All of this is accessed using the membrane
keyboard, with the option of using a PS/2
external keyboard. The built-in keyboard,
though, is leagues ahead of the quality of the
Sinclair and Amstrad original designs, and
rightfully so – keyboard tweaks have been
thebiggestreasonforthetwo-year-plus
scheduleovershoot.
AswiththeoriginalSpectrum,mostgames
canbeplayedusingthekeyboardora joystick.
It’sherethatanotherdifferencebetween
theZXSpectrumNextandthe‘miniconsole’
emulatorsfloodingthemarketmakesitself
apparent:there’snosupportfora USB
controllerhere.Instead,yougettwo9-pin
ports compatible with either the common
Kempston standard – the same used on Atari
joysticks and the overwhelming majority of
8-bit home computers and consoles – or
the far rarer Sinclair standard. For games that
support a mouse, the PS/2 port on the back
pulls double duty.
The ZX Spectrum Next is capable of running
original Spectrum titles, loaded either from
tape, disk, Microdrive or through TAP and
DSK images stored on the microSD card. It’s
compatible with 48K and 128K games, and
even has a mode for enabling the timings
required to run software designed for Soviet
knock-off systems.
Fire up some of the software written
specifically for the Next, and it’s clear that
this is more than a blast from the past. Next
software can take advantage of hardware
sprite acceleration, widescreen display modes,
mouse support and 256-colour graphics
modes. This is showcased to particular effect
in the bundled platformer Dreamworld Pogie, aNetZXOSis impressive.Basedona similar
menusystemtothePlus-modeloriginal
Spectrums,it letsyouquicklybrowsethe
contentsofthemicroSDcardtoloadgames
andothersoftwarepackages.Thereare 30
games, numerous demos and a range of
utilities bundled as standard, and you can switch
to a tape-loading mode for an external cassette
deck. It also offers a command-line interface,
its own enhanced BASIC programming
environment and Sinclair’s original 48K
BASIC. There’s a calculator too, and even the
option to boot into the classic CP/M operating
system, although doing so requires the manual
download of some additional software.gamethatwhizzesacrossthescreenata speed
to make Sonic the Hedgehog’s 16-bit Mega
Drive outings blush.
Despite the delays, it’s not entirely finished.
A planned menu to allow for up to 32 different
cores to be loaded into the FPGA, allowing
the ZX Spectrum Next to impersonate any
device from an Acorn Atom to a Frogger
arcade cabinet, is the most notable unfinished
part. At present, only one additional system
can be loaded at any time, and doing so is far
from straightforward.
The only other mark against the Next is the
price. Crowdfunded at £175, rising to £215 for
the Plus and £230 for the Accelerated (all inc
VAT), the Next was already beyond impulse-
purchase level. Its second run may cost even
more, with pricing on the website listed at £252
for the base model and £327 (both inc VAT) for
the Accelerated.
A crowdfunder for the next production run
is planned, but had not launched at the time
of writing; more information is available on
specnext.comCanonicalcommits to
Raspberry Pi supportCanonical has confirmed plans to support
the Raspberry Pi family of single-board
computers across all future releases
of Ubuntu Linux. ‘Going forward, new
releases of Ubuntu will automatically
support the latest Raspberry Pi device
models. We will also strive to make
Ubuntu available from day one for
any new Raspberry Pi model,’ says
Canonical’s Galem Kayo. ‘Our future
support efforts will be centred around
advancing computing education,
fostering the digital maker culture,
improving developers’ productivity and
finallyacceleratingenterpriseinnovation.’N EWS I N BRI EF
The Next supports 9-pin joysticks in both Kempston
and Sinclair pin-outsNext-specific games, such as Dreamworld Pogie,
really showcase the hardware’s new featuresThe keyboard is miles better than
any of Sinclair’s original keyboards