back to article Elite Systems promises to order ZX Spectrum revival in two weeks

Elite Systems, the company that last year launched a crowdfunding campaign to revive the ZX Spectrum as a Bluetooth keyboard, says it will place an order for the devices on August 14th. The campaign succeeded after punters pledged £63,194 to recreate the storied microcomputer. Those who paid £50 or more were promised delivery …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    unrealistic delivery dates?

    it's all part of the 80s retro micro nostalgia.

    When it finally appears, it'll be much lower spec than originally stated, and need an expensive add-on to work properly.

    Ah, the good old days

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: unrealistic delivery dates?

      You're hinting about Imagine's megagames? they never did finally appear. Well, two of the games did but not from Imagine, they were poorly received too.

  2. Cal

    Can't beat the original

    I just sold the last of my 1,200 original tape collection, peripherals and systems. Guy from Manchester drove up to pick it all up.

    Nothing beats playing the real thing. Waiting twenty minutes for it to load only for it to crash, etc,etc.

    1. K

      Re: Can't beat the original

      Jetpac, those were the days.

      1. Trygve Henriksen

        Re: Can't beat the original

        Agreed!

        you know, if you stand on a specific point on the righthand platform, and fire continually to the right, none of the aliens will ever hit you...

        (Or was it on the lefthand platform, firing to the left? Need to dig it out and play a few games... )

        It's incredible what a joystick and a couple of rubber bands could do to help your score...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Can't beat the original

        How to get a really high Jetpac score...

        Play to level three.

        Stand on the middle platform.

        Switch off telly.

        Wait for a day or so.

        Switch on telly.

        Admire the high score.

        The baddies on that level home in on your feet, and you get points every time one dies. Stand on that platform and they all just hit the platform and die.

        1. Matt 21

          Re: Can't beat the original

          I'm curious. There's a Javascript emulator for the Beeb (thanks El Reg for the article about that). It even had a long list of games you could play.

          Does such a thing exist for the Speccy?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Can't beat the original

            Yes. World of Spectrum pioneered it years ago when it was a new concept and you can go on there and play any game they carry direct from your browser.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: Can't beat the original

      Well, the real thing, just with an instant-loading flash card interface bunged in the back... ;-)

    3. Tapeador

      Re: Can't beat the original

      I can still remember the sound of the things loading.

      (high pitched hum followed by quick chirp several tones higher)

      (same high pitched hum followed by succession of high-pitched chirps like crashing waves of sound, continuing till almost loaded)

      Several minutes later - crashes at end of recording.

      Repeat for several hours until bootleg game loaded.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sky

    Hope Elite have paid Sky for the rights to reproduce the casing as they now own Amstrad and all its IP.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

    This has *not* happened, he still owes tons to Devs, myself included. He just said that to put various forum fires out as it was giving his latest venture bad PR.

    John Parker, former MD of Gyrox Ltd.

    1. Aggrajag

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      I think it would be nice of The Register to get behind people here, investigate and out the corruption/fraud.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      I know several people who are owed money by Steve Wilcox and Elite Systems for the speccy games on phones, never received a penny.

      The Register should do more to investigate this.

    3. ADJB

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      A number of Dev's have been paid and had the contracts with Elite cancelled.

      http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/30/5668382/elite-systems-kickstarter-pays-royalities

      This does not of course mean all outstanding debts are paid but the above article gives quite a bit of detail on who has settled and the games involved.

      This does leave a few questions.

      How many people are still owed money?

      What "Classic Games" will be available on launch?

      Will it actually work as advertised?

      ........

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

        How many people are still owed money?

        I am, although it's redundancy money rather than royalties.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      El Reg should look into this. Seems Elite were quite happy to put out PR saying how they were sorry and would put things right but haven't seemed to make good.

      As someone who was ripped off to the tune of 4 grand the other year by a customer, I can now recognise stalling tactics when I see them. Stall, make excuses, rob Peter to pay Paul and buy time.

      Are the project delays a result of having to fire fight unpaid devs? How much of the Kickstarter money has gone on paying devs or fighting them off?

      All stinks to high heaven!

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      Seems as if the some of the habits of bad old days of the home computer boom are still around.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

      A post this morning on World Of Spectrum confirms the group who took action against Elite together were paid but it took time and legal action.

      http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46365&page=40

      1. Matt 21

        Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

        Bit strange to post AC and then sign off with your name :-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Elite's Steve Wilcox later promised to set things right.

          I assume the AC's signature is so that there isn't an online document linking his real name to his user name. That's what I do anyway.

          Barack Obama, current President of the United States

  5. Jim 59

    Alternatively

    Emulation, especially MESS.

    1. PaulM 1

      Re: Alternatively

      Old games are often very well suited to portable hardware such as mobile phones and the PSP. The games I most like to play on my PSP are those on the Activision Hits Remixed UMD. Playing games like River Raid and Pitfall 2 is much more enjoyable than playing COD Ghosts.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    GameX 2:

    "Boom and Bust"

    "Back the Futures"

    "Equity Iniquity"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      Re: GameX 2:

      Better: "Iniquity In Equity"

      1. cheveron

        Re: GameX 2:

        GameX 2: The Wulf of Wall Street. ;)

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