Vector G08 Series Faq page 4

G08 Vector Monitor Guide
"At the time I came to work at Sega, the G -80 setup was already there. I think Astro Blaster was
one of the first to use the configuration. For the time it was pretty impressive. The modular design
got some things done that would have been very difficult to do on a single board. The main CPU
was not being taxed with sound/speech operations, so the speech was excellent for that time, and
the sounds were nice, too.
They had already begun working on a game that they wanted to be vector, and decided they wanted
it to be color as well. Initially, it reminded me of a vector version of Gorf, with the player being
taunted by a weird alien during the game. None of the color routine was set up yet, (I think we were
running a G05), and the game didn't look very much like the final product at all. This game ended
up being Space Fury.
I was brought in after I spoke with an Electrohome representative who was lecturing at Cal [Poly].
He told me that they were working on a color Vector monitor, and since I was (and always have
been) interested in games, he suggested that I apply to Sega/Gremlin on a co-op for summer work.
I ended up working there for almost 3 years."
"My job was to take the rough breadboard they had as a AVG and design something that would fit
into the G-80 setup (this was a must, they were really in love with it) and eliminate the massive
board they were using in the lab. I was initially going to try to do this on one board. But, after about
3 weeks into it, I decided that it would be impossible to do one board that would fit into the G80
cage. So, I came up with the idea of both the vector timing and control boards, and it ended up
working out."
"When I heard of the problems that plagued the monitor, I felt terrible. We at Sega (and
Electrohome) really wanted a spot killer, but at the time, Atari sued whomever they wanted, and
always won. The G05 design (Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Red Baron, B ally's Omega
Race, etc.) was actually developed by Atari. Atari's production was not geared to making monitors,
so they commissioned Electrohome to produce the monitor (Atari actually received a cut for Bally
using the G05 in Omega Race). So, using a spot killer was definitely out, and Electrohome had to
come up with something else. Many aspects of the monitor and x/y timing and control boards were
developed so that we wouldn't get crushed by Atari's legal dept..."
"I remember Mark Shayton (Sega/Gremlin head of engineering) having a fit over the G08's
problems. Initially, they pointed the finger at me (I was the dumb intern, I made the x/y
timing/control boards), but things got pretty hot (no pun intended) between Sega and Electrohome
when it was proven that the monitor was the problem..."
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