Why Did The VECTREX Fail !? - Gaming History Documentary 

In the 5ht grade, I had a choice between the Atari 2600 (sometimes we called it the VCS in those days, but mostly we just called it Atari) and the Vectrex. Both were available from a small locally owned electronics store near my home. Ultimately I asked my parents for the Atari. While I had great respect for the Vectrex, and played the store model every time I went in to rent a VHS movie, I picked the Atari for one simple reason... games. Even then I thought Vectrex games were great, and the controller superior, the games available lacked real depth. The Atari had Adventure, Pitfall and even (the under rated) Superman. If I remember correctly the games were cheaper and could be rented at a place on the north side of town. More importantly, all my friends had Atari. That way we could trade/borrow games or simply bring the games with us when we came to each other's homes. Being able to share games like that was a huge part of my social circle at that age. As much as i loved the idea that the Vectrex could easily be brought along (as one kid in my 6th grade class did occasionally for us all to play at lunch on rainy days) it just didn't match the prevalent availability of games and games of depth. Plus, bringing a cartridge to a friend's house (or vice versa) was much easier than carrying an entire system!

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a household with a big brother who was a massive gamer at the time, so I grew up with an Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, TI computer, and yes, a Vectrex. It really can't be overstated how ahead of its time the Vectrex was, as it genuinely blew away every other system in terms of what it could do -- the other systems technically had a handful of "deeper" games, but my friends and I always came back to the Vectrex because it really felt like... well, the future! It was on a whole other level from any other system, and still got a lot of play from me even after I got the first video game system to call my own (the NES) and my brother scored himself a Sega Genesis. Eventually, we moved house, and I think we sold off a lot of our old systems in a yard sale, including the Vectrex -- huge mistake, in retrospect, but this was after the SNES had come out, and all my attention was on that at the time, while my brother had gradually moved away from gaming and, indeed, moved out of the house altogether for college, bringing only his Sega Genesis with him. But I'll always have very fond memories of the Vectrex. My favorite games for it were Spike, Web Wars (also known as Web Warp, but the version my brother owned was called Web Wars -- not sure if that's an earlier or later revision), Clean Sweep, and Cosmic Chasm, the latter of which was the one and only Vectrex game that was "mine," as I bought it with my own allowance money (all the others were bought by my brother). Wish I could get my hands on this system again, but it's just too expensive now to score a functional unit. To any retro game collector who's been considering picking up a Vectrex, though, and has the money to do so... do it. It's 100% worth it. A lot of retro systems don't quite live up to the "hype" surrounding them, but Vectrex is definitely an exception. It's every bit as cool to play as you think it is, and probably a bit more beyond that. And as Lady Decade said, there really has never been anything else quite like it, before or since. It's a real standout in gaming history, and it's still absolutely mindblowing that it released all the way back in 1982.

One of my friends had one growing up. Sounds like a lawnmower when on but we loved it. We would take turns playing this console when we worked on playing the NEW legend of Zelda in shifts; mostly making maps while someone played.

I'd never seen a Vectrex or watched an advertisement for one and the only way I know it existed is from RU-vid videos like this one. I think of myself as someone who's aware of many obscure video game systems, but this one flew under my radar. How does such a thing happen, I'll never know.

Even if it failed, the VECTREX was such an impressive console, its like you could see some 3D in it without glasses, it even like predicted the coming of Nintendo's Game & Watch and the notorious Tiger electronic LCD games.

By far my favourite thing in my collection and I'm so pleased my Vectrex and 13 games survived all those house moves over nearly 40 years and is now sat looking great in my games room.

I was born in 1980 and never heard of this but looks cool.Good video ma’am.

I saw these for sale at Radio Shack when I was a child . They were awesome . I ended up getting one for Christmas after the price dropped and still have it . It's always a conversation piece as nobody ever knows what it is when they see it .

I find the buzzing to be reassuring that the vectrex is fully analog. The vector screen is really something that must me witnessed in person. Scaling and no aliasing is a beautiful thing, akin to astronauts seeing earth from space.

I had a Vectrex in 1990 thanks a friend of my mom who had one and give it to me and my brother. We play a lot of years until it burned for a power failure on the house. I love Spike, Mine Sweeper and one starship game I don't remember the name. Now a Vectrex cost a lot of money if you could found one in good condition. Wonderful video, thanks for give good old memories back

Given how in depth, involved, and lengthy your videos are; I'm astounded at how frequently you upload. It's really amazing, usually for quality like this, I'd expect one episode a month at best. Really impressive work, I've had a blast watching these when I'm supposed to be doing other things.

I really enjoyed this video. However, I am a little confused with the historical time line. Around the 10:30 mark you indicate that Milton Bradley were inspired to acquire the Vectrex due to the success Atari had with the 7800. Although planned to launch around 1984, the Atari 7800 was held back until 1986, at which point Vectrex would have already left the market place. My apologies if this was a bit of humor that went over my head. But otherwise, great video. 👍

I remember getting the Vectrex for Christmas the year it came out and I was so thrilled. I loved the vector based arcade games and when I saw the Vectrex in the store, I lost my freaking mind. My parents obviously picked up on the hint lol. I think I had a total of maybe 8 or so games for it but I had so much fun playing them. It'll always hold a special place in my memories.

Hey I just found your channel and I really like your content. I remember when I was...God 10? 11? Watching AVGN, and as a kid that grew up around the GC/PS2/Xbox era, seeing these old games and what they were like felt like I was some kind of archaeologist. I always really liked his videos covering entire consoles in particular, and your content is like finding the holy grail! I've also enjoyed your looks at unlicensed games, and on a similar note, I'd be really interested to see your take on any console "must-haves", like games that *sold* their systems, if any existed. I know nowadays game companies really focus a lot more on fomo, so console exclusives are a much bigger deal, but surely there were games that coincided with a huge increase in sales for their respective platforms? If there are, I'd love to see you cover the history of those, or maybe as companion pieces to their respective platforms! Keep up the good work and have a lovely day :)

You cover so many rare and interesting consoles. I just found and subbed your channel recently but wanted to say keep up the great work. You make excellent content.! 👌🏽

I've still got the same Vectrex I got as a kid in 1984, and it still works great. We were dirt poor, but I think it cost less than $30 back then brand new.The B&W wasn't a big deal back then, because most Atari VCS were played on small B&W TVs anyway. Also the contrast on B&W was so much better on CRT, most games actually played drastically better, unless color was vital to game play. Anyway the Vectrex was awesome, and still is.

During the early 90s I began collecting classic games and classic systems. (I was in college.) My girlfriend at the time loved going to thrift stores to find clothes and once I discovered I could find old games and game systems really cheap I began to go with her. We had a circuit of thrift stores we would hit every Saturday. I picked up hundreds of Atari 2600 games for 25 and 50 cents each and systems for about $4 to $5. I also collected everything else I could find- Colecovision, Intellivision, Oddysey, NES, and Sega Master system to name a few. The one I always looked for from Sacramento to San Francisco and even on trips to Santa Cruz... at thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales was the Vectrex. In the early 90s it became my "Holy Grail" of video game systems as I had pretty much all the rest and hundreds of games but could never find a Vectrex. (I even found a Atari Pong Console from the early 70s in the box in perfect condition for $10.) Never could I find the Vectrex... until the early 2000s when I discovered Ebay. Finally, I got my holy grail... paid about $100 for it... in the box along with a handful of games and the guy later sent me a stack of overlays with a note saying "I found these after I shipped it to you." It still works great. I have about 8 or 9 games for it, but am planning to pick up a Multi Cart soon! Always a great conversation piece displayed along side my Nintendo Virtual Boy that I bought from Blockbuster when they stopped renting them. I paid $20. Am I bragging...why yes, yes I am. I love how much classic game collecting has become so popular over the last 10 years, and my collection is now worth much more... my friends back at the time mostly thought I was wasting my money on that old junk.

I was given one as a hand-me-down from my cousin around 1990 when I was 8 and spent hours on Mine Storm, Berzerk and Clean Sweep. No overlays though and I stupidly sold it to a friend around 2000 when I didn’t realise it’s true worth. Always regretted that! Awesome vid and brought back lots of memories!

They need to bring it back as a VR form with goggles it would be successful AF

The king of the Stone Age Consoles. It's beautiful and there really is nothing like the actual Vector graphics. Such a cool system, shame its out of reach to buy nowadays.

I think one of my cousins may have had one of these growing up, but I only played it once or twice. I don't remember which game I played though. Great video, as usual! I loved the intro, too. Yeahhhhhhh!

I remember when these were drastically reduces at a local toy shop back then. I regret not picking one up at the time but did eventually get one several years ago. It is a very unique system.

Thanks for a great video. I am lucky enough to have an original GCE Vectrex with ground-loop hum and all, and I can confirm that it's a requirement for gracious living 😉

The Vectrex was actually the first video game console I owned. Those were the days .. 🤗

I was born in that stone age of gaming, and i was given an atari at the age of 4... which I played all throughout the 80s, even after I got my first nes. That said, I guess it's a you had to be there kind of thing, but my love for these ancient systems has only grown over the years. Discovering the vectrex as a teenage stoner was an experience, and this was the 90s... my friend had one kicking around and I was curious what the hell it was.. so we ripped a few bongloads of the cheapest dirtweed we could afford and spaced out to this weird relic.. It had such a strange charm about it, in all its obsolescence. Yabadaba doo indeed. I'd still smoke a spliff and fire one of these up today, if only they were anywhere to be found.

The Vectrex was before my time , by the time I was born in 1985 , the NES was about to be released here in the US 6 months after I was born

There was actually a vectrex unit at my local roller skating rink back in the early '80s that they would let people play on for a certain amount of time for a dollar.

Very cool video Lady Decade!!!! Absolutely loved it! I hope to one day own a Vectrex! So far I've only ever seen one in person, and it was on a shelf at a local toy/video game/collectible store. I was afraid to ask how much it was.

Still have mine from when I was a kid, I remember I saved up money from my paper route. Original price was $149 but I got mine on sale for $49😊

Lol you are right! I was born in 1994! My first console was a Sega genesis in 2000. My second console in 2005 was a Slim PS2 console. I like your RU-vid channel Lady Decade! 👍🏻😁

Top video this! Like many others here, the Vectrex is one of those mythical beasts that I've always admired from afar. Great to learn the story behind it. 👍

Absolutely love your content but this particular video is special because Vectrex is the beginning of my love for videogames. I vividly remember playing these games with my older brother.

We had a couple of these in middle school. The multipurpose room had a stage, and a little room off to the side that I guess was originally supposed to be a dressing room, but it had turned into a giant closet where random electronics went to die. There were two Vectrex machines in there, so any time our recess was scheduled for the multipurpose room it was like christmas came early that day. My friend and I went from being comic book geeks to being the best Olympic atheletes the world had ever seen, sprinting at speeds great enough that we could phase through solid matter in order to get there before any of the other kids. Seriously we were slow as shit but when the Vectrex was on the line, git out tha way.

I was fortunate to have one of these gaming systems. We had only one TV, so having another gaming system that needed the TV was a no go. Looking back, I can't believe my parents paid that for that system. I enjoyed it, moved it to any room I wanted and my friends loved to come over and play it. I hate that it didnt take off, but it was a solid system and the games were fun.

Great Vid. I actually just sold my Vectrex and entire collection of games including the light pen. I had all of it since I was a baby, and man was it hard to let go of this. So much fun over the years. Star Trek, Spike, Mine Storm, WEB WARS (best Vectrex game hands down), Hyperchase, Scramble.... the list goes on. And I took good care of the machine too. The guy I sold it to was even impressed it still worked. The memories will live forever.

Another necessity for garcious living!! Thank u Lady Decade.

I am the rare one that was not just born before this, but was a gamer at this time. I played the atari 2600 but never heard of the vextrex.

Lady Decade I don’t know how you do it but when I start thinking about something, lo and behold you make a video about that same subject!

I was lucky enough to play one of these back in the day. It really was something else.

Usually I dislike background music in RU-vid Videos, but here I am totally sold and thats for 2 reasons. 1.The music is not too loud, your voice still is the main protagonist. 2. I just love these Commodore Chiptune Music ♥︎

I remember seeing commercials for the Vectrex back in the day and asking my parents for one. They were like "You have an Intellivision, so you don't need another video game system." Crazy thing is, color overlays that the Vectrex used as well as the Oddysey were also a thing in the arcades. Space Invaders used it as well as one of my favorites from when I was little, Star Castle. Which I believe came out for the Vectrex too, did it not?

A great new video with real rare old hardware. Btw i hope your days at Hellas ( greece) was nice and you had fun on your vacations :) your smile make the whole youtube A better place

I can still recall the low hum and buzz the Vetrex made when I played it as a 7 year old kid. Seriously, it was such a wild system. Trying to explain this to kids today would boggle the mind. Kids today: "It's only black and white?" Me: "Well, uh, if you put a color filter over the screen it changed colors! " Gripping stuff in the early to mid 80's.

Amazing video!

Lol how loud is that buzzing sound from the vectrex. I have one and love it. Best to play it in the dark to really appreciate the vector display

I was mad when my mom bought me Vetrex instead of an Atari 2600 but boy did I fall in love with it. I had clean sweep, cosmic chasm, solar quest, bezerk, star trek and few others. I missed this game so much.

I love it when Lady stands there cradling giant hardware with a goofy smile.

Still have my original Vectrex I got for xmas in 1982, but it's been forogotten about sitting in my dads closet for the past 25 years or so and I just found it there the other day while helping him pack up to move. Really cool! I think I'm going to have to buy myself the multicart 3 now since I only have 2 other games for it. Played it last night for the first time since probably the late 1980's sometime. And mine is one of the ones with the buzz, and I DO think it ads some real charm to it... I'd forgotten about that buzzing sound until I turned it on again and that sound brought back alot of memories I'd forgotten about too.

My fifth grade teacher kept one of these in her classroom. I loved playing Minestorm (and occasionally the tank game whose name I can't remember) when we had free time!

Heard about these , just never seen a physical one . Great video nice to see a fellow Brit RU-vidr enthusiasm in gaming

Added one last year to the collection. There is still development going on! Bought a 2022 multi cart and 3d shutter glasses. Great system kids love it.

My favourite console. A neighbour of mine got one when I was in the 5th grade, and I was blown away. The buzz can be disorienting at first if you are unfamiliar with the system, but if you clock some time on it you get used to it. I know there are Buzz Off kits but I am somewhat reluctant to install one!

I bought one of those Multi-Carts 3.0 as a gift for a good friend's birthday from the actual developer himself but it definitely was not "very cheap", including the box (extra charge for the packaging) and shipping to Europe it was just above €100. But it was worth the price so I could complete his Vectrex library he has held on to since childhood. (Nostalgia gets more important the older you get!)

I grew up when this came out, I had a 2600, my neighbor had the vectrex, I always wanted one I still do, thank you for this video

That's your general response to someone with a 📹 recording you! That's Radical.

Vector based graphics truly were the prince of visuals for the time period. And what is really interesting is to take a peak at the code that runs behind those images. It is insanely simple. It places a dot at X,Y coordinates and then places another dot somewhere else. It tells the hardware 'Connect these two dots with a line'. Want a more complex shape? Add a third or even a fourth dot. Now there is a little more going on in that game file. But, not much. Movement relocates those connecting dots. Kilobyte sized ROM files gave us a lot of bang. And it had to pack in sound, as well. You are pretty hard core into programming to do anything with kilobytes of memory, these days. As for failure. I heard it was just a product of its day. Too many low quality games and everyone was sick of the concept. Or so the history lesson says.

The Vectrex was great but fell victim to the video game crash of the early 80s. Wrongfully lumped in with them

I had a bud growing up that had one of these. There was considerable noise on the speaker I recall. As well as a lot of noise on the CRT image. The ground loop strap they added worked, and it was cheap, but electrically, that's not really the right way to fix the issue.

The Vectrex had RAM: 1 KB (two 4-bit 2114 chips) and ROM: 8 KB (one 8-bit 2363 chip) so you could say it was the first 16 bit console. I always remember this from a little gaming fact booklet I got with a magazine when younger.

Awesome Lady!

I've always wondered about using a rotated TV for NES homebrew to get around the sprites-per-row limitations. You might be able to do a fighting game with some chunky meta-sprites if the limitation were 8 sprites-per-column instead of 8 sprites per row. You'd only have to worry about sprite flicker when characters jumped over eachother.

I remember playing the Vectrex in stores back in the 1980's (mainly 'Asteroids'). :)

I actually knew someone who had one of these. I thought it was pretty cool, and you’re right, there’s no other game system like it. Now I have all its games at my fingertips on my new RG353M, although no cool overlays of course. Love all your videos. You’re awesome. ❤️

I really love the Vectrex. It's so unique. Great video. Thanks!

I love the Vectrex! I managed to "accidentally" win one in an eBay auction a couple of years back. It sure is a chonky boy -- when you have the B roll footage of you holding it it's like you're holding a small child!

My friend had a Vetrex for when he went over to his father's apartment on weekends. I always found it sad when we played games on it, as at the time, it seemed like such a depressing system. Of course, this was the LATE eighties, so by then, the system was passé. Now, I'd love to have one.

I have fond memories of this machine - Everyone wanted a VECTREX when we were kids

I remember fixing one of these some years ago. The fix was easy, but involved handling some components that, even unplugged, are quite capable of making you very dead. Boy, they sure don't make em like they used to.

The Vectrex. Just one of many reasons 1982 was so awesome. B-)

I HAD been born yet and indeed had one of these beauties. I think it had been discontinued at that point (1984?) and so I think my dad got it for $100.

7800 jokes always get me. Good work. The vectrex was a guest star on "Charles in Charge". If you think about it video game graphics would have been really hard to film on a crt but vector graphics look great filmed.

I saw a vectrex at a friend's house in the 80's. My childhood self had zero appreciation or understanding of vector graphics. I thought it looked horrible and hated everything about it. I felt the same about our Spectrum 48k and my other friend's Atari 2600. When I first saw a Sega Master System it was like something from heaven. Full color graphics. Scrolling. A pad with 2 buttons that actually worked... and cartridges that didn't take hours to load on cassette.

One of my aunts had one in the early 80's. Still remember playing on it as a kid. Such a great system with great games for the time

The vectrex explained by a seductress. Has a nice rhyme to it.

It's one of those things that I was around second hand and never missed when it was gone, I assume it belonged to my uncle who was 10 years older than me but 10 years younger than my father.

Outstanding 😎👌👍

I remember playing this in elementary school after school; blast from the past.

My grandparents had one but with no overlays. Me and my brothers loved it and played it whenever we visited even though we had a SNES and Megadrive at home, somehow we thought the vector graphics were futuristic.

I asked for Vectrex for Xmas, my folks surprised me with the newer and more expensive Atari 5200. It gets a bad rap now, but it was great. However, we only had 1 TV and I longed for the Vectrex when my old man was watching football all sunday afternoon!

I feel as though it should be noted that the success of some of these early consoles often depended on the availability of popular arcade ports. Unfortunately for Vectrex, the vast majority of the most beloved and in-demand vector arcade titles --- Asteroids, Tempest, Battlezone, Star Wars, Gravitar --- were released by Atari. Atari wasn't going to be eager to help boost their competition, particularly in 1982.

I have one of these :) Currently getting recapped for many more years of vector fun

This along with the Colecovision are the ones that didn't get resurrected after the Video Game Crash of 1983.

my friend had this for awhile when i was 7. i just barely remember him playing it. he also had those mini pac man things they sold back then

I remember seeing one of these at a friend's house when I was a really little kid in the late 80s, I think it was his father's. And it already looked really, really old by then lol.

I first saw a Vectrex IRL around 2010. Still the coolest console I've ever seen.

Imagine today if Veki was around and released their version of Geometry Wars. Bet it be so eyecandy!

Hey LD, you should talk about the Game Boy and it’s significance in the gaming world. Ooh and also the DS

I remember when those one´s was on the retailer´s shelfs. I was in seventh or eighth grade at the time. I can recall that i spoke with a guy in school who had it once, and he said "It´s a good thing that it had its own screen with it, from day 1". "Well, i guess" i said, "but it´s not a real tv, so you can´t look at movies or any programs on it anyway". "But still, IT´S MY DISPLAY, and no one else would have any use of having it". "Yeah, but it´s only black and white. -And not even with a grey scale !" . "Well" he said, "You can buy color palette, plastic trays to put in front of the screen, to SIMULATE colors !". "O.k.. but the sound output..i mean,..it´s FAR from how arcade machine games sounds. Even MY ATARI 2600 SOUNDS BETTER THAN THAT !". "Well,"..he said, "it´s not perfect..but it´s alright !". In the era of Atari´s, Odyssey 2´s, Intellivision´s, and not to mention COLECOVISION´S OR VIC 64´s, Vectrex was somewhat kind of "A loser´s console" !. But still, it´s even important to remember that many kids (perhaps, even a majority !) had NO CONSOLES AT ALL !. -Or those who had it, but never/very rarely could afford any new cartridges for ém. THESE THINGS WERE REALLY EXPENSIVE AT THE TIME !. You could buy a descent stereo, radio cassette recorder (very desirable for most teenagers) for the same price as ONE CONSOLE GAME !. A Vectrex console was probably in about the same price range as A BRAND NEW 3 GEARED BIKE ! (most kids in my school was from blue collar families. And, let´s say, in a family with 3 siblings from 7 to 16 years old for example, you can tell there was A LOT of "priority decisions" that the parents had to consider !). From a gamer´s perspective, WE LIVING IN TOTAL PARADISE NOWADAYS !. The millennials and younger will never understand what "80´s gaming" REALLY was like... (at least for all of us who didn´t had a home computer, with its access to cheap pirate games). As a grown up, i find this Vectrex console very interesting from a technological point of view.. Vector graphic solutions is mostly utilised within the fields of scientific applications and measurement tools. To develop the vector technology in such far contents as in the case of Vectrex, is VERY INVENTIVE !. This is really what we today would have said was "THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX" !. Impressive !.

Modded Vectrex console with colorized overlays is a must have on my list someday.

THE VECTREX the word alone make my braine explote in emoción, I love the way you talk LADY DECADE you are just like me, very emocional and dramática😊 you look happy, gracias por el video ya me suscribi ❤

My friend had one. Somehow I inherited it and just fixed it. The main thing about it back in the day was the built in monitor. Back then we had to battle for tv time between the game / computer and dad pirating movies on the VCR. Usually only one tv in the house back then.

I regard the vectrex very high nowadays, but back then as a kid it left me lukewarm. The reason, the joysticks of the demo units they had in stores half the time were broken (a weak point the controller durability) and the games were basically black and white. I now see the merits of this tech, but I also remember why it failed, compared to other consoles (it was sold around the same time over here when Colecovision already was available). The American video game crash was a us only thing, never happened in the rest of the world!

Nice Harold and Kumar reference at 11:16. "Hey Clarissa, Do you ant to play BattleShits?"

I hope you can do a video on the TI-99 4/A and its MB-X add on :)

Lol… start of the video I immediately was expecting a “I didnt see you there.”

I have a lot of love for this little system, it was my 1st game console as a child

Lady Decade you can get reproduction overlays for the vectrex.... I also used to have a signed copy of a John Donzilla game .... I asked him through email if he could sign a copy of one of the games I purchased through his site and surprisingly he said yes!! I was sooo happy .... I wish I still had the copy 😕

That intro lmao. Classic.

The Vectrex is practically a table-top arcade unit. Yet it was competing against bonafide consoles.

I was just reaching my teens when this came out... My take... The games were pure arcade, but other consoles and computers offered more variety, it was an expensive one trick pony (but oh my, it did that trick so well). Here in the UK, Consoles were an also ran at the time, it was all about the computers. BBCs, Orics, Spectrums, Dragons etc. Also the era of Killer apps. It lacked Star Wars (the arcade game), Tempest, Battlezone which would of shined on it. The lack of colour was not a great issue, I mean, we all bought colour computers and hooked them up to hand me down black and white portable TVs!