A vector graphics workstation from the 70s

I am obsessed with Vector computing and I recently became the lucky owner of a Vectrex.

Projects like the VecFever, and PiTrex, exist to make it possible to combine vector displays with much more modern CPU technology, allowing emulating even old Vector arcade titles like Star Wars or Battlezone.

It is criminal that Vector Computing never took off past the 1980s, and has died. Nothing, not even OLEDs (sorry Vectrex-Mini guys!) can replicate the beauty of phosphor glow.

Speaking of amazing forgotten lighting effects, the techniques for the cool lighting effects used in Don Bluth films (and his games like Dragons Lair) are also forgotten/unused and I find them analogous to vector displays.

I find the death of Vector Displays and the cool display tech Don Bluth did to be great examples of "Worse is Better" and counterexamples to the idea that progress overtime inevitably makes things better.

I wanted a TechTronix vector computer super bad, and still do, especially the one's with the fast 3D and color add-ons.

I'll drop a few motivating videos:

0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M98VOoGFLL8 (TekTronix 3D/Color stuff)

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dv15YRAmzM

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j60DV0Ujp_E

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAPHGBM2sQ8

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUB6OYeCKek

The printers for these used a special vacuum tube for memory derived from the kind in television cameras.

They were massive and printed a whole page at a time, similar to the thermal page printers from Perkin-Elmer for their model 3600 Intelligent Terminal of the early 1980's, but P-E printers were much smaller by then.

3600 had vector graphics too, these were very expensive but introduced the form factor of a horizontal box with two 5 1/4 floppies, monitor on top and wired keyboard with the first row of "F" function keys people had seen. Which is the desktop form that was later adopted by IBM when they issued their first PC.