Popular games for platform Vectrex
The very first racing game with the rear perspective camera and track based on real life.
The player controls an aircraft, referred to in the game as a "Jet," and has to guide it across a scrolling terrain, battling obstacles along the way. The ship is armed with a forward-firing weapon and bombs; each weapon has its own button. The player must avoid colliding with the terrain and other enemies, while simultaneously maintaining its limited fuel supply which diminishes over time. More fuel can be acquired by destroying fuel tanks in the game. The game is divided into six sections, each with a different style of terrain and different obstacles. There is no intermission between each section; the game simply scrolls into the new terrain. Points are awarded based upon the number of seconds of being alive, and on destroying enemies and fuel tanks. In the final section, the player must destroy a "base". Once this has been accomplished, a flag denoting a completed mission is posted at the bottom right of the screen. The game then continues by returning to the first section once more, with a slight increase in difficulty.
The player controls a jeep and must destroy the many tanks and helicopters that attack them in a maze-like cityscape. The jeep is armed with a rocket launcher that fires straight forward; the player can have two rockets on-screen at the time. The driving is generally similar to the well-known Combat for the Atari 2600. Tanks periodically spawn from different locations on the edge of the screen and drive towards the player. The tanks always travel along horizontal or vertical lines, unlike the freely moving jeep. Tank turrets move to track the player, allowing them to shoot in any direction. Tanks normally take two hits to kill, and the player can have only two rockets on the screen at a time. The helicopter spawns from any point, and approaches the player in looping paths flying over the jeep and periodically firing. If hit, the helicopter spirals in.
Vectris is your typical blocks and lines type puzzle game. The game is complete however, it does suffer from some screen flicker. A Vectrex side effect of drawing too many vectors on screen at once
As far as Vectrex games go, the holy grail for many collectors and gamers is the unreleased flight simulator, Mail Plane. This quirky take on the tried and tested genre made use of the obscure light-pen accessory to control the airborne vehicle tasking you with delivering letters. Unfortunately nobody got to experience this unique offering back in the day following the games cancellation. Having said that, the moment many of these deprived gamers had been waiting for finally arrived in November - a Mail Plane prototype cartridge surfaced on eBay in Pennsylvania, United States. Selling for a massive $877, one lucky bidder had finally secured the chance to experience this oddity once and for all, however, they had bigger plans for this title. Understanding the demand for this long lost title, AtariAge user Vectrexer - the new owner of this Mail Plane prototype - decided to generously create a ROM image of the game cartridge and release it online for free to the masses. As of today we can all finally experience Mail Plane in its original form, although there are a few more issues present. Not only do we need a Vectrex flash cartridge to load the ROM on to, but also the incredibly difficult to source Light Pen accessory.
Weave your way through the other race cars and toward the checkered flag!
Verzerk is a hack of Berzerk, adding speech this time around, with a robotic voice welcoming the player during the attract mode, then states "this is Verzerk". The phrases from the original arcade version of "shoot him", "chicken, fight like a robot", "got you humanoid", etc. are included in this release. The game plays identically to Berzerk though, aside from that and only being for one player.
Help out hero, Spike, win Molly's affections by winning a wet and wild game of water balloon catch.
Star Castle is a 1980 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses orbiting a stationary turret in the center of the screen. The game was designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by Scott Boden. Tim Skelly also created a number of other Cinematronics titles, including Starhawk, Armor Attack and Rip-Off. As with many other titles by the company, Star Castle was ported to the Vectrex video game console in 1983.
Vec Sports Boxing has both a one player mode and a two player mode. In one player mode, the player controls a boxer who is training to become the top fighter. The player's coach will call out commands and the player will have to mimic those commands. Accuracy is important and if the player make a wrong move then he will have to start the training session over again. In two player mode, the players control boxers who are sparring. Each player is trying to wear the other's stamina down and knock them out first. The first to win two rounds wins the match.
In the arcade game Tempest, players controlled a blaster that could move around the outermost lanes of a bunch of geometrically-shaped levels and fire at ships that emerged from the middle or innermost areas of those levels. Bedlam, however, was a "Tempest in reverse", where players' ships (resembling the Millennium Falcon from several of the Star Wars movies) sat in the middle of sectors while ships emerge from points of those sectors and came inwards towards the player. Players turn their ships left and right and can spin them around quicker with the Fast Rotate button. Also, Zap, like the Superzapper on Tempest, will destroy everything onscreen and can only be used once per sector. There are several different types and mannerisms of enemies as well as sectors. Getting rammed by an enemy will cause the player to lose a ship in reserve and the game will end once the player has no more remaining ships.
This is a clone of the Atari vector game Star Wars, which is comprised of three waves. The player starts with six shield units, which will drop every time a spaceship or any other obstacle collides with the player or the player is hit by enemy fire; if the player is hit when they have no more shields left the game will end.
Starhawk is a 1979 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. Starhawk is a shoot 'em up with a fixed environment. The game was unique at the time as it presented the graphics in a pseudo-three dimensional way. Essentially, the game is a simple video game version of the Star Wars: Episode IV trench run. The game was later ported to the Vectrex video game console in 1982. The game is remembered as having quite advanced graphics for the time and being the first video game based upon or to have noticeable references to Star Wars.
Unlike the previous Vecmania, which comprised seven full games and two demos, the majority of Vectopia is composed of unfinished demos and only three full games. In order to cycle through the games, once the menu screen appears after power-up, the player must press button one on the Vectrex controller, then to play a game they must press button four Games in Vectopia: - Wormhole - Trakkers - Vectropolis 500 (demo) - Spike's Water Balloons - Control Test (demo) - Mad Planetoid Test Wk (demo) - Star Fire Early Work (demo) - Star Fire Early Work II (demo) - Star Fury Test Work - Trivia
The player controls a gun turret on a watchtower in the Robot Drop Zone. Robots circle the tower and shoot seekers at the player in an attempt to deplete their damage gauge. Both the robots and the seekers must be destroyed, but ammo is not infinite and must be used with care. When the player's ammo is completely spent, it's only a matter of time before game over. In a phase where a certain number of robots must be destroyed, the player is just a sitting duck; however, in a survival phase, it is possible to advance to the next stage if the player has enough health, then they can can wait out the time limit.
Catch the falling bombs! (And you thought your job was dangerous!).
The player controls a formula one race car whose objective is to advance through the rankings and either make the best time or accumulate as many points as possible depending on the game selected. In Game 1, the player has unlimited cars and their goal is to finish the course in as little time as possible. In Game 2, the player receives 5 cars and the goal is to accumulate as many points as possible. In both games, collision with either the edge of the track or other cars results in the loss of a life and the player is forced to start from a speed of zero.
Rip-Off is a vector shoot 'em up released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1980. It is the first shoot 'em up arcade game to feature cooperative gameplay and the first game to exhibit "flocking" behavior. The objective is to prevent computer-controlled enemies from stealing eight canisters set in the center of the screen. One or two players control tank-like vehicles while game-controlled "pirate" tanks rush onto the field and attempt to drag the canisters off the edge of the screen. Enemies can be defeated by shooting or colliding with them. The game speed and difficulty increase with each successive wave until all the canisters have been taken ("ripped off").
Produced as a promotional item for the Mr. Boston liquor company, Mr. Boston Clean Sweep is an extremely rare game for the Vectrex.
Doodle Jump clone
The evil Spud has taken Spike's girl, Molly, and Spike must make his way through various levels on platforms and ladders to rescue Molly. You must move the ladder from platform to platform and jump gaps to retrieve the key that will set Molly free from her cage. But be careful, Spud has evil bounces and birds he has sent out after you! You can defend yourself by kicking right or left. You can play either one player or two player mode where each player takes a turn with a single joystick controller. Who will save the fair Molly first and win her affection?
Tread lightly! The transport lanes of intergalactic space have been seeded with mines from an alien vessel. Use your mine destroying blaster to blow up the mines before they annihilate you! You may survive the floating mines, but beware of the fireball, magnetic, and treacherous fireball-magnetic mines . . . 13 fields, each one more difficult, await you!
Clone of the arcade game Lunar Lander, where the player must land their ship on a series of several moons while dealing with gravity, wind, diminishing fuel and enemy satellites.
Compilation.