mail plane

[dgo]

Wow, some nice developments been going on! Very interesting to see this emerging and getting out eventually! Nice looking label 50tbrd, looking forward to your boxart

[VECTREXER]

Some quick cart pics for your enjoyment at this link:

Vectrex - Mail Plane - eBay - 321242332114 - as delivered

[Mayhem]

Well, if you need hi-res scans of any of the box/label artwork, I'm sure at least one of us can provide.

[jfmateos]

Thank you very much for sharing the unboxing vectrexer... the case was really in bad condition... and it is different to the standard cases I have seen in Vectrex games

[xefned]

It's interesting that someone made an obvious attempt to remove the "Mail Plane" label. The scratches show they used a tool of some sort.

I wonder why?

[vectrexmad]

Nov 19, 2013 6:06:14 GMT -5 VECTREXER said:

Some quick cart pics for your enjoyment at this link:

Vectrex - Mail Plane - eBay - 321242332114 - as delivered

Well the picture in that photo album shows the EPROM type the Mail Plain code is on is 8K x 8. Would be interesting to see if the other recently won one on ebay is also an 8K ROM. Seem's they stuffed a lot of game play in that small binary.

[VECTREXER]

Game play has a interesting feel on two points. The interface reminds me of Polar Rescue. Death from the clouds killing you with random lightning strikes feels about the same that encountered in Dark Tower. I would not be surprised to find a decompilation of the code from each game bears this out to be true. Always good to reuse previous coding in order to keep game production costs lower.

[Mayhem]

If it's an 8k chip, then I guess the 8k in the "second" version that myself and Chris already owned had some junk present to fill out the full space. There aren't any "blank" spots in the hex dump of my chip. That might tally with the other non-fully working version that does have blank gaps, that the "junk" occupies the same locations in the memory map.

[hcmffm]

Thanks, Shawn and Chris for testing the Mail Plane prototypes and sharing details about them here. Interesting to see the big letters "MB" on the board. The labels of the three running prototypes (Shawn's, Chris' and Bruno's) all look the same; sure enough with a different level of wearing. This makes it even more likely that the prototypes are all the same.

@shawn:
Do you intend to make the binary of your Mail Plane prototype public also (e.g. for comparing with Chris' prototype)?

[gliptitude]

That map view looks really cool, like map graphics in general might make for really good vector art. I never thought of that and I don't think I've ever seen similar realistic geography and boundaries before in vector graphics.

.. I'm trying to follow and sort out what has been found with Mail Plane, and posted here. Do I understand correctly now that Vectrexer's newly acquired Mail Plane is no more playable than previously known versions?

[Mayhem]

No, the newly acquired Mail Plane is fully playable by the looks of it. I was referring to the prototype that Chris already owned prior to the auction, and the one that I own.

[rpgcollector]

I have wanted to play this for sooooooo long. I hope you make a CIB release. I am in for sure!

[VECTREXER]

Updated




Quick update on the status for the cart from eBay: 321242332114

• Receipt: Received 2013-11-18
• Operational Condition Check: Initial quick check done. Cart works. Overall in good condition except for the shell of course. Shell damaged as depicted in the eBay listing.
• Playability: Probably good per auction listing and feedback so far. My verification Plays to the end. Plays to the Game Over. Level Maps start differently. Controls work as expected. Definitely a better copy than one I currently have, and had made the ROM dump of a few years back. This cart looks promising to one of the Mail Plane carts other will be measures against for completeness.
• Dump: Completed dump of the Intel D2764-4 EPROM. Successful. Two methods Used.
  Method 1: Andromeda Research Labs EPROM+ Programming System dump. Performed in place using extender leads clipped to the pins.
  Method 2: Richard Hutchinson's VecDump cart reader dump. Performed using the VecDump software setting at 8K. Also took other dumps using VecDump settings from 4K through 64K just to have them.
  
  The Second method was actually performed first. In either case both methods resulted in the same fully playable game.
  
  My thanks to Richard Hutchinson (www.Vectrex.biz) for supplying VecDump. VecDump provides an excellent method to retain the original cartridge state during data extraction. The the ROM is left attached to the board, and the shell is left intact as well during the process. An elegant solution for Vectrex specific game cartridge backups. Even more appreciated given that bit rot is a greater concern with older game carts using UV erasable EPROMS. These older carts (regular, fixes, and prototypes) are now well over the recommended 10 year interval for data refresh.
• Public Posting: December 1, 2013 on www.Vectrex.com.   Please note the currently posted ROM (MailPlane.bin) is the broken version from my dump of previous purchase. The new playable dump from the recent purchase will be named "Mail_Plane.bin"
• Collector's Boxed Edition: Under investigation for production Time to start assigning tasks for the boxed edition.

My thanks to the people who have already sent funds to assist in defraying my cost in acquiring the playable cart!

• Tony Holcomb (50tbrd),
• Lorne Allaire,
• Eugenio (TrekMD) Angueira,
• Helmet Mueller (hcmffm),
• Olivier Orillard

Everyone in the list above were very kind with your donations.  Thank you, and those who helped in others ways!  
Big hearts all of you have!

[TrekMD]

Thanks for the update! I hope the Boxed edition becomes a reality!

[darrin9999]

Nov 29, 2013 16:06:20 GMT -5 TrekMD said:

Thanks for the update! I hope the Boxed edition becomes a reality!

I second that!