"if it has a screen, it can play bad apple" prevails once again

@kjur18

11 ай бұрын

Somewhere on the internet there is a video of someone playing bad apple on task manager. Amazing.

@abhimaanmayadam5713

11 ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/pGGV2saPlrCWk5M.html some madlad played bad apple on a lot of different things, including google maps, and the windows file manager

@warpedmine9682

11 ай бұрын

And if it has a screen it can play DOOM

@Eduardo_Espinoza

11 ай бұрын

I was looking for this comment lol

@IKnowYourIPAddressLOL

11 ай бұрын

If it has a screen THE LORAX (2012) can be seen!

this is probably the most retro looking thing ive ever seen in my life

@retrostar-qe6hl

11 ай бұрын

That or top loading woodgrain vhs recorders

@littleawesomeapple

11 ай бұрын

SO. RETRO.

@sakesaurus1706

10 ай бұрын

it's like actual oscillograph redesigned to do videogames

@SurmenianSoldier

9 ай бұрын

​@@littleawesomeapplepibby bluey ohio bowser fart peppino chungus mogus reddit gold

@YourNormalProgram

9 ай бұрын

⁠@@SurmenianSoldierSO. META.

I think the point of Vectrex is to really bring the arcade gaming at home for cheap. They succeeded and it was lauded at the time of its release. Too bad the video game crash happened and destroy any hope of Vectrex of making it big

@JamesTDG

11 ай бұрын

Honestly, it would be amazing to see it return as a nostalgia system with vector graphics still being a thing

@serch_1x

11 ай бұрын

The opposite of the NeoGeo

@FingerinUrDaughter

11 ай бұрын

that might be the case...if it didnt cost $200 brand new back in 82. which is about 750$ in todays money. this was nowhere near cheap, but it was damn sure built like it.

@MTB_MICK

11 ай бұрын

That video game crash caused my first Vectrex to only cost $69 AUD. Thank you Warner for over producing E.T. 😂

@sammynaron5166

11 ай бұрын

@@MTB_MICK heh, nice.

Spike looks like a weird flash game, like... 20 years ahead of it's time. Good shit.

@atrane365

11 ай бұрын

It even had rudimentary 3d, which is kinda nuts for the time period

@lukarikid9001

11 ай бұрын

It’s cute

@charliekahn4205

11 ай бұрын

It's basically Vector Kong, making use of the easy scaling and rotation to show off simple 3D.

@lukarikid9001

11 ай бұрын

@@charliekahn4205 i bet some linear algebra was used to model the angled perspective of the tiles

@lukarikid9001

11 ай бұрын

Ive done math stuff like linear translations of vectors in commissions for art before

My (much) older cousin had a vectrex, which got left at our grandparents. I remember playing this for hours, even with a SNES, Game Boy or Mega Drive usually on hand, I still wanted to play this. It was just really fascinating.... And there was only one controller so my other cousins could do one.

@Smokinjoewhite

11 ай бұрын

This was pretty much my experience, only my younger cousin had one.

@sealteamsix1784

10 ай бұрын

i played a vectrex in the mid 90s when it was already ancient and was blown away. it looks better than NES/SNES in some strange way, probably because of the screen covers.. not even the most advanced modern experimental displays from samsung, etc have actual physical pigments to color the light, just LED pixels.

True story - I saw a Vectrex and a box full of games in a shop the day before my wedding for $150. My head was elsewhere so I didn’t buy it. The day after I went OH NO WHAT A MISTAKE and went back… but they still had it! And so do I 20 years later.

@ruben_balea

11 ай бұрын

Imagine that you accidentally say "OH NO WHAT A MISTAKE" in front of your partner the day after you got married 😓

@MrMegaManFan

11 ай бұрын

@@ruben_balea Thankfully she knows I'm a gamer and wouldn't make the wrong assumption. In fact she drove me over to the shop to see if it was still there too. ^_^

@Volvoman90

11 ай бұрын

Wait, you went back ON YOUR WEDDING DAY to buy the Vectrex? Nice!

@comedyreliefguy5112

11 ай бұрын

@@MrMegaManFanShe’s a keeper.

@robonator2945

10 ай бұрын

​ @ruben_balea he said he saw a Vectrex the day BEFORE their wedding, and then yelled "OH NO WHAT A MISTAKE" the day AFTER the day before their wedding and went to go get it. It is my personal head cannon that mid-wedding they shouted "OH NO, WHAT A MISTAKE" and then sprinted to their car, drove to gamestop, and bought a vectrex.

the idea that modern graphics are "better" completely ignores the unique experience something like this gives. This thing looks amazing

@TheSHJGaming

7 ай бұрын

Vector graphics really "stick out" in a way you can't really describe. I love it

@thientuongnguyen2564

7 ай бұрын

@@RepentandbelieveinJesusChrist5 So save your people from the pedophilic Muslims or something. Your God is pathetic and weak he let the jihads take over his own country like that? Shame on you and the 3 Holy Crusades.

@BierBart12

6 ай бұрын

The only idea this gives me is, how would a system using vector graphics look like today, using modern technology? There are a couple that use vector graphics and they look great, but don't run well because the hardware isn't laid out for it

@neptune-io

6 ай бұрын

@@RepentandbelieveinJesusChrist5no

@prawngravy18

5 ай бұрын

Vectors are still used in games to this day, what an ignorant comment. The vectrex still helped progress video game technology.

I love that "the colour" is just a plastic colour filter specific to each game, kinda reminds me of a book I had as a child where you could mix and match different plastic colour filters to make different colours

@krzysztofczarnecki8238

11 ай бұрын

It reminds me of some LCD handheld games that had a monochrome LCD and a little door on the back to let the sunlight in as backlight, because the color layer made it so dark you couldn't see on reflective mode alone, but it made some of the few in-LCD sprites have different colours. Also Pong and clones. There were TV overlays to make it a new, totally not Pong game except it's Pong.

@aortaplatinum

11 ай бұрын

Overlays were weirdly common even up to the mid 90s. There's a version of DOOM, I think for the 3DO, where there's an overlay for the 0-9 keypad on the controller and each number lets you directly pick a weapon instead of cycling through them.

@FunnyHaHa420

11 ай бұрын

That was how they had "color" on the original Space Invaders arcade games. They just put colored cellophane tape over parts of the screen.

@chrisfratz

11 ай бұрын

​@@aortaplatinumThe Jaguar was the only console of that time that had a keypad so was likely for that system, that was a common thing for games that made use of the number pad. Doom used it purely for weapon switching if I remember correctly. Studio Doom is interesting but for an entirely different set of reasons.

@aortaplatinum

11 ай бұрын

@@chrisfratz Ah yeah it was the Jaguar version! 3DO was the really awful one that was ported super fast by one woman and was gonna have live action FMV cutscenes

I knew about the Vectrex (and even the electrical interference you can hear over the built in speakers) from an old AVGN episode, but I had NO IDEA that the homebrew scene was so active on the system. That's NUTS!!! Thank you for sharing, James!!

@Kummahndough

11 ай бұрын

From one James to another

@chrisfratz

11 ай бұрын

Even cooler is the there's a simple mod you can perform with a kit that completely gets rid of the audible interference that you can hear from the speakers. I think it's called The vectrex buzzkill.

@ChaseMC215

10 ай бұрын

From a AVGN episode? Oh yeah, now I know, the one where he reviewed some Star Trek games

While it absolutely makes sense that the tech industry adopted raster graphics as the standard, considering just how versatile they are, there is quite the charm to old vector games. It’s a style I wish some smaller-budget indie titles or something would revive.

@RobertJW

11 ай бұрын

DEFCON Everybody Dies has a great visual style.

@chrisfratz

11 ай бұрын

One game that kind of did that was a rhythm game for the PS1 called Vib-Ribbon. And it looks really good if not I've been pixelated because of the resolution, but if you run the game out of modern resolution via emulation the lines look really crisp.

@aztektheultimatewoman

11 ай бұрын

@@chrisfratz Yes! I’m familiar! Amazing looking game. Such a weird and unique PS1 title.

@alface935

11 ай бұрын

Now that You say it there will be a explosion of thoses games

@johnsmith1953x

10 ай бұрын

Nobody makes vector monitors anymore, so that's impossible right now.

Can't say I'm surprised to see bad apple a few seconds after James mentioned homebrew

I love how seeing old tech used creative approaches to its problems. Really makes the phrase "limitation breeds creativity" ring true.

@DimT670

11 ай бұрын

Eh. That saying is somewhat of a misnomer. I mean certainly it breeds creativity but its creativity focused on surpassing the limitations with tricks rather than anything else. For example its how you get games that have nothing going for them except the fact they surpassed some limitation, like donkey kong country

@geniuskhan2520

11 ай бұрын

@@DimT670 Yeah, but sometimes you get games built around clever gimmicks brought about by limitations

@aydenrw2719

11 ай бұрын

@@DimT670 how does Donkey Kong Country have nothing going for it

@DimT670

11 ай бұрын

@@aydenrw2719 try to look at it objectively as a work vs as a technical achievement Yes it did something that was amazing at the time graphically , but thats it. Its indistinguishable from any other game of the time otherwise

Somehow seeing Bad Apple on a Vectrex was so unexpected but also the most expected thing I can imagine

Great video James, feels like a classic youtube video, just a guy showing off some of the cool stuff he has. The cats are a nice touch too.

The Vectrex was a masterpiece. If the timing was slightly different, this would have been big.

Fun fact: When color TV was being invented, one of the systems being considered, developed by CBS, actually used a really similar mechanical color wheel. Luckily the fully electronic color TV system by RCA won out because it had no moving parts and was backwards compatible with B&W signals (CBS and RCA/NBC are still major TV broadcasters in the USA).

I grew up with this as one of my first gaming experiences in the *90s*. My parents didn't want us to have a SNES or Genesis at home, but my grandparents had a summer place where they kept one of these with like 20 games. My whole family got addicted to Minestorm for a while and it was a bit of an ongoing competition to see who could get to the highest level. Not sure what happened to the thing, but I really hope it didn't get thrown away.

@PlasticCogLiquid

9 ай бұрын

My whole family played Warlords when I was a kid, that was fun as hell.

This is the coolest shit. It’s such a unique console due to its monitor, and it leads the graphics to age a lot more gracefully than its contemporaries. It’s wild to think the 2600 was on the shelf at the same time as this.

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

Yeah vector graphics were way ahead for a little while there

The cat is a gracious owner, letting James borrow the vectrex like that

James you are a natural! Quickly becoming a channel i drop everything to watch. Every one has been more fascinating than the last and i can tell youre really settling into your own style

You can get kits to mod out the buzz, too, if that bothers you. The machine has the audio stuff situated right up by the tube, so I think the kits are like a replacement amp you stick somewhere better. Don’t quote me. I’ve never had one.

@Juanus14

11 ай бұрын

but then it won't be an original 😢

@joearnold6881

11 ай бұрын

@@Juanus14 you’re adding a module and unplugging a thing. A reversible fix It’s a matter of whether the horrific buzzing caused by a bad design bothers you. You aren’t breaking anything

My brother had a Vectrex when I was growing up, and I frigging LOVED that thing. Played the hell out of it! I don't think it's possible to play a Vectrex and NOT love it, really. It genuinely feels impressive and futuristic even in the modern day -- and I remember just how mindblowing it was back in the '80s! It feels like something that was too cool to actually exist -- like an element from an alternate universe that somehow slipped into ours and went unnoticed. ;) Retro game collectors will often be disappointed when they finally get their hands on whatever grail du jour they may be chasing (I speak from experience on that!), but the Vectrex is one of those things that I don't think you can possibly be disappointed with. Provided your system is functional, you're going to enjoy it -- it's almost impossible not to!

definitely a footnote and/or novelty in videogame history. Rocking the Tate screen arcade machines were known for. Back then home consoles were all about bringing arcade score attack games to your television, so this stuff was par for the course.

At my first tech job 11 years ago, one of the dev engineers had brought their vectrex into the office and set it up in the lobby. They didn't have any of the interesting games for it, though.

Everytime an Australian starts talking, I'm like, Oh yeah, this guy. Then I realize it's probably never been the same guy.

So happy to see Jamie into weekly video club. Don't stop, you're making every week perfect mate

I was super into these in the mid 2000’s-2010’s Still haven’t got one! They go for insane money even here in the states. The home brew stuff reignited the spark every now and then. Such a rad little unit. Genuinely didn’t expect to see one again, let alone on your channel. Awesome stuff!!

it looks very sick, can't imagine how cool it is when it's not flickering like crazy. 6:14 and of course the mandatory bad apple is cool as well

I remember having on of these in the house back in 1990. I was 4 years old. I remember waking up from a nightmare in the middle of the night so my mum made me a bowl of cereal and we played Vectrex until I fell back asleep. She was such a wonderful lady.

Did not expect a wild cTrix appearance! So damn cool. That homebrew game looks amazing. Shows how much passion is still in these old systems.

I bought one as a xmas pressie for my wife (her childhood console) and it's amazing. So glad to see you covering it!

Have you seen that high-speed camera footage of one of these drawing a frame? It's nuts.

Id argue the video game crash should be called the AMERICAN video game crash as it basically only happened in america. In places like Europe and japan it wasn't really a thing

I've come across a couple arcade cabinets that do this. The phosphorescent glow of them is absolutely magical.

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

Yeah they’re really incredible to play. You have to see it in person

That homebrew stuff amazing, seeing a video about the Vectrex makes me nostalgic for old KZread (Norm, The Gaming Historian!) and it's so heartwarming to see another generation learn about it.

These things look really great in person. The lines are so bright and clear.

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

Yes, watching videos of it can’t do it justice

Vector console and cabinets are so interesting. I love the vector Star Wars game Atari did in 83. Honestly thought it looked really good. Considering the fact that you could probably at the time make things look better in vector style than using pixels. You get a cockpit view and you can make out what everything is like tie fighters and X-Wings etc. it even though it has a wireframe look. First saw this console on an old AVGN video. Would love to try one of these consoles out just to see how it looks and plays.

Vector graphics are just fascinating man

Always a good day when James uploads. You showcasing interesting/ unique game consoles has really got me interested in old game stuff. Keep it up 👍

Your collection is so rad! I can't wait to see more of it

The story of people picking up cheap Vectrexes after the video game crash is how my mom got her first console: the Atari 5200. I actually got it to somewhat work a few years ago, though naturally the controllers were borked. I tried selling it to a local retro game store but they said they had a surplus of 5200 games and consoles (insert "can you believe nobody bought this"). I kept telling myself I'd find an enthusiast to sell to on Ebay but it just ended up taking space in my tiny apartment and I decided to send it off to the landfill.

Hands down the loudest speakers in the business. My dad had one of these bad boys when I was little, they rule.

wow james your editing is actually really tight ngl! this is really cool and informative as always as well!! goodonya

So fun watching this! My brother actually got a Vectrex I guess some 30 years ago or something, and he actually have the light pen along with the Art Master cartridge, where you can do your own drawings and animations by simply moving the vector end point and saving as next image. 😊

I have a Star Castle arcade machine at home. Great, underrated Vectrex game! Thanks for covering this, James!

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

6:14 one of the most important things I’ve learned on the internet is that anything with 2 colors will inevitably be used to play Bad Apple.

6:53 I used to have an arcade cabinet that had a fighter jet sort of game where you could do similar things. Upgrading the ship, getting little power ups here and there. I think it was called 1987 or something like that. Anyway, this thing looks like an absolute blast. I have surprisingly never heard of these until now so thank you for sharing!

what a cool piece of tech! I had read about the vectrex and the 3D imager before, but seeing actual games for it is pretty cool (i feel like space war was probably an inspiration for the steamworks example game spacewar)

@lotto77102

11 ай бұрын

Even more than that, it was actually based off the game Spacewar! for the PDP-1, which is from 1962 and one of the most significant video games of all time!

@manginplay

11 ай бұрын

@@lotto77102 Ooh! Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

i hope vector graphics for games/systems become popular again, it looks so unique compared to modern artstyles, and due to being so old and underdeveloped it probably has much room for improvement i feel like would be interesting to see

@lazerpie101

9 ай бұрын

I mean, technically most modern 3D games use vector graphics, only translated to a raster screen and with textures.

@sosasees

9 ай бұрын

vector graphics are very popular today - much more than in the past. they are used for icons and for text everywhere. that's how icons and text stay very crisp at very high zoom levels.

@theman13532

9 ай бұрын

@@sosasees i know that but "for games", fully vector graphic game or game system

I bought a vectrex recently for 400 bucks as a guy local to me was selling one that came with a very good condition controller and 2 games. He seemed sad to see it go but he was happy I appreciated and knew its worth and boy do I. Its probably now the crown jewel of my collection and man does it look and play really nice. Especially when your playing it in a dark room the lines on the screen glow. It looks like something from tron. Its also nice showing it to none game collecting enthusiasts because they all are very intrigued by it and enjoy it also. Such a cool system if anyone else is on the fence about getting one do it absolutely fun system and you will get your moneys worth out of it alone for the reactions you will get and overal its a very fun system to actually play.

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

I can’t agree more!

The Vectrex is such a wild machine and I really hope I can give one a go some day... Now seen a few videos on this remarkable piece of tech, and a lot of new info here! Always love your lean editing and scripts as well as the Cat-Says-Goodbye bits! :)

You’ve single-handedly unlocked core memories I did not know I had, thank you hahaha

This got to be the most underrated console ever, you basically can't get the same experience from the Vectrex anywhere else

Got one of these as young fella well after they came out, I think around the SNES/Megadrive era and still thought it was the coolest thing ever. Didn’t get the neat screen covers for colour but I still played the heck out of Hyper Chase. Had absolutely no idea about the home brew scene for it, amazes me what people do with older tech 👍

I remember seeing one of these in a Service Merchandise store, back in the day. Thanks for sharing this.

i loved being able to barely make out how much passion and expression there is when u spoke. very cool to see how much excitement there is behind ur somewhat calm voice

Been enamored with this thing every since I saw it in a bunch of Classic Game Room episodes back in the day. Finally got one for myself from a now-defunct local retro games store for something like 250 bucks along with a Solar Quest cart. Nowadays, it's the centerpiece of my bedroom (besides my custom gaming rig XD clashing of eras there). Hope to get into properly collecting for it some day, but oof those prices lol

Loving you having your own channel man! Enjoying all the vids you’re putting out, although it’s making me want to restart video game hoarding which is quite dangerous 😂

I was excited to see you doing an episode about the vectrex, I was even more excited to see bad apple

I'd love to pick up one of those! Thanks for sharing with us, take care!

Holy crow. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that James has a Vectrex, but I have literally never seen one.

6:14 a man of culture, I see.

This channel is golden, reminds me of some of the older video game channels of KZread yesteryear that I loved watching.

Good lord you brought back my childhood. This was the only console in our family growing up and it was my mom's childhood console. Even though it was dated there was just a charm to the whole thing. I spent hours in front of it just playing and perfecting my skills at the games we had. I miss that old thing.

My local laundromat didn't have an arcade cabinet like a lot of them did. They had 2 very weird choices instead: a Vectrex that did _not_ work, and an 80s touchscreen video chess game that had a similar design to the Vectrex but a little bigger. I really wish I had a Vectrex experience under my belt, but I feel like I probably never will if I haven't by now.

My cousin had one of these and I was so fascinated by it. Web Warp freaked me out as a kid. Edit: For those that think it was a typo, WebWars was also known as WebWarp in some regions.

this is such a cool idea as a console, i still have an old school tube tv and this could be an awesome thing to have. the 80's were such amazing years

Always wanted one! Kinda neat seeing it in action. Fluid motion for an early system

My cousins owned one of these, and it was actually very fun, even a decade or so after it was made. Space wars was always fun playing against each other. It was always an interesting, unique, self-contained system.

looks cool, kinda like if a tv had neon lights on the screen

Thanks for more content on consoles I'd likely never have heard of otherwise.

i like these videos, short and sweet, good job

I've loved the Vectrex ever since ashens made a video about it 11 years ago, this console would be massively popular if it was released today as a Kickstarter project

the vectrex was one of the holy grails for my collection for years, where i could only find them overseas for nearing or over 1k aud. i was real lucky to find one on gumtree for like $400 with like four other games including manuals, overlays and boxes. albeit the boxes are pretty dinged up. i really hope someone makes some aftermarket hard cases for them like you can get for nes/snes/n64/etc

@brorianszk

10 ай бұрын

Kristof Tuts sells his Vectrex games with hard vacuum formed boxes. I don't know if someone sells hard boxes alone.

I know I’m late but I want one of these now. Thanks for sharing this with us.

I really wanted to hear Wade yelling when you brought out the two player game. What a crazy awesome system, I had no idea that tech existed!

It's almost criminal this thing didn't have Tempest or similar on it, the game I always think of when I'm thinking of vector graphics

3:19 vibri right there!

It's so good to see someone else who loves this chunky boy it is legit one of my favorite things I own.

it's the best sauce you can learn from! ;P damn, i really like to watch your content! and your cat! meow

What an interesting piece of hardware, it seems really good for a home console at the time. Also, that Dreamcast controller in the background caught my eyes, what did you do with it?

james always has the coolest stuff just stacked in his room! and of course they put bad apple on it, guess that's just what happens when something struggles to run doom.

Oh wow, that buzz when turning on. That's one sound I hadn't even realized I had forgotten, but it brings me right back to my childhood.

Vectorblade looks to be a fan port/interpretation of Warblade, a game from the early 2000s. I love that game and it was cool to see something like that here

I recently found a 30 year old vectrex in my attic that was my dads. Plugged it in and it came to life instantly. There was also a VR headset 3D viewer that I had too. Such a noisy but good console.

@Games_for_James

11 ай бұрын

Look after that 3d imager, those are valuable

@RazzleBloq

11 ай бұрын

@@Games_for_James alr

Weird evolutionary offshoot, killed off before it could be iterated on. Obviously this thing has significant limitations, but so did everything back then. I'm happy to hear there's a homebrew scene for it.

I picked up one of these at a local antique store back in 2014 and love the hell out of it

Easily on the top of my list to get. Thanks for the extra facts and history!

Imagine the Vib Ribbon game on this

@djeffervescenceVR

3 ай бұрын

Something tells me that the graphics and Vib's speech were based on the vectrex

Im loving james' new channel! His content is so entertaining!!!

Quality content man, so feckin cool! You just keep 'em comin' please.

“I don’t have a friend to play with” Smash cut to Wade crying in Tony.

Is it cool in both direction and magnitude?

I don't need sleep (its 2:32 am)

@ShippoHsu

11 ай бұрын

2:34 pm here babyyy

@knockknock8371

11 ай бұрын

Wdym it's 4:32 pm

@DrSnak3

11 ай бұрын

@@knockknock8371 welcome to Ontario baby

@Cart1416

11 ай бұрын

it's 2:57 pm right now (edt)

I knew about the vectrex because of Classic Game Room from back in the day, and this video gives me the vibes of a classic video of them back in the late 2000s and early 2010s it feels really nostalgic for me seeing a vectrex in a KZread video

Awesome review, informative and very enjoyable and nostalgic for me. Loved this video. You earned my subscription for sure.👍🤙😱🕹

6:16 touhou!!! Didn't expect to see that here

@Eze1250

11 ай бұрын

Same here lmao

@notanetcher

2 ай бұрын

stupid weeb song

Thanks James, for showing us this amazing piece of gaming history.

Fucking love the Vectrex, that 3D imaging headset for it looks bonkers! Very glad you mentioned it, its basically a museum piece now!

Vectrex was AWESOME, so jealous you have such a complete set.