Hey, guys, just a heads-up, the second article in the series from the book, this one on the GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex, has been posted by Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3117/a_history_of_gaming_platforms...

If you're interested, as a special bonus, here are four images they chose not to include in the article:

VECFU Screenshot from Emulator: www.vectrex.nlThanks to www.vectrex.nl for the heads-up on, details about and download for the demo for VECFU (Vec-Fu), a one-on-one fighting game for the GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex (and related emulators). As Vectrex fans know, a game type such as this has yet to grace the suprisingly versatile and unique vector platform, so this is exciting news. I can't wait to download this and play it on my real Vectrex, as superficially anyway, it looks amazing!

And the story, such as it is:

The evil Daimyo and his minions have laid Waste to your temple and killed off all of the other monks while you were away in another province, and now you are on to get your revenge. First off you have to fight against the daimyos champions of martial arts, before you can face the evil one himself.

Thanks to [www.vectrex.nl] for the heads up on a new wrap (skin) project for GCE/Milton Bradley's Vectrex that utilizes imagery from the popular homebrew games YASI and Protector.

I got on the pre-order list by contacting Michele Fiori via e-mail at his Website. For around $25, this limited production collectible will not only look great on your system, but no doubt also become quite valuable down the line. Sign up now as orders will start shipping soon.

Spike's Sea Snap Safari: Concept ImageThe prolific homebrew GCE/Milton Bradley Vectrex game developers, Vectorzoa, known for cartridges such as "Logo", "Star Sling" and "Spike's Circus" (which I've mentioned previously on Armchair Arcade) have an interesting way for ANYONE to contribute to their next game, "Spike's Sea Snap Safari". While label art and level design contests are popular at AtariAge, this is one of the few times that I've seen one for a non-Atari system.

This looks like fun and hopefully some of the Armchair Arcade faithful will take up the challenge and report on their results. From the Website:

3D Lord of the Robots packaging for the GCE/Milton Bradley VectrexCan man survice on homebrew software alone these days? Thanks to a heads-up from Vectrex News, I found out that "3D Lord of the Robots" is now out of pre-order and available for purchase for $50, with worldwide shipping included. It's available here. After receiving "Spike's Circus" yesterday, I felt it was my "duty" to order this game too, which is among the first 3D specific-games released for the original 3D and new homebrew imagers with color wheels for the Vectrex since the original three games. A 2D version of the game for those without imagers is included on the same cartridge, all within a box with a neat, engraved metal lid. How I'll find time to get around to playing these is a different story, but I'll definitely try. Look for coverage of these Vectrex games in future issues of Armchair Arcade!

Spike's Circus animation: (Image from Vectorzoa Website, creators of the Vectrex game)Well, the Vectrex continues to battle the Atari 2600 for the best homebrew console award. It's almost difficult to keep up with all the new announcements for the unique Vectrex system and yes, the new product releases, the latest being "Spike's Circus" from Vectorzoa, who previously released "Logo" and "Star Sling". (for those who don't know, the character of "Spike" appeared in a platform game of the same name during the system's initial run. It actually featured pretty good speech synthesis, requiring no special add-ons. Spike and the associated characters from the game have become the system's unofficial mascot since then, appearing in several homebrew titles from various developers)

http://vectorzoa.com/circus/gi_circus.html

Hey, if you don't already have a Vectrex or are trying to get one off of eBay, what the heck are you waiting for? ;-)

From the Vectorzoa Website:

Spike Supersports Title Screen (Vectrex): Image from Martijn Wenting's developer blog...Or so goes the tagline to the blog, d3singer.com, which, despite the tiresome "leet-speak" (which I refuse to ever learn, thank you very much) in the title, is an intriguing development diary from Martijn Wenting of the Netherlands.

I first "knew" of Martijn from frequenting his Vectrex News Website, which not only obviously provides news on one of the most unique videogame systems ever, the Vectrex, but also a plethora of related information and software tools for the highly collectible unit. Fairly recently he decided to document his software development activities in blog format, and, for those who wish to develop for classic systems or are just interested in programming or even classic systems in general, it's terribly fascinating. He's into everything from the Vectrex (natch) to the ColecoVision and MSX systems to the Atari 2600, GameBoy and beyond.