Vector Vaders
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1996
type: game / shooter
download: bin-file VectorVadersbyJohnDondzila-1996.vec
source code: yes VADERS.ASM
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vvaders.html
info:
Review
Well, here it is, the great granddaddy of Vectrex homebrews, Vector Vaders! Not really an earth-shattering (pardon the sci-fi pun) first choice of a homebrew game for the old lady, but definitely a very logical one when a person starts out on this kind of thing (i. e. fairly simple to do).
Of course, the game consists of angry aliens that march across the screen, firing at you all the while, then they drop down a notch when they reach a screen edge; come all the way down, you’re “invaded” (“vecvaded”, maybe?), and the game is over. Also get hit by their bombs too many times and it’s game over there too, but making things better for you is the high-scoring U. F. O. that flies overhead that taunts you to try to shoot it, along with an extra laser base awarded after 3,000 points.
The game runs pretty slowly until you shoot several vaders, then it speeds up…quite a few times, actually. There’s not many sounds either, not even the ever-present ‘Space Invaders pulse’, which HAS to be in a game like this! The few sounds are ok, but the graphics are the best out of the other two ‘Vader’ games John Dondzila would create (More Invaders! on the All Good Things cartridge, and Vector Vaders 2: The Director’s Cut on Vecmania), even though none of them look like monsters: the bottom invaders look like spaceships, whereas the top ones look like some kind of a strange bird. The middle ones are my favorite though, looking like walking television sets. The control is perfect too, using the buttons to move, rather than the joystick, making it feel arcade-like.
Due to the addiction factor, this gets a 6 from me, although I should probably rate it lower. The reason? Lets look at a quick few Invader stats:
Vector Vaders-$20 (U. S., plus shipping), one (mostly slow) game
All Good Things-$20, with the improved More Invaders!, complete with secret bonuses to make it more interesting, along with four other games on the cartridge
Vecmania-$20, with the (again) improved Vector Vaders 2, along with eight other games
Protector/YAS*I-$12.50, complete with several unlockable variations (cloaking invaders, moving bunkers, guided missiles, etc.), along with the great Defender clone Protector
Space Invaders (Atari 2600)-twenty five cents (U. S.), with 112 variations, including ones for two players alternating and onscreen at once.
See what I mean? Out of the approximately nine million Space Invaders-type games ever created, this one doesn’t have a lot to make it stand out.
However, homebrewers like Dondzila should be supported, this should still be ok if you’re a Space Invaders nut like myself (I currently own 11 Space Invader-type games on several gaming systems right now, and there’s more I want), and plus you get to see where it all began with the Vectrex homebrewing scene, which has been (again, pardon the pun) out of this world in supporting this ‘dead’ machine. So c’mon, vaders…give me your best shot.
Score 6/10 Review written by Darryl
Alternate version: Vector Vader Remix
download: VectorVadersRemixbyJohnDondzila-1999.vec
Patriots
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1996
type: game / shooter
download: bin-file PatriotsbyJohnDondzila-1996.vec
source code: yes PATRIOT.ASM
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vpatriots.html
info:
(+Breakout)
Alternate version: Patriots Remix / Patriots III / Patriots Deluxe
download: PatriotsIII-BALListicsBustersbyJohnDondzila-2002.vec
PatriotsRemixbyJohnDondzila-1999.vec
Rockaroids Remix
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1996
type: game / shooter
download: bin-file RockaroidsRemix-3rdRockbyJohnDondzila-1996.vec
source code: yes ROCKS.ASM
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vrockremix.html
info:
Lorem ipsum….
All good Things
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1996
type: 4/5 different games / re releases
download: bin-file AllGoodThingsbyJohnDondzila-1996.vec
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vagt.html
info:
First 16kB cartrigde, contains:
More Invaders,
Rockaroids,
Spike’s Water Balloons (Kaboom),
Vectris,
23 Matches
Review:
Well, here it is, original Vectrex homebrewer John Dondzila’s third unlimited release. Dondzila’s products really grew in leaps and bounds, as his first homebrew outing of Vector Vaders ran a bit slow until several invaders were killed. Then his next cartridge, Patriots, was heralded by some as the best Vectrex game yet at the time (plus it had a secret bonus game as well, to boot). Then All Good Things was not only the first 16K Vectrex cartridge ever, but it also has a whopping four regular AND one bonus game as well!
And speaking of which, lets dive into those games now, shall we?
ROCKAROIDS here in this Asteroids clone you must either you shoot rocks (which cause them to split into two more–twice!), dodge them or die. Flying saucers also appear to shoot at you, and they change directions pretty quickly, making them hard to hit at times. At first the game seems a bit hard, but after a few games you’ll realize how easy it is, which will result in some very long games. They can keep going and going…
MORE INVADERS! a bit slow-paced for a while, but I like this one a lot better. Of course, there’s a lot of invaders that travel across the screen, come closer, drop a bunch of bombs (sometimes to the point of my wanting to yell STOP SHOOTING! at the screen, but hey, this game can’t be too easy now, can it?), there’s the bonus U. F. O. to shoot, etc., yadda, etc. However, there’s a few new wrinkles here, one of which is the saucer shoots back. There’s also hidden bonuses that you can obtain from level to level (which helps, since it’s a long way to hitting 5,000 before you’ll earn an extra laser base), the invaders start splitting into smaller ones from the second level on, and a little stick figure will go flying out of your laser base when it gets hit! Cute.
SPIKE’S WATER BALLOONS the Vectrex mascot Spike is back in this Kaboom! clone. Dunno why his enemy Spud has gone soft and has resorted to throwing treacherous water balloons at our hero (oh no), but you must pop them with those spikes on your head nonetheless. Even though there’s the new move added of being able to kick a balloon back up if you miss it (a la the old arcade game Kickman), most of the time if you miss a balloon it’s too late anyway. Spike’s head is pretty small, making it difficult to pop the balloons in the first place, and along with a long pause in between screens…well, lets just say you’re pretty much better off playing the original game instead. Next…
VECTRIS a Tetris clone, obviously. Blocky objects fall from the top of the screen, you must make them fit together and not stack up to the top; causing a row (or more) to completely line up will cause that row to disappear. One thing I can’t understand is why I like this game, since, with most Tetris-like games, I only like the arcade original, complete with endings of levels along with a bonus awarded; just having one long game that just gets faster annoys me, yet I still like this one, for some reason. Another thing I can’t understand is the harsh reviews from Digital Press and the Video Game Critic, complaining of the flicker. Uh, if you just throw a colorful overlay on top of it (like Scramble), this eliminates the problem, guys…no need to quit after playing only one or two games (which both reviews said they did), this is still very addicting (somehow!)!
23 MATCHES (hidden bonus game) not much here, just the only TRS-80 clone game that I know of to hit the Vectrex. You start with 23 matches and you must figure out what combination of matches to take away during a turn to win against the computer. Good luck.
The graphics range from not much to write about (the aliens in More Invaders! are just the letter V! Gasp!) to cool, and I didn’t find the sounds to be really terribly exciting either (Vectris). There are also some bugs in the games as well that are annoying (one makes the invaders drop down a few levels at one time, most of the time the 200-400 bonus points in Vectris won’t work), and if you’re new to homebrews, this should be one of the first ones to order from Dondzila. The reason? Because two of the games on here (Invaders and Rockaroids) run a lot faster on the later release of Vecmania (although the gameplay of Invaders on this cartridge and the one on Vecmania are slightly different anyway, but I’m just pointing it out); getting Vecmania first and then this later (like I did) is kind of like going from a monster truck down to a Ford Escort: both will get you where you need to go, but you’re going to have an adjustment period between the two.
Still another usual mandatory purchase from Dondzila though.
Score 7/10 Review written by Darryl
Spike Hoppin’
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1996
type: game / jumping
download: bin-file SpikeHoppinbyJohnDondzila-1998.vec
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vspike.html
info:
Review
Who says an arcade adaption has to be vector in order to work on the Vectrex? Berzerk, Scramble and Pole Position’s arcade counterparts weren’t vector originally, but arguably two out of those three adaptions worked well anyway. (I’ll take the argument against Berzerk, which is way easier than the original, runs slow, loses a bit in translation by having no color change of the robots and no voice, plus the unforgivable collision detection problem of robots walking halfway through a wall before finally getting zapped bogged it down too much for it to be a good port, which I don’t think it is.)
Granted, the QBert clone of Spike Hoppin’ isn’t a port anyway, and QBert wasn’t vector originally. But that doesn’t matter. Heck, the no color qualm doesn’t matter either, in this case!
Q*Bert involved a big-nosed orange creature that must change the colors of a giant pyramid on the screen in order to make it to further levels. Obstacles dropping from the top of the screen and various humorous creatures pursued him to no end.
Spike Hoppin’ follows the same formula, although who knows why it is that Spike is hopping around. Maybe he’s gone nuts in the black and white only vector world (which is why he’s trying to change colors [from light to dark]…I guess?) and from having to constantly save his dum-dum girlfriend Molly from his game from back in the heyday, since she could never take a hint in taking any self-defense classes and allowing herself to be constantly captured by Spike’s enemy Spud.
Whatever the deal is, yes, Spike must change colors of all the triangles in a level. Balls drop from the top of the screen, which getting hit by one will result in losing a life. Spud arrives via a diamond-shaped capsule of some sort (or maybe that’s him rolled up), then grows to his full size upon reaching the bottom row of triangles, and then starts making a beeline for Spike.
Luckily there are magical platforms that Spike can hop onto in order to knock Spud off the screen. As per usual, creator John Dondzila made this game difficult so we can keep on coming back for more, which Spike can get gangbanged pretty good at times. However, unlike with QBert where Coily (that’s what Spud is in this game, basically) has to be only a few spaces away from QBert in order for the discs to work, Spud can be anywhere on the screen in order to be knocked off. Also helping you out are a magical hourglass, which starts appearing within a few levels to stop everyone in their tracks for several seconds when caught, and you will earn an extra life at 5,000 points as well.
However, later Upside-Down Monsters appear from the bottom of the playfield, triangles can start taking two jumps in order for them to change color, and some miserable little runt will appear to change the triangles back to their original color (named Log…for some reason).
The game runs slower than QBert, but it can still be just as hectic in the later levels. The graphics aren’t very good though, although I consider them to be a nod to the original Spike, since he looked more like a star with legs than the hedgehog that he supposedly is. Sounds don’t fare a whole lot better though, as the bouncing of many balls can get on the nerves, but there’s charming voice synthesis added of the title screen, “go for it!” with each new level and life, and the usual “darnit!” (Although Spike’s voice is a lot higher this time around, for some reason…someone hurt himself in the wrong place [if you get my drift] from landing on a platform wrong from the original Spike game?) Controls are also somewhat iffy – don’t know of ANY QBert ports that played well with controls over the years, but I haven’t played ‘em all though – but there’s two different setups for that. I suggest turning the controller about 45 degrees to the left (to simulate a diagonal-only joystick) and maybe even placing it on a flat surface (I just use the S. Hoppin’ box). And a collision detection problem with Log, making it difficult to erase that little puke at times, isn’t good either (sometimes you can jump right through him!). Most of these quibbles are minor, though.
Rounding out the package is the hidden bonus game of Vectrepede, although I think Dondzila realized he bit off a bit more than he could chew (speaking of originally raster graphic arcade games…), due to a lot of flicker with only mushrooms, the vectrepede, you and the spider, and that’s IT. No scorpions or fleas with the original Centipede, and a bug (pardon the pun) at times that causes the vectrepede to stay in one line without coming all the way down to the bottom of the screen. Sounds aren’t that great on this one either – the majority of them sounds like a lame choo-choo train when you shoot the vectrepede – but it’s good for a blast here and there.
As usual, this is worth the $20 U. S. (plus shipping) Dondzila charges, as I still go back to this game time and again over the months, even though I got this over two and a half years ago! Dondzila sure does know how to make ‘em addictive, that’s for sure.
Score 8/10 Review written by Darryl
VecMania
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 1999
type: game / diverse
download: bin-files VecmaniaPart1-1999-PD.vec + VecmaniaPart2-1999-PD.vec
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vmania.html
info:
Includes games/demos:
First 64kB release, includes games/demos:
Birds of Prey (phoenix clone) (BirdsofPreybyJohnDondzila-1999.vec)
Patriots Remix (+Breakout)
Repulse (Eliminator) (contained: GoodVect-1.06.rar)
Rockaroids Remix: Third Rock
Star Fire Spirits (Star Wars) (StarFireSpiritsbyJohnDondzila-1999.vec)
Vector Vaders Directors Cut
Abyss (demo! -> Tempest) (AbyssDemo-1999-PD.vec)
Disk Duel (demo! -> Discs of Tron) (DiscDuelDemo-1997-PD.vec)
Review
Here it is, one of the last (at the time of this writing), biggest (one of the few 64K Vectrex releases to date), and best of homebrewer John Dondzila’s cartridges, full of arcade cloning goodness, containing three new games, three “remixed” ones, two unfinished demos, and one hidden bonus game.
To wit, lets start with the newer versions of the older stuff:
VECTOR VADERS THE DIRECTOR’S CUT–you all know what it is, invaders travel from the top of the screen and drop down closer and closer to you as you shoot them (and the bonus saucer) while avoiding their fire. I can’t say how this compares to the original Vector Vaders, since I’ve never played it, but I heard it ran a bit slow, so I’m guessing that this one’s a lot faster, as it definitely has far fewer invaders that move faster than the ones of More Invaders! on the All Good Things compilation from Dondzila. Who knows why the invaders are mad and are trying to shoot you down, but I was surprised at how addicting this is, I figured I would only play it a couple of times and that would be it. Nice to be wrong occasionally, as I can still play it, three years after first getting this cartridge.
ROCKAROIDS REMIX: THIRD ROCK–compared to the Rockaroids available from All Good Things, this one is faster and more difficult, but more fun too. Here you shoot asteroids from big down to smaller fragments and then to vector oblivion. This also incorporates the look of the small spaceship and rotating rocks from the arcade Asteroids Deluxe. Bonus U. F. O.s also appear for big points, but they can pass through the rockaroids unharmed (that’s not fair!).
PATRIOTS THE SPECIAL EDITION–I’ve only played the original Patriots in emulation a few times, and this seems like it has only minor changes (the bonus hidden game is even the same as on the original Patriots as well), just a slightly different pace and better sound. Here you must protect several cities from missiles raining down on them; maybe the missiles are in regards to the invaders wising up from V. Vaders TDC and realizing they should stop wasting manpower on you, and use machines and missiles instead to wreck havoc? Aircraft and smart missiles also add to this fun “remix” clone of Missile Command.
Now, onto the new stuff!
ABYSS (demo)–Dondzila’s attempt at a Tempest clone, but he didn’t properly plan out things in advance, wasn’t happy with it, and discontinued the project. All that there is is the first level, which never ends (until you either hit reset or shut off your Vectrex), as there’s no way to die as you face Flippers, Spikes and Spikers, and that’s it. Demos are hard to judge, but this one looks somewhat promising, and I sometimes still find myself kind of “zoning out” as I play this for 20 minutes or so occasionally (for some weird reason).
DISC DUEL DEMO–the full game was going to be a two player version of the arcade Discs of Tron, but Dondzila accidentally wiped out the source code, so we get another demo without any sound, scoring, or end (again, like with Abyss). This one DID look pretty promising, especially since you get a shield to block shots with (although it isn’t functional though). My nephew and I played this for about 20 minutes when I introduced him to the Vectrex for the first time ever, he never played any of the other games for as long as this one (humph! Kids…)!
And finally, onto the last, full new games…
BIRDS OF PREY–pretty good clone of the Phoenix arcade game. It incorporates the first two waves of birds, two waves of big birds (which have to be hit dead center to be destroyed, no wing hits here as in the original), then the mother ship on the fifth wave. Gameplay on waves 3-5 are slightly different than the original, but then, this wasn’t a port, and it doesn’t matter, it’s still a lot of fun, and Dondzila fixed the shield bug from the original (i. e. You hear your shield activate after you get blown up at times, which is annoying, but that won’t happen here!).
REPULSE–clone of the rare Eliminator vector game. I don’t know how it compares, since I never played the original (saw it, but never played it), but it’s addicting and can take a while, due to starting with five ships and then earning a new one with every successful elimination (sorry!) of the mother ship. Unfortunately firing a shot up the mother ship’s slim shaft is difficult, especially with sentry ships thrown in the mix, which a hit from them can send you careening across the screen. A fun, differently-paced challenge than the other games on here, but you need some pretty decent nerves to make it through this one though.
STAR FIRE SPIRITS–clone of the Atari Star Wars vector game, although it plays a little differently. The first wave of T. I. E. Fighter-like ships doesn’t have any of the camera view panning around, taking you to the next ship after you destroyed one, so it can take a while before you nail all the ships before going onto the next stage, which involves blowing up laser towers and bunkers. The towers come in at random, rather than in pre-determined patterns like the original, and this wave also can take a bit of time to get through. The final stage is pretty much like the original’s though, however there are no catwalks in the later levels. Still fun though.
Graphics on the games range from blah (just little ‘v’‘s in Vaders) to good, although the sounds are better, and the control’s pretty solid throughout. Even with a few bugs and issues – no extra shield unlike promised on Spirits when you blow up the Death Star-like Dark Planet, explosions wrapping around the screen edges on Birds and Patriots, how come no pause on Vector Vaders, etc.? – this is one of the usual “must have” homebrews, especially when you consider at $20 U. S. (not counting shipping), that’s less than $2.50 a game! And a little over three years later, I can still whip this cartridge out and give it some playing that it deserves, it’ll take quite a while before you’ll get sick of these games.
But then, most of y’all have this already anyway and already knew that anyhow, right?
Score 9/10 Review written by Darryl
Vectopia
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 2001
type: game / diverse
download: bin-file vectopia.zip
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vtopia.html
info:
Includes games/demos:
Spike’s Water Balloons (Kaboom)
Trakkers (Targ)
Wormhole (Gyruss)
Control Test (demo)
Mad Planetoid (demo – Mad Planets)
Star Fire (demo of second level)
Star Fire (demo of first level)
Star Fury (demo)
Vectropolis 500 (demo)
Review
Vectopia is kind of like the sophomore slump of a trilogy of movies, where the first movie’s great, the sequel didn’t live up to it, but the third movie was better than the second. Not that the cartridge is bad in any way, it’s just that there’s only two full new games here when it was released, having an unfinished demo that’s almost a full, complete game (that is very playable though), another full game that had been released before, but set for the original Vectrex analog controller, and the rest are demos that you can’t do much with.
Because Vectopia is squashed in between the previous cartridge of Vecmania, which had seven full games (although the bonus secret game is the same as the one on the previously released Patriots), three of which were totally new, three were – remixes – , and there are two playable unfinished demos, and then the spectacular Gravitrex came afterwards (need I say more there?).
So, lets see what we got from creator John Dondzila this time around!
WORMHOLE – clone of the very classic arcade game Gyruss, where your ship spins around the screen in a giant circle to destroy as many enemy ships as possible. It’s amazing how far Dondzila came with the slow moving early releases of Vector Vaders and More Invaders! (from the All Good Things cartridge) to how incredibly fast the enemy ships swarm in and out of the center of the screen (the “wormhole”). At first this seems like Dondzila’s easiest game to date, since the ships can pass through you without harm and they don’t shoot back, but that won’t last for long (isn’t that always the way?). Making up for not having any of the cool music and the bonus stages, you’re granted three power-ups (rather than the arcade’s one) upon shooting special ships: double shots, destroying everything onscreen, and slowing down the action for several seconds. Pretty intense stuff…
TRAKKERS – nice of Dondzila to clone an obscure game again (like Eliminator’s clone of Repulse from Vecmania), this one being Targ. In the arcade original you drove a car around a grid and shot at other cars; occasionally a pain known as the Spectar Smuggler would appear and make a beeline for your car. However, you can’t reverse and shoot at anything behind you, so this is not as easy as it may sound. You also can’t shoot away like mad, or else a car could suddenly turn onto your lane (without signaling first, grrrr) and destroy you before you can shoot again (as your shots travel kind of slow). Dondzila said this is more strategy than action, but it’s also a reflex game, since you need to use the gas button to speed your way out of messy situations as well. Not for Sunday drivers.
SPIKE’S WATER BALLOONS (ANALOG VERSION) – don’t really know why this one’s here; it’s the exact same version of the one on All Good Things, except supposedly made for the original Vectrex analog controller. I say – supposedly – because it doesn’t really work that well! It’s pretty difficult moving Spike only a hair’s width (that the game can call for) to pop as many balloons as enemy Spud throws down to the point where I couldn’t even get past the third level. And no, my original controller still works fine, but it’s – control – (not really) is too squirrelly for this game. Next…
The rest are just demos, the most complete one first:
VECTROPOLIS 500 – a rare racing game for the Vectrex, like the old overhead-viewed Sprint and Indy arcade games (4 and 800) and Indy 500 for the Atari 2600. Supposedly the first person around the track three times is the winner, but I found a bug in the game where if there’s two players, another player will win even if they didn’t complete three laps first (which starts happening on about the fourth track or so). This has up to FOUR players at once, although it would be pretty nuts to have that many people crammed around the two Vectrex controllers. I’ve tried it with two players and it’s a bit of fun, despite no sound. I think this should be finished up and released, there’s not many racing games for the Vectrex.
CONTROLLER TESTER – test to see if your controllers will work; pressing the buttons/moving the joystick corresponds on the screen if they’re functioning. Whee!
STAR FIRE SPIRITS, levels 1 and 2 – early works. Level 2 (actually it says it’s level 1 on the screen, for some reason) won’t let you destroy any tower tops, however you can rotate the screen all the way around! That wasn’t in the released version on Vecmania! Level 1 is actually more difficult than the released version, the T. I. E. Fighter-like ships are small and usually tumble around the screen, being harder to destroy than in the released version. I like this one better actually, it’s more challenging. Too bad all you get are six hits on your shield and the game is over, there’s no working tally for your score or a lead-in to the next level; bummer.
MAD PLANETOIDS-don’t know where on Earth Dondzila thought he could have done a Vectrex version of the (also obscure) frenzied Mad Planets arcade classic, which had a Tron-like joystick with the fire button AND a dial to rotate your ship around. However, he said it’s a – scratch pad – bit that possibly he was just seeing if it could be done, as all you can do is move and shoot, there’s two planetoids that can’t be destroyed and massive flickering smaller circles that could cause seizures (which I assume are the moons on the planets that you destroyed in the arcade original). Not much to see and do here…
STAR FURY-…and the same goes with this one, it’s just a demo of a tiny ship flying around and a cursor following it. Huh? (An early sketch for Space Frenzy?)
So there you have it, the cartridge is pretty much two frenzied shooters and a racing game, and that’s pretty much it. However, it’s worth it, the games are fun, and there’s some neat touches included as well, such as a much deserved pause button on both full games (gasp! Something sorely missing on a lot of Dondzila’s stuff!), vector versions of the indestructible asteroid and the twin ships with the beam from Gyruss, a secret Spike floating head, and three separate title screen music pieces. Controls work fairly well for the most part (aside from Water Balloons and the working the ship around in a circle on Wormhole with a digital controller), although the graphics fare better, and the sound and especially music are good.
And, as any new game for the Vectrex deserves mention, with this one you got three!
Score 7/10 review written by Darryl
Spikes Water Balloon (analog)
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 2001
type: game / diverse
download: bin-file GCE_Vectrex_TOSEC_2012_04_23.zip (contained)
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vspikeanalog.html
info:
Lorem ipsum…
Gravitrex Plus
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 2002
type: game / diverse
download: bin-file GravitrexbyJohnDondzila-2002.vec
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vgravitrex.html
info:
The hardware version features digitized speech.
(Additional games, Patriots III and Paratroopers ( GCE_Vectrex_TOSEC_2012_04_23.zip (contained) ))
Review
I must say I was excited when I received Gravitrex in the mail all the way from the U.S. I knew the granddaddy of Vectrex programming John Dondzila would present something which was worthwhile and professional. And I wasn’t let down either. From the startup screen the Vec goes into ‘Vec basic’ mode, with shades of C64 days, as the game loads. Then all of a sudden a beautifully synthesised alien voice blurts out ‘GRAVITREX’ and then you know you’ve invested your $20 wisely. (see: classicgamecreations for ordering info.)
Dondzila states that the game is the first 64k Vectrex cartridge and you can see that alot of time and effort has been placed into Gravitrex to get it feeling just right. This must be the biggest game environment for a Vectrex ever. The plot revolves around the player controlling the space ship ‘Explorer’ which has been ‘attacked after accidentally wandering into alien space’. Your mission is to locate and rescue the space ships crew who are scattered through the many levels and different planets of this gigantic Vectrex gaming environment. Once all the crew members are rescued from a particular planet then it’s onto the next planet with each planet exploding once all fuel is found, enemies destroyed and crew members rescued.
Within the planets the enemy are in the form of small triangles which fire at random at your ship. Your ship has ample firepower, a shield and a teleporter device for beaming the rescued crew members to safety. Not only must the player be cautious around enemy fire but also two alien spaceships appear on nearly every screen to add to the panic and increase your vulnerability to capture and destruction. All the while the gravity plays a part much the same as it does with games such as Vectrex ‘Moon Lander’ and the old C64 classic ‘Thrust’.
I have owned Gravitrex for around 3 years and it is such a good game, and the difficulty level set at the right setting, I have only ever reached the end of the second level. This game must be Dondzila’s finest hour as a Vectrex programmer and the work gone into Gravitrex must have been very time consuming.
Gravitrex and Protector are the pick of the Vectrex games. Both of these games are definate must haves for any self respecting Vectrex enthusiast and it’s very hard to answer the question as to which is the best game, Protector or Gravitrex. Whatever the verdict these two game are leaps and bounds ahead of any other original or new Vec game. Need I say more.
Score 9.2/10 Review written by Daniel Foot
Space Frenzy
status: released
author: John Dondzila
year: 2006
type: game / diverse
download: bin-file GCE_Vectrex_TOSEC_2012_04_23.zip (contained)
source code: no
hardware release: yes
homepage: http://www.packratvg.com/vsfrenzy.html
info:
The hardware version features digitized speech / and VecVoice support.
(Additional demo: Super Spike World)
Review
There’s one thing you can say about John Dondzila and that’s when he brings out a new game it is worth the wait. I got my Space Frenzy in the post yesterday. I have played it for around 2 hours ands it’s the usual high quality.
If anybody doesn’t know Space Frenzy it’s alot like a sequal to Minestorm. The docking procedure is magnificant and the added artilery let’s you’re craft pack a punch. Slick design, digitized speech and chunky arcade sounds make Space Frenzy very worthy indeed.
It combines all the best elements of Gravitrex, some sound and some visual, and is instantly playable. Watch out for the aliens in stage 4 thought as they take some beating. The voices of the alien commander worked on 2 Vectrex units I tried it out on so there’s no problem there at least on my 2 Vecs.
The vectors, and especially the design of the craft, are sharp and when enemies join forces and start to shoot back missiles at you’re craft then this will take you back to the waves of enemies in Minestorm which did similar things. Getting back to the docking procedure…when you’re craft docks it takes on added weapons. When docked you progress to the next level and the enemy get’s tougher and craftier. When single enemies join forces and mass into one big enemy then expect the unexpected and rebound with mass firepower.
The plastic case is pratical and harks back to the old fashioned silver graph style box look. The cart has a good looking Vectrex label for the collector and it fits snuggly into it’s case, and into the Vec, enforced by a rubber insert this time around. On the cartridge there is a playable demo of the yet to be completed ‘Super Spike World’. You have to smile gleefully when playing this game as Spike jumps around the screen collecting goodies, avoiding Spud and swooping to platforms and riding ascending elevators. I really hope this Spike game get’s completed. It’s still a very playable demo just missing scoring and sound.
Overall the Space Frenzy cart is of the very best quality and at US$20.00 (+ shipping) worth every penny.
Review written by Daniel Foot
Additionally
Various “hacks” of Johns games can be found in the file section of the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectrex/files/
(Spinner/Trackball …).