The ZVG

Zektor's Vector Generator

A PC driven vector generator that will drive WG, Amplifone, Sega, and Vectrex monitors. It will also drive Oscilloscopes.

The ZVG is based on an analog vector generator and therefore draws the very smooth vectors that only an analog generator can draw. No jagged edges on a B&W display.

Tempest, Asteroids, and Star Castle are just three of the most remembered and collected, vector graphics based, games of the 80's.

Remember the arcades of the 80's? Those blocky graphics that kind of looked like a cartoon of a guy climbing ladders and jumping over flat barrels thrown by a flat two dimensional monkey? Or how about a game were a slice of yellow pizza runs around a maze eating squarish dots, and flat floating ghost?

In the midst of those games were the vectors, like Asteroids Deluxe, drawn with lines, and dots, but with resolutions that allowed those boulders to move smoothly across the screen, and for a tank in a game like Armor Attack to look somewhat like a tank. It allowed for 3D zooming in Tempest and Tailgunner, and allowed full 3D playing fields in Battlezone, Red Baron and Star Wars.

They stood out against the raster games as the most "Hi-Tech" video games of the era.

There were more than 30 vector based games made in the 80's. To acquire a collection that includes all these games would be a monumental feat. Just to find that many vector monitors alone would be no easy task, not to mention the cost! Vector based arcade monitors haven't been made in 20+ years, and you can't simply use one vector monitor for all these games. Each monitor has different specs and runs at different speeds, making them incompatible between different gaming hardware. The hardware was unique for most of these games, making Multigame conversion kits difficult to design. And good luck finding an Aztarac, Sundance, 4-Player Eliminator, or one of our namesake, a Zektor cabinet! Some games are rare enough that even lots of money can't get you one!

After collecting vector games for years, the realization that you can never have them all sank in, and we looked for an alternative. Why not build a Vector Generator that would somehow attach to a standard PC and run all the games supported by an emulator, such as MAME, on a single vector monitor? It would be kind of a 30+ Vector Multigame!

The ZVG (Zektor's Vector Generator) is just that, a PC controlled Vector Generator. The ZVG attaches to an ECP compliant printer port on a standard PC, and then to a vector monitor. Allowing DOS MAME, to run all the games supported by these emulators on a real vector monitor. With all the intensity and cool effects that only a vector monitor can produce!