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Post by 50tbrd on Dec 11, 2013 15:59:50 GMT -5
That I know of, Vectropolis 500 is the only Four player simultaneous game available for the Vectrex (possibly the upcoming NOX game.) Vectropolis uses the joystick on controller 1 to steer and button 1 to go for player 1, joystick 2 and button 1 to go for player 2, Buttons 2 and 3 to steer and button 4 to go for players 3 and 4 on controllers 1 and 2 respectively. Up and Down are not used on either controller, you only steer right or left.
I'd like to see more 4 player games and while 2 people playing on 1 controller is pretty awkward, a custom set of controller could open up a very interesting amount of freedom in game play. This same set up could be used for a Warlords remake. Honestly, a 4 button controller like the Starblast/Starblast II probably only costs around 10 bucks to make. A joystick with with one or 2 buttons could be made around 25 bucks each. Or you could buy a pair of 2600 paddles for between 10-15.
I don't know anything about programming but can you make right and left OR up and down a rotation? Because if you could then you could use R/L for the rotation of one custom controller and U/D as the rotation on another controller, which would mean you have 2 buttons for thrust and fire or whatever. This could mean that you could have a 4 player simultaneous game that is much more dynamic than a racing game like a shooter. Maybe a 4 player Solar Quest, a Twisted Metal type game, doubles tennis, or 4 player side scrolling shooter.
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Post by 50tbrd on Dec 11, 2013 16:18:49 GMT -5
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Post by 50tbrd on Dec 11, 2013 16:25:30 GMT -5
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Post by gliptitude on Dec 11, 2013 16:30:07 GMT -5
Something like this would be a cool miniature solution, with buttons re-routed and 4 of them linked together to fit only two controller leads, (see size comparison photo): www.ebay.com/itm/STARBLAST-MICRO-Vectrex-/121233120699?pt=US_Video_Game_Controllers&hash=item1c3a0e9dbb.. I agree a shooter would be better and I think Repulse would be fun for 4 players, (as is it doesn't even have 2 player). .. Between up/down/left/right/1/2/3/4 on TWO controllers, it ought to be possible to have 4x steer/thrust/shoot. Generally though I wouldn't want to crowd 4 people around one NINE INCH MONITOR. Perhaps a system with multiple Vectrexes would be more desirable? I'd love to have even a combination of two vectrex monitors for the existing 2-player games. .. I believe an internet link for Vectrex multi-play is in the works, but will not be compatible with existing games, and not sure if it will allow more than 2 players. .. Personally I do not have adequate internet service for this sort of thing, but many others do of course. |
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Post by gliptitude on Dec 11, 2013 16:39:08 GMT -5
.. Heh, watching youtube videos is another thing that my internet is not adequate for. But the notion of "autofire", if it means what I'm guessing it means, is an interesting one, and one I've never seen before. I was greatly annoyed the first few times I played Zelda Ocarina of Time, because the game involves jumping and yet there is no button to jump. Rather the character automatically jumps when you have him run towards a ledge. .. After I got used to this though it became a very satisfying and intuitive control scheme, and indeed it became awkward to press the jump button in similar games afterwords. .. I wonder what it would be like to have a classic shooter where the players ship was just constantly shooting, without a button. Or perhaps it would involve more strategy if the ship was shooting at some set frequency or period, rather than "constant"? Could be interesting. I'm definitely down for alternative control schemes, if the game is optimized for it. |
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Post by VectorX on Dec 11, 2013 17:25:49 GMT -5
Generally though I wouldn't want to crowd 4 people around one NINE INCH MONITOR. Perhaps a system with multiple Vectrexes would be more desirable? Or an extension cord, giving us a few more inches away from it/each other? .. I believe an internet link for Vectrex multi-play is in the works, If you mean Alex Herbert's VecLink, all of his stuff's been on hold for years now, unfortunately  |
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Post by wyldephang on Dec 11, 2013 20:27:20 GMT -5
Generally though I wouldn't want to crowd 4 people around one NINE INCH MONITOR. Perhaps a system with multiple Vectrexes would be more desirable? A link cable, perhaps, like the one used on the Game Boy? A Vectrex "LAN party" would be fun.  And you're right, the existing games would not support multi-machine networking, but the games can be modified and re-released by homebrewers. How about a version of Berzerk where one person controls Evil Otto? |
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Post by kokovec on Dec 12, 2013 14:01:19 GMT -5
I designed an adapter capable of multiplayer over a network (WAN/LAN).
Right now I use it to load ROMS from an FTP server.
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Post by gliptitude on Dec 12, 2013 18:43:06 GMT -5
I designed an adapter capable of multiplayer over a network (WAN/LAN). Right now I use it to load ROMS from an FTP server. Did your device enable users to play existing Vectrex 2-player games? |
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Post by kokovec on Dec 13, 2013 11:49:19 GMT -5
No but I don't see why one couldn't do such a thing by snooping the joystick ports of both vectrex units.
The problem would be latency. It's easier to synchronize multiple vectrex units via a central server much like XBOX pr Playstation does.
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Post by 50tbrd on May 3, 2014 21:27:47 GMT -5
 My passthrough multitap which allows 2 controllers to be used for one controller port for games such as Vectropolis 500 and Chris Malcolm's new Vector Pong. One controller operates the Joystick and Button 1 while the other controller operates buttons 2-4. Next move is to make a custom controller which uses a joystick or driving controller to operate buttons 2 and 3. Maybe I'll use a modified Atari Controller. This would be so cool for use with a 4 player shooter. 2 units would be needed for 4 player action. 1 for each controller port. This cost about 4 bucks to make. |
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Kangsteri
Vector Runner
Opinions not allowed here. Except for Vectrex programming gods.
Posts: 16 
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Post by Kangsteri on May 4, 2014 0:29:16 GMT -5
Good looking work there. This would be so cool! And there should be some kind of versus shooter. Maby something like RC Pro am on NES..
But i agree that this also needs a way to connect two Vectrex screens to show the same action. I have done some testing and studying on that. And i cant just cut and split the X/Y and Z connections. Cause the screen alignment and power needs to be adjusted. Also i cant just sync the controllers for two machines and two games. Cause all original Vectrex two player games have random moving enemies. So i can sync the controllers, but not any enemies on original games. Seems like the Alex Herbert's VecLink used this style on the Berzerk arena. That would be very good for some hacked games tho. But i assume this narrows the picture connection splitting points to somewhere after RAM, and before the alignment adjustments on the logic board?
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Post by jasonbar on May 5, 2014 14:44:36 GMT -5
Semi-related. Micro Machines 64 Turbo for N64 allowed 8 people to share 2 controllers, for 8-player simultaneous play. Wow!
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Post by christophertumber on May 5, 2014 14:57:55 GMT -5
The VecLink is a communications channel between two Vectrex machines. Similar to a null modem cable. It is not a direct hardware connection or mirror of either video or controller. I have no idea what the bandwidth is but it could never handle anything resembling an entire video feed (you're pushing bytes across the "network" in real time so any time spend in communications is time NOT spent drawing or on game calculations).
It's been ages since I looked at the code, but IIRC for UTG the two machines would synch frames and swap controller data.
Something similar to:
Vectrex 1: waitrecal
Vectrex 1: poll controller
Vectrex 2: waitrecal
Vectrex 2: poll controller
Vectrex 1 says: I'm at the start of my frame and waiting for you. My controller inputs are XYZ
Vectrex 2 says: Ok, I'm at the start of my frame my controller inputs are ABC
Vectrex 1 says: Proceeding with frame, see you in a few thousand cycles
Vectrex 2 says: Proceeding with frame, later gator
(AFAIK, there was no real handshaking or error checking needed).
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And you're right, the existing games would not support multi-machine networking, but the games can be modified and re-released by homebrewers. How about a version of Berzerk where one person controls Evil Otto?
