It’s been half a year since I set my sights on the Commander X16. I wrote a game and have sold several copies, but now I’m investing in another retro platform: The Spectrum Next!
This is the third Kickstarter for the Spectrum Next. From what I’ve read they’ve sold about 10,000 units in the first two Kickstarters and this last one is really kicking it! (so to speak).
Read more: Spectrum Next – Another Retro deviceThe current stats:
They’ve also hit a few “stretch goals”:
The Specifications:
Processor: Z80N at 3.5MHz with turbo modes at 7MHz, 14MHz and 28MHz
Compatibility: Full ZX Spectrum family compatibility
Memory: 2MB RAM
Video: 2, 8, 16 & 256 colours modes (128 x 96, 256×192, 320×256, 512×192 & 640×256 high resolution modes)
Video Output: RGB, VGA, HDMI, 50Hz and 60Hz modes
Extra Hardware: Hardware sprites, zxnDMA, CTC, Copper, Enhanced ULA, Layer2 and Tilemap (Layer3)
Storage: 1 x SD Card slot, with DivMMC-compatible protocol, 1 x internal microSD card slot with preinstalled card (fully supported by NextZXOS)
Audio: 9-channel sound via three stereo AY-3-8912, plus two x 4-bit DACs
Joysticks:Two ports compatible with Cursor, Kempston, and Interface 2 protocols — extended to support even Megadrive joypads or configurable as serial ports
PS/2 port: Mouse with Kempston mode emulation and/or external keyboard
Special: Multiface functionality for memory access, save games, cheats and more
Tape support: Combined MIC and EAR port for loading and saving
Expansion: Original external bus expansion port (now with +3 disk interface support)
Accelerator Board (optional): GPU / 1GHz CPU / 512Mb RAM
Networking: Built-in Wi-Fi module
Real Time Clock: Built-in RTC with battery backup
OS: NextZXOS and NextBasic, featuring an expanded command set
Alternative OSes: CP/M (included),SymbOS and esxDOS
Additional cores and official ROMs: Sinclair QL/Next and C64 with cores also launchable via NextZXOS. Community cores available
How interesting is that? It will have a Commodore 64 core! So I can play all my old C=64 games! 🙂
It has built-in WiFi and a Browser which can connect to a database of games and applications so you can directly download them to your SD Card on the machine! Nice.
I’m currently researching ways to program games for this platform. Boriel BASIC looks nice and it’s easy. You program on your desktop and it compiles to Assembly Z80 code so it will run fast on the device. There’s also C support using the Z88DK and other just program in Z80 Assembly itself. I’ve been talking to someone on the Discord and there’s also a Pascal compiler in the works! Very exciting stuff. So, I’ll keep researching before I land on which one I’ll use. I want to port my Commander X16 game “Tomb of Anneis” to the Spectrum Next.
