Well, nearly. Clive Sinclair, legendary creator of the original home computer, is heading up an Indiegogo campaign to produce the Sinclair Vega, a mini console with 1,000 games preloaded and the ability to play tens of thousands more.
Despite the crowdfunding route this seems a legit attempt to bring back the iconic computer. The Vega is being "marketed by Retro Computers Ltd, a Luton-based start-up in which Sir Clive’s company, Sinclair Research Ltd, is a shareholder". I think that's a roundabout way of saying he's involved. The new console is also being produced under licence from Sky In-Home Service Ltd which currently owns the intellectual property rights.
Basically it's all definitely official, unlike a previous Bluetooth ZX Spectrum, which has been clouded by licensing issues. For the Vega, Retro Computers Ltd is currently "making arrangements with the owners of the software rights to Spectrum games to donate a combined software royalty to a charity". The chairman, Dr David Levy, who's also president of the International Computer Games Association and a chess master, has a connection there after the hospital saved his life when he was a three-year-old suffering from meningitis.
As you can see, the unit's had a redesign to streamline it for pure game playing:
Quote:
It plugs straight into a TV and comes with 1,000 games built in, plus "sufficient memory to allow the user to download the many additional games we will be making available from time to time free of charge". There's also an SD card to load your own stuff, and all games should work "to the best of our knowledge" claims the campaign.
There's already a working prototype and the plan is to fund an initial batch of 1,000. After that another 3,000 will be produced and then, if all goes to plan, batches of 10,000 from there on in. It will cost £100 when it goes to market.
Wow. That's pretty awesome, my mum would love that! She used to binge on the Speccy like crazy £120 for the unit though? Jesus H Christ. Yeah.. no thanks.
Earlier this week, Retro Computers Ltd, maker of the ZX Spectrum Vega Plus handheld, announced that it had finally started to ship the first 400 units of its troubled console to crowdfunding backers, nearly two years after it was originally scheduled to launch.
"It has been a well documented long and difficult road," the company said, before adding, "Well, we have now proved all negative claims to be false." Unfortunately for everyone involved in the whole sorry saga, new information has now come to light revealing that Retro can no longer use the Sinclair or ZX Spectrum trademarks in conjunction with its beleaguered machine.
As reported by the BBC, broadcaster and rights-holder Sky made the decision to withdraw Retro Computers' use of the trademarks in May, following the company's persistent failure to deliver the Vega Plus to backers of the 2016 Vega crowdfunding campaign. Retro Computers' licence to use the trademarks will expire on August 7th.
boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote:
i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then
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£120 for the unit though? Jesus H Christ. Yeah.. no thanks.
