YoshiM
04-23-2003, 09:52 AM
It was I believe the summer of 1991 during break from school when I discovered the realm of the "online world". During this time I owned a TRS-80 Color Computer 3, complete with monitor, tape deck, and floppy drives in a homemade wood box with power supply. On an excursion to the mall I visited Radio Shack where I found that they were selling out their Color Computer items at rock bottom prices. One of these things was a 300 baud cartridge style modem for $19.99. Yes, you heard me right, a 300 baud modem. Intrigued, I purchased the device and scoured some magazines to see what would be a good online company to try. I decided on Delphi, as there was a specific CoCo SIG (Special Interest Group) on that service. I plugged the modem into my CoCo's cartridge port (sadly, I wasn't able to use the disk drives for any downloads, but oh well), booted the terminal program and off I went.
It was here, amongst my frollicking about in a text based universe of many possibilities, that I discovered that the magazine Video Games and Computer Entertainment had a SIG. So for some time I visited the area and chatted with the people there. In that month's issue of VG&CE there was an article on classic gaming and one of the products of the past that was brought up was the Vectrex. In fact, it had its own little box called "The Maltese Vectrex". After reading about it, I just had to have one. The store in Texas VG&CE said still sold them had told me that they sold out after the magazine hit the stands. Desperate, I posted a message on the message board of VG&CE asking if there was anyplace else I could pick up the system. I got a few replies but no leads. Then came the bomb: one of the staffers at VG&CE (called himself VGDave I believe) had said he had one sitting in his closet. System, a bunch of games, and image helmet. If I was interested all I had to do was contact him.
Unfortunately for me, by the time I got this I also got my Delphi and my share of the phone bill which was not a pretty sight. For the phone bill, I lived in Elkhart Lake at the time who was pretty much local to no town/city of interest so everything was at "extended calling". Plymouth had Delphi access, so it was 5 cents a minute. I spent me a lot of minutes on this, which I was ready to pay. However I hadn't counted on the huge Delphi bill. I had thought that I would be getting a reduced rate, some $4.95 an hour, as it was stated on the ad in the magazine I bought. However, this was not so nor was there an option for it when I signed up electronically. I was paying $7.95 an hour. After a long and enraged call to Delphi, I was able to get the $4.95 rate but that pretty much ended my online activities under my parent's roof.
I did not give up the fight. I wrote a letter to VG&CE asking that the letter be passed to the person who had the Delphi username "VGDave". No response. I tried calling. Operator didn't know. Over a year later when my girlfriend had Prodigy I tried e-mailing. No luck. I had truely lost the Maltese Vectrex.
Today I still do not own one, but it's more out of lack of interest than anything. My tastes of collecting has changed and the Vectrex doesn't fit in those plans nor does my wallet favor the price they usually go for on EBay even if I was interested. However I still check out the auctions and think back to what could have been mine thanks to the power of a cheap modem, an overpriced online service, and a black on green screen.
It was here, amongst my frollicking about in a text based universe of many possibilities, that I discovered that the magazine Video Games and Computer Entertainment had a SIG. So for some time I visited the area and chatted with the people there. In that month's issue of VG&CE there was an article on classic gaming and one of the products of the past that was brought up was the Vectrex. In fact, it had its own little box called "The Maltese Vectrex". After reading about it, I just had to have one. The store in Texas VG&CE said still sold them had told me that they sold out after the magazine hit the stands. Desperate, I posted a message on the message board of VG&CE asking if there was anyplace else I could pick up the system. I got a few replies but no leads. Then came the bomb: one of the staffers at VG&CE (called himself VGDave I believe) had said he had one sitting in his closet. System, a bunch of games, and image helmet. If I was interested all I had to do was contact him.
Unfortunately for me, by the time I got this I also got my Delphi and my share of the phone bill which was not a pretty sight. For the phone bill, I lived in Elkhart Lake at the time who was pretty much local to no town/city of interest so everything was at "extended calling". Plymouth had Delphi access, so it was 5 cents a minute. I spent me a lot of minutes on this, which I was ready to pay. However I hadn't counted on the huge Delphi bill. I had thought that I would be getting a reduced rate, some $4.95 an hour, as it was stated on the ad in the magazine I bought. However, this was not so nor was there an option for it when I signed up electronically. I was paying $7.95 an hour. After a long and enraged call to Delphi, I was able to get the $4.95 rate but that pretty much ended my online activities under my parent's roof.
I did not give up the fight. I wrote a letter to VG&CE asking that the letter be passed to the person who had the Delphi username "VGDave". No response. I tried calling. Operator didn't know. Over a year later when my girlfriend had Prodigy I tried e-mailing. No luck. I had truely lost the Maltese Vectrex.
Today I still do not own one, but it's more out of lack of interest than anything. My tastes of collecting has changed and the Vectrex doesn't fit in those plans nor does my wallet favor the price they usually go for on EBay even if I was interested. However I still check out the auctions and think back to what could have been mine thanks to the power of a cheap modem, an overpriced online service, and a black on green screen.