Software

Since the Vectrex had many arcade-like qualities, the initial software strategy was to copy or license as many popular arcade games as possible. Atari and its classic vector arcade games like Asteroids (1979) and Star Wars (1983), were off-limits for obvious reasons, but Cinematronics, another top vector-graphics arcade game producer, was an ideal alternative.

In fact, the licensing agreement with Cinematronics was two-way, resulting in one of the first official home-to-arcade conversions in Cosmic Chasm, one of a number of solid Vectrex releases ready by late 1982. In Cosmic Chasm, the player's ship must navigate a maze of underground rooms and destroy a power structure in the center chamber. After a room is cleared of enemies, the player must drill through one of the exits. Once the center chamber is reached, the player needs to plant a bomb and find a way to escape before the maze explodes.

The controller's buttons are put to good use, with escape (a random warp), thrust, and fire mapped to three of the four buttons. The sound effects, particularly the explosions, have great depth and go a long way towards creating an arcade-like effect. Unfortunately, for highly skilled players, there is a bug after the 13th level that could cause the game to reset itself. GCE issued a patched cartridge version, Mine Storm II (1983), to customers who complained to them about the problem.

Direct arcade conversions included Cinematronics' Star Hawk (1982), which mimicked the trench scene in the original 1977 Star Wars movie and utilized analog control; Space Wars (1982), which was a two player spaceship duel inspired by the PDP-1 mainframe computer's Spacewar! (1962); Star Castle (1983), in which the player's ship tries to blast through a multi-layered rotating shield at the center of the screen; Rip Off (1982), a one- to two-player simultaneous game where the players use a tank to protect fuel canisters from other tanks; Armor Attack (1982), a one- to two-player simultaneous close combat game where the players use their jeeps to evade and destroy enemy tanks and helicopters; and Solar Quest (1982), where the player's ship must eliminate waves of enemy ships and rescue survivors before they fall into the sun.

Other arcade direct conversions included Stern's robot-filled maze-based shooter, Berzerk (1982); Namco's racer, Pole Position (1983); and Konami's side-scrolling shooter, Scramble (1983). Though somewhat similar in play to Sega's popular arcade game, Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator (1982), Star Trek The Motion Picture (1982) was instead licensed directly from Paramount and considered an original property where the starship Enterprise battles Klingons and Romulans from a first person perspective.

Other shooters include Bedlam (1982), which has been described as an "inside-out" Tempest (Atari, 1980); Fortress of Narzod (1983), which requires the player to shoot through enemies in a fantasy setting, making great use of the system's scaling and depth-of-field abilities; Polar Rescue (1983), a first person perspective shoot and rescue game in a submarine; and Web Wars (1983), which casts the player as the "Hawk King" shooting fantasy creatures on various webs.