The ZX Spectrum Next is doing fantastically well on Kickstarter and with only nine days to go it looked set to hit a £500,000 – double its wanted total – before it closed. Well, today’s announcement from the Oliver Twins quite possibly may have just sealed its half-a-million mark.
Appearing on the ZX Spectrum Next Kickstarter page today is the news that, for this upcoming evolution in the Sinclair ZX Spectrum line, a brand-new Dizzy game is being created. This was announced by the Oliver Twins themselves – on YouTube – who were surrounded by characters from their current game from Radiant Worlds, SkySaga.
This latest Dizzy game will be completely free to all backers of the ZX Spectrum Next and will be undertaken as a collaboration between the Oliver Twins and the team behind the recent remastered version of Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, which you can read about here. There is one stipulation however, this game will only appear if the ZX Spectrum Next reaches its next stretch goal, so if you haven’t dropped some money towards this project pop on over now. You can even throw in a £1 to show that you just want to share some love.
Dizzy originally appeared on the ZX Spectrum back in 1987 and recently celebrated his 30th Anniversary at the National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham. You can find out more about the Dizzy history and of course the Oliver Twins in Chris Wilkins latest book Let’s Go Dizzy! The Story of The Oliver Twins.
The ZX Spectrum Next is a natural evolution in the ZX Spectrum series, with a team including Henrique Olifiers – check out our interview with him here – Victor Trucco, Fabio Belavenuto, Jim Bagley and the original ZX Spectrum designer Rick Dickinson who we also recently interviewed here at Flickering Myth.
The Spectrum Next is fully implemented with FPGA technology, ensuring it can be upgraded and enhanced while remaining truly compatible with the original hardware by using special memory chips and clever design. Here’s what under the hood of the machine:
- Processor: Z80 3.5Mhz and 7Mhz modes
- Memory: 512Kb RAM (expandable to 1.5Mb internally and 2.5Mb externally)
- Video: Hardware sprites, 256 colours mode, Timex 8×1 mode etc.
- Video Output: RGB, VGA, HDMI
- Storage: SD Card slot, with DivMMC-compatible protocol
- Audio: 3x AY-3-8912 audio chips with stereo output + FM sound
- Joystick: DB9 compatible with Cursor, Kempston and Interface 2 protocols (selectable)
- PS/2 port: Mouse with Kempston mode emulation and an external keyboard
- Special: Multiface functionality for memory access, savegames, cheats etc.
- Tape support: Mic and Ear ports for tape loading and saving
- Expansion: Original external bus expansion port and accelerator expansion port
- Accelerator board (optional): GPU / 1Ghz CPU / 512Mb RAM
- Network (optional): Wi Fi module
- Extras: Real Time Clock (optional), internal speaker (optional)
If you want to be part of the ZX Spectrum Next development and perhaps have one on your desk – come release – then go here.
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