An Awesome Tale About A Vintage Video Game System On A Car Website Of All Places: COTD

The Autopian is nominally a site about cars, but we also cover things like planes, trains, motorcycles, and things that float. We also sometimes cover things tangentially car-related, like car video games!

Jason wrote about Vectrex, “the only home video game console designed to use vector-style graphics as opposed to the far more common raster.” I had no idea a Vectrex was even a thing! Tony Sestito has a story to tell:

Sweet, a Vectrex story! And do I have a Vectrex story for YOU!

I found my Vectrex in a junkyard. Yes, you read that right.

About 17 years ago now, I was perusing the selection of older vehicles at a local yard with a few buddies, and while investigating a blue 1966 Rambler Classic 660, my buddy commented, “Hey, check out this weird little TV!” My eyes bugged out of my head!

After I explained what it was and marveled at the overall condition of the unit, he handed it to me and said that it was mine. I brought it to the counter, and they said I could have it for free, otherwise they would have to pay someone to recycle it. Unreal!

I still have it, and it still works. Although I haven’t picked up a copy of Pole Position for it (it’s one of the more expensive games), I do have a copy of Hyper Chase, which is nearly as good. It’s more like Sega’s Turbo arcade game or Enduro on the 2600 than Pole Position, though. Don’t forget the overlays!

Also, they ported a few non-Vector games to this thing. Another good example is Konami’s Scramble. They did a pretty great job with that one as well.

Pneumatic Tool also dredges up fun memories:

Honestly never saw one in the flesh, but I would have totally fawned over it if I had. Many of my favorite arcade games in my youth were vector-based – Lunar lander, Tempest, Asteroids (and deluxe), the OG Space War, Star Wars, Battlezone, and my all time favorite, Star Trek. If your arcade had the sit-down version of Trek, you were living. Here’s an incredibly geeky confession – my local haunt had it, and I’d go in and play it while listening to “the wrath of Khan” soundtrack on my walkman. I can admit to this because I know I’m among friends.

Matt wrote a Morning Dump that included how CarMax’s pivot to online sales hasn’t gone very well. 10001010:

I guess CarMax never recovered from selling that warranty on Doug’s Range Rover.

Matt wrote about the greatest racing video on YouTube. Ottomottopean the old Internet:

I miss the weird internet. I have never seen this video and it is amazing in its purity.

I remember the weird internet Herb Zipper, when we found out who Ze Frank was because of the viral, flash animated wedding invitation that got shared, super fly, the awesome hoaxes that had so much effort put into them; anyone remember man beef dot com? It’s not what you think and it was so great. So much effort put into a fake site about cannibalism. Why? Because.

There was a time people put things out there to be creative and it wasn’t about monetizing everything. Sure, a lot of it was to get noticed and maybe get a job out of it but it wasn’t about generating ad revenue or anything. There was an authenticity and purity to it that today’s internet just lacks. I think it generally started fading around the time of MySpace and was really lost when FB came along.

Man what weird times. Thanks for the memories!

Have a great evening, everyone!