Sometimes, news can come from the strangest of places. Like this one, from the Telegraph.
It’s a little confusing; two articles about the ZX Spectrum but neither really confirming anything that the headline might suggest. “ZX Spectrum Relaunch” is a leader that retro fans like me dream of, but the copy doesn’t really go too far in explaining what that means and where the information’s coming from.
From what we can gather, it breaks down like this: Elite Systems, they of the ZX Spectrum Collection for the iPad and iPhone, are working on bringing the ZX Spectrum out again. The format isn’t obvious until the last line of the article, but the Telegraph say that the company “plans to relaunch the console for a generation of nostalgic gamers.”
“Perhaps surprisingly, the company is also considering how best to put its titles of [sic] powerful consoles such as Xbox,” it continues, suggesting that perhaps we can expect a ZX Spectrum Collection for the 360.
The juicy bit? “The forthcoming ZX Spectrum is only really a bluetooth keyboard,” says the Telegraph, “designed in the same way that the 5 million selling, rubbery keyboard of 1984 was. It may look retro, but the updating of the technology makes allows it to mix retro with modern.
“With the Commodore brand already back in stores, it’s only a matter of time before the Spectrum is capturing the enthusiasm of a whole new generation.”
We spoke to Elite Systems at the weekend to try to clarify all this, who told TheSixthAxis to expect news on all this “quite soon.”
englishgolfer
that’s made my week – and it’s only monday!
tonycawley
Oh dear. Let sleeping dogs lie. All this will serve to do is show how far we’ve moved on. I’ve not played a single retro game that hasn’t ruined the memory for me. Maybe I’m just weird, but I can see this being utter turd.
Foxhound_Solid
I hear ya. I went back to go through MGS on the PS1, forgot that Snake didnt have any eyes hahaha.
Still an awesome game, but I am grateful for the GameCube version and the HD Trilogy [if I say it enough it will happen]
aphex187
PsOne games normally kill my wonderful memories of how great they were when i buy them from the Store. These type of games though are still great, i’ve just bought Manic Miner for the iPhone and it’s still class!
elpablo79
Hasn’t MGS HD Trilogy been mentioned recently? Sure I read that it was being looked into
3shirts
Even Mario 3?
tonycawley
Even Mario 3. Sorry but old games just look too bad to be enjoyable now, also gameplay is generally far too simplistic.
KeRaSh
Super Mario Bros. 3 – still one of the best games ever. I still play it from time to time and the graphics do not bother me one bit.
Another classic with dated graphics that I still enjoy is the Oddworld series.
Bilbo_bobbins
oh wow, this brings back a lot of memories. Where is the Commodore in the shops?
tonyyeb
The Commodore brand is being used to sell high end PCs.
cc_star
Brilliant
SpikeyMikey23
“how best to put its titles of [sic] powerful consoles”
What does the [sic] mean? oh and im with tony. Leave it in the past
ii3illy
[sic] is used when you’re quoting someone and they’ve made a typo. You’re acknowledging they’ve cocked up their spelling or grammar.
SpikeyMikey23
Ah, thank you, I get it, it’s puzzled me for a while, just didnt bother looking it up
dextreme08
same here I was just about to Google it lol
Kamokazi-UK
Somehow odd. Amstrad own the ZX Specrum brand name still don’t they? I get games ported onto other things, but surely Amstrad still own the brand name. Hell they put Spectum games on the Amstrad emailer phone a while back.
Redh3lix
Oh awesome. I can dent the hell of of my Speccy keyboard all over again by playing Daley Thompson’s Decathlon!
Also… Manic Minor!!!
Aaahh the memories <3
doomsday619
Lol i still have no fingerprints thanks to my childhood memories of Daley Thomson.
sesameseed
Minor? I hope you mean miner lol.
Redh3lix
Doh! Spelling police caught me! :D
mugsybalone
Going after manic minors, you’re lucky it’s just the spelling police that are after you!
minerwilly
Hey , get it right ;)
freezebug2
I remember my Dad used to spend days typing in these long pages of game code from magazines which would take days, with me and my brothers keep asking the proverbial “Are we there yet?” “can we have a go?” which sometimes provoked eye rolling and face palming.
After days of typing in and the big unveiling of a new game …nothing!, always nothing!! they never worked hahaha…good days….he was a crap coder lol.
Ro6afc11
It’s not the 1st April is it? I have fallen for that once before on TSA!
LivedeviL
Me too, I actually had to check the date this time to be sure :p
shields_t
Indeed, maybe Elite Systems are TSA people and latched on to the prank.
Tuffcub
Oh dear. Just oh dear. Loved my speccy but give me Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Dead Space 2 and Flower any day.
Can you imagine being back in the 1980s and being shown those three games and asked “You can have these.. or your speccy”. You’d choose those three in a heartbeat, why on earth would you have a different opinion now? Nostaligia is horribly overated.
hazelam
yeah, but name one game that can match elite.
Kronik76
How about all of the games TC mentioned above?
halbpro
Have to disagree. Just because a game doesn’t look as good or isn’t as powerful as modern games doesn’t make it any less fun. I still love Sonic and play it pretty regularly. It still holds up as a fun experience, as do a host of other older titles. Sure they’re very different experiences to new games, but they’re not bad because of it.
Kronik76
But TC isn’t saying they’re bad, just that given the choice you’d take the latest generation games. You’d have to be extremely odd to pick the spectrum.
Tuffcub
I quite agree, gameplay is foremost, but I bet this collect wil be useless old stuff rather than Renegade, Elite and Knightlore. A hell of lot of Speccy stuff was just pants and you really cant argue Manic Miner is more playable than Uncharted 2. It isnt.