Path: csiph.com!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Duncan Snowden Newsgroups: comp.sys.sinclair Subject: Sinclair Vectrex Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:41:02 +0000 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 26 Message-ID: <20171124003553.18e22fa0@talktalk.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: mQtIMNWS98lc+sak/1kxTQ.user.gioia.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 X-Newsreader: Claws Mail 3.15.1-dirty (GTK+ 2.24.31; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.sinclair:4476 I don't know how common knowledge this is, but I've just watched a talk from ten years ago by Jay Smith, the guy behind the Vectrex console. Right at the end, about 48 minutes in, he mentions that around 1988, they considered making a handheld... and it was based on Sinclair's flat CRT. "We called Sinclair, and they had *just* shut down the plant. We said, 'Don't lock the doors, we gotta talk to Milton Bradley about this!' We put together one real quickly, and piped a Vectrex game into the TV. And it was *gorgeous*, this little handheld vector scan playing on the screen! And... nah. They didn't do it.' I'd often heard vague rumours of a handheld Vectrex, but had no idea that yes, a prototype was built, and it was based on Sinclair tech. (But, as Jay himself says, of *course* it was. The flat tube with its electrostatic deflection was perfect for it.) How cool is that? And how frustrating that it never happened? Extra weird coincidence points for Jay also being behind the M-B Microvision, which shared its name with Sinclair's first "pocket TV". The talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxjrO66AYM Fascinating, even aside from the Sinclair angle. -- Duncan Snowden.