Vectrex Multi-Cart Info

The Vectrex multi-cart has been around in one form or another for over 25 years now!

Very basically, it is a single cartridge that looks exactly like any other Vectrex cartridge. When it is plugged-in to your console, instead of starting a specific game, you are greeted with a menu listing that contains over 100 games to choose from. Navigate through the menus to choose which game you want to play using the joystick or the buttons. When you find something you want to play, press button 4 on the controller to start that game. The game will play EXACTLY as if you had the individual cartridge plugged-in.

A couple of notes:

The Vectrex multi-cart will play on ANY VECTREX anywhere in the world. It has been tested on literally hundreds of different consoles and I have yet to find one that it doesn't work on.

The games that require the 3D Imager or the light pen games will begin to load,look for the appropriate peripheral and stop if they do not find it. For example, if you select 3D Crazy Coaster from the menu, the title screen will appear and then the screen will just go black. The multi-cart is no defective. Even if you had the original, single 3D Crazy Coaster cartridge, the same exact thing would happen because the game is searching for a signal from the 3D Imager which you do not have plugged-in so it sits there in limbo.

Please click here for a complete history of the Multi-Cart over the past twenty-five years!



The following is some information about the upgrade of the multi-cart from version 2.0 to 3.0 which happened in late 2017.

In addition to all of the new games, I’ve made several enhancements to the menu software/operation.  Here’s what you will find…

• 101 GAMES!  The last version of the mutli-cart contained 58 titles.  I have nearly DOUBLED the number of games included on the cart by doubling the memory capacity.
  
  
• I’ve added a bunch of new games including many from BinaryStar software and several others who granted me permission to include their work.
  
  
• Also of note are the titles that came from the German University of Pforzheim where professor Peer Johannsen is using the Vectrex as a tool to teach videogame design.  His students have come up with some great games for the Vectrex and I have been given permission to include some of them on my multi-cart!
  
  
• For the first time, I have a BOX available for the multi-cart!  Half the fun of building a collection is being able to sit back and admire what you've built in some sort of a cool display of shelves and shelves full of games.  In order to properly display and protect your multi-cart, I've always felt that it would be cool if it had a box so it could stand on the shelf with the rest of the Vectrex collection.
  
• The box is sold separately from the multi-cart and can be purchased independently from it.  Meaning if you already have one of my multi-carts and don't feel the need to upgrade but would still like a box, you can buy the only the box if you'd like.
  
• This also means that if you would like to purchase a box with your new multi-cart, you will have to add the box to your shopping cart separately from the multi-cart.
  
• It is the exact size and shape of original Vectrex boxes and comes with an insert to hold the multi-cart inside of the box.
  
  
• There were a couple of bugs in the previous version of the menu software that I was never able to quite figure out.  One, in particular, that a few people mentioned to me occurred when scrolling through the list back and forth too many times…the menu would crash sometimes.  That bug has been fixed.  I’ve scrolled through the list hundreds of times and never had a problem.
  
  
• Instead of just the action buttons, now the JOYSTICK can be used to scroll up, down, page left and page right!
  
  
• The buttons still work as before with two small changes.  Button #3 is now a “home” button.  If you’ve scrolled back and forth too many times and have lost your place, simply hit button #3 to go back to the beginning of the menu.   Button #4 starts the game now which is different from previous versions of the multi-cart that used button #3 to start the game.
  
  
• The edge connector on the cartridge PCB that plugs into the Vectrex has been regular solder in the past.  On this version I had it gold-plated.
  
  
• The newly-redesigned label is professionally printed on vinyl stock so it is much more resistant to damage or smudging than the previous labels were.
  
  
• As silly as it sounds, it always bugged me that the screw that held together my multi-cart was silver but the original screws were black.  I sourced black screws for this version!  :)

That’s about it…enjoy!

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