Messages

This is a very helpful insight. I still don't understand why this is failing on some people's systems, but it's a huge clue. Thank you.

- Bob

Welcome, Huxley. I got your order and it will go out in tomorrow's mail. I hope you do great things with it!

- Bob

I called the Vectrex32 language "BASIC", and it certainly has some features in common with BASIC, but it's also very far removed from the BASICs of 40 years ago.

So I'm not sure how valuable it would be to read one of those old books.

What's important is that you understand the fundamentals of programming, e.g. what variables are and how to use them, the basic idea of writing program statements, what IF-THEN-ELSE, FOR loops, and WHILE loops are, etc.

I would suggest starting with the GSBASIC manual. If there are things you're not familiar with, come back here and ask. That will give us a better idea of how much programming you remember, and what kind of books might help.

- Bob

There's a new release of the Vectrex32 firmware available, version 1.29. You can download it here.

A couple of version numbers were skipped from the previous release, 1.26.

There is a bug fix and a new feature, the FEOF() function.

- Bob

Reformat it as you would an SD card or USB drive. It must be formatted as FAT, also known as FAT16. Don't format it as FAT32.

I would try reformatting the V32 drive.

I don't know what Vecalabeth's file arrangement is supposed to be. However, the autorun menu does not look in folders.

If, after reformatting the V32, you still cannot upgrade to 1.27, you could always send the V32 back to me and I'll upgrade it.

- Bob

You have a memory leak. You keep creating ReturnToOriginSprite objects, but you never remove them.

I noticed that as the program ran, the tones changed more slowly, so something was loading down the system. I Ctrl+Ced out, printed GetCompiledSpriteCount() and it was over 1000. I called DumpSprites() and saw lots of ReturnToOrigin sprites.

I uncommented the call to ClearScreen() on line 168 and that seems to have fixed it.

Do you have the latest version of Vectrex32 firmware (1.27)?

What's the program you're running on the PC? I could try to reproduce the crash.

So if you've commented out the sound and graphics, you're basically just getting characters from the PC, and it crashes?

Is the BASIC program crashing, or is the entire V32 crashing? One thing to try is, after it crashes, switch to a terminal window, and see if BASIC is still alive.

How are you sending the notes? Is it possible one of them is an ASCII code 3? That would be interpreted as a Ctrl+C and would break out of the program. There's a way to disable Ctrl+C processing.

- Bob

Excellent! Thank you for updating us here!

- Bob

You're right. It looks fine the way it is.   

Glad to hear it, though it's certainly a sub-optimal solution.

The enclosure for standard cartridges provides more support for the weight, since they fit snugly into the side of the Vectrex. The V32 doesn't fit in a standard cartridge, but if you're into 3D printing, you could whip something up that might work.

- Bob

Hi Dominus,

I'm sorry you're having this problem with the Vectrex32.

Certainly, a good thing to try would be using a regular game cartridge.

I have one other customer who found that he had to prop up the V32 to get it to work. He's never figured out why - other game cartridges work OK for him. But it's as if the extra weight or leverage of the V32 causes some mechanical connection to be bad. So he puts a few books under the V32 to support its weight.

It's also possible, of course, that there's something wrong with the V32. I test every one of them before they're sent out, and the fact that it connects to the PC means that it's at least partially working. But if we can't figure out what's wrong, you can always it send it back to me and I'll test it here.

- Bob

Yes, they are the same.

- Bob

Open Star Trex.bas in a good text editor (like Notepad++ from https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/) and see what's at the error line, 3851.

Odds are, its the first line of the Sgn() function. Delete the entire function (all the way to the ENDFUNCTION line) and save the file. Then, from the command line, type RELOAD and then RUN.

- Bob