Post by garryg on Jan 19, 2021 14:40:41 GMT -5
A while ago I started getting interested in displaying XY vector images from an Arduino to an old CRT oscilloscope.
Eventually the CRT oscilloscope broke and I turned to my digital scope, but the result just didn't look or feel the same.
A bit later I acquired an old CRT vectorscope, and this did give a pretty good picture but it still had a small screen and used a long tube, so wasn't very practical.
Using an Arduino to produce vector images on an XY display is pretty much the same principal as what the Vectrex does anyway. So I started wondering what would be involved in building a crude vector gaming machine based on this idea.
There are already libraries out there that let you 'draw' vectors to an XY display with the Arduino, and it only needs a very simple circuit to do this. You don't even have to do any soldering as this can be made by simply twisting some components together and attaching the XY cables.
You can see the bits and pieces I done awhile ago on my old blog here.
I have a few old portable CRT TVs lying around in the loft, I also have an old Macintosh II that I think the screen still works on. It should be possible to do the old 'TV to an oscilloscope' trick to get an XY signal from the Arduino to display a decent picture. I know this would be pretty much a one-off thing, without doing things like rewiring the yoke, as the X and Y inputs of TVs aren't standard across all sets. Although it should be possible to 'tune in' a stable picture by using a simple two channel amplifier and these are cheep enough to buy. This way a program written on the Arduino could at least appear roughly the same on different sets. Writing a simple vector game, like pong, on the Arduino would be relatively straightforward, as the libraries are already there and you are writing in C not assembly. (Although I do like Assembly, C... meh! Reminds me too much of work.)
So has anybody here ever done anything like this?
Eventually the CRT oscilloscope broke and I turned to my digital scope, but the result just didn't look or feel the same.
A bit later I acquired an old CRT vectorscope, and this did give a pretty good picture but it still had a small screen and used a long tube, so wasn't very practical.
Using an Arduino to produce vector images on an XY display is pretty much the same principal as what the Vectrex does anyway. So I started wondering what would be involved in building a crude vector gaming machine based on this idea.
There are already libraries out there that let you 'draw' vectors to an XY display with the Arduino, and it only needs a very simple circuit to do this. You don't even have to do any soldering as this can be made by simply twisting some components together and attaching the XY cables.
You can see the bits and pieces I done awhile ago on my old blog here.
I have a few old portable CRT TVs lying around in the loft, I also have an old Macintosh II that I think the screen still works on. It should be possible to do the old 'TV to an oscilloscope' trick to get an XY signal from the Arduino to display a decent picture. I know this would be pretty much a one-off thing, without doing things like rewiring the yoke, as the X and Y inputs of TVs aren't standard across all sets. Although it should be possible to 'tune in' a stable picture by using a simple two channel amplifier and these are cheep enough to buy. This way a program written on the Arduino could at least appear roughly the same on different sets. Writing a simple vector game, like pong, on the Arduino would be relatively straightforward, as the libraries are already there and you are writing in C not assembly. (Although I do like Assembly, C... meh! Reminds me too much of work.)
So has anybody here ever done anything like this?