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Spectrum Vega: A Blast From the Past

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-old-is-new dept.

mikejuk writes A new games console is being launched based on the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum from the 80s. Within days of the start of its Indiegogo campaign all of the 1000 Limited Edition Spectrum Vegas had been claimed but there is still the chance to get your hands on one of the second batch. The Sinclair Spectrum Vega is really retro in the sense that it plugs into a TV, thus avoiding the need for a monitor, and comes complete with around 1,000 games built-in. Games are accessed through a menu based system, and once selected load automatically, taking the player directly into the game play mode. This is very different from the original Spectrum with its rubber-topped keyboard and BASIC interface. If you have existing Spectrum games you'd like to play, you can use an SD card to load them onto the Vega, though the current publicity material doesn't give much clue as to how you go from ancient cassette tape to SD card. As for programming new games, there are ZX Spectrum emulators for Windows that are free and ready to use.

5 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. The thing that made the Sinclairs popular ... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The thing that made the Sinclairs popular was that you could actually program them yourself. Not the games.

    Not having a keyboard (onscreen keyboards suck), and being required to load an emulator onto your PC to program make this an item for people who want to have a bit of nostalgia without actually reliving the past.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:The thing that made the Sinclairs popular ... by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On the other hand, modern TVs aren't the best thing to program on. Granted, they are sharper than old analog TVs we used to hook our 8-bits (bitters?) up to, but they still have non-square pixels making text fuzzy, and are usually situated in a family room in a spot nonconducive to sitting in front of and staring at for long periods of time.

      A much cooler feature would be the ability to develop a game on your Win/Mac/Lin laptop, and bluetooth it over to the Speccy to play, with full remote debugging support. Stepping through code and immediately seeing the results on the system itself would be awesome.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    2. Re:The thing that made the Sinclairs popular ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How is a 16:9 display running 1920x1080 not pretty damn near a square pixel?

    3. Re:The thing that made the Sinclairs popular ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And what does the shape/ratio have to do with fuzziness?

  2. Re:Classic? Only if you lived in the UK. by iMadeGhostzilla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I grew up in Serbia and Spectrum meant the world to many kids in my generation, even though we had no direct connection with the UK market whatsoever -- no magazines or TV programs or anything really. So it is fair to say that Spectrum was a cross-European phenomenon. C64 was (almost) equally present, though everyone I knew who had a Commodore just played games, whereas lots of Spectrum folks dabbled in programming, at least a little.