Vectrex

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Vectrex
Vectrex-Console.jpg
Manufacturer Smith Engineering
Generation Second generation
Release date November 1982 (NA)

May 1983 (EU)
June 1983 (JP)

Media type ROM cartridge (32KB)
Input controller 2 controller ports

The Vectrex (known as Bandai Vectrex Kousokusen in Japan) is a vector display-based video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering which was a videogame company started by Jay Smith, an engineer who was previously an employee at Mattel. It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric (GCE), and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE. It was released in November 1982 at a retail price of $199. Later, the company developed games for other consoles, including the Sega Genesis and the Sony PlayStation.

Technical specifications

Unlike other non-portable video game consoles, which connected to televisions and rendered raster graphics, the Vectrex has an integrated vector monitor which displays vector graphics. The monochrome Vectrex uses plastic screen overlays to simulate color and various static graphics and decorations.

The Vectrex was the first and only home-based system to ever use a vector-based screen. It was also the first system to offer a 3D peripheral (the Vectrex 3D Imager), predating the Sega Master System's SegaScope 3D by about four years.

Vectrex comes with a built-in game, the Asteroids-like MineStorm. Two peripherals were also available for the Vectrex, a light pen and a 3D imager.


Technical specifications
CPU Motorola 68A09 @ 1.5 MHz
Memory RAM: 1 KB (two 4-bit 2114 chips)

ROM: 8 KB (one 8-bit 2363 chip)

Audio General Instrument AY-3-8912

3" electrodynamic paper cone speaker

Media ROM cartridges 32KB