ZX Spectrum to be resurrected as Bluetooth keyboard
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 and discontinued in 1992, will be resurrected in the form of a Bluetooth keyboard.
Mobile games company Elite Systems, which repackages retro games for use on mobile devices, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise £60,000 by 31 January. At the time of writing, £14,200 had been raised.
The recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum will consist of a Bluetooth keyboard, initially for use with iOS and subsequently for Android and Windows phones and tablets (as well as for PCs and Macs), housed in a reproduction ZX Spectrum 48K case.
The device will be used to play an array of ZX Spectrum games, that can be downloaded as apps from the iTunes App Store, Google Play, the Amazon App Store and the Windows Store.
It will also be backwardly compatible with existing 'ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection' apps – such as Skool Daze, Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner – either by default or via an in-app purchase.
Elite first announced its intention to relaunch the ZX Spectrum for a generation of nostalgic gamers in 2011. It has since been granted a licence to use the ZX Spectrum registered trademark and to replicate the form-factor of the 48K Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
The company has already developed a functional prototype, and is now preparing for the physical prototype, which will have authentic rubber-key play-control. If there is sufficient demand, the company will then launch an initial production run of 1,000 units.
"It’s anticipated that in the region of half of the £60,000 initial goal which we have set for this appeal will be expended upon the first 1,000 production units," said Elite co-founder Steve Wilcox.
"This represents the single biggest pre-release cost (and risk) associated with the Bluetooth ZX Spectrum. It is a cost (and risk) to which we will not commit until the demand for the Bluetooth ZX Spectrum is known."
Elite hopes to bring the Bluetooth ZX Spectrum into production by the Spring of 2014.
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