Playing on the ZX Spectrum Next, with Jim Bagley

[PeteProdge]

As you know, I went to Play Expo in Blackpool two weeks ago, armed with a video camera. The resulting 30-min video - which stars our very [mention]R-Tape[/mention] - is now online...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWEvMe5UJno

At about 16 mins in, I play on the ZX Spectrum Next for the first time, with Jim Bagley looking on. We play his game, Baggers In Space, which starts off like JetPac, then goes a bit like Starquake. I'm not that good at it, so I have Jim playing it, plus I ask him for the latest on the ZX Spectrum Next.

There are also Q&As with various retrogaming people with an online presence, a lot of ZX Spectrum love in there. I also ask Quang from Asobi.tech about the possibility of his new creation Mao Mao Castle appearing on the Speccy!

[hitm4n]

Cool video, enjoyed that.

[R-Tape]

Good vid prodge.

I'm jealous that you got your hands on the actual Next. The buzz of a busy event is a good thing, but the downside is that it's hard to get on the more popular machines. It would have been nice to be able to have a proper try in a quieter setting, and without a queue building up behind you. Hopefully we'll get this chance come January.

I'm surprised the interviews came out—I couldn't hear myself think in there.

Chortle—bloody bleak ending to the vid though!

[PeterJ]

Great video [mention]PeteProdge[/mention], and nice to see [mention]R-Tape[/mention] in the flesh!

[Alessandro]

Great video, I wish I could have been there too.

By the way, R-Tape is completely different from how I imagined him!

[R-Tape]

Great video, I wish I could have been there too.

By the way, R-Tape is completely different from how I imagined him!

I normally wear clothes and don't have magenta skin

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Just watched the video, very nice.

I'm also jealous of Pete playing the ZX Next, seems an amazing machine! Grrrrrr!

[Andre Leao]

Baggers in Space looks wonderful

[PeteProdge]

I'm jealous that you got your hands on the actual Next. The buzz of a busy event is a good thing, but the downside is that it's hard to get on the more popular machines. It would have been nice to be able to have a proper try in a quieter setting, and without a queue building up behind you.

I can't quite remember the exact time of day I got on the Next, but there wasn't a queue for me and no hordes of people to battle with! It was quite easy to have a go on it. Seems to be early Saturday afternoon according to the video's timestamp. I could have tried the rubber-key-replica models, but - *whispers* - I've never liked the rubber key keyboards, I prefer any subsequent Speccy. You need to have proper keys, I don't like novelty pencil cases!

Hopefully we'll get this chance come January.

I'm not a backer, but I think I'll buy one, when/if they're available to those of us outside the initial backing wave.

I'm surprised the interviews came out—I couldn't hear myself think in there.

Ah, you see, I parked up quite a way up the promenade road (I don't think Britannia Hotels deserve any more of my money for their highly neglected venue) and planned to film the whole thing on that pocket-sized battered-but-working household camcorder (the one I used for Digitiser Live). When I got into the venue, I didn't realise how very dark and how noisy it was. I knew visually things would come out really murky and if I tried to grade it brighter, it'd be full of grain and quite pixellated.

Headed all the way back to the car, picked up my professional video camera - which resides in a shoulder bag, along with its accessories, including that hand-held mic (which I had connected with a 6-metre cable that I normally use for the microphone at my comedy gigs). I'd only meant that for the presenter links in actual Blackpool (Norbreck could be considered on the very outskirts). Really inconvenient to drag that around with me everywhere, and had to keep my feet near it when playing games... but yeah, I've had a lot compliments on the video and sound. It performs really well in low-light conditions.

The camera also records sound from its built-in mic (omnidirectional, picks up everything), but as any pro editor will tell you, you avoid using that, it's there to sync up with sound recorded from a better mic. And I can tell you, having listened to the camera's sound, the difference between the two audio tracks is like night and day. VERY noisy. That said, I didn't always have the hand-held mic in the right place, so there's a few spots in the video where I bring in the camera audio - a reluctant but necessary move.

Phew. Sorry, I can waffle on about video production notes for ages.

Chortle—bloody bleak ending to the vid though!

Heh, yeah, the thing about retrogaming is that it's quite out of character for me, as I look down on people of my age who bang on about Britpop and live their lives as if the 1990s never ended. I get tired of nostalgia being thrown in my face, all those toe-curling 'we remember when there were only three channels on TV, we drank from the hose, we got spanked by the teacher, we contracted rickets and scurvy, we handed over four groats to the landowners just for the privilege of fighting for King George' memes on Facebook. I think nostalgia has propelled this country into a rather divided state recently, but hey, enough of that...

Nostalgia is great as long as you don't live in it permanently. And I am TRYING to embrace a few modern games. Honestly.

Great video, I wish I could have been there too.

It was far better than I thought it would be! I got so carried away with filming, that I hardly touched any games on Saturday.

By the way, R-Tape is completely different from how I imagined him!

Same here! He came up to introduce himself to me, could have been anyone! And immediately after chatting to him, someone I know in real life - Jake L - approached me, I didn't know they were gonna be there!

I normally wear clothes and don't have magenta skin

And you don't pose like you're on the cover of that Nirvana album.

I'm also jealous of Pete playing the ZX Next, seems an amazing machine! Grrrrrr!

It's very slick indeed, although, when it kicks into all those colours and the pixels are fatter, it makes you feel like you're on an Amstrad CPC or a Commodore 64 instead of a Spectrum.

Baggers in Space looks wonderful

Yep, I'm glad it wasn't just JetPac-with-better-graphics!

And elsewhere in the video is a Tetris clone featuring a beloved character from the ZX Spectrum's early days, which [THREAD SHUT DOWN BY LUTON BUSINESSMAN]

[Spud]

Great video, I wish I could have been there too.

By the way, R-Tape is completely different from how I imagined him!

He's a bit speccy isn't he?

(dyasee what I did there?)

Great video, loved the guy dressed as Octav1us the most!