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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2011 12:52:22 GMT -5
As its been asked over the years, I'm bringing it up again, as to how many Vectrexes were made.
I just wish there was some IDEA of how many, you know? It doesn't have to be a concrete number. What was it, several hundred thousand? A couple of million? I've read (don't know if it was confirmed or not) that only about two million Atari 7800s were made, and both consoles are a bit rare, so that would be my guess, at least: maybe two million Vectrexes, more or less.
So--SIGH--anyone know? Or just make a guess...
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Post by vectrexmad on Dec 14, 2011 12:58:44 GMT -5
Wow, 2 million.... I wonder where they have all gone. I would say 1.5 million is a good guess - but nothing to back the claim (yet).
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2011 13:22:01 GMT -5
Wow, 2 million.... I wonder where they have all gone. Well, occasionally they show up on e-bay and YouTube videos ;D (look! Mine Storm! No one's done a video of THAT before!) I would say 1.5 million is a good guess - but nothing to back the claim (yet). I plan on bugging Miva Filoseta (for those who don't know, he made most of the game overlays, as well as did some production designs) in the next several weeks or so to see if the two people he still keeps in contact with from Western Technologies (I forget who offhand) would let me bug them to make wiki pages for them, unless he actually finishes up the questions I sent him. Maybe one of them would have an idea.
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Post by desfeek on Dec 14, 2011 16:22:28 GMT -5
I have owned 4 or 5 Vectrexes (Vextrex's? Vectri?) in my life, and I have had production numbers as low as 002084 and currently have 0124452 and 117690 A - It would be safe to assume a couple hundred thousand were made - but I don't think one million - the serial numbers would not allow for it!
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2011 16:44:16 GMT -5
Well, I'm sure they would figure out a way around the serial numbers. Maybe 000001 B would work for the next series of numbers? (Probably someone who knows how serial numbers actually work will shoot that down though )
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Post by vectrexmad on Dec 14, 2011 22:03:47 GMT -5
I have owned 4 or 5 Vectrexes (Vextrex's? Vectri?) in my life, and I have had production numbers as low as 002084 and currently have 0124452 and 117690 A - It would be safe to assume a couple hundred thousand were made - but I don't think one million - the serial numbers would not allow for it! Be careful those serial numbers don't tell you anything with regards to low and high values. The serials with an 'A' at the end automatically have a '1' at the front. Likewise for numbers at the front of the serial number be aware it doesn't represent quantity but rather different serial types. The different front numbers correspond to if sold under GCE,MB and Bandai and market region. See below for known serial types: Ser. No.: 1 xxx xxA - GCE model (fist series before MB takeover) Ser. No.: 0 xxx xxx - MB USA model Ser. No.: xxx xxx - Bandai Ser. No.: 1 xxx xxx - MB Canada model Ser. No.: U xxx xxA - MB UK model (built in Taiwan) Ser. No.: 2 xxx xxx - MB UK model (build in Hong Kong) Ser. No.: 3 xxx xxx - MB Euro model Ser. No.: 4 xxx xxx - MB Vectrex series 2 (no buzz issue) model Also for a serial number start value at the beginning of a production run be aware that some companies start at 1000 say and never from 1. This is to give the impression that more units have sold than they have. So unless some documents are found containing actual facts regarding Vectrex numbers sold we can never know. But I could make an educated guess for minimum sold: Ok, let's be conservative. Let's say there were 10,000 sold of each serial type, thats 8 x 10,000 = 80,000 units sold. I think the above number is really conservative and I think a lot more were sold per region. p.s. the serial number types (that we know) would allow 1million figure to be approached. For example if only five digits are used per serial type there would be 8 x 99,999 = 799,992 Vectrex consoles. Of course I'm making alot of assumptions.
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2011 22:10:35 GMT -5
Yeah I would think there could be more too. But if not, perhaps the system is more rare than we once thought? (Or maybe that's as far as *I* go.)
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Post by vectrexmad on Dec 14, 2011 22:15:26 GMT -5
But seriously though, where can all those consoles have all gone. Even if there were only 80,000 produced. Do people just throw them away.... Or is there an unknown Vectrex supply in peoples basements and attics...
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Post by VectorX on Dec 14, 2011 22:38:46 GMT -5
Not everyone is going to make themselves known. I didn't play my Vectrex for nearly 15 years, I hate to admit, but that all ended in 2004 with my first homebrew Hardly anyone would know of myself at all in the Vectrex world during that time, other than a small handful on a classic gaming-type forum or two. After all, my wiki's been known to the public for almost a year now, there's still several common games (Hyperchase, Rip Off, Spinball, Armor Attack, etc.) that still have no entries for them on the site. There's been plenty of time for people to do those articles and no one has, for instance.
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zino
Asteroid
Posts: 1
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Post by zino on Jan 7, 2012 20:02:33 GMT -5
Most people will handle them like old TV sets. Ie throw them away as soon as possible. Hi! I have a Vectrex.
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Post by VectorX on Jan 7, 2012 20:26:33 GMT -5
Hi, I'm glad, and welcome to the vector club!
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Post by vectrexmuseum on Feb 2, 2012 21:44:32 GMT -5
Hi, how many different Vectrex Model IDs are out there and can someone bring them in a time order, starting with the first, ending with the last number ?
3000 HP-3000 3000-G1 EURO 3000-A1 Australia 3000-C1 Canada 3000 UI UK
anymore out there ? What was the Model Number of the Version II (no Buzz Version) ?
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Post by xefned on Nov 20, 2013 22:05:09 GMT -5
It seems safe to assume 75% manufactured for the american market are corroding in landfills.
But the ones that have survived this long are lifers, thanks to the internet, and (love it or hate it) ebay.
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Post by akator on Nov 22, 2013 0:19:15 GMT -5
I have owned 5 Vectrex consoles, only 3 currently are in my possession.
So is it rare? Judging by the fact there are sometimes days in a row without a single console listed on eBay, it's probably safe to say they are getting to be rare if not already. They are definitely more concentrated in the classic gaming community (because discussion of Vectrex pops up pretty often in classic gaming and computer forums everywhere, sooner or later) so we can't use ourselves as a method of judging how rare the consoles are.
I've had a lot more difficulty finding other classic gaming and electronics items than Vectrex consoles, so it certainly isn't the rarest of systems.
A very unscientific way to judge rarity is the number of eBay items: 17523 Atari 2600 03636 Intellivision 02360 Atari 7800 02211 ColecoVision 01395 Atari 5200 00743 Atari Jaguar 00229 Vectrex
Now... obviously there's no way to determine actual sales figures from eBay search results, but the order above is consistent with known sales figures for other systems. We know the Intellivision sold at least 3M, the Colecovision around 2M, and the Atari Jaguar around 250K.
Because of availability on eBay and elsewhere, it's a pretty safe bet that Vectrex sold fewer than the Atari Jaguar... so under 250,000.
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Post by VectorX on Nov 22, 2013 9:04:36 GMT -5
Yeah, but the Jaguar is a lot newer than the Vectrex. We're talking nearly a a 10 year head start in the Vectrex getting thrown away before the Jaguar went into production.
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