back to article Games rights-holders tell ZX Spectrum reboot firm: Pay or we pull titles

The owners of the rights to about 200 games to be bundled with the ZX Spectrum Vega+ is withdrawing permission for them to be included with the consoles unless its maker pays royalties for games on a previous device, The Register has learned. A representative from games studio Zenobi told us Retro Computers Ltd (RCL), the …

  1. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Not speaking to el Reg? Have they employed an ex-Apple PR bod?

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Surely we expect better from El Reg. We want it Roger Cook stylee, a Reg hack following him down the road shouting questions, until he turns round and punches them. At which point the hack says, "why are you hitting me Mr Levy, I'm only asking you about what's happened to your product, that was promised to your customers months ago."

      Bonus points for the doing it Damien from 'Drop the Dead Donkey' style, where the journo remains unharmed, and the camerman cops it. Possibly having paid an impostor to punch him, to make better telly and save the effort of finding the actual MD.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        'Drop the Dead Donkey'

        Another satire that has been apparently overtaken by real life.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. TheTick

          "'Drop the Dead Donkey'

          Another satire that has been apparently overtaken by real life."

          Yep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-4uSlg3J8

          1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

            Nice find! I just commented on the video... Why so few views in so long a time? I thought a video up that long would have had more views from typos!

            By the way, it will improve your analytics if you link it! :

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-4uSlg3J8

    2. ElReg!comments!Pierre
      Pint

      Damn!

      I logged in only to post that maybe RCL wants to be the new Apple, but there you were with your comment. Damn you, alien overlord, damn you to hell!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Correction?

    Should it read "The owners of the rights ... are withdrawing permission", or, at least in this context, "Arr! The owners of the rights ... be withdrawing permission, me hearties"?

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Correction?

      Either way, you'd think they would just cough up the 20 quid wouldn't you.

  3. Alister

    “We are not making any comment to The Register”

    Did you pick his dummy up for him?

  4. FuzzyWuzzys
    Facepalm

    What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

    Meanwhile some Android Speccy apps automatically link to WOS and pulls titles down when you want.

    1. Haku

      Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

      All we need now is a bluetooth joystick adapter that you can plug in your old 9-pin joysticks & joypads, cause touchscreens suck for oldschool gaming.

      1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

        Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

        You can get those already.

        android joysticks

        I don't own one myself, but I'm currently sitting on the sofa, typing this on a wireless keyboard to my android box connected to my 90" TV :-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          They are not proper controllers.

          Old school ones can be thrown across the room in a hissy fit and still work afterwards.

          Plus they are joySTICKS not joyPADS.

          1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

            Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

            OK, how about these:

            Retro classic atari joystick with USB interface

            You can even re-live having tangled wires to trip over!

        2. Little_Crow

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          C64 emulator packed into a Zip Stick and I'm in

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

        "All we need now is a bluetooth joystick adapter that you can plug in your old 9-pin joysticks & joypad"

        I'm starting a crowdfunding page.

        I'll make a crap promo video, a Photoshop mock up, a Bluetooth module with a 9-pin socket glued to the side. You guys just need to give me £100,000.

        In return I promise to deliver nothing but empty promises and missed deadlines. Eventually I will be claiming technical difficulties in production and will be running off with your money.

        1. lglethal Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          As everything said in a Marketing spiel is an obvious lie and misrepresentation, I take that to mean from your statement that you WILL deliver absolutely everything you say you wont, and you WONT run off with the money like you say you will.

          Ha! I've got you there Mr Lost all faith... Where do i sign up?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Up

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          I'm starting a crowdfunding page.

          Count me in! You've told me all I need to know. I'll just leave my bank details here, and you take as much money as you think right. I'll leave my home address too, but please try not to deliver anything in August as I'll be away on holiday, unless you can get the package through the second bedroom window that's always open.

        3. tedleaf

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          Would you like a business partner,then we can pull the same stunt as this lot and just keep blaming each other until everyone forgets we still have their cash stashed off shore..

        4. Haku

          Re: What a complete cockup this Vega thing is!

          @ Lost all faith...

          Actually it shouldn't be all that difficult to hack a 9 pin D port onto an existing bluetooth game controller. Throw in a microcontroller for the interfacing and you can use the extra buttons on the old 6-button Sega Megadrive joypads too.

          I have a Zeemote JS1 bluetooth game controller but it's a right pain in the arse to get paired up and working properly on an Android device, perhaps there's a better working (connectivity wise) cheap bluetooth joypad out there that can be hacked.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    “We are not making any comment to The Register”

    I'm not sure who is the bigger tw*t here.

    Me for saying that by saying you are not making any comment you are actually making a comment or Mr Levy.

    I'll go with Mr Levy.

  6. The accountants

    No Comment

    No comment, no updates, no reply to emails, no refunds processed, no roll of honour, no manual, no delivery date, no peggi rating, no manufacturing, no packaging, no audited accounts and now no games.

    At what point do these people man up , grow a pair and tell the truth...... they have spent all the money and there is and will never be a vega+

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: No Comment

      "No comment, no updates, no reply to emails, no refunds processed, no roll of honour, no manual, no delivery date, no peggi rating, no manufacturing, no packaging, no audited accounts and now no games."

      ...no harm to dolphins, vegan friendly, hypo-allergenic.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: No Comment

        ...no harm to dolphins, vegan friendly, hypo-allergenic.

        .. doesn't cause cancer, contains no calories and definately no rare-earth compounds used in manufacturing. Also does not emit CO2.

        1. tedleaf

          Re: No Comment

          You forgot non-fattening..

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Try to name any Zenobi game...

    You can't because they're all shut and nobody ever played them back in the day.

    Horris Goes Skiing, Way of the Exploding Fist and Jetset Willy

    The rest was all sh1te on the Speccy.

    It's all about Llamas

    1. JetSetJim
      Thumb Up

      Re JetSetWilly

      That was a great title! Hours of fun

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re JetSetWilly

        When I was a kid I used to call this game 'Supersonic Cock'. Still makes me giggle, actually.

    2. adam payne

      Did you not play?

      Pyjamarama

      Everyone's a Wally

      Rocky Horror Show

      Cobra

      Rambo

      Bruce Lee

      Gun Fright

      Manic Miner

      Turbo Esprit

      Saboteur

      Knight Lore

      etc etc

      1. DropBear

        Heh heh... the Saboteur bike in the basement brings back memories...

    3. ZenBal

      Just to name a few ....

      How about ...

      Retarded Creatures & Caverns

      Bulbo & The Lizard-King

      The Balrog & The Cat

      Behind Closed Doors

      or maybe the 'third-party' stuff like ...

      The Boggit

      Bored Of The Rings

      Jekyll & Hyde

      Bugsy

      The Snowqueen

      Very Big Cave Adventure

      or even

      Agatha's Folly

      Crack City

      Diablo!

      Plus another 200+ titles ......

  8. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    “We are not making any comment to The Register”

    That's a comment, Shirley.

    And that makes him a liar.

  9. Richard Hewitt

    This

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elanlee/bears-vs-babies-a-card-game/posts/1915847

    Is how you do a crowdfunding update. :-)

  10. Spartacus Mills

    as RCL have said numerous times to their own backers in the Indiegogo comments section: the more questions you ask about this project, the more you are slowing it down and delaying the Vega+ delivery. RCL were saying this to their backers way before xmas so I don't see why it wouldn't still apply now.

    Just stop posting these articles asking questions about (and drawing attention to) RCL and the Vega+, because it's causing delays...

    1. Ian 55

      Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is bad parenting tactics: 'I would have taken you to the theme park, but I was too busy answering "are we there yet", so we're going to the bank instead'.

    2. KjetilS

      Do you actually believe yourself what you wrote there?

  11. RedCardinal

    Hmm, the royalties on ancient Spectrum games. Okay. here's £10....

    1. ZenBal

      Royalties on old Spectrum games

      I would be more than happy to accept £10 ... per title ... but even at 1p per game do the sums yourself and see what sort of figures we are talking about ...

  12. SeanR

    Here we are, EIGHT months later, and RCL still don't have a list of 1000 games...

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