Vectrex Vol.1 - Videogame Encyclopedia

Do you like video games? Do you like to have information immediately available? You don't like to read books or magazines? You would like to discover unknown and unusual games as well as informations about your favorite games or companies?

The video game encyclopedia is all this and much more!






The box contains 40 cards.

Here is the list (titles with * refer to original titles):

Armor Attack Clean Sweep Web Wars Mine Storm Hyperchase Spike (mascotte) All Good Things Big Blue Vectrexagon Sectis Obsolet Pitcher's Duel LOGO Flak

Colorclash Everyday is Halloween Revector Wireout Frontier Microvision PUB magazine Microvision Printemps 1980 Cosmic Chasm Rip-Off Light Pen MicroSystemes 30 Pif Gadget 740 Electronic Games 01 3D Imager  NB: some subjects take up several sheets.

The box is made of cardboard, printed on all sides. A visual on the front allows you to immediately distinguish the theme. These boxes can be stored directly on your games shelf or in your library.

For easy access to the cards, a separate storage rack is planned. This rack will come out after volume 3 of the cards.




Each card is used on both sides.

The game sheets contain all the essential informations about the title: name of the main character, place of action, scenario, interest, game system etc.

Of course, a game cannot be reduced to a single sheet, which is why there are also character/creature sheets and object or location sheets.  The encyclopedia can thus present for example the famous aircraft of the Final Fantasy saga, the ship from Ikaruga or the mushrooms of the Mario universe. 

BELOW: a few examples



On the back of each sheet you can find related terms or references discussed in other sheets. This allows readers to navigate from one card to the next, by theme or by key words, and to perfect their knowledge in a fun way.
 

These cards are accompanied by a file accessible online for free, listing all the cards and adding information. The goal is to eventually build a gigantic database. With these cards, everyone will be able to identify the elements present in games, list accessories of a console or obtain a list of personalities related to video games.

•What is the encyclopedia?

As its name suggests, this is a project that will cover the whole of video games, from their origins to the present day. All subjects will be covered:

-Games,
-Supports (consoles, computers, arcade terminals, portable games)
-Characters,
-People,
-Companies,
-Places,
-Objects,
-Publications,
-Events.

•What form does this encyclopedia take?

The cards are 10 cm X 15 cm, 100% in color, printed on 350 grams paper (therefore of good quality and quite rigid)

•Why not publish a book?

The interest of the cards is multiple!

-There is an interest in the content.

If we were to publish an encyclopedia in a bound form, we could never be complete, as new information comes out every day about new games, new companies or any event.

Updating this encyclopedia could only be done by publishing expanded versions, which would disadvantage the original readers, or by including intermediate issues, which would completely destroy the collection. To put it more bluntly, if we were to produce new content on a new Sega release, we would have to put it in a hardcover book. That would be impossible. We would have to produce this information on a book parallel to the first book. A good way to get confused after a while. Not to mention the need for multiple indexes.

The cards are independent. The fact that they are not bound allows them to be classified as they are published. Still using the example of a new game from Sega, it will be easy to insert the card concerning this game in the middle of the others, in alphabetical order, to find your way.

-There is an interest for the reader!

If you want to have a wide range of cards, you can choose to buy all of them. If you only want some of them, you can trade or resell the others. It is even possible to create a trading system for this purpose only, in order to obtain at a lower cost the cards that concern only a chosen theme.

Generally speaking, the reader will never have to buy an expanded version of a book that will become obsolete almost immediately in order to have the latest information added to the encyclopedia.

-There is an entertainment value!

We also produce special cards, which are only available on certain occasions or in certain products. This allow some people to indulge in the joys of collecting. Rest assured, these special cards are about niche topics and are intended for certain communities. These are for example Intellivision, Videopac or CollecoVision cards. You will never have to buy special edition games to get the regular cards.

Our cards are also intended to be used in a board game that we will publish later.

• How do I get the cards?

All you have to do is buy them. We plan to always offer 40 cards per batch.

It will also be possible to get them in some productions of Côté Gamers or through some occasions, like contests or shows.

•Will each set be dedicated to a theme?

No. There will be general packs and specific packs. The first volumes are for the PCEngine, Game&Watch and SNES Shooter, but other packs will be more general.

•Is there an index of published cards?

Yes, this index refers to both the topics covered and the references and related terms listed on the back of the cards.

•With one sheet per topic, won't these be covered succinctly?

If all aspects of a topic were to be covered in a single sheet, it would indeed be succinct, but the sheets will allow us to come back to each aspect of a topic. On the FF7 page for example, we will talk about the game itself. But many cards will come back later on its characters, its places, its objects or even Squaresoft. Eventually, all the cards will constitute a database much larger than a book could offer.

Here is the information contained on a game file:

Original title and translated title if applicable, support, year of release, publisher, developer, genre, number of players, gameplay. The files also indicate if the title is an original game, a unique adaptation or an adaptation among others. In the case of an original game, it is also indicated if adaptations exist.

On the back of the cards, boxes refer to additional information by related terms, references or titles of adaptations.

The content of the description usually includes the names of the main characters and the place where the action of the game takes place, so that other cards can be consulted.