Update [Tue 27th Aug, 2024 14:00 BST]: Retro Games Ltd. and PLAION have confirmed the earlier leak of The Spectrum, as well as the full list of the 48 included games:
- Alien Girl (Skirmish Edition)
- Ant Attack
- Army Moves
- Auf Wiedersehen Monty
- Avalon
- Bobby Bearing
- Cosmic Payback
- Devwill Too ZX
- Exolon
- Fairlight
- Firelord
- Football Manager 2
- Freddy Hardest
- The Great Escape
- Head Over Heels
- Highway Encounter
- The Hobbit
- Horace Goes Skiing
- Jack the Nipper
- Knot in 3D
- The Lords of Midnight
- Manic Miner
- Match Day II
- Movie
- Nodes of Yesod
- Penetrator
- Phantis (Game Over II)
- Pheenix
- Pyracurse
- Quazatron
- Robin of the Wood
- Saboteur! Remastered
- Shovel Adventure
- Skool Daze
- Snake Escape
- Spellbound
- Starquake
- Starstrike II
- El Stompo
- Stonkers
- Target: Renegade
- TCQ
- Technician Ted - The Megamix
- Tenebra
- Trashman
- The Way of the Exploding Fist
- Wheelie
- Where Time Stood Still
It seems that Spain is getting its own exclusive variant of the system, complete with artwork by Alfonso Azpiri and two additional games: Wells & Fargo and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Paul Andrews, Managing Director at Retro Games Ltd., had this to say about the announcement:
While we’ve enjoyed working on our other retro computers, this is the one that we’ve always really wanted to do. We all remember it fondly from our childhoods, so it was important that we got every detail right, it’s been a real passion project. So many enthusiasts will be excited by the return of this iconic machine, and we don’t want to let them down, so we’ve poured years of exacting detail into our recreation of arguably the most loved home computer of all time. It has drawn an emotional response from those who have seen it, which is not surprising given its close association with childhood and the 1980s, which are now viewed as a halcyon time. We can’t wait for gamers to get their hands on The Spectrum and enjoy a truly magical reminder of the past.
PLAION UK Marketing Director, Simon Turner, adds:
What a privilege it has been to work with Retro Games on The Spectrum. I remember getting the original for Christmas in 1982 and spending the entire day trying to master ‘Horace Goes Skiing’. My parents couldn’t afford a Commodore 64, but thanks to the accessibility and low price point of its main rival, my friends and I were able to spend magical hours battling it out on ‘Match Day II’ while marveling at the interactivity of ‘The Hobbit’. I’ve been amazed at the feel-good factor associated with this computer, and would like to thank the many community groups who have created a supportive, fun, and vibrant culture around the legacy of The Spectrum. It is these enthusiasts who have laid the foundations for our new machine.
Original Story [Sun 25th Aug, 2024 12:00 BST]: Retro Games Ltd., the company behind the Atari 400 Mini and A500 Mini, is producing another system based on the iconic ZX Spectrum.
Simply called "The Spectrum", this new system launches on November 22nd, 2024 and will cost £89.99.
"Discover The Spectrum, a beautifully designed masterpiece that belongs in an art gallery, adorned with its signature rainbow colours," says the product's official description, as listed on the Smyths Toys website.
"This fun, quirky, and extroverted machine brings back the joy of accessible pick-up-and-play games, offering an experience that modern gaming has lost. With its timeless aesthetic and vibrant personality, The Spectrum isn't just a replica of the iconic Eighties home computer; it's a work of art that delivers a nostalgic, yet ever-relevant gaming adventure for everyone. Relive The Magic."
The Spectrum connects to your TV via HDMI, displaying a 720p picture. It emulates both the 48 and 128 models of Sinclair's famous home micro, and will enable players to rewind gameplay, create save states and apply on-screen filters. You'll also be able to load up your own Spectrum ROMs using a USB thumb drive.
48 games will come built-in, including Manic Miner, The Hobbit, and Head Over Heels.
This isn't the first time that the classic computer has been revived for a new audience. In 2014, Elite Systems produced The Recreated ZX Spectrum, a Bluetooth keyboard replica which ran games via an app released on smartphones.
The following year, Retro Computers Ltd. produced the ZX Spectrum Vega, a plug-and-play device pre-loaded with Spectrum games. A portable variant, known as the Vega+, launched in 2016 but many of those who backed the unit via crowdfunding failed to receive the device, and Retro Computers Ltd. would be liquidated in 2019.
The most successful version is arguably the Spectrum Next, an FPGA-based successor which boasts a case design by original ZX Spectrum designer Rick Dickinson, who sadly passed away before the system was released.
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[source smythstoys.com]
Comments 27
Ah yes, reliving the joy of waiting an eternity for the game you really want to play to load. Performing all sorts of rituals to ensure it would load and then going apeshit when the load failed at the very end. Happy days.
Just realizing that launch date will also be the 20th anniversary of the DS.
But also, 720p for ZX Spectrum games sound crazy. I think it was kind of the thing is that Spectrum graphics were low-tech even for 1982. But it needed to be to deliver a low-cost home computer to the masses at a time when most of those were crazy expensive. (on the opposite end of the...uh... spectrum... in that time frame, I was watching this promotional video for the Apple Lisa and Apple was promising what an "affordable" computer was... only like 10k 1983 US dollars, wasn't it?)
My favorite fact about the Vega+ is that Guru Larry and Octav1us King used the rough edges of their "blankety blank" unit to slice through cheese. That's all it was good for. As for this device well I'm a filthy Yank so I have no fond nostalgia for the Zed X, so it's not for me, but if you released the built in games as a Switch cart I'd buy it.
@mashk I'm always amazed at how many people remember the 3-4 minutes it took to load a 48k game as "an eternity". It takes as long as that to update a game on most consoles these days every time it's required.
@scottishwildcat Well, that depended on the game. Earlier 16Kb games didn't take as long to load as 48Kb games, which didn't take as long as 128Kb games, of course. Then there were the multi-load games which became the norm from 1989 onwards, and likely the most annoying issue, a tape load crashing seconds before the game fully loaded, requiring a rewind of the tape and a second attempt...
The real legacy of the Spectrum is the number of people who first started programming on it, do any of these new creations include the spectrum os and spectrum basic?
I just went to the Game On exhibition in the National Museum of Scotland, and it was very cool seeing a bunch of these old systems and being able to play games on them old style. It wasn't ideal due the systems clearly not being in the best state and such, with some that were even already broken and waiting for repair or just stuck on some screen you couldn't move past and so on. And they bizarrely didn't have all the most important Mario platformers like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, or any of the Super Mario Galaxy games on display, despite Mario being used on all their main promotional banners and stuff. So, really, I figured they were going to have a proper section fully dedicated to Mario with all his best moments on show and available to play. They had Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 64, which was okay and all, but it just seemed like the least possible they could have done there. Still, it was just kinda cool playing around 100 games on old consoles, handhelds, PC, arcades, etc. I was impressed with how well games like Pong, Asteroids, and Pac Man actually played when playing them on the proper original hardware with their original controls and such. They just felt so responsive and like that was exactly the way there were supposed to be enjoyed. I kid you not when I say there was a moment there where I nearly cried at the tangibleness of playing games like this and the understanding we're slowing losing that in gaming. They even had at least one spectrum game too, Manic Miner. Also, it actually felt much like being in a proper '80s-'90s arcade again, albeit a slightly run down one, which was kinda cool. A fun little hour or two.
@robe I was wondering this! And the rewind/save states etc; does it have some simple wrapper OS for that? Is that where games launch from? It’s a bit unclear how it works at the moment.
If it's like the C64 will have a 'classic' boot option. I had a C64 at the time but will get this, nice it has The Great Escape (which I enjoyed on the C64) and Where Time Stood Still (which had no C64 version and I've always meant to get around to playing). I remember having to choose between the Spectrum 128 and C64 as a child, but really I would have liked to have both and an Amiga. Now all three have will have a Retro Games version.
@Grackler @LowDefAl I really think they're missing a trick here, a lot of people would probably quite like to have another go at coding on one of these.
I certainly would.
@robe me too! I want to play with the machine as much as the games, play with Sinclair BASIC a bit.
@scottishwildcat yes it's funny how some exaggerate the load times. Most times I turn on my PS5 it has a bloody update. Or installing a game can take even longer.
@robe I was going to ask the same thing. We get these retro computers but we can't use them for programming. What's the point ?
From what I have heard this release offers a working keyboard, so maybe we can bang up some homebrew programs?
@Damo small typo, ‘ It emulates both the 46 and 128 models of Sinclair's famous home micro’
@RetroGames I went to that as well as a pit stop during the Festival and some respite from the crowds but was a little letdown. I recall going to the early 2000s exhibition more than twenty years ago that was much bigger, after it made its first debut elsewhere on leaving London.
There were loads more exhibition sections like the Rockstar area for various games and companies with real museum sections and historical artefacts plus a lot more multiplayer and two player games for people to play together while enjoying the exhibition. It was in a different area of the museum that seemed to take up at least 2 or 3 or 4 times this space.
Many more quirky or leftfield games as well to enjoy as a result. The arcade section was the best I thought with the likes of Missle Command, Tron, Virtua Fighter and others. Never got a go on the Daytona 2 machine as too busy though!
Curious to know why it's not designed to be a 128K? That was the superior ZX Spectrum. Odd choice. Let's see how well it runs the games. I have been told that the ZX Spectrum Next doesn't emulate that great.
I wonder why owns the rights to all those games. I recognize only the Toilken stuff as belonging to Embracer. The rest is just British that goes right over my head.
@slider1983 it emulates both variants. The reason it looks like the 48k model is more simple. It’s an iconic design. Easily the most recognisable British computer of all time. Also, the 128K from an aesthetic standpoint was an Amstrad designed and built abomination.
Only the 128 +2 and +3 were Amstrad. The 128 was Sinclair
@X68000 Thanks for the clarification. Never had the Amstrad Spectrums. I was talking about Sinclair's 128K which my family owned. 😊
@FurdTurgidson @robe it does allow programming in Sinclair BASIC! There’s more details on the website, and a quite in-depth article in the latest Retro Gamer. Sounds like it has a wrapper to launch games and such, but you can switch into the classic OS and play with basic etc.
@Grackler awesome news, thanks for letting us know.
Amazing news. Especially having a licensed version of Way of the Exploding Fist. Trashman is another old favourite of mine - so much imagination at that time in gaming!
@Axelay71 totally with you. It’s rare these days that I can just switch on a console and play the game. Some of the updates are gigabytes big, and take hours to download.
@slider1983 Their usual approach is to develop Minis first, then sell fully usable in the future. Not sure I'd bother with an expensive 128k keyboard version if I had a (no doubt easier and cheaper to produce) rubber keyed version.
@pomegran ...I do not understand how that pertains to my question
@Zeebor15 Apologies, I '@' you in error 😬I've corrected the post!
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