For Want of a Vectrex · 12:29pm Feb 6th, 2016
[FiMFic decided to randomly post this earlier before I was even finished writing it. Somehow. That was a tad embarrassing...]
Well, as many of you may (or may not) know, I have a love for all things retro. More specifically, retro electronics, game consoles and whatnot. Recently I've developed more and more of an appreciation for the arcades of old, and the many classics that existed back then. You've got the obvious stuff like Asteroids and Pac-Man, and less obvious stuff like Berzerk, Frenzy, and Star Castle. Suffice it to say, arcade games were in a fairly cozy spot back in the early 80s, and every home console popping up at the time did their best to bring the feeling of the arcade to your home... with, uh, varying degrees of success.
But before I go off on a wild tangent about the history on that, I'll get right to the point of this blog: I bought a Vectrex. What's a Vectrex? Well, without needlessly inflating the word count of this post, it's a portable arcade machine that uses cartridges and colored overlays for its games, and what makes it especially unique is that it's a system with vector graphics, as opposed to the more common raster graphics (ie, pixels placed on screen, like Atari or NES). In an even shorter description, it's basically the coolest thing ever.
I would've waited until I actually got the thing to make a blog about it, but... I couldn't help myself. The Vectrex is not exactly a common system, you see. Just the unit by itself can run you hundreds of dollars, depending on condition and the like. I managed to snag this system for... well... let's say "a bunch", and it comes with eight games (nine, if you count the fact that every Vectrex has a built-in game as well) plus two controllers. Even just ONE controller is great, because spares of those are even harder to come by than the system itself.
So, because of that, I'm very excited to get this thing here, and working. I'll be doing a followup post in a couple of days when I do get it, talking more about the unit itself, the games, and a bit of history behind it, because... well, it's not like there's much else I could be doing these days aside from actually writing and updating my stories right?
hope I didn't just jinx myself lul
BTW, before people ask me what "a bunch" is: I paid 850 bucks for the whole set, all together. Which is... around 600 bucks USD, I believe? Somewhere in that range.
(God, fuck these exchange rates. Seriously.)
Envy, thy name is Archonix.
Well, this is really cool. :O I look forward to the updates.