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Vectrex Mini interview - David Oghia talks up the nostalgic vector powerhouse

Having been wowed by the news of the Vectrex Mini at Gamescom , I rushed off some questions to VectrexOn's main man  David Oghia . After a post-event, well earned, break, he's kindly given us a lot of detail about the project and some new images of the unit to share.  His story mirrors mine somewhat, Vectrex represents a glowing, unaffordable, obelisk of gaming power from our youth! But he's had the energy and drive to do something about it, and met the right people to get the job done!  What first got you interested in Vectrex and what spawned the idea of a Mini version? I’ve always been passionate about retro-gaming, but my first love was computers rather than consoles — the ZX81, then the Commodore 128. I only really discovered the console world in the late 90s, which is when I got my very first Vectrex. Of course, I had seen it in stores back in 1983, but at that time it was far too expensive for me.  Today, I own five Vectrex systems at home. Vector-based games ...

Hey Sony, here's your 'things to fix' list on the PS Vita

Any Vita using PlayStation fan should know where this article is going, but Sony needs a firmware update pretty soon to prevent some handhelds getting thrown and broken.

1. Golden Abyss and the Black Market map of confusion.

What the hell happens? Tap the map on the Live Area screen, it takes you to near, you press the near button and nothing happens. I get warnings about not leaving Near and returning to the game, there's certainly no treasure. What are you supposed to do, it makes no sense? Then you finally go back to the Black Market app, there's no items to trade, I finished the game, I should have something right? Then it asks you to "post updated trade offers." Confusing is not the word.

If games are supposed to link to apps, then the handover needs to be fluid and end in either a positive result or a "nothing to see here, go back to your game" message. Don't leave users hanging, confused or how about you just ditch Near as there's more confusion in this app then the rest of the Vita's utilities put together.

2. That "Please wait" hell

This screen can appear three or four times on some games. Plus a couple of bonus "connecting to PlayStation Network" screens as well. If a game needs the network, just an icon in the corner will suffice. Don't ruin the integrity of the game with these horrible interruptions. I don't know if its lazy game programmers or a Sony-enforced message, but make it stop please!

3. Memory is king

With the PS Vita hamstrung by those silly over-priced memory cards, why isn't the size of each file clear marked as the very first thing on each PSN entry? Why isn't there a little memory card icon similar to the battery charge one showing how full it is, or more practically, how much room is left. Why wait until you've paid for the game or chosen the app and tried to download before giving you a warning that there's not enough space.

I hope all of these issues can be fixed by a little bit of firmware trickery. But with more games planning on using Near to trade goods, like Phantasy Star, that app needs a great deal of work. It really feels like someone at Sony had a good idea but didn't quite know how to execute it, especially with the two different models of Vita to confuse things.

Anything else you'd like Sony to address?

Comments

  1. Slow Messaging, Slow recving any messages and as if u said the please wait
    no auto log in on psn game it's annoying :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Point 3 on the list is my biggest gripe. It was a similar situation with the PSP - buy a game and realise afterwards you don't have enough memory. At least with the PSP I had the option to buy a cheap card, the price of Sony's propriety cards are a joke.

    But to add to this, why is it that some games on the PS Store are more expensive to download than to buy in store? I can see that having them slightly cheaper in store means physical shops will benefit form more sales, but then you also have the extortionate prices of the memory cards so surely those of us who prefer to buy on the PS store and fork out the extra for the memory cards should get at least a bit off the price no?

    ReplyDelete

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