View Full Version : Vectrex release dates?
BeaglePuss
10-03-2013, 09:55 AM
I recently purchased a large lot of Vectrex prototypes and I'm trying to find out how early they are in relation to their production counterparts. I've done some digging but have only been able to find years in which games were released and not actual dates. One prototype in particular, Pole Position, is dated 8-15-83. I've seen it listed as being released in 1983, but no actual reference to the month/day in which it hit shelves.
I have about 15 or so prototypes I'm trying to get release dates for, so any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
I recently purchased a large lot of Vectrex prototypes and I'm trying to find out how early they are in relation to their production counterparts. I've done some digging but have only been able to find years in which games were released and not actual dates. One prototype in particular, Pole Position, is dated 8-15-83. I've seen it listed as being released in 1983, but no actual reference to the month/day in which it hit shelves.
I have about 15 or so prototypes I'm trying to get release dates for, so any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Perhaps a list of the games?
I'm not sure how much help I can be for the prototype games, but I do know that there was more than one revision of the actual Vectrex machine. The behavior of the built-in Minestorm game is different between the two releases.
BeaglePuss
10-03-2013, 09:05 PM
Perhaps a list of the games?
I'm not sure how much help I can be for the prototype games, but I do know that there was more than one revision of the actual Vectrex machine. The behavior of the built-in Minestorm game is different between the two releases.
I could list everything out, but the titles aren't super important honestly as there are so few in the library. I basically have half of the available games in prototype form at this point and was just hoping there was some sort of list that was sorted by release date.
As for Minestorm, I never knew/heard that there were different variations of the built-in available. Are you sure you're not confusing it with Minestorm II?
Mayhem
10-04-2013, 04:20 AM
The fixed Minestorm II version was put into the late run Vectrex machines, those with serial numbers starting 3xxxxxx I believe.
Rickstilwell1
10-04-2013, 04:37 AM
All I know is that the Vectrex was first released November 1982, the same month as the Atari 5200 (Colecovision and Commodore 64 came out in August 1982, beating their competition by 3 months, with the Commodore 64 creaming its competition). So there would be no final release Vectrex games before Nov 1982.
CRTGAMER
10-04-2013, 10:18 AM
I recently purchased a large lot of Vectrex prototypes and I'm trying to find out how early they are in relation to their production counterparts. I've done some digging but have only been able to find years in which games were released and not actual dates. One prototype in particular, Pole Position, is dated 8-15-83. I've seen it listed as being released in 1983, but no actual reference to the month/day in which it hit shelves.
I have about 15 or so prototypes I'm trying to get release dates for, so any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Oh go ahead and list your prototypes and get that carrot in reach. Maybe even throw in a pic in the OP to pike interest?
BeaglePuss
10-04-2013, 11:43 AM
Oh go ahead and list your prototypes and get that carrot in reach. Maybe even throw in a pic in the OP to pike interest?
I can take some pictures when I get home, but the few I can remember offhand are: Pole Position, Polar Rescue, Star Castle, Blitz, Art Master, and Melody Master.
BeaglePuss
10-04-2013, 07:51 PM
Here's a (crappy) pic of some of the games:
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j204/beaglepussband/null_zps82b21d03.jpg (http://s81.photobucket.com/user/beaglepussband/media/null_zps82b21d03.jpg.html)
The PCBs shown are a little strange in that they're socketed. I believe that they're one-time programmable roms and not production roms (edit: the top cart is a one-time programmable rom, the other appears to be retail). All the other carts have EPROMs with either the game name, date in which it was created, or a combination of the two.
The EPROM on Polar Rescue is dated 6/1. Now there's no year on it, but 6/1 is the exact same date I had on a previous Vectrex prototype I owned (Cosmic Chasm), so I'm thinking they were programmed on the same day in 1982 (The Cosmic Chasm prototype had the year listed). I'm rather sure that the Cosmic Chasm prototype was used at CES, and I'm wondering if that's the same case for this prototype.
The games were purchased in a large lot on eBay. I noticed that many had stickers that looked similar to prototypes I've owned and seen in the past. I contacted the seller before hitting the BIN, and she confirmed that her Uncle was employed by Milton Bradley and that some of the titles were pre-production games.
There are a number of other games that may be prototypes, but I'll have to do more research before I'm comfortable enough to confirm this. Many of the games are in Scramble cases with stickers placed over the label. Scramble was an early title, so it makes sense that they'd have cases for the games laying around as they were programming some newer titles.