After three years and five months, the Spectrum Next that I backed on Kickstarter finally arrived today. It sounds wild that I paid for this after the campaign ended in 2020, and during that time, there was a COVID breakout that led to component shortages. Because of this, the developers had to use a new chipset and retest the operating system, amongst other issues. Fast forward to today, and it’s here, the packaging looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to do an unboxing video and run it through its paces.
The ZX Spectrum wasn’t officially released in Australia, but it was imported here by a select group of computer shops. I was exposed to the Spectrum via the computer magazines available here, such as Crash, Big-K, CV&G, Sinclair User and other titles. The multi-format mags were a great source of information as they typically compared a game title released for the different platforms, so you could see which version was best. Being a Commodore 64 owner, games such as Robocop, Chase HQ and WEC Le Mans tended to be better on the Spectrum. Having never used a Spectrum (I own a 48K and a 2+ but haven’t connected them to date), the Next will be used to finally sit down and play the library of fab games available.
Look out for my unboxing video very soon.
