.
Sorry no working demo is available to download...
Floppy Fish - This game is not currently in development.
I dropped development of this game some time ago, it just wasn't turning into something enjoyable or playable. All that currently exists in a 'playable' (sort of) state is the very rough (three night) de-make of the Flappy Bird concept.
This was originally just done as a bit of fun, to be intentionally bad, and shouldn't be considered a playable finished game.
Unfortunately the original version of this ROM has somehow escaped into the wild!
I even saw it played from a multi-cart on YouTube once, which I popped in and apologised for.
If you see this ROM please pretend it doesn't exist, thank you 😉
Here are some screen shots of my original, three evening effort, so you know to avoid it ;)
So as usual, no promises for any of the future stuff. I've got enough other commitments!
Completed Games...
(As in I've stopped working on them)Circus Vectrex v2.0
It is the closest code to end product. And was the first game I intended to make a cartridge release for. Unfortunately all planes to release this were scuppered by various things, mostly revolving around the price to produce a set number of cartridges when I had no idea if any would sell.
It is loosely based on the Atari game, but was never meant to be a clone. The bounce physics are improved in the latest release, but are still based more on bouncing ball physics than jump physics. Honestly, just because I liked it better like that, and it's my game ;)
Gameplay:
The top of the screen consists of three rows of ten targets.
These targets continually move across the screen in the opposing direction of the line above.
The object of the game is to clear as much targets as possible, gaining points for each one hit.
The game speed starts off relatively slow, but increases a little with each target hit.
When a full row is cleared it is replenished, bringing back all the target objects for that row.
The fewer objects there are on the screen the faster the games speed increases.
So replenishing a row slows the game speed down again making it easier to aim and hit the objects.
The targets are removed by catapulting an Acrobat at them using the see-saw at the bottom of the screen.
The Acrobat movement works in a manner similar to a break-out style game, causing the Acrobat to tumble through the targets, clearing them from the screen.
However, the Acrobat may also lose momentum, if it in in the air too long and hits too much targets, causing it to fall.
In order to keep the Acrobat in play you must ensure it lands on the free side of the see-saw, launching the other Acrobat into the air.
The see-saw can be flipped by pressing any button on the controller.
A missed landing will result in the loss of a life.
When all lives are lost the game ends.
Vec Wars: Retro Devolved
This is a basic shooter taking inspiration from the mighty 'Geometry Wars - Retro Evolved.'
This is a very striped down version of a 'Geometry Wars' type concept, with semi-intelligent enemy movement and basic levelling up of enemy types where different types of enemy are gradually introduced during the game until all types are constantly present on screen.Five distinct types of enemy are used in total, each with their own behavioural pattern.A laser is used to shoot, with a power bar limiting the amount of shooting you can do at any one time. When hit you are re-spawned to a random place on the screen, and all enemy movement is frozen for a limited amount of time in order for you to get out of any trouble you may be in.
You can download the latest (one stick) binary here.
You can download a Two Stick binary here.
Video: Vec Wars, later revision gameplay.
Spike and the Angry Vortex Bird
This was my first semi-serious attempt at making a Vectrex game.
It’s (very, very) loosely based on an old ZX spectrum game called 'Twister: Mother of Harlots' game.This is basically a dodge-em and collect-em-up. The player has to avoid, or destroy, the flying diamond 'missiles' and the rectangular horizontal and vertical 'walls' that come towards you up the continually moving pseudo 3D corridor, whilst collecting the two-triangular 'timer' objects.
The attack-wave configuration changes four times before the end level 'boss' screen appears, where you have to kick enough of the small 'bird' objects to pass the level, whilst avoiding yet more diamond shaped 'missiles' being fired from the boss in the middle of the screen.
Spike can only avoid being hit by the moving ‘walls’ but can kick out to the left or right to hit the diamond-shaped ‘missiles.'
Enough timers must be collected in each wave in order to move to the next, but the more diamonds destroyed the mote points you get.
Kicking can be useful for getting Spike out of tight situations, although this is more dangerous that simply avoiding all enemy objects.
In the end 'boss' screen you must kick enough of the smaller bird enemies, which randomly scroll along the top and bottom of the screen, hitting enough of these will restart the main game waves.
You can download the latest binary file heer.Video: You can see the gameplay heer.
Trapped
This game is my first attempt at a survival horror type puzzle game on the Vectrex, and was the first game I burnt to an eprom to make a cartridge out of.
It is written using a new room-based maze generating engine that I was working on, and may still have a few underlying bugs. Although it appears to play well on a real Vectrex, without any drifting.
It is however, a full game which is fully playable and does have an end.
Although there is a timer and an adversary there is no shooting, so you must figure out how to escape from harm in other ways.
It's an attempt at a slightly slower paced, more thoughtful, game on the Vectrex.
Play Trapped On-Line Here.
You can see a video of this game being completed Here.
Testing/Demo programs, and concept ideas...
Monster House
This was a very early learning program, that I wrote a while ago, when first testing out assembly on the Vectrex.It basically grew out of the ubiquitous 'Pong' type demo program that I usually write as a first game on every new platform I write for.
So, it started off as pong, with some basic drawing and movement routines, before adding the very simple ‘Monster' and 'House’ graphics. This was the first thing I had written where the user interaction had any sort of point or purpose. I wouldn't call this a 'game' exactly, it's just me learning to move things and check for collisions on the Vectrex.
In this example program a ‘monster’ (the block man thing) slowly comes down the screen towards your ‘house,’ which is randomly generated along the bottom.
You have to try and hit the monster with the continually bouncing ball by moving a bat – breakout style ish...
Don’t expect too much in the way of game-play from this though, as I said it was mainly done to get me acquainted with the basic drawing and movement ROM routines used by the Vectrex.
I've put the assembly up here in case anyone wants to look at it for learning purposes.
The code is quite simple (not to mention short) and should be relatively easy to follow.
You can view the Monster House source (ASM) file heer.
N.B. The Monster House code is really only of use for example purposes, and shouldn't be taken as a 'game' although I have seen compiled versions of this out-there on various sites.
Spike and the magic lamps - This game is not currently in development.
I looked at a concept for another 3D based collect-em-up type program, provisionally titled 'Lamp,' where you have to collect a set number of floating lamps within a given time-frame to progress to the next level where you have to collect more lamps within a tighter time-frame, and so on...
Right now this is little more that an attract-screen, a basic idea and some half written movement routines. It was the first game I started that’s based on a modular design, so I may resurrect it and add some more modules to it at some point.
Sorry no working demo is available to download...
Maxwels Daemons - This game is not currently in development.
Currently dropped, but I may resume this using vectors instead of the 'text' for the balls. Trying to move text objects fast seems to slow processing down a lot more than simple drawing objects do.
The idea was blatantly nicked from an old Atari 8Bit game of the same name.
I may still do some work on this in the future.
Sorry no working demo is available to download...
Floppy Fish - This game is not currently in development.
I dropped development of this game some time ago, it just wasn't turning into something enjoyable or playable. All that currently exists in a 'playable' (sort of) state is the very rough (three night) de-make of the Flappy Bird concept.
This was originally just done as a bit of fun, to be intentionally bad, and shouldn't be considered a playable finished game.
Unfortunately the original version of this ROM has somehow escaped into the wild!
I even saw it played from a multi-cart on YouTube once, which I popped in and apologised for.
If you see this ROM please pretend it doesn't exist, thank you 😉
Here are some screen shots of my original, three evening effort, so you know to avoid it ;)
Nice work Gary! Spike and the Angry Vortex Bird line up pretty well on my real Vectrex. I like the game theme. picked it up quick and played several games.
ReplyDeleteThanks, mine seems to pull the walls and the moving part of the background around half a centimetre to the left.
ReplyDeleteIt's not unplayable but is noticeable.
Cool and very promising Vectrex projects, Gary! I'll try out your binaries in the next couple of days. Thanks for your effort in developing for the old Vectrex console! :-)
ReplyDeleteVery cool projects indeed, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteFor your AtticAttac idea, you might want to develop with a VecMulti cartridge target in mind, as it provides you with 32KB of RAM (I guess the Vectrex RAM is too small for an exploration game).
BTW, if you need a Vectrex debugger, just ask me and I will hapilly send you paraJVD.
Thanks for sharing your work freely!
Great work Garry, are you still working on any Vectrex stuff?
ReplyDeleteI'm just staring out myself just playing around with the tutorials and modifying them so far. Once I'm up and running would be good to find people to 'code review' with for ideas and optimisations.
cNp
just a friendly hello to say I like some of your game concepts and I hope you have time to continue with your software development for the Vectrex.
ReplyDeleteVectrexMad!
http://www.vectrex.co.uk
Hello, I haven't done much Vectrex stuff for a while, but I have very recently knocked up a quick 'Flappy Bird' de-make.
ReplyDeleteI hope to get some time to re-visit my Vectrex stuff soon.
Vectrex circus is pretty much complete now, and I was looking at releasing it on a cartridge, but it is rather expensive to produce them. Would anybody be interested?
ReplyDeleteTrapped is also complete. This is a proof of concept game written using a rooms based maze 'adventure game' type engine I'm making.
ReplyDeleteIf this goes down well I have much grander plans for this engine. With hopefully a full release cartridge game sometime in the future.
Although it won't be soon as I've just started a new job, and need to hone up on my C# .Net and Entity Framework... all exciting stuff ;) :(
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI will only remove advertising posts, not negative comments!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi Gary,
ReplyDeletewould you allow me to include your bins and sources to the Vide package?
(vide.malban.de)
I cannot "auto download" your files from within Vide. Dropbox wants to set some cookies which I won't accept from within Vide.
Regards
Malban
Hello Malban,
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't reply. Yes you can use what you want.
I haven't looked at this stuff for a while, and may need to redo the links.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHello, I've updated some of the bin and video links here after being told they no longer work.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if anybody is still looking at this but... Update on the cartridge front.
ReplyDeleteI have successfully burned a working Eprom of Trapped, and am waiting on cartridge covers to complete this.
I'm also thinking of making circus a bit more like the original Atari version in relation to the start jump and jump physics. If I do I may release this on cartridge as well. But only if I can get it more stable on a real Vectrex. So don't hold your breath.
Iam still looking :) hopefully Circus can get a proper cart release, really fun little title, thanks
ReplyDeleteWell I did burn the last version I still had (lost a lot of stuff) to an Eprom, and it appeared to work ok on my Vectrex (after it heat up a bit). So maybe... I still think it neds a bit of work first.
DeleteNow making a few test cartridges and boxes for this.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi, could I put my name on the list to buy one of those boxed Circus games from you?
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know, by Vectrex is currently dead. So I'm not sure when any cartridges will be made just now!
ReplyDeleteApologies to anyone who was interested.
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Hey Garry! I was curious if you have any games for sale? I see your Vectrex died above but not sure the date on that! What is your preferred method of communication?
ReplyDeleteNot sure how the profile on here works but my e mail
Deletenoctevisus
gmail
com
--Brandon
I had a finished box and cartridge with five other chips burnt, but not soldered into cartridge boards done when the Vectrex died. So no way of testing these.
DeleteI just haven't had the time to take the Vectrex to bits and try to fix it yet. I'll try to put some pictures up.
I hear you! We look forward to any updates. Also thank you for the monster house code sample. It is useful to see as many code samples as possible when learning.
ReplyDeleteI will repair your Vectrex for Free if you just ship it to me. I am a well-known in Vectrex/vector community. I would like to see you get back into it and finish the games so we can buy them!
ReplyDeletewoodcock
at
spluxter
dot
com
Hello Gregg,
ReplyDeleteI'm in the UK so shipping to anywhare else could be expensive.