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- The Vectrex is a vector display-based home video game console–the only one ever designed and released for the home market, developed by Smith Engineering. It was first released for the North America market in November 1982 and then Europe and Japan in 1983.
- Vectrex - The #1 source for video game sprites on the internet!
- The Calibri font family is located in the main Library/Fonts/Microsoft folder on my system, so I assume it was installed with Office for Mac 2011. If you can't find Calibri elsewhere, you can always download the basic Office for Mac package from the MS web site install it to get the fonts, and then delete the main Office folder in the.
By the way I'm re-using your True Type font for my next MSX tool/project (I need fast display of an MSX 16x8 font in screen 6, the BIOS functions were not so good for that).
WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia | ||
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Handheld[edit]
Can the Vectrex really be considered Hand-held?
the vectrex is definitely not a handheld (i'll change that), though it was planned to release a handheld based on the vectrex
- It's not even classifiable as a portable game system, though the term 'luggable' would fit (much like the Apple IIc computer, introduced a few months later). The joystick folds inside the front of the unit, and there's a recessed handle grip at the top for lifting it up. Oddly there wasn't a place to store the permanently affixed power cord inside the case, or even hooks to wrap it around. No battery option either. I think it was designed to be carried around the house, room to room. Might want to add a mention of it's semi-portability in the article Apple2gs (talk) 00:02, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
3D Imager[edit]
The section on the 3D Imager currently seems a bit backwards. It starts out with the arcane technical details, and only at the end gets around to explaining what it's actually for. Clayhalliwell 22:32, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
the nintendo gameboy was released in 1989 so in 1988 the gameboy wasnt even released yet — Preceding unsigned comment added by Epotn (talk • contribs)
-It said that the 3D imager pre-dates the Segascope glasses by 6 years. The Segascope glasses were released in 1987 (see http://www.allgame.com/platform.php?id=23) while the Imager came out in 1984. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.76.62.18 (talk) 15:40, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
- That is incorrect, the 3D imager was announced in '82 and released in '83. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 16:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
Comments[edit]
The game 'Minestorm' is built in to the console, and shouldn't be considered the 'Best Selling Game' as the sidebar claims as it was not available separately --UniqueCrash5 20:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
The reference links seem bad.. can it be replaced with something else?
--Incady September 3, 2006 (UTC)
--I completely agree with UniqueCrash. Minestorm may have actually had the most copies distributed due to being included with the console, but nobody specifically bought 'Minestorm', so this statistic is very misleading. Since the aim of an encyclopedia is not to slavishly fill in data fields, but rather to convey the truth as well as we know it -- I think this 'top-selling' statistic should simply be left off. If you feel you disagree, I ask you to at least consider this. Does the phrase 'Top-selling game: Minestorm' convey any accurate and useful information to a reader without inside information? If it doesn't, it should be qualified or it should go. I chose the latter, since I think rewriting it as 'Top-selling game: Minestorm (included)' is still somewhat misleading, since the useful information being conveyed doesn't really have anything to do with sales. The most relevant possible way to use this data field is to find the SECOND top-selling game (i.e. the top seller by TITLE not by inclusion with another product), and to write the field this way: 'Top-selling standalone game: K.C. Munchkin' (as a completely irrelevant example). If we don't have this data, better just to delete it. The principle being, if you don't actually know the street directions, you will probably do more harm than good by dispensing sketchy, qualified advice.--70.49.97.108 01:31, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
Analog joysticks were really not that special[edit]
On home computers they were quite common. Every Apple II and IBM PC gamer had one. Mind you, on consoles it was a different story, but to portray the inclusion of an analog joystick as forward thinking in some way is misleading. The fact is, analog joysticks were a lot more common in general in the early '80s than they were by the '90s, when consoles had come to the fore and all decided to follow Nintendo's digital lead. So Nintendo itself took this backwards step, and then fixed it themselves a decade later. The reference to home computer joysticks that I added is probably enough to make this basically accurate but it's still a little bit overboard to portray the Vectrex's analog input as innovative for its time. Unusually advanced for a console, would be a better way to characterise it. (I don't mean to cast any doubt on the innovativeness of the system in general, though -- it was quite high.)--65.95.120.116 14:43, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
The FIRST analog sticks were on the programmable Interton VC 4000 from 1978, after that on Atari 5200 (1982). I think that error should be corrected here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.168.12.11 (talk) 10:26, 29 May 2010 (UTC)
Brightness control[edit]
Wouldn't this:
- The Vectrex did not have any luminance control, but rather brightness was adjusted by drawing some lines more frequently than others.
be more accurately said as:
- The Vectrex did not have any software luminance control, but rather brightness was adjusted by drawing some lines more frequently than others.
Palpalpalpal 19:43, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
'Illusion of color'[edit]
Did the overlays provide an 'illusion' of color instead of filtering the monitor to display only certain colors? And how did it 'reduce' flicker? Did the overlays include extra phosphors to increase the time the lines appeared?Alvis 09:39, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
- To the best of my knowledge the overlays were simply (rigid) colored plastic sheets, nothing more. It'd be no different from taking a blue overhead transparency from an art supply store and plopping over the screen of an old black and white TV set. Instead of seeing the picture in shades of grey, you'd have a monochromic picture in shades of blue. It's still strictly a black and white TV set of course, that hasn't and won't change, but you're creating the illusion of a new color.
- Interestingly the overlays were kind of like animation cells in a way. You had a plastic transparent sheet that they painted images on the backside in reverse, that would show up on the opposite side. Apart from that the sheet itself was usually dyed just one solid color, but for a few games they'd split dye the sheet in 3 different colors (sometimes in lined patterns) so you'd get interesting effects as passing lines on the screen lit up them up. Web Wars or Scramble come to mind. Created a kind of a psychedelic effect, but for the most part you wouldn't mistake it for a color display (the overlays were *NOT* some sort of RGB pass thru mechanism, if that's what you're asking). Incidentally the painted images and graphics on the sheet did not produce color (apart from the graphic design being color painted), it was the blank areas on the plastic sheet where the light would pass through.
- The reduction in flicker came about because the light had to pass through a somewhat heavy sheet of dyed colored plastic. It reduces the intensity of the light passing through, much the same way they used to sell plastic anti-glare overlays for early computer displays (you used to see them on B&W Macintoshes, PC/XT's, 286 and 386 systems; they were transparent but dark tinted, to reduce light and cut down on glare and flicker). Apple2gs (talk) 09:36, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
CPU[edit]
Should it be '1.6 MHz' or '1.5 MHz'? The page contains two different CPU speeds for this console.--Juwayway 20:15, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
MineStorm vs. Mine Storm[edit]
I recently went through this article changing all the 'MineStorm's to 'Mine Storm'. User NukeofEarl then went through changing them all back, saying that most sources use this version, as does its specific wikipedia article. I didn't want to get into an edit war so have started a talk thing. I am calling for all instances of 'MineStorm' to be replaced with 'Mine Storm', including the title of its specific wikipedia article. The reason for this is there are the same number of sources using both variations, but the actual vectrex stuff uses two words. See the title screen at 7 seconds here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKl1ZuiVqMc or the instruction manual which uses the two word version. Wikiditm (talk) 21:39, 20 July 2011 (UTC)
- As a Vectrex owner and enthusiast, thought I'd share my two cents. This appears to be a case of how the name appears as stylized logo versus the official name, and in the case of the latter, it is 'Mine Storm' (two separate words). The name 'MineStorm' on the overlay and manual cover are a logo, and yes the name is in there, but it's the name presented within a logo. If you open the printed manual and thumb through the pages (specifically pages 6 and 7), it refers to the game as 'Mine Storm'. In my opinion, this is the official spelling of the name, and how it should appear in the article.
- A good example comparison is the original Apple II computer. On the front of the case, the name logo was presented as 'Apple ][' (using square brackets symbols), however in documentation the official name was 'Apple II'. Ditto for 'Apple //e' and 'Apple //c' which were always officially documented as 'Apple IIe' and 'Apple IIc'. In the case of Wikipedia, I used 'Apple II' over the stylized logo name (I'm the original author of those articles).--Apple2gs (talk) 23:35, 20 July 2011 (UTC)
- I somehow overlooked this thread until now. I see it's been almost nine months since this was brought up, and the suggested changes have not been made. Did Wikiditm have second thoughts about his proposal, or what?--NukeofEarl (talk) 15:08, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
Development Details[edit]
I undid the removal of this section. People have told me that the Vectrex community would love to hear some of these.
How should these bee presented?
I did the design of the Vectrex vector monitor and was responsible for the system's electronic production packaging (circuit boards, etc)
John Ross
76.94.213.135 (talk) 10:34, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
- The information needs to be citations from reliable sources. Wikipedia, like any researched publication, needs to have an account of where its information came from. See WP: No original research.--NukeofEarl (talk) 15:18, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
Macintosh inspiriation?[edit]
The machine looks a lot like an early Macintosh computer.I wonder if any design inspiration was taken from either of the machines (both being in development at roughly the same time).78.148.182.181 (talk) 00:08, 25 June 2014 (UTC)-Sam, UK
Vectrex Font To For Mac Os
- While granted it does (particularly if you've ever seen a Mac Plus or SE painted all black; do a Google search for one) I've never heard of any official statement from designers that one inspired the other. I personally think the Vectrex was attempting to re-create the look of a classic stand up arcade cabinet. Tall vertical case, sunk in screen, flat extension in front for buttons and joystick (once you unlock and pull out the control panel/joystick). It even says 'Arcade system' next to the name. I think GCE was going for a miniture arcade machine that was portable and could fit on a desk at home. As for the Mac, the Apple Lisa pre-dates it (started in 1979) and had a very similar design...well, more like a Mac on its side. If anything the Lisa inspired the Mac design. Likely just coincidence with regards to the Vectrex vs Macintosh but it would be interesting to hear what others think.
- As for a section, or even a mention somewhere in the article, I don't think it would be justified without any official said from designers (you'd have to dig up a quote or find a reference). Otherwise it's just pointing out an opinion or visual observation.--Apple2gs (talk) 19:22, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
Technical specifications[edit]
I note the absence of video spec ? What's the size of the screen in pixels ? Did the 'lines' run vertically ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.225.1.136 (talk) 18:35, 28 March 2020 (UTC)
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Vectrex&oldid=947827549'
Permalink: http://sarrazip.com/dev/cmoc.html
By Pierre Sarrazin
CMOCis a 6809-generating cross-compiler for a subset of the C language.It produces assembler code for theMotorola 6809 processorin theColor Computer.BIN format,the Dragoncomputer, as well as theMotorola SRECand Vectrex formats.It runs underGNU/Linuxand other Unix-likeenvironments likeDarwinand Cygwin.It requires the LWTOOLSassembler (lwasm) and linker, by William Astle.
The most significant difference between CMOC and a completeC compileris the absence ofbit fieldsand of a completeC standard library.Floatsare only usable underColor Basic.CMOC comes with a small library that serves as a starting kit.
For a summary of theC features that are supported or notby CMOC, seethe C Language Features section of the manual.
CMOC isfree softwaredistributed under theGNUGeneral Public License, version 3 or later,except for the files of the USim simulator, which is used for testing.
The current version is 0.1.67.It was released on 2020-06-07.
Release notes for 0.1.66 and 0.1.67:
- New -Wlocal-var-hiding command line switch makes the compiler issue a warning when a local variable declaration hides another one of the same name.
- Fixed a bug where a global variable initializer of the form &array[N] was rejected as being non constant.
- Added a low-level optimization that removes an unneeded LDB instruction when a byte gets compared with two values.
- Added an optimization for in-place shifting of an unsigned long by 8, 16 or 24 bits, left or right.
- Added an optimization for the evaluation of a loop condition based on a comma-expression.
- Removed non-breakable spaces from several source files.
- Monolith compilation mode is not offered anymore. This also means that the --emit-uncalled command-line switch has been removed.
Release notes for 0.1.65:
| Release notes for 0.1.64:
| Release notes for 0.1.63:
|
I can be contacted (in French or English) atsarrazip at sarrazip dot com.(Questions regarding Vectrex-specific issues should beaddressed to Johan Van den Brande.)
Download
Compiler
- LWTOOLS, by William Astle, version 4.11 or later:
- Source code from the LWTOOLS page.
- Ubuntu packages by Tormod Volden may be available from this page.
- The CMOC compiler:
- Source archive: cmoc-0.1.67.tar.gz.
- Tormod Volden's site may have a precompiled package for:
- Ubuntu;
- Windows without Cygwin.
- For Ubuntu, if the preceding page does not provide a suitable package, the one I make myself (on my 18.04 system) may be usable: cmoc_0.1.67-1.deb. This package does not include LWTOOLS.
See SHA512 signaturesof these and other files.
Libraries and sample programs
The '?' icon means that the program or library is compilable and usableon the Dragon computer, at least in part.
newcmd (0.1.0) (Public domain) (Published 2020-09-07.) This program replaces Basic's SKIPF command with a different command that does something else, and is implemented in C. The new command can interpret its arguments and store output values that the Basic program can use. decbfile (0.1.4) (Public domain) (Published 2019-09-21.) Library that offers read/write access to files on a floppy disk in the Disk Basic format. It uses Disk Basic's sector routine by default, but can be made to use a stand-alone version, therefore making Basic's presence unnecessary. BGraph (0.1.3) (Public domain) ? Graphics library that offers functions similar to Basic's LINE, DRAW, PAINT and CIRCLE commands. It does not assume the presence of the Color Basic interpreter. Version 0.1.3 adds support for setting up semigraphics modes 8, 12 and 24 and for setting, resetting and getting pixels in those modes. The sgdemo.c program shows these modes. BSound (0.1.1) (Public domain) ? Library that offers a function similar to Basic's PLAY command. It does not assume the presence of the Color Basic interpreter. BControl (0.1.3) (Public domain) ? (Published 2020-06-27.) Library that offers functions similar to Color Basic's INKEY$, JOYSTK and BUTTON. It does not assume the presence of the Color Basic interpreter. It can be compiled for OS-9,althbough only the keyboard is supported as of this version. Version 0.1.3 adds Joystick_selectAnalogMuxInputs() and Joystick_compareAxis(), which allow custom, faster axis polling. Color Eights (0.1.12) (GPLv3) ? A card game derived from Crazy Eights that I wrote with CMOC. Uses the Cardgame library (see below). It can be run both under Disk Basic and NitrOS-9 EOU (from a 32x16 terminal). Its source code (with that of Cardgame) can be studied as an example of how to develop for both OS-9 and Disk Basic. Cardgame (0.1.10) (Public domain) ? A PMODE 4 (card) game library. Contains the generic code used by my Color Eights game: drawing and erasing cards (32x42 pixels), and drawing text (uppercase 32x24 grid), in a PMODE 4 screen. Beep and 'white noise' functions. Rename cardgame.c to something else, fill main() and code other functions. The 8x8 text font can be reused independently, as done by cc3dblb (see below). This library can be compiled for OS-9, but the sound features are not supported as of this version. Version 0.1.10 adds drawCharWithoutMovingCursor(), moveCursorLeft(), invertCharAtCursor(), waitForKeyWithAnimatedCursor(), readLineFromKeyboard(), runPMode4GameDoubleBufferLoop(). cc3dblb (0.1.1) (Public domain) A skeleton for a CoCo 3 double-buffering game. Start a new game project by renaming the files, then recode the onFlip() function. Uses the 8x8 text font from the Cardgame library to print text on the graphics screen. Requires Cardgame and BGraph (see above). CoCo MiniLisp (by Jamie Cho) A port of Rui Ueyama's MiniLisp. Version 0.5.0, released in October 2017, uses CMOC's support for 32-bit arithmetic. xdaliclock port (by Jamie Cho) A port of Jamie Zawinski's xdaliclock to the CoCo. Splinter (by Jamie Cho) A CoCo 3 break-the-bricks video game written by Jamie Cho with CMOC. Splinter features colorful 320x192 graphics and smooth animation. | hirestxt (0.3.1) (Public domain) ? A library that redirects printf() to a software 51x24 or 42x24 black-on-green PMODE 4 text screen. (A sample program is included.) Optionally supports several VT52 terminal sequences (disable this with #define HIRESTEXT_NO_VT52). Useful to get true lowercase, including Latin-1 accented characters, on all CoCos. Color Verbiste (0.1.5) (GPLv3) A partial CoCo port of my French conjugator. Requires hirestxt. There is a precompiled disk image. Details on the Verbiste home page and its CoCo section. nobasic (0.1.10) (Public domain*) ? A program that puts the CoCo in all-RAM mode, overwrites the Basic interpreter, moves the program and the stack to the end of the 64K of RAM and redirects the 60 Hz interrupt, as an example of a program that can use the entire 64K of RAM. Contains a disk sector read demo and a CoCo 3 graphics demo. This version requires CMOC 0.1.51 or later, as it is split in two C files (nobasic.c and dskcon.c) and uses the const keyword. *Some code in dskcon.c comes from DECB. bigapp (0.1.1) (Public domain) A demo of a program that is too large to be loaded by Basic's LOADM command and uses the whole 64K of RAM. This demo also adds arbitrary data files (PMODE 4 screens) to the .bin so that this data gets loaded with the code. The user calls LOADM and EXEC on a small loader program that takes care of loading the large program. Requires a 64K CoCo and the decbfile library, available on this page. autostart.c (0.1.2) (Public domain) A program to be compiled as a boot loader that goes on track 34, so that the CoCo's DOS command will execute it. (The autostart.bin file is not meant to be loaded with LOADM.) The program feeds Color Basic's console input with the command RUN'*.BAS' in order to run that Basic program automatically. Install this on a disk image with this command: install-coco-boot-loader foo.dsk autostart.bin FuncPlot (0.2.3) (GPLv3) ? Demo program that plots a mathematical function in PMODE 4 graphics. The program implements an expression parser and an RPN interpreter to evaluate the user's function across an interval. Requires hirestxt and BControl. Demo of Basic variable access from a CMOC program (Public domain) (Updated 2018-04-03.) This archive contains a .dsk image file that contains VARPTR.BAS and VARPTR.BIN. Type RUN'VARPTR' on a CoCo. The archive also contains the C source file, which is compilable under CMOC. The Basic and C listings can be studied to learn how to access Basic variables from a CMOC program. parse-coco-bin (Public domain) A Perl script that lists the blocks of a CoCo Disk Basic .BIN file, along with the entry point. Bouncy Ball (by Lee Patterson) A game for all CoCos. (It does not come with the source code.) CoCoTair: an 8080 emulator (by Mark Sherman) This was Mark's Retrochallenge in 2017. This emulator can be used to run Altair BASIC. (To compile with CMOC 0.1.66 or later, the makefile of this project must be edited to remove the --a09=a09 options passed to CMOC.) DwTerm (by Michael Furman) A DriveWire 4 Terminal Program for the Disk Basic environment. Can be used with other DriveWire-related programs written by Michael. |
Documentation
See themanualthat comes with CMOC.There is also a PDF version (33 pages, 326 kB).
As of June 2020, I am developing CMOC on anUbuntu 18.04 GNU/Linux systemusing GCC 7.5.0.
Building on Windows
CMOC cannot currently be compiled directly as a nativeWindows application,but it can be compiled under Cygwin.It has been shown to work under that Unix-like environment.
Cygwin is recommended over MinGW,where the pipe calls (popen())do not behave as expected, as of Fall 2018.In particular, theapostropheson the command lines composed by CMOC,when calling theC preprocessor,do not appear to be interpreted as they should by theshellcalled by popen().
Note that LWTOOLS should then also be compiled for Cygwin.Packages that were pre-built for Windows or MinGW will probably not work asCMOC expects.
Building on Mac OS X
The configure script should recognize that it is running on aMac OS X system,but if it does not, the following instructions may help:
- Before running configure, set the followingenvironment variables:
export CPPFLAGS='-D__unix'
export LDFLAGS='-framework CoreFoundation'
- ./configure
- make
Thanks to Jamie Cho for these Mac instructions.
Glen Hewlett has posted an article on his blog aboutusing CMOC from Mac OS or Linux.
Other resources
- My page on emulating the CoCo on a GNU/Linux system.
- MESS (Multi Emulator Super System), to emulate the CoCo 3.
- XRoar, a Dragon/CoCo (1 and 2) emulator by Ciaran Anscomb.
- LWTOOLS: Cross-development tools for the Motorola 6809 and Hitachi 6309 microprocessors, by William Astle.
- My home page.
- Whaaaaaaaaat!?: I Don't Get Classical Music: A Self-Help Desperation Guide, a 2016 book by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz.
Vectrex Font To For Mac High Sierra
Last update to this page: 2020-09-07 15:42:33 EST5EDT