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A chance meeting in a Connecticut game shop led collector Steven Salter to an unfinished Vectrex developer board labeled “A Crush of Lusifer.” The discovery was not a finished boxed game: it was a bare prototype with no known documentation. Collector and game releaser Sean Kelly helped organize the work that turned it into A Crush of Lucifer, released in 2022.
Why the Vectrex still looks different
The Vectrex was built around a display that set it apart from other home consoles. Its portrait-oriented monochrome CRT is inside the console itself, and it draws lines directly rather than assembling a picture from a conventional grid of pixels. That vector image gives Vectrex games their characteristic sharp, geometric appearance.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977–1987 | $12.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Consoles Maudites : Vectrex - Amiga CD32 - Atari Jaguar - NEC PC-FX (Les chroniques de Gunhed TV)... | $11.52 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Vectrex Berzerk by: CGE | $49.97 | Buy on Amazon |
According to Ars Technica’s 2024 account, Smith Engineering developed the system, and General Consumer Electronics brought it to market in late 1982. Ars reports a 1 MHz Motorola 6809 processor, 1 KB of RAM, and a $199 launch price. Milton Bradley acquired GCE in 1983, and the console was discontinued less than 18 months after launch.
The short commercial life did not erase the appeal of the hardware for collectors and developers. Sean Kelly, a collector and co-founder of the National Videogame Museum, told Ars: “People can still look back at Vectrex today and say: ‘Wow, this is cool.’” He also described the system’s distinctiveness: “I can’t really do anything like this on any other platform. And even if I try, it’s still not quite the same.”
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How a bare developer board turned up
Salter met a former Milton Bradley engineer at a game shop outside Hartford, Connecticut. The engineer, identified in the account only as “Mr. Smith,” wanted to sell Vectrex-related items and had kept boxes of material connected with the system. On a later visit, Salter came across a developer’s bare printed circuit board with a socketed ROM chip. A sticker on it read “A Crush of Lusifer.”
Salter tried the board in his Vectrex and posted a video to a Vectrex enthusiast group. Kelly recognized the title as one he had not encountered before. Salter emphasized how unlike a retail product the find was: “This wasn’t even a cartridge in a shell,” he told Ars. “It was just the bare PCB, and the ROM board on it was actually a socketed chip.”
The discovery therefore was not a sealed, finished game waiting to be put back on shelves. Testing showed that the prototype was incomplete, and it came without documentation. The original sticker’s misspelling is part of the artifact’s story; the later released game is titled A Crush of Lucifer. The amount Kelly paid to acquire the prototype was not disclosed.
From prototype to a 2022 release
Kelly organized the effort to make the game playable and present it as a release. Salter designed the overlay and helped shape the presentation, while Kelly hired programmers and coordinated packaging production. The work involved more than recovering the ROM: the team had to address the incomplete software and create the physical materials that make a boxed Vectrex game feel like a complete product. Ars reports that the overlay took repeated attempts to print successfully.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →A Crush of Lucifer plays as a forward-moving 3D shooter. The player navigates and shoots obstacles before facing Lucifer. Its forward view may remind modern players of later shooters, but that resemblance is a comparison of play style, not evidence that this prototype influenced those games.
The finished release arrived in 2022. It is important to distinguish that release from what Salter found: the bare board was an unfinished development prototype, while the later game was the result of programming, production, and presentation work by Kelly, Salter, and their collaborators.
Rank #3
A wider revival scene, with different ways to take part
A Crush of Lucifer sits within a broader Vectrex preservation and homebrew scene. Kelly had also helped bring unreleased titles including Mail Plane and Tour de France to boxed release. These examples show how collectors’ discoveries can become playable, documented releases, but their mention does not establish current stock.
For people interested in playing or extending the platform, the options are not interchangeable. A physical Vectrex is central to the original hardware experience; a boxed cartridge adds software for that console, while PiTrex and Scopetrex serve more technical or experimental purposes.
| Route | What it offers | Requirements and considerations |
|---|---|---|
| Original or revived physical cartridges | Games played on Vectrex hardware, including preservation releases such as A Crush of Lucifer. | Requires a Vectrex. The Ars feature documents releases and their history, not current availability. |
| Homebrew cartridge | New games designed for the Vectrex. Packrat Video Games lists boxed Vectorblade as a one-player cartridge game, with a 192K cartridge, over 100 levels, and four boss fights. | Requires a Vectrex and the physical cartridge. Packrat’s listing is the place to check current price and stock: Vectorblade at Packrat Video Games. |
| PiTrex | A cartridge using a Raspberry Pi to run Vectrex software, emulators, and development tools. | OmberTech lists Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W support, says the software remains under active development, and states that a Vectrex is needed. This is a flexible but more technical route: OmberTech PiTrex. |
| Scopetrex | An oscilloscope-based vector gaming project. | An enthusiast project rather than a turnkey Vectrex replacement: Scopetrex on GitHub. |
These options address different interests: original-console play, new cartridge games, experimentation with software and development tools, or vector gaming built around an oscilloscope. PiTrex does not replace the need for the Vectrex, and Scopetrex is not simply another boxed Vectrex game.
Check live availability before buying
Prices and inventory can change, and a historical feature or product listing is not a guarantee that a particular item is in stock now. Check the seller’s current listing before making a purchase decision. In particular, the Packrat page is the relevant source for its current Vectorblade availability; no current stock claim is established here for A Crush of Lucifer, Mail Plane, or Tour de France.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
