Are you saying the ZX Spectrum is higher end? It's certainly far below the C64 in graphics, sound, etc.

Depends, my youth is fulled with ZX Spectrum memories and zero about C64, because in the Iberian Penisula and UK it was nowhere to be found.

If I remember correctly the Spectrums could display more simultaneous colors than the C64. Not sure about this.

Sound was improved in the +2 and +3 series, although it wasn't SID like.

Heh heh, I know the Spectrum was a big deal in Spain. Not so much in South America. There's a lot to love about that computer, but the C64 was technically superior: I had a C64 and my friend had a Speccy, and I remember games looked better on the C64. Of course, the Amiga blew both out of the water, but I didn't know anyone who owned one...

> If I remember correctly the Spectrums could display more simultaneous colors than the C64. Not sure about this.

Pretty sure it was the other way around. The Speccy had a limitation where some graphics modes had colors in horizontal "bands", so games had to be designed around this limitation. And when a sprite crossed bands, it changed colors! This didn't happen with the C64.

> Of course, the Amiga blew both out of the water, but I didn't know anyone who owned one...

I did, when time came to move into 16 bits, I felt unlucky 386SX PC owner when joining the gaming/demoscene parties we would spend weekends doing.

On the other hand, having a PC payed out thanks to Commodore running the company into the ground.

I've seen colour clash fixed in a recent game. Shame it's 30 years too late!

Awesome. Which game, out of curiosity?

I must say the color clash and that weird "in color, but oddly monochromatic" vibe of Spectrum games has a certain charm.

Googled it, think it's an engine called Bifrost*. Here's a game that uses it: http://retroasylum.com/knights-demons-for-zx-spectrum-releas...

At the higher end of -reissues-

Yes. However, because there's nothing like a 35-year-old platform war, I feel obliged to add that the C64 was not so overwhelming when it came to vector games or other things outside the 2D-sprites-and-scrolling sweet spot it was so capably optimised for: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-face-off-zx... . Which also turned out to be pretty much the DOOM of the Amiga foretold, come to that.

That's amazing...if I don't like Kickstarter, can i buy one after the campaign is over?

Also, will it come with a good documentation? Things in the 80's often had phenomenal documentation that was designed to teach and not just point out the location of a few pins.

I never used the Zx before. What is the user experience like? When you boot up, can you bring up a BASIC prompt or type in Assembly?

https://www.specnext.com/the-shop-is-now-live (Jun 2017)

the Next is available for pre-ordering here on the website. There are, though, a couple of changes we made to keep things fair for everyone: first, the shipping date is a month later than for the KS backers, they will get their boards and machines first; second, the Next now has a 20% margin over the original price

https://www.specnext.com/shop

ZX Spectrum Next board (devkit) £119.00 + VAT

ZX Spectrum Next computer £210.00 + VAT

ZX Spectrum Next Accelerated computer £275.00 + VAT

Except, as far as I can tell, all of them are not available for pre-order either (at least not anymore).

The official word on further availability seems to be "likely but can't yet confirm": https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=696

Out of stock! :( :(

Just to mention https://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ , probably a good point of entry into the present-day Spectrum community.

EDIT: As to the manual, see this FAQ entry: https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=540

The older Spectrum48k boots directly into a (rather bland) BASIC screen editor, the later Spectrum128k started with a simple UI menu.

You can see here: http://floooh.github.io/virtualkc/

(click on the hamburger menu and select "system..." to boot into the Spectrum48k and 128k models)

Thank you!