knudsen@ihnss.UUCP (07/15/83)
I'm glad to hear about the Vectrex expansion devices; thought the salesman was BSing me about the keyboard they were coming out with. A few personal comments: Keyboard--attaching one seems a problem, since the joystick connectors have only 4 bits plus analog info. Perhaps theirs will plug into the cartridge slot and have its own PIA. This would leave the stick(s) free for graphics, testing write-ur-own-games, etc. Light Pen--great, should be easy, and vector graphic systems had lite pens long before raster schemes (PDP-7, etc). (Mouse freaks > /dev/null, please). Talking game--the Vectrex is the only home system besides the TRS COlor COmputer with a built-in D-A (and A-D) converter-- thus this is reasonable. Of course, Intellivision has B17 Bomber and other talking games, but you must buy an add-on hardware synthesizer. To add printer, disk, etc., they may need to supply a "sow-belly" expansion interface to plug in several devices at once (keyboard, disk, etc). Hopefully this will be much cheaper than TI's for the 99, BUT, since the Vectrex itself is designed to be very cost-effective for its original purpose (shoot 'em up), there will probably be a BIG first step in cost of external hardware needed to turn it into a computer. With its 1.5 MHz 68A09, it may be worth it. RAM built in is only ONE K bytes, so the expansion box better have a few extra chips in it... Our lab measurements show that at most 150 vectors per frame can be drawn before flicker would become noticeable. That will limit characters displayable per screen. Note how they already revert to simulated raster scan to show words and numbers. This limited vector bandwidth is, in my opinion, the one real dissappointment and limitation of the Vectrex, which may keep it from doing something useful like music editing. Doesn't slow down those magnetic mines, tho. mike k