Vectrex Mini

     This object makes sense to me only if, even if there is a 
     display, which is fundamentally different than tracing line 
     with the CRT raster, at least that original process is simulated.

- The lines themselves which are honestly the easiest part to fake if the DPI is high enough, past the point of visual distinction.

- The "bloom" or "glow" (phosphor bleed, or whatever the right term is) around the lines

- The temporal effects caused by the screen phosphor continuing to glow even after the beam no longer hits them. The most obvious example is the "streak" left behind the ultra-bright moving bullets in Asteroids which looks absolutely awesome

I have seen incredible examples of vector/CRT emulation when people get creative with RetroArch (or whatever) GPU powered shaders.The only things that emulation can't match (for me) are input latency and the magic of knowing that the process of creating the image is "real" and not "faked."

The games were nothing to write home about, but the rendering was fun.

You could emulate it with a slow rendering and fade (clear frame with black 99% opacity), but it would have to be perfect. Still, you'd never get the same glow on the drawing point.

   built-in 5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 800×600, delivering sharp and bright vector graphics

I have a working Vectrex I found on the street 12 years ago sitting in my living room.

The screen was what really made it, and I get that having a vector scope manufactured would be expensive (it isn't true that nobody makes CRTs any more, but it is true that they don't come cheaply). Its also the reason I never really went all the way and bought one of my all time favorite arcade games which was the cockpit version of 'Star Wars' with its color vector display. (even harder to store!)

In a related effort, I looked at replicating a CRT "look" for some older test equipment that came with CRTs using a high dpi IPS display. I probably could have succeeded if I had an FPGA for doing the phosphor simulation (I developed a lot of respect for Tektronix's DPO technology and their patent portfolio on same :-). Very much a diminishing returns kind of thing.

[1] If you're that guy and reading this say "hi" :-)

> Experience the spirit of the original Vectrex in a modern, compact format.

Emphasis on "spirit" I guess? Without the vector display it's an emulator in an (admittedly) handsome enclosure.

Yeah, Vectrex was a vector gaming platform (as opposed to bitmap) that came and went in the 80's. Vector arcade games were a kind of niche anyway — like "Asteroids", "Battlezone", "Tempest" and a Star Wars game. But they were also kind of magical. The Vectrex captured that.

Basically the only new principle involved is that instead of cathode ray beams always scanning on a fixed rectangular pattern, the X and Y deflection amounts were provided by the game to move around the singular dot to desired locations.

It's crisp as waving around a laser pointer. Some people like that aesthetics.