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Vector game monitors created a look that's either impossible or really hard emulate well with pixel-based monitors and scan-line-based CRT's. A beam of electron

by tabtab 8y ago

Vector game monitors created a look that's either impossible or really hard emulate well with pixel-based monitors and scan-line-based CRT's. A beam of electrons can dwell on a single spot or narrow area for a relatively long period of time, making it glow mega-bright. It's roughly the same technology as a CRT, except instead of periodic scan lines, the "beam aimer" can dynamically point to wherever it wants on the screen. It's kind of like some laser shows. I'd love to see one again and show it to my (grown) kids.

acomjean 8y ago
You could get a laser projector and port asteroids to it (like this guy did) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHjG759ABY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHjG759ABY
- smcameron 8y ago
  A buddy of mine built his own RGB laser projector for about $400 back in 2013 or so, and got MAME to work with it. But the games typically try to draw too many lines for a laser projector to keep up with, so you either need multiple, and split up the lines among the projectors and carefully align the projectors. Anyway we learned that filming laser projections is hard, and doesn't look like it does in real life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JKr-Vkz8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JKr-Vkz8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6pvAZ3nq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6pvAZ3nq4
  - acomjean 8y ago
    Very cool. A lot of games i forgot we’re cector based. Battle zone, tempest, Star Trek and some game with vector blimps and space squids (world war vi?). How did the mame output which is usually to a crt translate to your projector?
    - smcameron 8y ago
      Word War vi[1] is a little game I made long before the laser projector, and we were looking for things to do with the projector, so I converted word war vi to be able to use it. You can look in the commits here to see how MAME is hooked to the projector. https://github.com/jv4779/openlase-mame/commits/master https://github.com/jv4779/openlase-mame/commits/master I believe the jist of it is MAME already has to start with lines meant for a vector display and rasterize them one way or another for a modern computer. Before this happens, the data can sent to the openlase library[2] which generates signals on 5 channels of audio: 2 channels for control of X and Y galvos, and 3 channels for red, green, and blue laser power control. These signals then get sent to amplifiers and then to galvos and laser controls. [1] http://smcameron.github.io/wordwarvi/ http://smcameron.github.io/wordwarvi/ [2] https://github.com/marcan/openlase https://github.com/marcan/openlase
- tyingq 8y ago
  Some other options https://trmm.net/Vector_games_32c3#Vector_Display_Hardware https://trmm.net/Vector_games_32c3#Vector_Display_Hardware

by tabtab 8y ago

acomjean 8y ago

You could get a laser projector and port asteroids to it (like this guy did) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHjG759ABY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHjG759ABY

smcameron 8y ago
A buddy of mine built his own RGB laser projector for about $400 back in 2013 or so, and got MAME to work with it. But the games typically try to draw too many lines for a laser projector to keep up with, so you either need multiple, and split up the lines among the projectors and carefully align the projectors. Anyway we learned that filming laser projections is hard, and doesn't look like it does in real life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JKr-Vkz8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JKr-Vkz8A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6pvAZ3nq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6pvAZ3nq4
- acomjean 8y ago
  Very cool. A lot of games i forgot we’re cector based. Battle zone, tempest, Star Trek and some game with vector blimps and space squids (world war vi?). How did the mame output which is usually to a crt translate to your projector?
  - smcameron 8y ago
    Word War vi[1] is a little game I made long before the laser projector, and we were looking for things to do with the projector, so I converted word war vi to be able to use it. You can look in the commits here to see how MAME is hooked to the projector. https://github.com/jv4779/openlase-mame/commits/master https://github.com/jv4779/openlase-mame/commits/master I believe the jist of it is MAME already has to start with lines meant for a vector display and rasterize them one way or another for a modern computer. Before this happens, the data can sent to the openlase library[2] which generates signals on 5 channels of audio: 2 channels for control of X and Y galvos, and 3 channels for red, green, and blue laser power control. These signals then get sent to amplifiers and then to galvos and laser controls. [1] http://smcameron.github.io/wordwarvi/ http://smcameron.github.io/wordwarvi/ [2] https://github.com/marcan/openlase https://github.com/marcan/openlase
tyingq 8y ago
Some other options https://trmm.net/Vector_games_32c3#Vector_Display_Hardware https://trmm.net/Vector_games_32c3#Vector_Display_Hardware