How VectorBridge Came About

In the mid 90s, I worked a few minutes walk from a CompUSA store. Before the days of online retailers and the standardizing of gaming peripherals, I would wander the aisles on lunch breaks just to see what new gadgets, and games had come out. One lunch break in 1996, I stood in awe. There was a controller that looked nothing like any gamepad or joystick I’d ever seen. In its neon green, very 90s windowed display box, boasting “a new way to move in 3D”, was the SpaceOrb 360. Instead of the usual thumb sticks or D-pad, there was a big ball, and a few blue buttons. In a crescent moon shape, it didn’t seem built for comfort — in fact, maybe it was built to win.

That night I installed the included SpaceWare software from the CD and fired up the game Descent. I spent a couple hours tweaking sensitivity and gains until it felt right. I wasn’t instantly better at the game with the SpaceOrb 360, but the feel hooked me. After a few days of practice, friends at LAN parties started saying, “I’m not playing if you’re using that thing.” They had a point—the Orb allows continuous circle-strafing in any vector, something a mouse simply can’t do, and that changed the flow of a fight.

Then Windows moved on. After Windows 98, operating system changes made these devices very hard to get working, and nearly obsolete because of the serial port connection. I tried third-party drivers and adapters over the years; they were clever, and I was very grateful to have them, but I never got back the original feel—mostly because I couldn’t fine tune the way the original Spaceware tools allowed.

About a year ago I gave myself a challenge: get the Asciiware Sphere 360 working on a PC. It’s similar to the SpaceOrb but with 14 buttons instead of only 6 buttons of the SpaceOrb—the inputs I always wished I’d had. After a lot of firmware experimentation, I wrote a small tuning app so I could adjust sensitivity, dead-zones, and curves again. That was the breakthrough; the feeling came back. That little tool became the VectorBridge Tuner, and I made sure settings could be saved on the VectorBridge so they travel between PCs.

From there I widened the scope to include the other serial 6-DoF devices I collect, and love—SpaceOrb 360; SpaceBall 2003, 3003FLX, 4000FLX, 5000; Magellan Classic and Plus; and the SpaceBall Avenger. The hardware that tied it together became VectorBridge.

Today VectorBridge is just my way of keeping these odd, wonderful controllers alive. The Tuner lets me dial them in the way I could back then, and a small Mouse&Keyboard Feeder makes it easy to use them in modern games that don't have MS DirectInput support. It isn’t about nostalgia for its own sake; it’s about rediscovering a feel that still makes games more fun.

It’s also about stewardship. These devices were built to last; what they lacked was a modern bridge. If VectorBridge helps even a few SpaceOrbs, SpaceBalls, Magellans—and yes, Sphere 360s—avoid the e-waste pile and get back into people’s hands, that’s a win. If you’re new to 6-DoF, give one an honest hour: tune it until the motion feels natural, try the Feeder in a game you love, and see if you catch the same spark I found in 1996.