Rainbow love
I’ve previously written about how the Sinclair line of computers kickstarted a life-long love of computing.
I still sometimes go back and play classic Spectrum games on my Nintendo DS.
I’ve also bought brand-new games for the platform in recent times. I love that people still code for these ancient devices.
Modern vintage classic
In April 2017, I backed the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next Kickstarter campaign, which was ultimately successful. After some delay, I got my new Spectrum Next - in February 2020.
The team did a wonderful job on it. The industrial design harks back to the Spectrum+ days of the 1980’s of my youth. It’s a wonderful hybrid machine. It’s fully compatible with the original Speccy, but has modern capabilities too.
If you want to use it for pure old-school gaming, it’s more than capable. But the new modes mean you can play modern titles using more advanced graphics and more complex audio. All in a machine with up-to-date connectors like HDMI and an onboard SD card slot.
Warm and fuzzies
Last year, I cleared out my arcade board collection by donating it to the Retro Collective Arcade Archive.
A heavy box of mystery retro donations I’ll be dropping off to @RMCRetro cave tomorrow. Hope the box fits in the Mini 😅 pic.twitter.com/N10IpiUgHb
— Alan Pope (@popey) November 18, 2022
If you visit the Arcade Archive, perhaps one of my old boards will be playable. I get warm feelings knowing someone else is enjoying the electronics that languished in my attic for so many years.
Time to go
I get a similarly warm fuzzy feeling every time I play with the Spectrum Next. However, that’s the problem: I seldom do play with it! It’s sat in the box on the shelf, and I never make space or time for it.
So, just like those boards, it’s time for the Spectrum Next to go. There is no point keeping hold of something that I’m just not using. I’ve put it up on ebay.
Time for someone else to enjoy it.