Post by vectrexmad on Feb 6, 2012 20:01:22 GMT -5
I know that Darryl has reported on his Vectrex wiki that John Ross (original Vectrex staff) has been posting stuff on the wiki. But it seems that in December he's also be updating the Wikipedia entry:
"Product Development Details
The seed of the idea for the product came from surplus electronics, and military at that. Most of this resource is gone now from the American landscape. In the early 1980s, electronic production was already mostly offshore from America. It was discovered early on in the product development that the television components needed, like yokes and flybacks, were no longer available at the local shops. In Los Angeles, it was easier to buy whole televisions from Chinatown and use them for parts. That is what was done. The American engineers were not familiar with Asian semiconductors, so American parts were used. These are basically military and industrial components. The machine is built, thereby, to an industrial specification, not a commercial one. During testing of production prototypes in Hong Kong, the units were placed in an oven to see how much heat the electronics, running, could stand. Eventually, the plastic cases started to deform and sag in the heat. The electronics continued to function. This situation was reported by Steve Marking who was sent to put the system into production. The in-house prototypes in Los Angeles were hand-wired by Jamie Anitra MacInnis working from schematics. Mostly, the units functioned from the very moment that power was first applied. There were no plastic cases available, so the units destined for use by the software development programmers were built into whatever was available. This included heavy waxed-cardboard onion crates and raw, 1/8" thick, double-sided printed circuit material (the "Copper Box"). The copper box, involving cutting fiberglass, was made surreptitiously in the dead of night in Walter Nakano's shop at Western Technologies. He was not best pleased."
Vectrex history is always really interesting for me. Anyone know how to get in touch with this guy to see if we can find out more Vectrex related information?
"Product Development Details
The seed of the idea for the product came from surplus electronics, and military at that. Most of this resource is gone now from the American landscape. In the early 1980s, electronic production was already mostly offshore from America. It was discovered early on in the product development that the television components needed, like yokes and flybacks, were no longer available at the local shops. In Los Angeles, it was easier to buy whole televisions from Chinatown and use them for parts. That is what was done. The American engineers were not familiar with Asian semiconductors, so American parts were used. These are basically military and industrial components. The machine is built, thereby, to an industrial specification, not a commercial one. During testing of production prototypes in Hong Kong, the units were placed in an oven to see how much heat the electronics, running, could stand. Eventually, the plastic cases started to deform and sag in the heat. The electronics continued to function. This situation was reported by Steve Marking who was sent to put the system into production. The in-house prototypes in Los Angeles were hand-wired by Jamie Anitra MacInnis working from schematics. Mostly, the units functioned from the very moment that power was first applied. There were no plastic cases available, so the units destined for use by the software development programmers were built into whatever was available. This included heavy waxed-cardboard onion crates and raw, 1/8" thick, double-sided printed circuit material (the "Copper Box"). The copper box, involving cutting fiberglass, was made surreptitiously in the dead of night in Walter Nakano's shop at Western Technologies. He was not best pleased."
Vectrex history is always really interesting for me. Anyone know how to get in touch with this guy to see if we can find out more Vectrex related information?
