Reproduction Vectrex Overlays Survey Results

[vectr...@fastmail.fm]

Thanks to all who responded to the survey.
Here are the results in order of most "wished for":

(1) Mine Storm
(2) Star Castle
(3) Protector
(4) Pole Position
(5) Yasi
(6) Armour Attack
(7) Dark Tower
(8) Fortress of Narzod

If you go to my website www.vectrex.co.uk and select the "News" tab
you can find an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded containing
all the results. You will note that Protector is in the top 3. We
might have some difficulty here asking for permission to make an exact
reproduction as Alex Herbert author of Protector seems to have
dissappeared (last entry on his website is 2005). However the design
is not complex and producing a slightly different colour and artwork
would be a solution.

Given that only 36 persons responded we really need to get a feel for
the manufacture cost before deciding if eight or even four overlays is
viable. Kristof any ideas?

I suppose with the above knowledge we could work out what are the
common colours in the silk screening process, how many different
colours there are and then which overlays cab be combined in the same
run?

If there are positive answers to the above then we will need
volunteers to make the artwork for the overlays. Anyone putting their
hand up already?

regards

VectrexMad
www.vectrex.co.uk

[hcmffm]

Thank you very much, VectrexMad for the survey and your excellent summary!

Good to see a mixture of Homebrew games and rare games in the top 8. :-)

Some comments:
Personally I see the larger number of potential buyers not in this
community, but outside. And selling larger quantities of overlays is not a
matter of days or months, but of years, I think.

> ...

> Given that only 36 persons responded we really need to get a feel for
> the manufacture cost before deciding if eight or even four overlays is
> viable. Kristof any ideas?

The production costs are a hurdle and the price per overlay shouldn't be too
high. The larger problem I see in actually selling the overlays for several
years. This needs at least an enduring seller and a website. Ideally, the
seller has other Vectrex products in his/her portfolio.

> ...

> If there are positive answers to the above then we will need
> volunteers to make the artwork for the overlays. Anyone putting their
> hand up already?

I'd like contribute and vectorize the Protector overlay, which seems to be
fairly simple (as long as I have a decent scan of it). Sure enough, I'd
first contact Alex Herbert and get his permission before doing any work.

Regards,

Helmut

[Lorne PEI]

If you're looking for help with these overlays, I'd be willing to
offer my graphic design abilities. Not saying I'm an expert by any
means but I have vectorized a few logos in the past. As Helmut
pointed out, I would need a good scan of the overlay. Might I suggest
that those involved in the vectorizing part of this project provide
their e-mail addresses so that the others may collaborate with one
another. Such things as technique, programs, pitfalls, tips, etc.

[Monantony]

Hope I am replying properly to this usenet...I too would like to put
my name down for those overlays.
Tony

[pet...@my-deja.com]

I'll do one better. I just created a Yahoo group for this project.
That way we can all communicate, share files and have message
archive. It'll be much cleaner than Usenet or individual emails.

Please join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vectrex_overlays

Peteski

[hcmffm]

I'm not a newsgroups expert at all, the limitations I see are:
- Structure of posts is only obvious in newsreaders, not in Google Groups.
- No possibility to answer old(er) posts.

The advantage of this newsgroup are:
- One single source for Vectrex discussions.
- Things are made public, everyone can read and join in at any time.
- Activity of people and progress of things are visible to other people and
may encourage other people

Mail is good and perhaps more effective than this newsgroup, but are the
disadvantages really worth while using a mail group? Why not keep all the
communication public in this newsgroup? Do the advantages of a mail group
really overweigh the advantages of the mail group?

I don't want to start a general discussion, just want to make sure that
things continue and people are informed and involved.

Regards, Helmut

PS: I've joined the Yahoo mail group.

[james]

im interested in simply doing the graphic design if you needed any work
doing on the project - for free, im actually looking into phtographing
the screens display for a personal photography project hoping to mix
the in game graphics with other photos

any one interested in letting me take photos i live in the uk in milton keynes

[pet...@my-deja.com]

Yahoo group will separate all the "Vectrex chatter" which exists here
from the overlay project communications. I made the message archives
visible to anybody so any interesting parties can look in and see what
is going on. The Yahoo group also provides storage space for sharing
files.

I really feel that if we are serious about this project we need to
separate the project communications from the general posts on
rec.games.vectrex.

Peteski

[Dave Griffith]

pet...@my-deja.com <pet...@my-deja.com> wrote:
[snip]

> I really feel that if we are serious about this project we need to
> separate the project communications from the general posts on
> rec.games.vectrex.

I don't know. This newsgroup doesn't really get much traffic.

--
David Griffith
dgr...@cs.csbuak.edu <-- Switch the 'b' and 'u'

[hcmffm]

> I don't know. This newsgroup doesn't really get much traffic.

Very little traffic is also my current experience. There are some few
discussions with heavy traffic, but that's rather the exception than the
rule. Why not bring some live into this newsgroup? Is there anything to
hide? Is the organisation of repro production too boring for a newsgroup? (I
guess there were boring discussions and posts in the past).

I'm not against new means of communications, but I really see benefit if we
would keep the overlay repro discussions here. There may be things like file
sharing which will not work in this newsgroup, but discussions will
definitely work.

Perhaps some things to consider when posting in newsgroups:
- When replying to a post, there's no need to include the full original
post.
- Newsreaders, which are available for free and can be installed for free,
show the newsgroup structure (you will need a Usenet server, though).

[no-spam-to-C...@romero.org]

Discussions here. File sharing via the OP's (VectrexMad) web site. Or
use mine if you like.

Chris

[Parabellum]

I would be glad to provide web space too for file sharing, if needed.

Franck.

[Roberto Nerici]

Hi VectrexMad. As others have already said, thanks for taking the
initiative with this.

> If there are positive answers to the above then we will need
> volunteers to make the artwork for the overlays. Anyone putting their
> hand up already?

My hand is up :-)
I don't have any experience of vectorizing art but I'm interested and
willing to give it a go.

Roberto/.