Vectrex Homebrew recommendations?

[le geek]

Howdy,
As a new Vectrex owner, what are the best homebrews to track down?

I've heard nothing but good things about Protector/YASI, any other must haves?

Cheers,
Ben

[Sniderman]

Everything John Donzila has made is good playin'. I recommend VecMania and Vectopia. (http://www.classicgamecreations.com/)

War of the Robots is an AWESOME game. Sold out though. Sorry. (http://geovector.tripod.com/_sgt/m1_1.htm)

If you don't have it yet, order the Vectrex Multicart from Sean. All of the Vectrex original games and many homebrews on one menu-driven cart! (http://home.xnet.com/~skelly/vmulti.htm)

[christianscott27]

word has it that kelly is outta the vec multicart biz, theres always the vec-ram cable though. i reccomend protector/y.a.s.i , for $15 or so you cant go wrong...thats defender and space invaders by the way.

[Mayhem]

Sean's stopped making the multicart, so you'll have to source one of them from eBay or privately.

Aside from Protector (possible best ever homebrew on any platform), there's quite a few good Vectrex games. Not many classics, but lots of solid fun little titles. Patriots and the Starfire clone from John D are essentials, and VecCaves, Omega Chase and Tsunami should all be considered.

Sadly as Tim hinted at, many of these homebrews were only done in limited amounts and sold "as is" at the time. War of the Worlds being one of them, along with VecCaves and VecBoxing. Fortunately Protector was eventually released in unlimited form with YASI, otherwise it would quite likely have been the most valuable homebrew of all time also! O_O

[le geek]

I'm not that interested in the Multicart, actually. Tracking down and playing with the overlays is half the fun/challenge! I imagine Sean's plenty busy with his brick and mortar store these days :)


...Omega Chase and Tsunami should all be considered.

Two I'm very keen on, having tried them in EMU.


Sadly as Tim hinted at, many of these homebrews were only done in limited amounts and sold "as is" at the time...Fortunately Protector was eventually released in unlimited form with YASI, otherwise it would quite likely have been the most valuable homebrew of all time also! O_O

Seems like Colecovision is the same way. I snagged SIC ahead of time just in case, now I need to find a working Coleco!

[Scoots]

Protector/YASI is friggin UNBELIEVABLE. It would be worth owning a Vec for this game alone (not an exaggeration).

Vecmania also has some really fun stuff on it (Star Fire Spirits and Patriots, particularly).

[ManekiNeko]

John Dondzila's Wormhole is spectacular. Imagine a vector version of Konami's Gyruss and you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. The vector graphics are used very effectively... the enemy flight patterns are even more dazzling in Wormhole than they were in Gyruss, and that's saying a lot.

Stay away from Birds of Prey unless you're getting it in some kind of multicart. It's a poor substitute for Phoenix, and it gets worse and worse as you progress. The first two stages are almost acceptable, but the rounds with the giant birds are disappointing, and the final round is just terrible. Surely there had to be a better way to bring that awesome boss battle to the Vectrex!

JR

[Mayhem]

Just to confirm what I said about the limited Protector run...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62054&item=8107161527