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> "the console features a built-in 5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 800×600, delivering sharp and bright vector graphics"

So ... NOT vector graphics. Rasterized bitmap versions of vector graphics.

EDIT: Sorry, I'm not saying this isn't cool. I know rasterizing a vector to a sharp bitmapped display can still allow effects to simulate continuously drawn vector artifacts e.g. thin lines, thicker at vertices, refresh, flicker, etc.

7 comments

I feel like a higher resolution OLED would serve this much better.

I have a working Vectrex I found on the street 12 years ago sitting in my living room.

Nothing matches the pinpoint of light dancing around that Vectrex provides. I'm not sure it's feasible to sell something based on vector graphics like Vectrex did, but it would be way cooler!

Maybe a raster display could match it, but it would need more dynamic range and much better resolution, plus processing power to perpetrate a screen-wide simulation of the glowing phosphor.

This is the opposite of what I'd want. Give me an actual vector display, and double the screen size. This is just going to provide an experience like myriad chinese handheld emulators.

We’d need to restart supply chains that haven’t been active for decades in order to manufacture the required CRTs.

Yeah, not really the same. I had a really really complete Vectrex setup, every game (even the stupid ones :-)) AND their overlays, I'm pretty sure every accessory. Which I ended up selling to a guy doing a museum?[1] Anyway it was quite the game for me. I knew eventually it would stop working and then just be a memory but still.

The screen was what really made it, and I get that having a vector scope manufactured would be expensive (it isn't true that nobody makes CRTs any more, but it is true that they don't come cheaply). Its also the reason I never really went all the way and bought one of my all time favorite arcade games which was the cockpit version of 'Star Wars' with its color vector display. (even harder to store!)

In a related effort, I looked at replicating a CRT "look" for some older test equipment that came with CRTs using a high dpi IPS display. I probably could have succeeded if I had an FPGA for doing the phosphor simulation (I developed a lot of respect for Tektronix's DPO technology and their patent portfolio on same :-). Very much a diminishing returns kind of thing.

[1] If you're that guy and reading this say "hi" :-)

I wonder if an FPGA is still necessary. 4k/8k are running way over 60 fps these days. Presumably a gpu could do a decent job emulating the phosphor.

In related news, atari 2600 emulators are keeping 4-8 cores > 50% busy these days. How else do you get accurate ntsc “red blur”, and capacitor effects from blinking pixels?

I suppose it would depend on how you wanted to simulate it. In my case I was targeting taking the signal from an unmodified test instrument that thought it was talking to a CRT and using that to figure out what display it wanted. That would be equivalent to taking the X/Y/Intensity lines from the mainboard of a Vectrex and just doing what the vector scope would have done. I drilled down enough to find the non-linear, temperature dependent, curve of phosphor decay times on the CRT used in some HP gear. It was pretty wild. If you buy third party kits they don't even bother simulating phosphor. Instead they just take the signals, figure out the information content of the display, and put that on an LCD. (Monochrome generally)

We still get cathode ray oscilloscopes. Apparently the og has a grid screen. Wonder what it costs to get a CRT maker to get custom dimensions, phosphor colors, curvature etc?

AliExpress has these 4-inch "flat CRTs" that look like they scan the vertical axis onto a sort of parabolic screen. I've thought about playing with one, but decided I don't want to risk shocking myself for a tiny distorted image. Still have no idea for which application they're intended.

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/3256805660504572.html

Those were used in a lot of doorbell cameras until 2010s, then replaced by LCDs.

They make handheld gameboys nowadays :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irHI_2WdQXc

Alternatively, apparently you can make a true vector display by steering a laser.

Here's a DIY example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdo3djJrw9o

I suppose you could even point that at a screen with phosphors on it for a more CRT-like effect. (Maybe you'd need a different kind of phosphor since you'd be exciting it with visible light rather than with an electron beam, though.)

> We still get cathode ray oscilloscopes

Do we? I was under the impression that CRTs were not being manufactured anywhere anymore. I could definitely be wrong, but I couldn't find anything with a quick search.

Are there any CRT manufacturers left?

Yes.

https://www.thomaselectronics.com/

But they're only building them for specialty niche military and industrial applications (e.g., replacement parts for old fighter jet HUDs). You could ask them about building one for your SNES setup or old arcade machine, but it'll cost you call-for-pricing dollars (tens or hundreds of thousands, perhaps?)

interesting! Somehow it doesn't seem those are at fidelity what sony was producing, since it doesn't need to be - requirements are different. Maybe we can have US army order a few for us SNES guys, since they're also SNES guys? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-purpose_Arcade_Combat_Si...

Reminds me of how the actual Marines modified Doom with realistic weapons, locations, and enemies to turn it into a simulator for drilling fireteam tactics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Doom

I have a brilliant idea. Let's bring manufacturing back to America, but let's exclusively build "vintage" technology.

Thing is, probably a ton of manufacturing gotchas and even know-hows of technologies of ye olde are already lost to time.

Thing is, if they can engineer it then, we can certain engineer it now.

I wonder if you could emulate a vectrex with vector laser projector.

Agree. I'm disappointed.

> Experience the spirit of the original Vectrex in a modern, compact format.

Emphasis on "spirit" I guess? Without the vector display it's an emulator in an (admittedly) handsome enclosure.

A modern version of a device with one unique feature... missing that unique feature