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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 ...
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The ghosts of Freedom Wars and Patapon live on with new developer TVT

Shift was one of the development firms heavily involved in Freedom Wars as PlayStation scrambled to cover the loss of Monster Hunter to Nintendo. Along with Japan Studio and Dimps, they crafted a cracking portable multiplayer giant-mech battler back in 2014 with plenty of distinguished features. 

Among Shift's development talent roster was Toshiyuki Yasui who went to work on Namco's Code Vein before stealthily forming his own company Tokyo Virtual Theory (TVT) in 2019. The results of TVT's work have finally broken cover and the company kicked into earnest development in May. 

Powering the company's games will be some new Middleware, Theory Engine, a toolset for the development of large-scale network games. According to an auto-translation of TVT's press release, "it is an open platform network engine that can create MO action games with high real-time characteristics. By using this engine, we can provide a "faster", "more people", "game serverless and comfortable" environment."


Some early concept images show off the what the developers are working on, one from the brains behind the PSP's mighty Patapon (Hiroyuki Kotani and Kemmei Adachi). It is currently called Project Jaberwocky (nice touch, says a Better Off Ted fan!) and looks like Patapon is going multiplayer (and possibly Pokemon!) 

Update: Since revealed as Ratatan and funded on Kickstarter with a 2025 release. 


The other game, Project Shaz is in more familiar territory with the concept art showing off some cheery well-armed characters ready to be thrust into a multiplayer combat environment that could be anywhere from Rival Schools to Metal Gear. 



No platforms mentioned, but its hard not to imagine these coming to PS5 and mobile, or who knows what platforms that may exist in a couple of years time. Keep up with the news as it emerges on the TVT site. 


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