Asteroids - we don't need no stinkin' microprocessor!

[ebastler]

I wonder if anyone has looked into digitizing the signals and then using a FPGA to generate a video signal. Could be a good option for those who don't want to hunt down a vector CRT (that is bigger than an old scope) or convert a regular CRT into one.

No, sorry; that just wont look right. If you have ever seen the glowing shots on a real Asteroids vector monitor, you won't accept any substitute ;-)  They crank the beam up to full brightness, and let it dwell in place a bit longer, for a really nice glow effect. You cant get those intensity dynamics on a raster monitor, where the beam always moves at a constant pace.

[james_s]

Yeah the original Asteroids (I have one) makes incredible use of the vector monitor. No other display technology before or since can manage that sort of dynamic range. Many other vector games are less demanding of the display, but there is still something unique about the look. If you want to run one on a raster display though it's easier to just use an emulator rather than starting with vector hardware.