ZX Spectrum Next: The Evolution of the Speccy | Hacker News Reader

ZX Spectrum Next: The Evolution of the Speccy

specnext.com

148 pointsBluestein58 comments

I own one and it's one of the best Kickstarters I've supported. It comes with a nicely designed box, a thick user's manual with lots of BASIC program examples in it, in the spirit of the original ZX Spectrum. The design of the keyboard is fantastic, both feels like the old ZX Spectrum+ and modern at the same time. The SD card contains many software, games, apps that you can try out.

ZX Spectrum+ has a special place in my heart because it was the first computer I put my hands on and made me fall in love with programming. This one truly feels like a spiritual successor. I definitely recommend it whoever feels the same way about the old speccys.

That was my first computer as well :) We had the original 48k at school but then when I went with my parents to buy one, I got the +

Went to a friend's house to play it :)

"Decades have come and gone and the Speccy is still alive and kicking. New games are being launched all the time, the demoscene carries on pushing the hardware limits to the unimaginable, artists keep on creating great 8-bit eyecandy and music with it. Alongside this there are thousands of awesome games in the back catalogue to play.

Meanwhile hardware hackers around the world have expanded the ZX Spectrum to support SD card storage, feature new and better video modes, pack more memory, faster processor… Problem is, these expansions can be difficult to get hold of, and without a standardised Spectrum, no one knows what to support or develop for.

Here is our answer: The Spectrum Next – an updated and enhanced version of the ZX Spectrum totally compatible with the original, featuring the major hardware developments of the past many years packed inside a simple (and beautiful) design by the original designer, Rick Dickinson, inspired by his seminal work at Sinclair Research."

> I love it… but I want to stick it inside my original Speccy

> Well, aren’t you a true retro spirit? Yes, you actually can do that! We made it so that the Spectrum Next board is compatible with the old cases. We won’t sugar coat it: There will be some drilling, cutting, hacking and gluing involved, but if you’re a hobbyist up for the challenge (at your own risk!) it can be done for those who want it.

Wow!

They really seem to have have thought of everything, in designing the product ...

Note that the case was designed by Rick Dickinson, who also designed the original ZX81 and ZX Spectrum decades ago.

So, great, but... WHERE. IS. IT?!?

I missed backing the original project (in, what, 2016 or so?), then there was an interminable delay before anyone could order again (until the second Kickstarter), then they shipped units to what felt like a gazillion YouTubers who gushed all over it in maybe early 2020, except that nobody else could buy it at that time, then they finally got round to running a second kickstarter for a second run (after plenty of people, including me, had screamed at them for upwards of two years to take our money and been completely ignored), then I hand over my money at the earliest opportunity (which happens to be August 2020), and despite raising £1.8M or thereabouts, 6 months later I still don't have my ZX Spectrum Next.

I don't think the ZX Spectrum Next is a scam, but I'm pretty jaded about Spectrum kickstarters because some of them have been scams, and I've well had enough of how long this is taking. I'm also pretty fed up that, at least at times, critical comments about the project have been deleted from YouTube channels supportive of it (none of my comments that have been deleted have been any more strongly worded than this one).

You have £335 of my money, gladly handed over in August 2020, so where's my computer?

I don't want to be a dick about this but it's frankly unbelievable how long this is taking, particularly since at least one revision of the device appears to have been successfully shipped last year, and you've been hawking working prototypes for at least a year or two before that.

Where is it?

Isn't there a way to get your money back if they don't deliver?

They can be trusted to deliver. They have excellent form.

I also bought one around August to October, but recall that they wouldn't even stop taking pre-orders until early January 2021, which just happened. You should've seen that they're not scheduled to arrive until ~August 2021.

> 6 months later I still don't have my ZX Spectrum Next

Was there anything in the way the Kickstarter was presented that made you believe you'd have one by January? January, when they were scheduled to begin production?

The approximate delivery date on the kickstarter was listed then as July 2021. (I'm a little unclear whether the revised date of August 2021 applies to everyone or just to those who bought from SpecNext.com after the crowdfunding campaign ended, but... who cares?)

> I'm also pretty fed up that, at least at times, critical comments about the project have been deleted from YouTube channels supportive of it (none of my comments that have been deleted have been any more strongly worded than this one).

The problem isn't that what you're saying is "strongly worded," the problem is that it's dishonest.

A Kickstarter is not the same thing as ordering it on Amazon, this is a highly complex project that takes a lot of choreography to get right, even if they shipped units before.

This has been a fantastic Kickstarter. The schedules were published when they released to second round. This isn't retail - you'll get your machine. I have bought a machine in both rounds - the first was a little delayed, but the end product was utterly magnificent!

I suggest you cool your guns and wait.

better pray there would be no customs charges the time you will get it...

A z80 with 28mhz and 10MB of RAM could work as a Gopher/IRC client perfectly.

EDIT: I saw it wrong, 1MB, still good enough.

Heck, here's a Z80-based webserver SOC :)

- https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/boards/article...

Not a webserver, but there are IRC and Gopher clients for the ZXUno. Ultra low power and cheam comms, anyone? Not so secure (no TLS 1.3 unless an external HW module exists), but it's good enough.

https://github.com/nihirash/zxuno-irc

https://github.com/nihirash/internet-nextplorer

There's a different soft core called the nextz80 that's supposed to do 4x more per clock cycle than a normal z80.

"Works at up to 40MHZ on Spartan XC3S700AN speed grade -4) - performances similar or better than a real Z80 running at 160Mhz."

Guessing that might not be great for games though :)

https://opencores.org/projects/nextz80

It has a Gopher client!

In true ZX fashion, there are clones of Next as well - https://ultimatemister.com/product/zx-next-official-clone-bo... (I have this one, it's fantastic).

Uh oh. I knew there was something I should get from the UK before BRexit.

Well, too late. Maybe they offer some express shipping that will handle customs for me...

Edit: they mention that it can be preordered but I don't see any way to add anything to the cart except the mug. So no idea on shipping options.

I think it sold out a while ago. There was a kickstarter and then some cancelled orders were put on the shop.

There is a similar, pretty amazing project for the Commodore 64: https://ultimate64.com/Ultimate-64

I'm really happy to see those recreations of great 8-bit computers.

Honestly despite the bit wonky key layout, this looks like nice platform for generic retro-homecomputer building if one would be so inclined, even if you do not have any interest in speccy in specific.

The Raspberry Pi as an "addon", is a hit. Great idea!

By the way, aren't today SD cards faster than the actual RAM used in the original Spectrum was?

This must go on. I know people who want to keep funding and get the latest model.

By the way, IMHO it could be cool to add a Raspberry-style GPIO. Perhaps also some other conveniences to interconnect a Speccy with Raspberries, Arduinos etc and peripherals meant for them.

This looks really lovely, the design is great.

I'm still disappointed about the Vega+ handheld debacle. I didn't fund it, so I didn't lose anything, but I really wanted to get one when they were ready.

I have very fond memories of my Speccy 48k. When I was a kid, together with the Amstrads, it was the most popular home micro. I wonder what part of the HN crowd has ever used one.

Given the popularity of the various incarnations I'm sure a high percentage of the UK-based readers of Hacker News have seen/used them.

My 48k Speccy was my first exposure to computers, and I've written before about how it was the direct inspiration towards my career. I don't own any hardware any more, but I still have a couple of books - including the spiral-bound orange manual.

I'm slowly in the process of building my own Z80-based "computer". It's been an on/off project for a year or two now, with very little to show for it. But writing little Z80 assembly language programs gets me feeling very nostalgic.

You elitists with your 48K. My cheapo dad only bought me the 16K.

    10 PRINT "DAVID"
    20 GOTO 10

10 BORDER 0: PAPER 0: INK 2

20 PLOT 70,120: DRAW 4,4,4040

     10 POKE 23659,0
     20 PRINT "STEVE ROCKS"
     30 GOTO 10

I had a 48k Issue 2 Spectrum in Feb 1983 (my first computer) then the Amstrad CPC6128 (colour version, no less!) in mid-1986 (still got it in the attic).

Nice. I do hope somebody does an Atari 800 one of these days.

-That- was my first :) (Love the ZX, though ...)

Now...

If only we had the chance of using is as a normal computer...

Take Raspberry Pi 400 - Now, that was what i was expecting from a today ZX Spectrum!!!

If only we could connect the Pi 4 to it and be able to use it as a "normal" computer...

with the Pi4 connected we could have a kind of dual-boot where we could choose to boot the ZXOS or the Linux Distro used with the Pi4.

We could have a ZX Spectrum that could be useful for something else than gaming...

There are two versions, the second one has a Raspberry Pi 0 as an accelerator; I'm not quite sure how that works does that suffice for your needs?

Yes, i already knew about the Pi0...

I'm kind of close to this project.

There's two things:

1. Pi0 is not powerful enough to run a decent OS (say lubuntu, for example) and let's not even talk about starting a LibreOffice instance or a normal web browser.

2.Even if Pi0 was powerful enough, that thing works as just an accelerator for the ZXOS... it does not allow one to start another OS that allows one to do regular work.

It's a terrible shame, if you ask me.

If developers had a bit more vision on their very first release, ZX Next could now be the Pi 400...

Nice idea but it already looks obsolette with "PS/2 port: Mouse with Kempston mode emulation and an external keyboard."

USB stack is not really an option for the Z80 softcore, I wouldn't imagine.

They could put a tiny microcontroller that has a USB HID host and translates to PS/2 connected to the FPGA. So you have a USB socket on one side, you plug your normal USB keyboard or mouse into it, then that socket is connected to the microcontroller, and there are two wires (PS/2 clock and data) connecting the microcontroller to the FPGA.

Some hobbyist and educational FPGA dev boards do that, because handling PS/2 on the FPGA is so much easier than raw USB. Here is one example: https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/programmable-log...

"The Auxiliary Function microcontroller (Microchip PIC24FJ128) provides the Nexys A7 with USB Embedded HID host capability. "

That's a nice idea. I suspect they must really be trying to keep the BOM cost down though.

I was struck by just how little there is on that board other than the Spartan-6 FPGA; which looks to be one of the smallest versions of what is now a 10 year old design.

There's one SOP/SOIC-8 package by the FPGA which I assume is configuration flash. One 50MHz crystal near to that. Some power regulation on the right-hand side of the board. One Alliance SRAM package. And that's it other than the passives and connectors!

I guess it's possible there's some interesting stuff on the other side but I'm doubting it.

EDIT: Wow I see they are selling this for GBP 300; which is over USD 400. You really aren't paying for the hardware; this has less content than a USD 70 dev board.

You can just buy an off the shelf converter like this one on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254740257221

You can assume that USB mice are going to become increasingly unlikely to work with those as time goes on - they're just passive adapters that instruct the mouse "hey, someone is trying to plug you in with an adapter to a PS/2 port" and hoping that the mouse knows how to switch protocols.

As PS/2 becomes a deep legacy standard, the likelihood is that mouse manufacturers will simply stop bothering to include that capability.

But for now it should work and is easy.

The USB controller would handle it.

Thank goodness, tape loading is supported. There would be no point without that sound otherwise. (I'm the ZXPlectrum guy)

I’d love to see an email client and a web browser on this platform, it could be more productive and distraction free!

I do hope this lacks one feature of the original ZX Spectrum. It had a notoriously higher than normal failure rate attributed mainly to components being run a bit hard i.e. nearer their limits than was wise. Everyone I knew who had one had had it replaced, often more than once.

Heat sink under the 'N' key, try playing an advernture game without being able to 'go North'

OT and for those into keyboards: The keycaps do look nice, IDK if they're good to type on but they are a nice, modern interpretation of the OG ones.

I missed the chance to buy it the first time around. Does anyone know when a new batch is coming?

You've missed it the second time around too, unfortunately. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectru...

I have no idea when or if they'll do another batch, but at the very least a bunch more being in the world should hopefully make them less scarce and expensive on eBay, etc.

I missed both kickstarters, but their "shop" still had both models until early January 2021. I ordered one in October, but won't get it until August. I do enjoy these old retro computers and some games.

I find most of the original games to be unbearable (I didn't play games during that era so there isn't even nostalgia for me), but the new games people are building for the Spectrum and Commodore 64 are fun and a bit more modern in some respects. Ex: I recently bought Attack of the Petscii Robots and the graphics/music/gameplay/manual... everything is great. They're also more amenable to the very limited time I have in adulthood. I doubt I'll play another MMO until I retire.

You can buy directly from their site now to get one after the KS is fulfilled.

Edit: I guess it says sold out now but I had heard on the Facebook group it was possible to still buy so maybe check there or their forums.

Clicked the link and was disappointed. Totally thought this was going to be about a great new hobbyist-level spectrum analyzer.

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