A question, that I never faced, but apparently employs some Vectrex owners: Do you also need the right color film to play a Vectrex game??

The answer is “No” – Even after thinking about it for a long time, I can't think of a single Vectrex game, the right color foil is essential (Overlay) needed to play. Of course it looks much nicer, if the vectors are not only drawn in white on a black background. And the color film sometimes makes you forget, that the Vectrex can actually only do black and white. Games like Vector Pilot become a real feast for the eyes with colored foil. And the black light films, which are made to glow under UV light, look great. But colored foils are not needed for just playing. There are few games like Pinball Pinball, that don't look good without colored foil, because parts of the game graphics are on the overlay. But that is the exception and not the rule, and even pinball pinball is still playable.

Personally, I have the impression, that with overlay the flickering of the vectors is less strong, but that could just be my impression – just try it out yourself. The colored foils can also be used for other games – The Minestorm overlay is quite suitable as a universal overlay, I just find the grid a little annoying. Completely blue or green color slides are ideal for playing any game – therefore these are also offered in the homebrew market.

Be careful though, that it is a color film with good print quality (ideally screen printing). Unfortunately, there are homebrew color films, where sharp vectors look somewhat blurry due to the printing technology. All original GCE/MB overlays are screen printed and display the vectors sharply without any changes.