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Post by Mayhem on Jun 8, 2013 20:44:20 GMT -5
If you can find a ROM, then Richard's VecMulti will play it as it supports carts with the extra RAM onboard.
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Post by dgo on Jun 9, 2013 5:38:01 GMT -5
I remember Alex, understandably, because he truly put his heart in it, being pretty disappointed very few actually started programming in it.. It wouldn't have that big an audience anyway. I don't suppose you know what happened with Alex? We've been wondering for a while here. The last time I've seen him was at Eurocon, years ago, together with his lovely wife and newborn when he auctioned joust. After that I only had a few more short email contacts with him. If I remember something about being extremely busy in RL work etc. shorty after which he dropped everything Vectrex and completely got off radar. Unfortunately never seen or spoken to him again.. Nor did he reply to mails send thru the vectorzoa website. gliptitudeI see your point...He's a very agreeable guy, so IF someone can get in touch, he might be open to releasing the rom for distribution, shelled or not. Definitely worth a try. I'm gonna do some digging, perhaps I have another email somewhere.. |
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Post by hcmffm on Jun 9, 2013 7:34:47 GMT -5
I had been in contact with Alex about two years ago. From what I remember, Alex is busy with his family and job, not allowing him to do stuff like Vectrex programming.
Flushing Alex with emails might show Alex that there is really interest in this affair, but I think it's not a good idea. If all agree, I can contact Alex in the name of the Vectrex (forum) community asking for releasing his binaries freely. An alternative would be releasing a protected binary of Spike's Circus together with ParaJVE. BTW, this was done with Star Sling, already, so if people want to play Star Sling, you just download ParaJVE and you are done.
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Post by hcmffm on Jun 9, 2013 7:39:39 GMT -5
... Vectropolis 500--sure it wasn't finished, but it's still fun! There aren't many racing games on the Vectrex, and this is THE only four player game on the system too (has anyone played with three or all four players?). Vectropolis is really a cool game. The four player game is just f untastic. Try out this: Two players control four cars, each player can use one of his/her cars (typically the button controlled one) as an obstacle. |
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Post by dgo on Jun 9, 2013 7:43:31 GMT -5
I had been in contact with Alex about two years ago. From what I remember, Alex is busy with his family and job, not allowing him to do stuff like Vectrex programming. Flushing Alex with emails might show Alex that there is really interest in this affair, but I think it's not a good idea. If all agree, I can contact Alex in the name of the Vectrex (forum) community asking for releasing his binaries freely. An alternative would be releasing a protected binary of Spike's Circus together with ParaJVE. BTW, this was done with Star Sling, already, so if people want to play Star Sling, you just download ParaJVE and you are done. sounds like a good idea to me. |
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Post by VectorX on Jun 9, 2013 8:03:17 GMT -5
Try out this: Two players control four cars, each player can use one of his/her cars (typically the button controlled one) as an obstacle. I've done the opposite where I'd just control one extra car to move it to the point of getting it away from the finish line, and that'd be it! |
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Post by TrekMD on Jun 9, 2013 9:29:33 GMT -5
I had been in contact with Alex about two years ago. From what I remember, Alex is busy with his family and job, not allowing him to do stuff like Vectrex programming. Flushing Alex with emails might show Alex that there is really interest in this affair, but I think it's not a good idea. If all agree, I can contact Alex in the name of the Vectrex (forum) community asking for releasing his binaries freely. An alternative would be releasing a protected binary of Spike's Circus together with ParaJVE. BTW, this was done with Star Sling, already, so if people want to play Star Sling, you just download ParaJVE and you are done. sounds like a good idea to me. I second that! |
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Post by gliptitude on Jun 10, 2013 0:35:03 GMT -5
Well I'm on board with electing a person to contact him, but I don't know about this "protected binary" ParaJVE release of the game. The game should be played on a Vectrex, not an emulator. I'd most like to be able to purchase a cartridge, but a flash-able ROM would seem to be the only acceptable alternative.
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Post by dgo on Jun 10, 2013 4:18:57 GMT -5
Well I'm on board with electing a person to contact him, but I don't know about this "protected binary" ParaJVE release of the game. The game should be played on a Vectrex, not an emulator. I'd most like to be able to purchase a cartridge, but a flash-able ROM would seem to be the only acceptable alternative. I over read that suggestion.. You are very right. Most definately. With all respects to ParaJVE, any Vectrex game is of course best played on hardware. But it's great you can play them in ParaJVE as well. But in particular concerning Spike Circus, because its control schema and even its gameplay is centered on making use of the analog Vectrex controller in a unique way, it really needs to be run on hardware. Without it, you can't even control it. Releasing it emulator only, if that is what protected binary stands for, is a waste of time IMO. |
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Post by hcmffm on Jun 10, 2013 17:16:16 GMT -5
Well I'm on board with electing a person to contact him, but I don't know about this "protected binary" ParaJVE release of the game. The game should be played on a Vectrex, not an emulator. I'd most like to be able to purchase a cartridge, but a flash-able ROM would seem to be the only acceptable alternative. I over read that suggestion.. You are very right. Most definately. With all respects to ParaJVE, any Vectrex game is of course best played on hardware. But it's great you can play them in ParaJVE as well. But in particular concerning Spike Circus, because its control schema and even its gameplay is centered on making use of the analog Vectrex controller in a unique way, it really needs to be run on hardware. Without it, you can't even control it. Releasing it emulator only, if that is what protected binary stands for, is a waste of time IMO. Good points. FAIK, ParaJVE supports analogue joystick control otherwise the release of Star Sling would not have made much sense, because it has analouge control, too. Sure enough, perfect would be a free binary of Spike's Circus that can be used in ParaJVE and moreover on the Vectrex. The free binary is what I'll aim at and ask for. Alex might not agree and in this case, the second best solution would be a protected binary of Spike's Circus which can be used within ParaJVE. Not so good but at least this would allow for people trying the game out. I'll contact Alex via e-mail on Wednesday and will let you know here once I got a reply. |
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Post by TrekMD on Jun 10, 2013 17:18:18 GMT -5
Maybe he can agree to have one of the other homebrewers release the game in cart form.  That'd be great. |
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Post by hcmffm on Jun 10, 2013 17:41:11 GMT -5
Maybe he can agree to have one of the other homebrewers release the game in cart form. That'd be great. Yes, that would be a good way of keeping the binary protected but make games available, again. |
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Post by gliptitude on Jun 10, 2013 18:04:50 GMT -5
I totally just want to pay money for the game on cart, just like the people who bought it in the initial run. I'm not concerned about collectability and wouldn't mind if it came without packaging or overlay. If there's an issue of preserving the rarity of the initial run, there could easily be identifying marks on the label or in the program, to distinguish it as a second run. None of this stuff should prevent a great Vectrex game from being seen by everyone who wants to see it.
The big issue might be the cart RAM, because Dondzila is the main (only?) person to have reproduced other people's programs on cart, and I don't think he is generally set up to make a game with RAM. At least he won't do Animaction, I know.
Can the game possibly function without the RAM support? If so, it might be easiest if the game ROM was entrusted to Mr. Dondzila and permissions given, maybe even without any new promotions on the cgc website, that simply people who know about it and contact JD can order the game as a "custom cart".
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Post by hcmffm on Jun 23, 2013 16:29:02 GMT -5
I've just sent out an e-mail to Alex regarding his three games (Star Sling, Spike's Circus, and Logo), describing our idea and some possible options. In case Alex replies to me I'll post here. I've sent him the link to this discussion, so he might even answer directly. Let's cross fingers and see what happens...
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Post by TrekMD on Jun 23, 2013 19:57:51 GMT -5
Here's hoping!
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That'd be great.