Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
ZVG vector arcade interface
By James Grahame
Some of the most memorable arcade games from the 1980s are the hardest to emulate with modern raster-scan monitors. Smash hits like Asteroids, Tempest, Battlezone and Star Wars use vector graphics -- straight lines and dots -- to generate futuristic images that scroll smoothly across arcade displays. Here's a brief look at a vector generator that brings these razor-sharp classics into the 21st century.
The $239 ZVG (Zector's Video Generator) is a PC-driven vector generator that's compatible with MAME arcade software. It connects to an ECP-compatible parallel printer port and drives any analog X/Y Monitor including any dual channel oscilloscope that can be set to an X/Y mode. The company even offers a variety of cables to simplify assembly. [thanks, Tom McClintock!]
"There were more than 30 vector based games made in the 80's. To acquire a collection that includes all these games would be a monumental feat. Just to find that many vector monitors alone would be no easy task, not to mention the cost! Vector based arcade monitors haven't been made in 20+ years, and you can't simply use one vector monitor for all these games. Each monitor has different specs and runs at different speeds, making them incompatible between different gaming hardware. The hardware was unique for most of these games, making multigame conversion kits difficult to design. [until now]"
Zektor ZVG vector arcade hardware
