May/29/2005:

Thinking about doing some future project on my Vectrex I felt uncomfortabele with  the “hard-to-access-cartridge-port-pins” since I like using breadboards for developing new hardware:

(“breadboarding” directly to the vectrex ports)

So I designed some kind of extension card, calling it “Multiconn” because of the many possibilities it brings with it.

(top view)

(bottom view)

Not only can I now access ports easily, I can also solder some EPROM or flash EEPROM on it(supports up to 27c512) to use it for playing ROMs on original Vectrex hardware. I even added some solder pads for adding 2 IC’s (6116 ram and 74139 demultiplexer) do make it Animaction compatible since the carts from Mark Shaker (www.vectrexcarts.com) do not support Animaction. 3 jumpers are for bank selection so that eight 8kB games will fit on one Multiconn and can be selected via jumpers. the Multiconn will fit into the original Vectrex cases (at least the ones I own). Thanks to all original Vectrex games being released to public I now can play Animaction and the other originals legally on original Vectrex Hardware.

If you are interested in building one yourself full schematic in .pdf format can be found here. If you followed construction plans some kind of users manual can be found in the files section.

Aug/19/2005:

Just in case you wondered about the second connector, here’s a picture with a 37pol. male subd connected to the multiconn:

(subd allowing easy access to all Vectrex cartridge port pins)

Aug/30/2005:

Just added 64k and 4k bank support and save game support via DS2430A one wire memory. Schematic can be found here.

Feb 11/2006:

Oh here’s the picture, I decided black pcbs look lots cooler :-)