As someone who grew up with these machines back in the day, there was something very magical about having a Vectrex near ones bed, all the lights off, and being able to play as much “Asteroids”, “Battlezone”, or “Tempest” as one could handle without requiring a bag full of coins for the pleasure. I fondly recall the nights spent this way, waking up at 3am with the Vectrex splash screen still burning its way into my retina.

That crazy glow was just so sci-fi for us kids back then. Some of us only had Game & Watch (LCD cells) to play with - the rich kids with their Vectrex were constant subjects of envy among us nerd kids.

I was lucky enough to get a microcomputer for one of my teenage birthdays - my rich neighbor had a Vectrex. We both kind of tired of our respective systems and on occasion would swap for the weekend .. it was great to have some actual games to play, and my friend enjoyed learning to program on my Oric-1 (which had a distinct lack of titles, at least in my neck of the woods back then ..)

I played the vector Star Wars game in a cabinet with a seat and hydraulic actuators way back, I always wondered if those were common or not, I never saw another one.