Wow. I really have to give you guys props for mentioning the Vectrex, and I am in the same boat (though I have to give honarary mention to the Intellivison and the Neo Geo Pocket--both had games that were way beyond their competitors).
The vextrex was really special. You still cannot get games EXACTLY like they were with the original vectrex, and the smooth movement of the graphics still can't REALLY be matched without firing a light beam at the screen. The games were not too shabby either, and some of them were surprisingly complex for the time period. If you look at the animation, sense of humor, and graphics of Spike! for the Vectrex--man...way ahead of most games at the time period.