ZX Spectrum Next Discussion

[Seven.FFF]

Email [email protected] Peter.

The packaging was tweaked for the Accelerated by adding foam blocks to stop the Next slipping under the well which was prising keys off when it occasionally happened. Fixing the tendency for the cardboard to rip was beyond the scope and budget for now, but that insert will be completely redesigned for ks2, so it’s possible extras will be manufactured.

Further to my SMS comment, also remember that these Nexts have already been manufactured before the lockdown and we know the factory has very limited storage space. It’s not inconceivable that they will need to be storing ventilators and other equipment soon, apart from their needs to keep the entire business running as a whole. We’re seeing this with such as Amazon too. You can still purchase non-essential items, but those are scheduled so they don’t impact the supply of essentials ones.

[Seven.FFF]

My surprise treat with mine was when playing with the included software I found the 'Nextel' rolling pages demo includes a piece of my Teletext art! I am officially famous.

I’m happy to include more of your art if you’d like! What is your teletext nickname, and which one is yours?

[PeterJ]

My only disappointment is that the internal cardboard was ripped.

In the corners of the cardboard support where the machine sits? That’s what mine was like.

Mark

[Morkin]

Ooh, you've got one of the upside down variants... Must be a limited edition...

[PeterJ]

Its the Australian edition [mention]Morkin[/mention]

[Alessandro]

Does anybody remember if next week they will begin sending the accelerated Nexts outside the UK?

I just hope there won't be any troubles with the lockdown given the situation here.

[R-Tape]

It's arrived! (Sorry Doug, sorry Ale), and it looks very sexy. I'm going to try it out properly this weekend.

I'm assuming that the chuntey aura has prophylactic properties that destroys all known and unknown pathogens. The big question is: does the Next have this aura?

[1024MAK]

Either clean it, or just wait 72 hours...

Mark

[PeterJ]

Indeed. The advice is to wash your hands after receiving any post.

[Swainy]

https://youtu.be/jkzK332KjOg

[PROSM]

https://youtu.be/jkzK332KjOg

A nice corned beef sandwich to that man!

[uglifruit]

My surprise treat with mine was when playing with the included software I found the 'Nextel' rolling pages demo includes a piece of my Teletext art! I am officially famous.

I’m happy to include more of your art if you’d like! What is your teletext nickname, and which one is yours?

You're welcome to use/reappropriate any of my teletext stuff. @andyuglifruit on Twitter is when you'd find most of it (if there edit.tf pages aren't included in the tweet, I still have them here). The Elite forward view was mine (and I'm credited on the info, so I certainly have no complaints!)

[PeterJ]

Email [email protected] Peter.

The packaging was tweaked for the Accelerated by adding foam blocks to stop the Next slipping under the well which was prising keys off when it occasionally happened. Fixing the tendency for the cardboard to rip was beyond the scope and budget for now, but that insert will be completely redesigned for ks2, so it’s possible extras will be manufactured.

Further to my SMS comment, also remember that these Nexts have already been manufactured before the lockdown and we know the factory has very limited storage space. It’s not inconceivable that they will need to be storing ventilators and other equipment soon, apart from their needs to keep the entire business running as a whole. We’re seeing this with such as Amazon too. You can still purchase non-essential items, but those are scheduled so they don’t impact the supply of essentials ones.

Thanks for the tip [mention]Seven.FFF[/mention]

I had a personal reply from Henrique, apologising and promising to put me on the list for a new insert.

How's that for service!

[Seven.FFF]

Nice one [mention]PeterJ[/mention]!

Mike C posted this on Facebook this morning:

“Accelerated Next's anyone? Batch 3 is looking good for a pick up today!

This batch starts with backer #2408 and goes through to #3331. We also have the web shop Accelerated orders in there.

Again, this is UK only with a tiny exception. There are some Ireland backer numbers in there too.

For Ireland, you lucky people with backer numbers from #65 to #2360 (inclusive) are on the good list :)

As with previous batches, pick up does NOT mean delivery is happening today, it means they are picked up, sorted and passed to the fulfilment company. Still, things could start arriving Tuesday onwards so keep your eyes and ears peeled!”

[DouglasReynholm]

This batch starts with backer #2408

I don't play the lottery much, this is what it must feel like to win!

Audible cheering coming from Chateau Reynholm

[Morkin]

What happened to #2407...?

[Seven.FFF]

Either a Base, Plus or Yours Truly already sent out, or a non-UK Accelerated not yet sent out.

Or a non-Next backer like Share The Love, or somebody who cancelled.

[R-Tape]

I've just followed the instructions to get the most up to date build at specnext.com/latestdistro. I'm getting this error:

Error reading file:
C: machines/next/enAltZX.rom

I've also tried installing the files from the github page too. Same error.

It was working fine when I received it (Accelerated). This was the working build:

|*System/Next*| **1.1** |RTM|
|*NextZXOS*|**2.02**|RTM|
|*Core*|**3.00.00** |RTM (RC5)|
|*Firmware*|**1.18**|RTM|

Any ideas? I've tried to avoid asking for help. Hope I'm not making a daft mistake.

[Seven.FFF]

This has happened to a few people Dave, and we’re not quite sure why. Perhaps something slightly wrong with the FAT structure of the image that SMS duplicated.

Please try to reformat the SD card with the official SD Assiciation Formatter program, using the full format (not quick format) option.

Then copy everything from the one of the zips on the latest distro page https://www.specnext.com/latestdistro/.

This fixed it for everyone who had this problem.

[PeterJ]

[mention]R-Tape[/mention]

For your information, this is the SD Card Association formatting tool that [mention]Seven.FFF[/mention] mentioned.

Will you let us know how you get on as I have not tried it yet. Cheers

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

[R-Tape]

Sorted! Thanks [mention]Seven.FFF[/mention]

Yep the difference was the formatter. I originally used the standard one that came with the PC. After using the one from here:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

And doing the full format it works. Woot!

[R-Tape]

Next daft question. Multicolour and Bicolour aren't being emulated. GLUF, Buzzsaw+, Old Tower, they have normal attributes, and are playing slowly (Increasing the processer speed does speed up the game, but still doesn't show multicolour).

[Seven.FFF]

Multicolour/Nirvana only works in VGA or RGB timings at 50Hz.

The reason is that HDMI or 60Hz both necessitate different video timings, and without a scanbuffer to hold and resample the picture, the timings of the Next have to be bent to have a different number of Ts per line, lines per frame, and frames per second in order to get close enough to the HDMI spec for most displays to display them. The first buggers up multicolour programs expectations that they’re running at exact 48K or 128K timings. The second leaves significantly less Ts per frame. My Nirvana games all crash at 60Hz because they overrun the frame, but Stormfish was ok last time I tested it.

The reason the Next doesn’t have a scanbuffer is simply that there isn’t room for one in the FPGA chip. It takes quite a bit of circuitry and BRAM to implement one.

This is actually a common problem other retro systems have too, as not all of them have a hardware scanbuffer chip or a large enough FPGA.

In the future it will be possible to address this. One possibility is to have a separate standard Spectrum core, without the Next-specific features. This has room for a scanbuffer. This core already exists as a proof of concept and works great, but the multicore infrastructure is still being worked on, so isn’t quite ready for general use yet.

Another possibility is to split the core into separate cores for VGA and RGB, which will also free up some room in both, perhaps enough for a rolling partial-frame scanbuffer. This one also needs some new infrastructure to make it truly seamless to switch between them.

You can also use RGB timings with a SCART cable and a RGB-SCART/HDMI convertor, if you’re unlucky enough to have an HDMI-only display.

For now multicolour games (including Denis’s Pentagon Nirvana) do work great in VGA and RGB modes.

[PeterJ]

Sorted! Thanks @Seven.FFF

Yep the difference was the formatter. I originally used the standard one that came with the PC. After using the one from here:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

And doing the full format it works. Woot!

I often used to have similar issues formatting SD Cards for the Raspberry Pi.

[uglifruit]

We hard the merit in the extra memory? I've ordered it because (well, you know ...) but it's there any software that makes use of it yet?