Patriots

Patriots is one of the earliest swallows of Vectrex homebrew and is still cited today as the title that kicked off the modern-day scene around this console. The game follows the classic Missile Command formula: cities and missile batteries stand at the bottom of the screen, enemy missiles rain down from above, and the player must launch counter-missiles in time so they detonate at the right spot and intercept the incoming threats. You don't hit the target directly but rather the future meeting point, so the whole game rests on judging time and distance. Smart missiles that split appear over time, along with fast planes streaking across the screen, and with each wave there's less time to think.

On the Vectrex, this concept has one big advantage: the vector display draws missile trails as thin glowing lines that are gorgeously legible in a darkened room, and the explosions bloom outward as radiant circles. Clarity is markedly better as a result than in the raster versions of the era. The analog joystick lets you smoothly guide the targeting cursor across the screen, which matters a great deal in a game built on precision. The sound is simple but punchy — every explosion has its own response, and the escalating pace is easy to feel.

Historically, the game matters mainly because it was released on a real cartridge at a time when the Vectrex had long been a dead platform, proving that new material could still come out for it. It opened the door for other authors and for later, more technically ambitious projects. Today you'll appreciate it as an honest, quickly graspable arcade game that fits the console's character perfectly — and as a reminder that some platforms never truly end. Compared to later, more technically advanced homebrew projects it feels more modest, but that only makes it easier to come back to — everyone knows the rules, a round takes a few minutes, and the tension in the final waves, when more missiles fall than one person can target in time, works exactly the same as it did when the original was made.