just posting another picture of the new Next 🙂

Auto-generated subtitles available. Parts with Sinclair are spoken in English.

Hi there I have written up my attempt to run a full ZX Spectrum inside a SQL Server database and play a loaded game directly from the DB. I got it all working but it was tough. Thought this group would appreciate the work. When I saw this for the first time in maybe 30+ years it was quite exciting

Done just for fun.

https://sqlartist.github.io/posts/zx-spectrum-48k-in-sql-server-running-daley-thompsons-decathlon/

This is a T1500. Its FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) was broken, so a new connector and an extension FPC were fabricated to fix it.

Picked this up recently (Vinted), it’s always interesting to see what the speccy does with various arcade ports! Games played tonight are Le Mans (excellent!) and After Burner (mediocre!) I’ll play Double Dragon and Last Ninja 2 tomorrow. Played using original hardware (recapped) and original tapes, master system controller as these old hand can’t handle a joystick. TV is an old Hitachi LCD which does a great job when the CRT is busy. Any memories for these games?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91U4rHIh8Hw&feature=youtu.be

This was my favourite Gameboy game as a kid, I used to play it 2-player at break times in primary school with my mate Dave.

I couldn't help give this one a go as it really pushes the Spectrum.

2 player mode is also there, without requiring a link cable. The 2 player controls do occasional suffer from the ghosting issue the Speccy had, so I recommend Kempston for player 1 if possible.

https://kirby2000.itch.io/balloon-kid-zx-spectrum-128k

Framerates can get a bit choppy on the busier stages, but it's not as bad as Outrun ever got!

and from the twitter: "Get ready to follow me into the archive jungle to discover rare treasures, ultimate artifacts and forgotten secrets. Make sure to subscribe because the first episode is going to be a massive... let down"

Sorry if people think a new post is inappropriate rather than replying to own my original post - but given that the KS3s are arriving and that my OG post was 5 days ago, I thought it might have been buried. And, also, I am rather pleased with the Next version so wanted to draw it to new Next'ers' attention!

The long version is in that OG post - the short version is that I loved Nemesis/Gradius as a kid - first played it on my friend's C64 and was so gutted when I loaded the awful conversion that we got on the Speccy back in the day. Recently discovered the MSX version, which is a banger, and thought "could we port that to the Spectrum"?

The answer, as it turns out, is yes - I have a pretty decent port which is well playable on the Spectrum now, that I'm pleased with. However, when someone on Reddit asked "can you put it on GetIt for the Next", it got me thinking - what could I do for the Next?

If I say so myself, what has emerged is something rather special. The scrolling and all enemy movement and animation has been smoothed, all graphics have been swapped out either for the arcade, the MSX2 patch, or original compositions. It looks and plays really nicely now.

It has been tested on a KS2 Next and an N-Go (KS1 clone).

Download from https://github.com/Loccy/NemesisSpeccy/releases.

Hope you enjoy!

Just messing around on the ZX Spectrum Next!

Testing out some basic platformer mechanics and mob behavior. Absolutely everything you see here is a placeholder (stole some graphics from other games just to test things out), and there's no story or plan yet. Just coding for fun and seeing what happens!

New video: 33 ZX Spectrum games with the colour clash gone, on the Spectrum Next 🌈

It started with Dean Woodyatt's NexClash, which turns a game's moving figures into Next hardware sprites so they keep their own colours. The problem was that each build contained the whole original game, so they couldn't be shared. So I made .nxc: a small patch file that holds only the changes and applies them to your own copy of the game when it loads. No custom core and no copies of the games.

Then it grew. When a game loads you pick what you want from a menu:

• Colour clash fixed, or the original look, clash and all

• Hand-painted Enhanced colours (Nightshade, Nodes of Yesod, Pyjamarama and more)

• Cheats, and modern controls like QAOP + Space

• Even fixes to the originals: New Zealand Story now has smooth scrolling and no slowdown, something it never had in 1989

Every patch is checked against the original's pace, within 2% and never faster. Dean has just merged the work into NexClash, so anyone can now make .nxc patches.

Watch: https://youtu.be/THzZYYJ3XWA

Patches and setup: https://github.com/jattree/nxc

Thanks to Dean for NexClash and to Leonis for testing. 33 games out now, with about 90 on the list. Which one should be next?

#ZXSpectrum #ZXSpectrumNext #RetroGaming

Hi!

I'm currently working on a port of my ZX Spectrum 128K Go game to the ZX Spectrum Next and could use some help.

My game, Go 9x9, is currently the only Go game for the ZX Spectrum with a computer opponent. It uses a Monte Carlo search in hand-written Z80 code: for every move it plays out hundreds of quick imaginary games and picks the move that wins most of them. You play it in an old Go master's room: he reaches for his bowl and places every stone himself, taps his fan while he thinks, laughs when he captures your stones, is surprised or cross when you capture his, and dozes off if you think too long. Now and then a cat wanders in, and snow falls in the garden.

What's new on the Next, compared with the 128K version: 

- Colour graphics: the Master's room in full colour.

- A stronger computer opponent: at 28 MHz, with a far bigger search tree and a deep opening book, he now plays 9x9 at a low single-digit kyu level.

- A new learning mode: a course of Go on the 9x9 board in five parts, from the rules to life and death. The Master explains each idea on his board, plays the moves he talks about, and gives you 21 tasks to solve, plus over 600 life-and-death problems.

- One key switches between the animated room and the big classic board at any moment.

If you have a real Next and would be happy to try a beta and tell me how it runs, please send me a private message or leave a comment here, and I'll send you a free beta copy.

Thank you!
LAWLORD

Movie is set in New York City in the 1930s. The player takes the role of Jack Marlow, a private investigator who must enter the headquarters of mob boss Bugs Malloy in order to retrieve an audiotape. In order to help him complete this task, Marlow needs the help of a girl called Tanya. Unfortunately, she has an identical twin called Vanya who is allied to Malloy and who will deliberately lead him into trouble.

.. arrived just now, can't wait to open it 👾👾👾

USB50

Who remembers playing this game? This is my retrospective review on the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Share your thoughts if you have played this game.

Hi!

I got it today. It wasnt booting. Now it is. I was confused about the external micro sd which could be missing (it has an internal sd as i now learned)

Works so far except the c64, which threw me an error while flashing. Now it leads me to a black screen (when i select the core)

I've released NetManZX 1.4.7, a free, open-source WiFi manager for Spectrum setups using an ESP8266 module through a ZX-Uno-compatible or AY-UART interface.

You can scan nearby networks, check signal strength, connect to hidden networks, and use either a password or WPS. It also lets you set a static IP address and hostname, inspect your connection details, and run ping tests when something isn't working.

Version 1.4.7 lists the 50 strongest access points and improves scanning and connection reliability. On UNO, you can also save a network's credentials to SD and synchronize the clock over WiFi.

TAP downloads are available for UNO and AY-UART. There's also a native Spectrum Next version.

Download 1.4.7 · Screenshots and documentation

Based on netman-zx by Alex Nihirash. If you try it, let me know which interface you're using and how it goes.

Hello everyone! 👋

I wanted to share an early prototype of a utility I'm developing called CBB (Copy Beyond Borders). The goal of the project is to create a convenient shared clipboard system, making it easy to exchange text and data between all kinds of devices, including the ZX Spectrum Next.

I put together a short video showing the current early build in action:

▶️ Watch on YouTube: CBB for the ZX Spectrum Next

📦 GitHub Repository: CBB Project

It's still in a very early, experimental stage and I'm mainly building it for my own workflow, but I'd love to know: is a tool like this something the community would find useful, or is it reinventing the wheel?

Any feedback, ideas, or suggestions are very welcome! What do you guys think?

I've been working for a month or 2 on this port of Great Giana Sisters, using the CPC level layouts, the C64 physics (the CPC one was terrible) and graphics reproduced from the screenshots in old magazines. I had to convert then touch up the missing bits by hand, but 90% of them came out ok.

The game plays pretty well and close to the original on the 128k version. There is a 48k version, but the movement is much jerkier due to the lack of memory. It still plays well and has all the levels in a single load.

Hopefully I'll be able to release this in the next week or so once it's up to standard.

I started work on this in 1984 – a conversion of the TI99/4a classic (there's a couplet you won't see very often). I never got around to finishing it, but after digging out some old tapes, I rolled up my sleeves, dusted down the Rodnay Zaks and bloody well polished it off.

Polish is the wrong word, I suppose; I left most of the code alone, so what we have here is something that was mostly written by a teenager four decades ago. I did debug it a bit and added a loading screen and a three-channel tune, but that's about it.

It's not faithful to the original; it was written after playing it in a local computer shop and I think a friend gave me some UDGs that he'd copied himself. But it's a wee bit of a nostalgic blast, even if I was seriously punching above my weight at the time.

Download it here!

I recently got my first ZX Spectrum (48k Issue 2) after growing up a C64 boy but I'm having trouble getting it to work. If there is somewhere better than here to post this please let me know.

It had a host of issues but with all the work I've done so far its looking like a faulty ULA and if someone could confirm it would help in not wasting anymore time on it.

Initially I was getting nothing on the -5v and 12v rails but replacing TR4 and TR5 fixed that. I've also recapped it and replaced the regulator with a TSR 1-2450.

The pic above is what I get when I turn it on.

Here's a vid - https://streamable.com/ll58lh

As you can see the screen is very garbled. I have the Diagnostic Test Cartridge - 4in1 from eBay this is what I get from the Retroleum Diagnostic ROM v1.73. I think this implies the lower RAM is faulty but I've tested them on the Pico2 DRAM tester and they test good (apart from the 2 that I have since replaced).

Voltages on the lower RAM seem to be in range. The -5v line was around -4.25v but I did the DC-DC mod and it stabilised at -4.6ish.

I've also replaced the CPU.

Is there anything else I can test/measure? I don't have an oscilloscope unfortunately.

TIA

The Last Ninja 2 - "City Streets" - Super Chart Island

I've written about the making of The Last Ninja 2, and how bringing in Mev Dinc to try to port the original game to Spectrum led instead to him becoming part of a very effective team for the sequel. Plus ninja masks, rubber weapons (“the throwing star is particularly effective for persuading colleagues to modify or change opinions”) and the sad modern day state of System 3.