Spectrum Emulator Announced

Exclusive: We've been hinting at this for a while, and now we've got the green light to go!

Published 01/04/2009 at 7:00.
By Alex C [nofi].

A few of you guessed at this, but we had to remain tight-lipped until we got the go-ahead to reveal this one properly. We’ll let the press release do the talking, see you on the other side, Speccy fans…

Glasgow, Scotland, UK (1st April 2009). Glasgow based Silvermade Games [SMGA] is delighted to officially announce the unveiling of their upcoming PLAYSTATION®3 Entertainment System title “The Ultimate ZX Spectrum Collection”. Conceived in co-operation with a leading figure in ZX Spectrum emulation [1], produced with the full knowledge and approval of the original developers and designed to make the most out of your PLAYSTATION®3 Entertainment System, The Ultimate ZX Spectrum Collection is a shelf-busting set of five hundred [2] top selling ZX Spectrum games from the early to mid Eighties spanning ever popular genres such as racing, platforming and adventure.

The once top-of-the-range ZX Spectrum graphics are emulated to perfection and there is a range of optional complimentary filters to ensure the games still look crisp at The Ultimate ZX Spectrum Collection’s full HD 1080p display. Spectrum owners will also be delighted with the Archive section which includes the original cover art, printed manual, reviews, maps and tips for the majority of the games, and Silvermade is in the process of reproducing the entire Crash magazine collection for inclusion on the disk. The Ultimate ZX Spectrum Collection will also feature a full raft of Trophies and Youtube uploading.

The Ultimate ZX Spectrum Collection will be available this September at an astonishing price of £19.99 [4] on Blu-ray format, and will be supported with additional PlayStation®Store game packs every fortnight for European gamers. These packs will consist of fifty specially selected titles in a range of game styles and will be priced from just £1.99 [5]. In addition, Silvermade are looking into ways to import your own ZX Spectrum tape files directly into the game. [6] “We’re all massive Speccy fans,” said Silvermade’s Geoff Madson, “and this is the perfect opportunity to get a new generation of gamers into the titles that define the games we play now.”

We’ve been tweeting about this for a while, and last Wednesday I got the chance to see TUZXSC in action for myself. Although it’s a little bare bones at the moment the team promise me any UI issues will be ironed out before release, but it’s worth mentioning that some of the Trophies are amazing – we can’t do a list, sadly, but there’s one for getting through the first 5 levels of Manic Miner in one life for example, so perhaps it’s time to brush up on some skills. If you’ve been following our twitter feed, you’ll have picked up on a couple of games that you might be interested in…

We’ll have more on this soon, including some screenshots.

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Kevling | 01/04/2009 07:04
Member
2612 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

Nice! Teased it so long you almost had me…
Pixl1983 | 01/04/2009 07:12
Member
520 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

‘there is a range of optional complimentary filters to ensure the games still look crisp’

Wow. Extreme jaggies! Awesome :)
Ro6afc11 | 01/04/2009 07:17
Member
1364 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

Sounds good to me. I bought a PC version of this some time ago but is a bit hit and miss as to whether the games work or not so if someone else has done all the hard work already then all the better. Nostalgia for the Speccy gets me every time so I shall be buying.

You just know that the current ‘yoof’ will be wondering what all the fuss is about though!
ii3illy | 01/04/2009 07:21
Member
755 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

Awesome stuff. Great pricing as well. Hope they do this for snes, megadrive amiga etc….
- ii3illy | 01/04/2009 11:39
  Member
  755 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
  
  Do I get some points for actually believing this story?!
GamerRiley | 01/04/2009 07:21
Member
874 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008

Hahahaha nice one nofi ;), even the box art looks great. Can you also reveal later today, before noon though or it back fires on yourself, that a C64 emulator will be released. Obviously the better graphics of the C64 games would look alot better than the speccy games on PS3. Oh no the whole speccy Vs C64 debate has started again, it’s almost like 1984. ;)
- cc_star | 01/04/2009 07:29
  Team TSA: Writer
  11320 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  Nope, Speccy FTW!
wilboss | 01/04/2009 07:30
Member
288 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008

And what day is it today folks? :p
- hannes_truce | 01/04/2009 07:37
  Member
  3417 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
  
  I’m at liberty to not believe a single thing i read before 12pm today :-D
  - kevatron400 | 01/04/2009 07:59
    Don't call him Kevatron400.
    2125 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
    
    I’m with you on that one! Although are you allowed to hype up to an april fools on days prior to it? Cos this was.
- toutski | 01/04/2009 08:28
  Legend
  4481 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
  
  I was thinking the same thing…
cc_star | 01/04/2009 07:31
Team TSA: Writer
11320 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

Brilliant! If this ain’t an April fool, I can’t wait.
I’m not sure I can wait till September though
Withnail | 01/04/2009 07:57
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224 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

April Fools day makes me embarrassed to be a human being.
BryOnRye | 01/04/2009 07:58
Member
977 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009

Is the PS3 powerful enough to run them? Can’t wait for the eurogamer PS3/360 comparison vids!
DarthSharkey | 01/04/2009 07:59
Member
1058 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

Funny