Vectrex Font To For Mac
Alke Stilwell
Thank you Riccardo - Granby seems to fit.
Been searching a free Ganby font that fits, but no success.
The best I found so far without paying money (its for personal use) is Gill Sans MT Bold.
I've converted a Vectrex to an Vector display and am driving it with a Teensy 3 plus an SPI DAC. Using a modified version of MAME, I'm able to write the vectors to the Teensy over USB, which generates 12-bit lines using Bresenham's line algorithm and DMA to transfer the points to the DAC. This provides a nearly glitch free way to display the games and artwork.
The conversion involves disconnecting the Vectrex's CPU board and connecting the output from the DAC to the X and Y inputs, plus a third signal to the "Z" brightness control. This particular Vectrex isn't in very good shape -- the CRT board has wobbly caps and the solder mask has started to degrade.
The Teensy 3 does DMA to the SPI DAC, which generates 0-5V. A resistor voltage divider creates a 2.5V reference, which makes the voltage swing -2.5 to +2.5 volts. This is almost enough to cover the screen, although the final design will have opamps to scale and center each of the axes. The Z axis requires a +5V for On and 0V for off, so a 2N2222 transistor is used to to use one of the alternate SPI SS lines as a beam on/off switch.
[MAME], with some patches, emulates the vector systems and writes the vectors to the serial port. This is working almost perfectly; I want to add an adapter for the Vectrex joystick so that the games are playable on the Vectrex as a console itself.
The Z axis wasn't working initially, which meant that the beam movements were visible. It is interesting to see how the different games behave -- Tempest (video) seems to always return to center, while Lunar Lander and Asteroids both move immediately to the next object to be drawn.
One major improvement (beyond fixing the Z axis) was adding a "dwell time" to the line drawing code. This repeats the first and last points of a vector a few times before moving on to the next one. You can see the improvement -- the font looks less "cursive" and more "arcade" by making the lines straight.
High-vector games are playable, but flickery. The need to slow down the beam means that the frame rate suffers and frequently the small text ends up a little ragged. Compared to the Tek 1720 vectorscope, the Vectrex has significantly lower bandwidth.
This is still a work in progress. Patches to MAME, schematics and source for the Teensy code is coming; rough version of it are in github.com/osresearch/vst/tree/master/teensyv. For more information on the drive boards, see v.st.
To some extend I have the same issue, fully recapped late non buzz Vectrex, and especially the Focus and Distortion Test is very wobbly, too. Not that much like in your vid maybe and there is no wobbly vector in the integrator test like on your video. I can make a short vid at the end of the coming week, as I am not near my Vectrex atm.
Can't really make a comparison to how she behaved before recapping, as I didn't have the test cart then and only brought her up for a short test of minestorm after an initial visual inspection. For me, its especially visible in the test cart and with spinball. Scamble and Minestorm feel ok-ish.
I have checked and re-adjusted the HV, was sitting around 5.8KV - will do a fine tune again but i think it might not be the reason for the wobbles. Integrator Caps maybe? Yours is a buzzing Vectrex, so probably still the styrofoam caps on the integrator? Mine has the red foil (?) caps so i left them in place. Or maybe the wobbling of the whole image on the distortion test is normal?!
Zitruskeks, mine looks not very bad at turn on and become worser after several minutes powered on. Not only wobbling but zoom in-zoom out picture. After recapping it become better, but still not good. Integrator caps were replaced too (I bought a full recap kit from Console5). When I asked about buzzing sound people told me it is OK for this model.
I see what you mean, as said, i'll video my vectrex later this week. I also leveled the DAC offset with an oscilloscope to be as close to 0 volt as it can be, its a bit different on the later vectrex board, as there are now two seperate OP amp ICs instead of the dual one in the standard versions, but I have 0volt on both outputs.
I looking at -Troubleshooting_Guide.pdf, Symptom "Picutre size changed and unstable when input voltage is normal". There is info that IC501 should have PIN 5 = 5VDC and PIN 8 = 3VDC. I have 5V on pin 5 but 12 V on PIN 8. Something wrong with the system? I looking at LM555 datasheet, its MIN voltage is 4.5V and MAX voltage 16V (it's supply voltage, pin eight). So, how could it be 3V? It simply will not work, if I understand correct.
I have replaced IC401. The wobbling now way less than before, but far from ideal. I also stabilised input voltage (not to 220V, but to 230V). Now I have some more ideas what to try, it will takes time though.
I love, love, love my 2800. Everything about it! Don't get me wrong, I love a woodgrain sixer like anyone else, but there's just something about this thing that grabs me by the shoulders and demands my attention:
Procured the 2800 direct from Japan. No box, manual, or anything else came with it unfortunately. I'd like to eventually get my hands on one or two of the Atari 2800 game box and/or manual releases, just as a little added color (the cartridges themselves are indistinct from standard release games). I mean, take a look at this sweet/unique/weird Air-Sea Battle box:
Next up... some unusual cartridges in my 2600 collection. Since I'm still working on my "regular" 2600 collection I haven't focused all that much on picking up oddities, but I have managed to score a few noteworthy things. My favorite example:
You ever have those dreams where things are mostly normal but something seems a little off -- like you're back in your old high school, but the hallways and stairwells don't connect like they should and generally make no sense? That's how seeing these cartridges released by Atari Monaco (New Zealand) makes me feel. Like... Berzerk and Defender existing in the silver/gray style is just a tad unsettling to me, somehow! Or perhaps I'm just weird. Scratch that, I know I'm weird, but you know what I'm saying, hopefully.
To sum things up: the labels 1) have rounded corners that don't quite fit the shells, 2) are on upside-down compared to "regular" cartridges, and 3) look more like the later Atari Corp. gray labels than the Atari Inc. silver labels. The end labels for Defender and Berzerk are also unusual in that they're in the silver/gray cartridge style font:
I'm hoping to eventually have some more of these -- there are at least six more titles with silver-style labeling that weren't released in the rest of the world (unless you count some of the Brazilian Polyvox releases, which I don't think look nearly as nice).
Let's look at some more unusual cartridges! Starting off with... the French-Canadian versions of four Activision games. Funnily enough, they're four sports titles that any French-speaking citizen would understand WITHOUT the translation:
These are the only four titles with translations as far as I'm aware. Hope to replace these with ones in better condition someday, but *standard* Activision games can sometimes be hard to find in good shape!
As dumb as this looks, the explanation is pretty simple....it was probably an attempt to meet the Canadian labeling law. I don't know if the law still applies to games/books, but I'm sure Activision was just playing it safe.
Yeah, that's almost certainly the correct explanation... I just wonder why these four games in particular. It either has to do with timing of the releases, or the fact that they're all sports titles, or... some other factor I'm not immediately coming up with!
Two re-releases by Atari Corp., where instead of re-using the old silver label design with plaintext white titles (like most of their other re-releases), they utilized logotype titles above the artwork, "borrowed" from existing instruction manuals. For example, here's the original Swordquest: EarthWorld manual (image from museumofplay.org):
Now, why this game was re-released AT ALL is, to me, an inexplicable mystery. For one thing, it's... just not that good of a game. For another thing, the EarthWorld contest (i.e. the *point* of playing the game) was proverbial ancient history by 1986. And to top it off, the game was re-released WITHOUT THE ACCOMPANYING COMIC BOOK, effectively rendering the gameplay completely meaningless. Dropping random items in random rooms to get numerical clues that match up with... nothing?! Doesn't that sound like FUN, kids?
Getting back to the cartridge label design, Atari Corp. seemed to do this a lot with their re-releases (use the game manual as the basis for the cartridge artwork). Most of the time, there was hardly a difference -- the artwork on regular picture labels was sometimes extended outside the picture's border, but that was often the extent of it. Here's the original 1981 Atari Inc. picture label release of Basketball next to the 1988 Atari Corp. re-release:
So yeah, Atari Corp. lifted the "Atari Game Program Instructions" text straight from their manual design, same font and everything! I like to imagine that there had to be at least one special kid out there, who, upon looking at their new cartridge for the first time in 1986, wondered how on earth they would possibly plug the game instructions into the console.
And perhaps it's just me, but there's something about those fonts that just *screams* counterfeit/pirate/bootleg to me, especially RAIDERS. Like... they seem to sorta have the same styling/feel as a lot of "Engrish" on knock-off toy packaging/manuals from China, or something. Whatever, it all just adds to their charm and the Atari lore, in my mind!
Breakout made a brief cameo appearance in the post that started this thread off, but there it is in all its shiny golden-orange glory, next to another truly unusual and extra-hard-to-find late Atari Corp re-release. Buckle up for weirdness and mistakes!
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