Spectrum Makeover - Retro Gaming

Spectrum Vega.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2857811/The-Spectrum-makes-comeback-Retro-gaming-computer-given-21st-century-makeover-plays-old-games.html

Its nothing more than a gimmick now, with accurate emulation so widely available (even if its not all free for the Spectrum). If I was going to buy hardware I would sooner get the original machine for the full experience.

But is more convenient and portable than emulators, more stable and it wont take days to load like the real thing. Plus all the money to going to charity.

I'm gonna hold fire until the first batch of units have been made and check out some of the feedback, would be nice to know if it has a save function (the prototype had a save button but the finished one doesn't) and id like to know what games comes with it.

Not sure how you an load up you're own games but that's a cool addition, But lack of keypad for text based games is a problem, and I wonder if it should have had a mini joystick as well, or a option to plug one in.

EDIT: They're all sold out, the goal was reached and some within two days.. (58 days left)
seems to be very popular.

Yeah we'll have to see what the feedback is once this first batch is in the hands of the lucky people.

I've got to admit I am a bit confused on this. Being of a certain age, I had a 48K Spectrum back in the day (in fact, I still have it in my loft!), so I do have a soft spot for it and know that it spawned a lot of good quality games, including some egg based puzzlers. BUT this seems a bit expensive - my Mum paid £175 for mine (about a week before the price went down to £125), so to pay £100 for the same tech over 30 years later seems a bit much. OK, you get a lot of games pre-installed, so you are getting a bit more value, but you have also changed it into a console rather than a computer with a keyboard that you can program it yourself. In addition, there are many excellent free emulators around, and hundreds or thousands of the original games are free to download legitimately, so there is no real advantage in this console. The only thing they may be able to do (and maybe they have already as they do mention Treasure Island Dizzy in the ad) is to pay Codemasters and Ultimate / Ashby Computer Graphics / Rare so that their games can be legally played as I believe that both companies refuse to allow their intellectual property out into the public domain. And as such, without these two, you are missing out on a LOT of quality games, including of course our oval chum. The other thing is that a lot of the copyright holders on the old games were quite happy for their games to be released public domain as long as they were not being sold, but how will this now work? Are they going to track down thousands of copyright holders and pay a royalty?
I am glad to see it doing well. I hope it surprises people how much we used to be able to cram into 41K of memory (7K was used for the screen), as even simple programs these days seem to be Mb big, and hopefully people will realise that GAMEPLAY is the important factor in a game, not just how pretty it looks. But I think I will stick to emulation (yes, I could still run the originals, but it used to take about 5 minutes to load a 48K program from tape (and then it might crash!), and as stated above, emulation allows you to save games, which I could only ever do with my wonderful Multiface One)

Certainly remember not with much fondness all those occasions of the game crashing right at the end of waiting ages for it to load and that randomness will it actually do so.

I got the 128K version but to have all the games pre-installed that presumably load pretty much straight away by contrast is great....yeah more so was to get those other ones you mention subject to any of the copyright.

Is quite amazing really how things have come since the days of loading from tape though.

So all those games I bought back then....I just needed to be patient and wait until now :tongue:

I got the 128K version Flash *@+*$ ! ;p

Try http://www.worldofspectrum.org for links to Speccy emulators and pretty much all the software releases of the time and modern games as well (barring Codemasters and Ultimate of course, sadly)

Well all the royalties should be going to charity.

The advantage is you don't need to find and install an emulator, you don't have to hunt across the net for a rom that might not available, which might be a dodgy file while visiting potential dodgy web sites, AND you don't have to turn on your pc. I love the fact with this you can just plug it into the telly and get on with it without all that fuss and messing around. Worth the price alone.

They've also said the retail price will come down, it's only £100 as it's the first few batches and those wanting it 'now' will have to pay for the privilege.

I know people like something for nothing but it's hardly and unreasonable starting price considering what you get and what it took too make.

Meph - yes, I agree that £100 today isn't a massive amount of money. My point is that the original machine came out in 1982 and cost £175 for the 48K version, which soon came down to £125. Bearing in mind the way that technology has come down in price in the intervening 30 years, £100 for that same technology today seems expensive to me. For example, I bought a smartphone a couple of weeks ago, and it cost £20 (last of the big spenders, me!), and has far higher specs than my humble Speccy. But I do appreciate that for most people the cost will not be an issue as they don't remember the original and you should get a lot of fun for your money with all those games pre-loaded (it's probably worth the money for them if it just has Tau Ceti and Academy on it, two of my favourites, and many hours of game-play in just those two games). And I know that there are still development costs to cover, which have to be shared out amongst the first batch, and lets face it they won't be making millions of units like a gameboy.
Please do not think that I am knocking the project, I wish it well as I love the Spectrum, it's what got me into computing in the first place, and as such will always have a place in my nerdy heart. I am therefore more than happy for the joys of this machine to be brought to the attention of today's generation. I am just not convinced that this project will be anything other than a very niche product. Yes it may be more convenient than emulation - but it seems a lot of people have their laptops on most of the time anyway, so running an emulator wouldn't necessarily be that inconvenient. And what will people say when they see the 256x192 pixel display on their HD TV? Maybe they will just think they are playing Minecraft :teethy:

Well the retail price will come down, once the product is in the shops.
But you're getting pretty much every game free, at least as many of the 14k games available. I'm a bit of a Scrooge as a rule, I wont be paying out for a smart phone lol I've never had a modern games machine (only ever had commodore and a classic game boy) cause I can't afford it but even I thought this was a far price for what it is. Plus it's more than just the machine and games it's the whole package the novelty of it as well. Keeping theses games, machines alive... much like we've been doing here with Dizzy.


If only it was a c64 instead, so much superior in everyway.

[quote data-userid="55" data-postid="81943"]

If only it was a c64 instead, so much superior in everyway.

[/quote]

{yolkfolk}:rofl:
Spectrum rules! {yolkfolk}:clap: {yolkfolk}:thumb:

Well, that takes me back! {yolkfolk}:joy:

pfft, everyone knows the c64 had better sound and graphics :tongue:

Last night i tried some emulators, as usual i received several attacks on my computers and picked up a virus/web browser hacker. Thankfully nothing too series this time round, Norton kicked up a fuss and managed to fix it all simply.
Unlike last time which caused weeks of frustration
So that proves my point, you just can't rely and be safe downloading/using emulators and roms. Not worth the risk.

wow the Vega looks fantastic, the footage and reviews I've seen and read have been very positive, better than expected. It wont surprise me if phones and tablets take on the new onscreen keyboard the Vega team have developed (it's not your normal onscreen keyboard) There is a better graphics chip to increase colour pallet, and I'm certain I saw a 'save' option on one of the screen menus. You'll need a mini micro SD card to update firmware and add more games. Looking really neat and tidy and easy to use.

Still no idea on the complete games list, but noticed several text based games, and apparently 'new' games as well from original developers.

Can't wait to get my copy.