SPACE FRENZY Now Available !

On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:15:01 -0800, Nubian wrote:

> Cool, I've emailed you with my order.

got mine today, new JD packaging feature and I have to hand it to the dude
for doing stuff his way. I don't have time to play tonight, have to move
some records (several thousand) onto some new shelves.
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>I have to hand it to the dude for doing stuff his way

Yes, I like the intelli cart. I wish the Vec cart could be redesigned to
have the label on a slope like that, gives it a nice sleek look.




Richard H.
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John Dondzila wrote:
> www.classicgamecreations.com
>
>
I got mine yesterday (I'm in the UK - so that was *quick*).

Only played it for about 30 minutes. First impression is that it is
great. Really slick.

Will post more later...

Roberto/.
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Richard Hutchinson <richard.hutchinson.RemoveThis@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>Yes, I like the intelli cart. I wish the Vec cart could be redesigned to
>have the label on a slope like that, gives it a nice sleek look.

I have a bunch of these, many already pre vectrexed with screws .. you
wanna buy them from me?

You know how pissed off the intellivision guys are? hehe. (has anyone
actually heard them complain?)
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John,

Can you clarify this statement on the Space Frenzy plage please?

"* Digitized speech and vectors may not work on all
Vectrex systems due to the age of the system. An option to
play without this feature is available."

I have a vectrex here that does something like i suspect you may be
referring to when it's playing Spike and am sat here wandering if
there's any upgrade i can perform to resolve the issue.

Thanks,
Martin.
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> "* Digitized speech and vectors may not work on all
> Vectrex systems due to the age of the system. An option to
> play without this feature is available."
>

One of my 4 systems the Vectors are extremely wobbly
when the alien speaks. This is probably due to dried out
capacitors in the machine.

> I have a vectrex here that does something like i suspect you may be
> referring to when it's playing Spike and am sat here wandering if
> there's any upgrade i can perform to resolve the issue.
>

What is it doing with Spike ?
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> You know how pissed off the intellivision guys are? hehe. (has anyone
> actually heard them complain?)

Somebody (not blue Sky Rangers) bitched to me about my
cannabilizing Intelly carts a few years ago.

C'est la vie I told him.
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Ah okay, i was hoping you were going to say that the revision of the
speach chip got updated or something )

On my vectrex when Spike speeks the vectors dim considerably (from
memory). To try and explain it in arcade PCB terms (the only way i
really know how) is that it's like the spot killer is starting to come
on when spike talks, or perhaps the HV is taking a nose dive when he
speaks?

Something like that.

Unfortunately i've already replaced more or less every electrolytic in
the thing (i think there was one under the big heatsink that i didn't
bother trying to get to), the DAC and the sound chip (all for other
reasons) and i've also done the de-buzz mod. In all other aspects the
unit is really nice now )

I'm not going to worry too much since i have two other units here just
waiting for me to stick on the bench and have a go at (when i get some
spare time!), so maybe one of them will be better.

It just sounded like it may have been a known issue ?

Martin.
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While I have never written any Vectrex code, I know enough about
hardware and assembly code to be dangrous...

IIRC, my Vectrex does the same thing when any speech starts being
generated in SPIKE.

I suspect that the routine which generates the speech is so processor
(or I/O) intensive that it steals some video refresh cycles. So, the
vectors aren't refreshed quickly enough for the CRTs phosphor
persistance to retain bright image. So, everything dims down. You can
almost visually see the vector refresh slowing down.

Also, the speech is only generated in a special type of title screen.
Never during game play. I suspect again that the processor is too busy
during the main game screens to be able to also genarate the speech.

Hey, maybe one of our wonderful Vectrex programmers could look into the
SPIKE source code to see how the speech generation gets handled.



Peteski
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> Ah okay, i was hoping you were going to say that the revision
of the
> speach chip got updated or something )
>
> On my vectrex when Spike speeks the vectors dim considerably
(from
> memory). To try and explain it in arcade PCB terms (the only
way i
> really know how) is that it's like the spot killer is
starting to come
> on when spike talks, or perhaps the HV is taking a nose dive
>
> It just sounded like it may have been a known issue ?

I think the problem is the 6522. One of my Vectrex units has a
similar problem. There is no speech in Spike and the game
crashes once you start playing. In Space Frenzy the speech
works but is barely audible even with the volume cranked up all
the way.
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I agree that it sounds like the speech is probably just stressing it
that bit too much!

Following that through, if a component is either on it's way out or
just sub standard in the first place then the extra draw on everything
could easily start to show symptoms

When i get a moment, i'll open it back up and replace the 6522 just to
see what happens. I socketed every IC on the logic board to make it
easy in this kind of situation so it didn't ought to take too long.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Martin.
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Hello everyone,

I am looking for one of Kerim's reproduction Vectrex Bags (Tasche)

Straight trade and original MB bag for it.

--

Sincerely,

Chris
cromero at romero [dot] org
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Oh I am just wonderful at writing. See below for a slight revision


Hello everyone,

I am looking for one of Kerim's reproduction Vectrex Bags (Tasche).

Straight trade for an original MB bag.

--

Sincerely,

Chris
cromero at romero [dot] org
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