???? – 1984retired
Arcadia 2001
“35 games, 18 months, endless clones — the Arcadia lived on in everyone else's living room.”
“It brought its own screen to the fight, and the fight ended anyway.”
The Vectrex was the only vector display-based home video game console ever designed and released for the home market, developed by Smith Engineering and built by General Consumer Electronics before Milton Bradley took over the license. Released in North America in October 1982, then Europe and Japan in 1983, it stood apart from every other system of its day: no TV required, thanks to its own integrated vertically ori
Milton Bradley discontinued the Vectrex in February 1984, barely a year and a half after its North American debut. It began humbly as a handheld called the Mini Arcade, conceived by John Ross of Smith Engineering in late 1980, before morphing into the tabletop system that earned its devoted following. Nothing quite like it ever came again — the only vector console for the home went out quietly, overlays and all.
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“35 games, 18 months, endless clones — the Arcadia lived on in everyone else's living room.”
“Four knobs, two buttons, one nation hooked before Nintendo showed up.”
“First family of home gaming, bowing out with dignity while the party crashed around it.”