Spectrum Next: Round 2

ChopstickSamurai

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I got an accelerated model in the first Kickstarter. It’s a fun computer, and I’ve had fun experiencing this platform for the first time. I’m in the US and grew up with a C64 instead of an NES. Had the Mister blown up before the Next happened tho I probably would had skipped it. It was the most expensive Kickstarter I’ve ever done, and it took a long time to finally come out.

It’s crazy how much the second campaign has blown up. Since these are going for close to a grand on eBay, I think there’s a lot of flippers getting in on it. Good for them tho since it’s a really nice machine.
 

titchgamer

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I got an accelerated model in the first Kickstarter. It’s a fun computer, and I’ve had fun experiencing this platform for the first time. I’m in the US and grew up with a C64 instead of an NES. Had the Mister blown up before the Next happened tho I probably would had skipped it. It was the most expensive Kickstarter I’ve ever done, and it took a long time to finally come out.

It’s crazy how much the second campaign has blown up. Since these are going for close to a grand on eBay, I think there’s a lot of flippers getting in on it. Good for them tho since it’s a really nice machine.


Yeah I think the first time around the price was to high and to much of a risk for most (especially with the Vega thing....).
For me personally I had confidence they could pull it off (due to the people behind it) but couldn't see the point.

But I must admit after playing on one I changed my mind.
 
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Takumaji

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Yeah, I've got their news mail.

I would lllllllove to have one but can't afford it. Wonderful machine made by a bunch of wonderful people.
 

famicommander

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This is the worst gaming machine in the history of ever.

Atari 2600 shits all over it.
 

NeoSneth

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someone needs to make a Sharp x68000 2
 

titchgamer

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This is the worst gaming machine in the history of ever.

Atari 2600 shits all over it.

I would beg to differ.

In terms of raw power sure the Atari is far better.

But the thing that made the Spekky special was the community around it and all the back room coders that developed for it.
It had some truly awesome games made for the original and hopefully even more will be made for this one.

Not by me though I aint got the brains lol
 

famicommander

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I would beg to differ.

In terms of raw power sure the Atari is far better.

But the thing that made the Spekky special was the community around it and all the back room coders that developed for it.
It had some truly awesome games made for the original and hopefully even more will be made for this one.

Not by me though I aint got the brains lol

It's unplayable garbage and you should feel bad for liking it.
 

titchgamer

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It's unplayable garbage and you should feel bad for liking it.

So what exactly do you hate about it so much?

Other than the shit keyboard (which has been rectified on the next) its fine.

1000’s of games, Yeah lots of shit ones but also some diamonds in the rough.

And also totally codeable for.

Whats not to like?
 

Takumaji

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Well, I always loved my Speccy, it's a nice little 8bit micro with a good old Z80 CPU that brought forth a vast number of great games and was the starting point for many a coder career (Rare comes to mind). Some of the games may not look like much but they are incredibly playable. Not all of them are great but there were more than 12,000 official games released for the machine (and don't get me started on the tools and "serious" software) and new ones (and really great ones too) are still coming out every month so there's something in it for everyone. The community is one of the most active vintage computing communities around.

The Spectrum Next is fully compatible to the old Speccy but it also has a lot of new things under the hood, new graphics modes, more RAM, etc., some of the new games look better than Amiga games (and no more colour clash), really good stuff.
 

Dr Shroom

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Seems interesting, but 300 quid for a system I only had minimal contact with is a bit too spicy for me. Release a X68000 Next and I'll back it.
 

Takumaji

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Seems interesting, but 300 quid for a system I only had minimal contact with is a bit too spicy for me. Release a X68000 Next and I'll back it.

I've been following the development of the Spectrum Next from day one, IMO the price is just right for what you get. I mean, this is a fully functioning Spectrum with great keyboard, nice design, lots of enhancements and an excellent operating system/BASIC/DOS that has been developed with stability and performance in mind and it does just that as everyone with a Next will be happy to tell you. It's a labour of love by a small company and a group of enthusiasts that prolly would be way more expensive if making money would be their #1 priority.
 

titchgamer

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I've been following the development of the Spectrum Next from day one, IMO the price is just right for what you get. I mean, this is a fully functioning Spectrum with great keyboard, nice design, lots of enhancements and an excellent operating system/BASIC/DOS that has been developed with stability and performance in mind and it does just that as everyone with a Next will be happy to tell you. It's a labour of love by a small company and a group of enthusiasts that prolly would be way more expensive if making money would be their #1 priority.

Yeah they are looking to get as many out the door as possible with minimum profit margin.
They actually made a loss on the first batch!

And some of the new games look awesome.
I only got to play 2 of the new ones on it:

This was one of them and it played great:

https://youtu.be/mt24GfCV8f8

Unfortunately cant remember the name of the second but that played well to.
 

famicommander

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So what exactly do you hate about it so much?

Other than the shit keyboard (which has been rectified on the next) its fine.

1000’s of games, Yeah lots of shit ones but also some diamonds in the rough.

And also totally codeable for.

Whats not to like?

Terrible graphics

Almost completely unable to handle motion

Most games have no music

The ones with music have terrible music

Terrible sound effects

As someone with a 2600, 5200, Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey 2, and Vectrex the Spectrum is still completely unplayable. I cannot fathom anyone enjoying it in any capacity. It is worse than all of those systems in every way.

Upon release it was way shittier than the 2600, which beat it to market by 5 whole years.
 

titchgamer

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Terrible graphics

Almost completely unable to handle motion

Most games have no music

The ones with music have terrible music

Terrible sound effects

As someone with a 2600, 5200, Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey 2, and Vectrex the Spectrum is still completely unplayable. I cannot fathom anyone enjoying it in any capacity. It is worse than all of those systems in every way.

Upon release it was way shittier than the 2600, which beat it to market by 5 whole years.

Again pretty much all those things have been addressed with the next.
Take a look at the warhawk video I posted.
And that was one of the first “new” games developed for the system, Theres other impressive looking games to.

The thing I always find really funny about the ZX spectrum was how Sinclair designed it and wanted it to be a serious desktop workstation used for serious work stuff.
And famously threw a massive tantrum when he found out it was being adopted as a games machine!

Dont get me wrong here I dont have huge love for any of the old micros, I never owned a spectrum back in the day, We had a C64 but some of my friends had one so there is a little nostalgia there but not heaps.

But the Next is a different machine really, Yeah its fully backwards compatible and can do everything it could do. but it can do so much more beside the fact.

I know Micros were not as popular stateside as they were in Europe but the Specky played a HUGE part in the development of the gaming industry and a big part of its history.

It was like the 8 bit game console that was never meant to exist with a massive following of fans and developers.
 

neo_mao

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Once when I was a kid I went to a garage sale and bought a bunch of ninja turtle stuff. The guy selling everything said I looked like a smart kid who liked computers and said I could have a Timex Sinclair computer and a bunch of accessories cassettes etc for free. It was all boxed in immaculate condition.

I was like ok thanks.

I got home and couldn’t figure anything out and threw it all out a couple of months later.

Any of you guys ever hear of that? Was it garbage?

In retrospect - I wonder why he thought I was into computers. Was it because I was fat and had thick glasses???!!! Damn that presumptuous generous fool!!!
 

titchgamer

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Once when I was a kid I went to a garage sale and bought a bunch of ninja turtle stuff. The guy selling everything said I looked like a smart kid who liked computers and said I could have a Timex Sinclair computer and a bunch of accessories cassettes etc for free. It was all boxed in immaculate condition.

I was like ok thanks.

I got home and couldn’t figure anything out and threw it all out a couple of months later.

Any of you guys ever hear of that? Was it garbage?

In retrospect - I wonder why he thought I was into computers. Was it because I was fat and had thick glasses???!!! Damn that presumptuous generous fool!!!

Never heard of a Timex Sinclair, Just googled it and apparently they were made for NA by Timex for Sinclair and were based on the ZX81 and the Speccy.
 

Takumaji

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Once when I was a kid I went to a garage sale and bought a bunch of ninja turtle stuff. The guy selling everything said I looked like a smart kid who liked computers and said I could have a Timex Sinclair computer and a bunch of accessories cassettes etc for free. It was all boxed in immaculate condition.

I was like ok thanks.

I got home and couldn’t figure anything out and threw it all out a couple of months later.

Any of you guys ever hear of that? Was it garbage?

In retrospect - I wonder why he thought I was into computers. Was it because I was fat and had thick glasses???!!! Damn that presumptuous generous fool!!!

The Timex Sinclair was the US version of Sinclair's popular ZX81 computer, a small 1K RAM system with BASIC, floating point calculation (its predecessor ZX80 couldn't do that), no sound and black-and-white graphics. Not exactly a high-end machine but the ZX81 version still has a considerable fanbase, even games like Doom got "ported" (well, more or less) to it...

Function and power-wise it's inferior to the ZX Spectrum but it was many ppls' first contact with home computing and good enough to learn BASIC and acquire general computing skills. Apple computers and of course PCs were much more advanced but also way more expensive, a Timex Sinclair cost around 100 bucks and its successor with upgraded RAM got sold even cheaper.

There are a number of nice games for the system like the legendary Mazogs, a maze game with a twist that gets really frantic in later levels, there also is an updated and enhanced sequel on the Spectrum called Maziacs which is even better. Check out YT for some gameplay vids.

It's easy to call these systems garbage from a modern point of view but they brought computing into the homes of people without the means to buy a C64, Apple or even PC. Specially the UK had a very large userbase with hundreds of thousands of users but the success of the ZX81 and most importantly the Spectrum was not limited to the British isles, Sinclair sold more than 5 million units all over the world. Yeah, the Speccy had a few peculiarities like colour clashing, dead flesh rubber keys and missing hardware scrolling but this could be overcome by clever programming or hardware add-ons and it shows if you compare early games and some that came out in the mid to late 80s.
 

neo_mao

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Thanks for the info guys. Actually I spoke to my mom and she is convinced we didn’t throw everything out and still have the actual computer. Next time I go there i’ll do some digging and see if I can find anything.

And yes, I agree it’s not fair to judge these systems today. I feel the same way about people who bash the n64 and Saturn nowadays. Yeah they may not seem like much now, but seeing Mario or Zelda in 3D for the first tine was amazing. Or Virtua Fighter, Sega Rally and Virtua Cop at home - those were amazing experiences back then.
 

ChopstickSamurai

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I remember a kid taking me to his house after school to see his Timex Sinclair, and I remember not being impressed. Another friend of mine had a VIC-20 and that was the most amazing computer I had seen until I got my hands on a C64. :)

Been playing the ZX Spectrum homebrew game Aliens Neoplasm lately. If you like the Aliens franchise this is a must play. It’s a really great game.
 

titchgamer

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I remember a kid taking me to his house after school to see his Timex Sinclair, and I remember not being impressed. Another friend of mine had a VIC-20 and that was the most amazing computer I had seen until I got my hands on a C64. :)

Been playing the ZX Spectrum homebrew game Aliens Neoplasm lately. If you like the Aliens franchise this is a must play. It’s a really great game.

I will check that out :)
Cheers.
 
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