|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 21, 2020 22:12:01 GMT -5
Hello everybody. I’m in the possession of a Vectrex pin, as in the type of button you wear on a jacket. imgur.com/a/d2b8zPF . It’s 3.5 inches and says “The pace setter,” “Vectrex” and “The high performance machine.” It belonged to a family member who worked for Milton Bradley, and passed some time ago. I’ve been trying to find when and where they were given out, but can’t find any reference to them online. Has anyone seen one or have any information? Thank you all for any feedback. |
|
|
|
Post by VectorX on Oct 21, 2020 23:11:14 GMT -5
My goodness! That's a new one to me.
|
|
|
|
Post by TrekMD on Oct 22, 2020 6:11:28 GMT -5
I've never seen that before. Really cool!
|
|
|
|
Post by hcmffm on Oct 22, 2020 13:40:15 GMT -5
Welcome to the Vectorgaming forum, tzarroomba . Your "Pace setter" pin looks pretty unique to me - I've never seen such a pin before. One of the longterm collectors (e.g. Mayhem , Sean Kelly, scallen , playvectrex , VECTREXER ) might have seen it or even have it but I much doubt it because FAIK noone ever mentioned it before. Milton Bradly sold the Vectrex in Europe between 1982 and 1984 so the pin must have been given to your family member around that time. There exists another pin/badge "I'm a Vectrex expert" but also little is know about that one. |
|
|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 22, 2020 17:12:27 GMT -5
Milton Bradly sold the Vectrex in Europe between 1982 and 1984 so the pin must have been given to your family member around that time. There exists another pin/badge "I'm a Vectrex expert" but also little is know about that one. Thanks for all the insight! I’ve had the pin above my desk for years, and never questioned its uniqueness until recently. The timeline has been an issue for me. I also have a purportedly early Armor Attack cart (currently on eBay) from the same person. Did earlier stuff end up at MB? Another option is that he picked stuff up at conventions. Apparently he went to many at the time. The really odd part is that he didn’t appear to ever own a vectrex, though he did gift one to my father, along with many games. Perhaps he just had a habit of grabbing things heading to the scrap pile. |
|
|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 22, 2020 17:38:10 GMT -5
Also I was going to ask if a picture of the expert button exists somewhere to compare the two. I know button making has long been a thing, and if I didn’t find it when and where I did, I’d have just assumed it was a new “retro” item. I’ve been looking through old CES photos, MB catalogs, and the like trying to see one. I know the “High Performance Machine” and flags were used at the 1983 CES booth, though I’m not sure about “Pace Setter.”
|
|
|
|
Post by VectorX on Oct 22, 2020 18:38:00 GMT -5
The really odd part is that he didn’t appear to ever own a vectrex, though he did gift one to my father, along with many games. Perhaps he just had a habit of grabbing things heading to the scrap pile. Well, we in the Vectrex community are monstrously lucky to find out about this then, no matter how it came along! Because old Atari stuff pops up a lot over the years; since the Vectrex came nowhere close to matching Atari's status, game libraries' size and sales, not so much. |
|
|
|
Post by VECTREXER on Oct 22, 2020 19:21:22 GMT -5
Hello everybody. I’m in the possession of a Vectrex pin, as in the type of button you wear on a jacket. imgur.com/a/d2b8zPF . It’s 3.5 inches and says “The pace setter,” “Vectrex” and “The high performance machine.” It belonged to a family member who worked for Milton Bradley, and passed some time ago. I’ve been trying to find when and where they were given out, but can’t find any reference to them online. Has anyone seen one or have any information? Thank you all for any feedback.  I have seen these 1980's era Vectrex buttons/badges/pins several times before. With some showing up on in the newsgroups a while back. And some other forums too. And at least three I have noticed being sold via eBay in the past. As to exactly when they were made and given out I don't know. But I suggest these buttons were made around the time the Jackie Stewart Vectrex commercial aired on TV.. Possibly related commercial.: youtu.be/XqIwrsBXjUc?t=31A past newsgroup post on these buttons. Also has a past eBay post url. I did not archive that eBay listing. groups.google.com/g/rec.games.vectrex/c/tcdWIcEkYVY/m/In6YRTwURFEJ |
|
|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 22, 2020 19:39:16 GMT -5
Well, we in the Vectrex community are monstrously lucky to find out about this then, no matter how it came along! Because old Atari stuff pops up a lot over the years; since the Vectrex came nowhere close to matching Atari's status, game libraries' size and sales, not so much. Thank you. That’s really nice to hear. I grew up loving the system and love sharing it with my kids today. It’s truly unique and really a magical experience. I never expected to contribute to its history in any way. My grandfather (the MB engineer) was really cool, but as a kid I didn’t fully appreciate. I remember going on tours and getting to pick out board games, but unfortunately wasn’t old enough to really appreciate what he might have been a part of. While I don’t have any evidence he worked on the Vectrex, I do know he was very into computers like the commodore and other early tech. Somewhat unrelated, did the system come with two controllers? And did the animation game and melody maker both come with light pens? I have two of each and wondered if that was normal or if he was just grabbing freebies when it discounted. |
|
|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 22, 2020 19:55:44 GMT -5
Woah! Thank you so much vectrexer! That’s so great to hear! It’s so good to know it’s a legit item, and not some homemade fan art, though that’s cool too. I’m excited to dig deeper, and really appreciate you guys and all your knowledge.
|
|
|
|
Post by VECTREXER on Oct 22, 2020 20:55:26 GMT -5
Somewhat unrelated, did the system come with two controllers? And did the animation game and melody maker both come with light pens? I have two of each and wondered if that was normal or if he was just grabbing freebies when it discounted. The Vectrex came with the one controller that slotted, rotated, and secured into the cabinet. GCE/MB had a lot of "razor blades" they needed to sell. An extra controller for the second player, or as a replacement, was one of those razor blades. The only game packaged with a Vectrex Light Pen was the title Art Master. Both of the released titles "Animaction" and "Melody Master" did not have any packaging model that included a Light Pen. I suspect the same would have been true for the unreleased title "Mail Plane" when it would have been released. Just the cart and instructions but no Light Pen. You really only needed one Light Pen. So no sense selling each title with extra hardware that would have made the package more expensive. No sense that is until last year when homebrew developer Binary Star Software made a game that could use two Light Pens. But that is a different era from the past. Similar for the 3D Imager titles as well. The pack-in game 3D Mine Storm came with 3D Imager. The other two 3D titles, 3D Crazy Coaster and 3D 3D Narrow Escape, did not include the 3D imager. Though they did include a color wheel for the 3D imager specific to each game title ae they were different from the 3D Mine Storm color wheel. |
|
|
|
Post by VectorX on Oct 22, 2020 20:55:55 GMT -5
^No, definitely not homemade! (EDIT: Vectrexer got in his response right before mine.) Somewhat unrelated, did the system come with two controllers? Nope. I still have my one and only controller that came with mine in '84. And did the animation game and melody maker both come with light pens? No, I don't think so. |
|
|
|
Post by tzarroomba on Oct 22, 2020 23:00:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the response, guys. That’s what I figured, as it seemed like a costly peripheral. Both light pens look the same, so nothing exciting, but it does point further to the idea of a free table at the office. Though it does seem odd that everything I have is GCE as opposed to MB.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mayhem on Oct 25, 2020 8:52:39 GMT -5
Late to the party, last few days have been busy. But I have the black Pace Setter badge in my collection, in fact fairly sure I’ve had two and sold one along the way. Nice to see another one appear, yes it is quite rare imo and I’ve only seen a handful over the last 20 years
|
|
|
|
Post by Mayhem on Oct 25, 2020 9:01:24 GMT -5
I believe that eBay listing is the first one I acquired. |
|
