Game
MineStorm is a two dimensional, multilevel vector graphic shooting game. As the player, you control an arrowhead shaped icon (a spaceship) in a playing field populated by small dots (stars) that transform into jagged, drifting rock shapes (mines) of varying size and shape. The mines move at different speeds around the screen. The goal is to keep your spaceship from touching the mines as you fire projectiles at them, blowing them to pieces and clearing them from the playing field. The mines increase in speed, size and complexity as the levels progress. The Vectrex controller is a black rectangle with a joystick on the left side and four action buttons on the right. One can move the spaceship icon in small bursts across the playing field with one of four buttons on the right side of the controller, labelled number three. The button labelled with the number four shoots the projectiles from the ship. The joystick on the left side of the controller changes the ship's direction and controls firing aim. Once the player has cleared all the mines from the playing field, the game space resets and the player advances to the next level.
MineStorm was designed and released as the hardcoded default game for the Vectrex home arcade system. The system and game alike were designed and programmed by John Hall. Like all Vectrex games, it came with a translucent plastic color overlay unique to the game. Placing the overlay under the discreet plastic tabs effectively covered the entire display in order to modify the color of the white vector graphics.
The version of MineStorm that is profiled here was originally my father’s. He was given a Vectrex system by his parents on Christmas, 1982 (when the machine was first released to the public for sale). He used it for a few years, but after he grew out of it, it ended up in a box in his parents’ house. It then moved to his first apartment, and then to the crawlspace in the house he bought with my mum. He kept the system and his set of games safe and complete for 25 years and when I was around 13, he passed it on to me.
Because of this safekeeping, the system I have is in beautiful shape. The black plastic case has a few scuffs and scratches, but the screen is undamaged and the single panel controller functions without issue. The system owner's manual and MineStorm game manual are in like new condition as well. They both feature a silvery grey cover with a grid background. ** The translucent plastic color overlay for the game is a rich blue grid with a yellow border. The MineStorm logo appears in the center at the bottom of the frame in white letters with a red dropshadow. "Player One" and "Player Two'' are written in the top left and right hand corners, respectively, in white text inside red bubbles. The button commands that correspond to the Vectrex controller are written under the logo in the bottom right hand corner. This overlay shows the most signs of age. Because it's been kept in a sleeve with the overlays of other games, it's suffered considerable scuffing from friction. The scuffing causes minor fuzzing of the graphic focus, but not to the extent that it disrupts gameplay.
The original MineStorm has a glitch that causes the game to reset at level 13, though many more levels were intended by the designers. When this was discovered upon release, any owner who called the Milton Bradley Company and reported this issue would be sent a cartridge version of the game, MineStorm II, free of charge. My 16 year old father, like most other Vectrex owners, was unaware of this so he, and I, have subsequently never played past level 13. MineSorm II exists, but in extremely limited quantities. It is even more rare than the original.