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ZX Spectrum Next New Campaign


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When I looked right at 4:00 EST, there were 27 early bird pledges left. By the time I clicked Back This Project, they were gone.

 

I was considering backing this, as the system looks really nice, and it would open up an entire library I haven't experienced, but I just can't justify the price. With shipping, it would be over $400. It would make more sense to me to just buy a DE10-Nano and set up a MiSTer.

 

Apparently, there are plenty of people who can justify the price, though, as there are over 1500 people backing so far, and the project is at almost $700K not even an hour after launch.

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I had my cursor hovering over pledges for a sec or two, but seeing the price was a bit of a cold shower. Then there's the fact that I already have a heap of hardware and it's on rotation on my desk. So now just waiting on the MiSTer core, which is nearly finished :)

 

I'm happy it's so wildly popular though, bigger community means more activity and hopefully new, quality software. Assuming most of the buyers are genuine fans, not ebay speculectors...

 

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This was a tough one for me. Was never much a fan of the Spectrum back in the day. Always a CBM fan. Thought Sinclair was junk. Got into a few playground scraps with Sinclair boys over different points of view haha. But after the disappointment over the Atari VCS I wanted to help send a signal that a well thought out project for retro computing deserves some respect so I backed it. I think the price was a bit steep but then look at the price of that Atari! Plus, if I don't get along with it there is always Ebay. Who knows maybe I might actually fall in love with the Speccy this time around. At least its got a decent keyboard this time.

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Glad to see that the 2nd Kickstarter is up and running.  I was very much looking forward to seeing this.  However, I just don't think I will be backing this as $456 is just a little too much for me.  Besides, I am have already pre-ordered THEVIC20 and waiting on that group to do an Amiga product, which hopefully will happen way sooner than much, much later.  Still, I am very much behind this project/product and wish the group the very best of luck.

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I would not hold my breath for an Amiga mini. I think the entire brand and technology is a wasps' nest to step into, and all the 3rd party licenses with publishers on top of that. Although we all have strong doubts about Atari SA, right now I would almost think an Atari ST mini is more likely even if it doesn't have quite the same name recognition.

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Well, as far as I casually observe from the outside, anyone even considering using the brand/trademark Amiga is more or less signing up for getting sued by the parties holding the rights to it. Then there is the question who has the rights to the firmware. I'm aware of Cloanto's Amiga Foreever, so I assume they're the right party. Generally it seems like a rather toxic environment, in particular if there is a party trying to make money on it. But I could be wrong, and it would be easy and smooth to get all the legal paperwork done to not get into that mud water.

 

Still I think it would be a challenge to get rights to the most popular games. As you can see with C64DTV, THEC64 and even THEVIC20, the majority of software included are from a few UK software houses, with a selected number of US software houses where the manufactures can get ahold of whoever still owns the rights. Often the selection of which titles are available and which titles were popular mismatch some, and I think on the Amiga it would mismatch even more than on the C64. It is true that e.g. AtGames have successfully worked with Activision once, and with the right set of contacts and persuasion it might be possible to get a different library but I don't know if RGL have those tentacles out. Perhaps they have after three runs of THEC64.

 

The topic was brought up before in the Atari ST section of the forum. I went through which software houses are represented on THEC64 and matched those with the ST library to get a theoretical ahem class of a games library. Atari themselves published next to nothing on their own for the ST which makes Atari SA pointless in licensing games for an unit. Commodore published even less for the Amiga which only makes them (or Cloanto) interesting when it comes to the firmware.

 

Actually given the blatant lack of quality 1st party cartridge games on the upcoming THEVIC20 tells me that RGL might not really have access to including those anyway. Although both machines had a rather big cartridge library, going by percentage of the total library the VIC-20 was more dependent on cartridges than the C64 ever was, and frankly Commodore did publish a couple good ones. Of course their licenses with e.g. Bally Midway probably expired 35 years ago which would explain why e.g. Omega Race was not legally possible to put on THEVIC20.

 

But hey, no one would be happier than me to be proven wrong and there would be an Amiga Mini with a smashing set of popular games pre-installed. Still, I'd rather consider it a happy surprise than something I had awaited and expected would happen.

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22 hours ago, carlsson said:

I would not hold my breath for an Amiga mini. I think the entire brand and technology is a wasps' nest to step into, and all the 3rd party licenses with publishers on top of that. Although we all have strong doubts about Atari SA, right now I would almost think an Atari ST mini is more likely even if it doesn't have quite the same name recognition.

Oh, I am definitely not holding my breath on an Amiga mini.  Also, same goes for an Atari ST mini.  But, if either one of those were to come out, it would be hard to pass up, depending on the price, which is a big reason I am going to pass on the ZX Spectrum Next and just stick with my pre-order for THEVIC20.

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This thing looks really interesting, but it's crazy expensive. Everyone from the UK seems to love the ZX Spectrum for some reason, so I'm really interested in trying it so I can find out why. I'm guessing this thing will become unobtainable after the Kickstarter ends, as well, unfortunately.

 

I'd love to get one, but that price + shipping is definitely intimidating for a system that I know absolutely nothing about aside from the supposedly impressive R-Type port.

 

Edit: What the hell, why not. ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated backed. Looking forward to it next year.

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12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

This thing looks really interesting, but it's crazy expensive. Everyone from the UK seems to love the ZX Spectrum for some reason, so I'm really interested in trying it so I can find out why. I'm guessing this thing will become unobtainable after the Kickstarter ends, as well, unfortunately.

 

I'd love to get one, but that price + shipping is definitely intimidating for a system that I know absolutely nothing about aside from the supposedly impressive R-Type port.

 

Edit: What the hell, why not. ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated backed. Looking forward to it next year.

Yeah, I'd love to have one but it's too expensive for my budget.

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Well, if you only want it for the classic Speccy mode, you can get very far with an emulator. If you still like it, a regular 48K rubber model at least used to not set you back a lot, but I suppose prices have increased for those too, plus that they're rather error prone so you might get a dud or one that breaks down quite soon after getting it. The Next is obviously something else, also configurable for other systems from what I can tell.

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Oof. The base machine with shipping is CAN$600.  You can get a superfo harlequin or ZX Nuvo 128 board for a fraction of that cost if you are concerned about the reliability of vintage machines. The Nuvo gets you a built in DivMMC and Kempston joystick port. I don’t see the appeal of the Next unless you are really want the new features.

 

I paid much less for my entire Speccy setup: a grey +2, a bunch of joysticks and games, and a Lotharek DivIDE 2k20 AY.

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15 hours ago, fimbulvetr said:

Oof. The base machine with shipping is CAN$600.  You can get a superfo harlequin or ZX Nuvo 128 board for a fraction of that cost if you are concerned about the reliability of vintage machines. The Nuvo gets you a built in DivMMC and Kempston joystick port. I don’t see the appeal of the Next unless you are really want the new features.

 

I paid much less for my entire Speccy setup: a grey +2, a bunch of joysticks and games, and a Lotharek DivIDE 2k20 AY.

This certainly isn't for bargain-hunters, which is a bit ironic given the original stated purpose of the Spectrum. I'm backing the campaign because it's got a gorgeous design and I lollygagged and procrastinated and missed the original campaign even though I really wanted one of those. And the success of this campaign will no doubt spur other (and cheaper) crowdfunded projects for other legacy machines.

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Funnily enough, the original campaign is what got me to finally buy a Spectrum. I had wanted one for ages, and hemmed and hawed about the Kickstarter for a while. Then I saw how much cheaper a vintage machine was than the Kickstarter, plus the bonus that I could have near instantaneous gratification of just waiting for the vintage machine to show up in the mail instead of waiting years for the Kickstarter. The Next does look lovely, but I have no regrets on that call. 

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On 8/15/2020 at 11:31 AM, JamesD said:

Yeah, I'd love to have one but it's too expensive for my budget.

There is the ZX Spectrum Omni to consider as well.  It is a more reasonable $110, which as the style of the 48k machine, but with 128k and a lot of other modern day features.  Not sure what the production status is on it right now as it is in 'Pre-Order' status.

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11 minutes ago, Hwlngmad said:

There is the ZX Spectrum Omni to consider as well.  It is a more reasonable $110, which as the style of the 48k machine, but with 128k and a lot of other modern day features.  Not sure what the production status is on it right now as it is in 'Pre-Order' status.

Just googled that and while both the Omni and the laptop version sound great, the company that's selling them (Retroradionics) have only been selling repro cases, mats,  membranes, faceplates and power switches up until now; clone systems is quite a jump from that so I wonder if they have the technical skills to deliver what they're promising.

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53 minutes ago, English Invader said:

clone systems is quite a jump from that so I wonder if they have the technical skills to deliver what they're promising.

 

The Omni uses the Superfo Harlequin clone design, so should be no problems. Retroradionics has a reputation for making decent stuff, but you have to be prepared to WAIT for your order to show up. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a heads up that the ZX Spectrum Next Issue 2 kickstarter is now in its last 17 hours.

The last chance to get this wonderful new boxed 8 bit computer.

I already own one from the first Kickstarter and just pledged for this new one. Almost forgot to pledge.
It's going to be so exciting to open a box with new computer, delve in the manual and explore.

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On 8/12/2020 at 3:16 PM, carlsson said:

But hey, no one would be happier than me to be proven wrong and there would be an Amiga Mini with a smashing set of popular games pre-installed. Still, I'd rather consider it a happy surprise than something I had awaited and expected would happen.

I cannot see this happening considering the Amiga is still heavily developed and seems to be huge for miniaturization, with the first mini-Amiga debuting, what, almost 20 years ago?  But, considering how I underestimated THEC64 Mini, I am not going to make the prediction that an Amiga Mini might bring the curious and hipsters on-board while the faithful stick to Classic or Next-Gen hardware and operating systems.  Not going to say that at all and have to eat crow a second time, no sir.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/12/2020 at 9:27 AM, carlsson said:

Based on what RGL just posted on Facebook, I might be wrong after all. The silhouette suggests an Amiga 500 in 2021...

 

 

Glad you didn't decide to hold your breath, but it wouldn't have been too long of a wait anyway ;)  Yeah, I think that this will be an Amiga of some kind.  Hopefully it is a full-size number a la THEC64 and/or limited edition THEVIC20.

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