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NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 18:08:12 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Retro Spectrum - my thoughts
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 14:08:07 -0400
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On Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:08:43 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>So the obvious question, what is it. It’s a Raspberry Pi based Spectrum 
>48k/128k emulator in a case pretty much identical to the original rubber 
>keyed wonder. They added some weights to get the right feel and also 
>modern features such as HDMI, USB, save/rewind games, controller support 
>and, shock horror, a power switch. What it’s not is say a Spectrum Next 
>which is an ‘emulator’ using FPGA’s to provide soft hardware and they’ve 
>also supercharged it. It’s also significantly more expensive, x3, and 
>even more so on the second hand market.
>
>I missed the first production run last year but for this year’s one I 
>just thought why not as I’m a sucker for nostalgia and the Spectrum was 
>a big part of my life and the U.K. in general so at £89.99 why not.
>
>I’ve played a few of the games that are included (I need to get a USB 
>loaded with some more of my favourite games) and my initial reaction is 
>it’s fun although the games are even harder than I remember. I’ve failed 
>to even get past the second level on the classic that is Manic Miner. 
>The other one, there’s something about having a physical device that 
>elevates it to another level. Oh and who thought QAOP was a good key 
>combination.
>
>My overall conclusion is that it it’s never going to become, as I very 
>much expected, my main gaming platform but instead it will be something 
>I fire up now and again for a change of pace. There’s also a nice 
>community of old farts online (sound familiar?).
>
>Could it end up gathering dust before the end of the year, possibly but 
>heh I can always sell it for more than I bought it for.

Not having any real nostalgia for the Speccy (or, really, any of the
8-bits) I can't get too excited about devices like this. In general,
I'm much happier resorting to emulation anyway, but if I did want to
run it on hardware, I'd want _real_ hardware over an FPGA hack. That's
not to dismiss the effort put into these devices, but I don't really
get the point if you're going to end up emulating anyway. I'm just of
the sort who thinks, "Just do it on the PC you already own", ya know?

A lot of the old-timey games aren't really very good, anyway, and once
you get past the nostalgic thrill of seeing them again, you start
seeing all the defects that forty-years of game-development have
worked very hard at improving. Ridiculous key-mappings included. ;-)

(although I think QAOP is better than OLZX, which I also recall being
somewhat common. And people nowadays bitch about old-school games
using the cursor keys...)