Setup, the SD card, buttons, calibration and updates. For the full detail there is the User Manual (PDF).
// SD Card & Booting
No — VEXXON needs its own card, and that is by design. VEXXON is its own
bare-metal system: kernel.img and kernel7.img are not
programs running on top of something else, they are the system.
The Pi boots straight into the game with nothing underneath it, which is
what keeps the timing tight enough for clean, stable vectors.
Making it load from an existing card would tie the game to the loader and the surrounding SDK setup, where a change on either side can break the other. Staying self-contained is the reason it boots reliably across so many different setups.
No. There is no image to flash. The card you received is ready to use — put it in the Pi and power on. If you ever need to restore it, the files are simply copied onto a FAT32 card.
All files belong in the root of the card, not inside a
subfolder. A card with a VEXXON/ folder on it will not boot.
The card must be formatted FAT32.
kernel.img, kernel7.img, bootcode.bin,
start.elf, fixup.dat, config.txt.No. Your card carries both builds and picks the right one for your board automatically.
First the owner splash for a few seconds: the title, your name
and your serial number (NO. 042) — this is baked into your personal
card. Then the start screen with the rotating fighter and
PRESS BTN 1. Press Button 1 to start.
// Playing
Most likely you ran out of ammo. Running out of bullets ends the run, exactly like running out of fuel. Since version 1.11 the crash screen tells you which it was: NO AMMO, NO FUEL or BOSS AT WALL. Shoot fuel tanks to refill fuel, and keep an eye on your ammo before the boss.
Settings are only kept if you save them: choose Save Settings in the menu (Button 3). You should see SAVED. If it says FAIL, the card may be write-protected or full.
Open the menu with Button 3 and check that Music and SFX are ON. The Sounds submenu lets you audition an effect to confirm.
// Calibration & Display
Every Vectrex is slightly different, so VEXXON lets you align its output to your screen. From the start screen, press Button 4. You get a reference circle and one adjustable value at a time:
Aim for a circle that looks round and centered. Start with Offset X/Y and Size X/Y. You normally do this once.
On versions before 1.11 the circle was drawn too dim to be seen on many Vectrex units, so the screen looked broken. Update to 1.11 — the circle is clearly visible now.
That is normal for an un-calibrated Vectrex. Use the calibration screen: Offset X/Y for position, Size X/Y for size. If lines look broken or garbled, adjust Delay Zero and Delay T1 in small steps.
Lower Seg Length in the View menu. On some machines — especially ones that have never been re-capped — setting Seg Length and Seg Cap to around 10 helps a lot.
// Updates
Updates are free. Log in at your download area with the
personal token printed on the letter that came with your card, and download
your personal VEXXON<serial>.zip.
Copy only these two files onto the card, replacing the old ones:
kernel.imgkernel7.imgThat is the entire update — nothing else changes between versions.
vectrexInterface.ini and your settings in vexxon.ini;
overwriting them resets both to factory values.
Open version.txt on the card in any text editor. It shows the game
version, for example version=1.11. See the
release notes for what changed.
Write me an e-mail from the address you used for your order and mention your serial number — I will send it to you again.
No. Your download is built personally for you, so your name and serial number stay exactly as they are.
// Buying
No. VEXXON is a physical release only — a personalised card with its own serial number. A download-only edition was announced during the pre-order phase in 2025, but it was dropped: I decided to concentrate on the physical cards.
The download area is not a shop — it exists so that people who own a card can get updates for it, using the personal token from their card letter.
The game is CHF 85.00. Everything above that on the order page is shipping and, for some countries, import duty — which is why the total differs depending on where you live.
What the 85 pays for is that nothing here is mass produced. Every card is built individually for its owner: your name and serial number go into the source, the game is compiled for you, and that card exists once. The box is assembled by hand after you order it, and it contains a printed Vectrex overlay, a manual and a card letter with your personal download token, so you keep getting updates.
The shipping went up between the first and second run for two reasons. Several parcels from the first batch arrived dented or crushed, so I moved to sturdier boxes and better packing material. And customs handling for the USA and the EU has become more expensive with the new electronic systems.
Through the shop at rogerboesch.games. Cards are produced in batches, so availability depends on the current run — the front page always shows the state of the next batch.
You also need a PiTrex board and a Raspberry Pi to play on a real Vectrex. Those are not included and are bought separately.