Introducing the Recreated ZX Spectrum - The Other One

Yep, the other re-imagined ZX Spectrum has arrived, the one from Elite Systems. Unlike the Vega it's not a plug and play, but essentially a Spectrum shaped Bluetooth keyboard with an accompanying 'app' that lets you play some Speccy games.  The keyboard was always the very worst feature of the original Spectrum and it was only the original and very first models in the Spectrum line up that had the rubber membrane thing. Later models, like the Spectrum + and 128 had much nicer, if not actually good, keyboards to remedy this problem. I'm not sure what the sales figures were, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that later Speccies with better keyboards outsold the rubbery original. It seems odd then that Elite would focus their recreation on the crappiest and most quickly abandoned part of the Spectrum, but I suppose it's iconic and maybe get's peoples attention.

A Spectrum with a less crappy keyboard

I've no idea what the app is like, I'm guessing it's a Spectrum emulator with paid downloads, but everything I've read is a bit light on details. By the sound of things it will function as a 'normal' Bluetooth or  wired keyboard with a lot of devices, so you may well be able to use it with your favorite PC emulator or even Word if you're really that way inclined.

ZX Spectrum Homebrew Lirus

There's no footage of this interesting new homebrew in action yet on YouTube, just the trailer from the developer, so I thought I's remedy that with a play through of the first 5 levels. This has to be one of the best Speccy homebrews I've seen in a while and it's no surprise since developer RetroSouls is also responsible for the excellent Alter Ego games that came out over the past couple of years.

Lirus is an original take on the multi directional Robotron style shooter game, with excellent presentation and fantastic title music. Slower paced and the classics of this genre it's still a lot of fun to play and quickly gets challenging. What really makes it unique is the emergent behavior of the enemy viruses that you are tasked with killing. Rather than moving around the stages like traditional enemies they multiply and spread gradually across the stage like cellular automata, a nice idea that adds an unusual challenge.   Definitely worth checking out.

Chaos Constructions 2015 - Speccy Game Lirus

Russian demo party Chaos Constructions took place this weekend and whilst not all the results are in yet, or at least up on pouet.net, this winner of the game dev competition looks pretty promising. I look forward to playing it when I get the chance. 

Spectrum Vega - It's Vegaly Good

Well the box looks nice.

The first proper review of the Spectrum Vega is out, thanks to Eurogamer.  Expensive for a plug and play system, it looks to be slightly disappointing considering it's £100 price tag, lacking anything but composite out and not having the best section of games built in. As the Review points out, you can easily get a last gen console for that money or even buy a Raspberry Pi  with quite a bit left over.