Commodore 64 - bear with me!

[5MinuteRetro]

So I was flicking through some old copies of Computeractive magazine, circa 1998, when I stumbled on this little story in the News section:



Now, I worked on this magazine back then but have only minimal recollection of this thing. Indeed, it was only this story that reminded me of the ‘Web.it Computer’.

It got me wondering if there were any ZX Spectrum reboots that I might’ve forgotten. I’m not talking about recent efforts like the Vega or Steve Wilcox’s Bluetooth keyboard thing. Nor do I mean Amstrad’s awful PC200 beast.

No, I mean bona fide attempts to reboot the Speccy as a hardware thing in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Anything?

[+3code]

The Sprinter and some other Russian clones, I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprinter_(computer)

[TMD2003]

Does the Amstrad e-mailer come under that remit? Allegedly it could load Spectrum games, somehow, though it was on a black and white LCD screen so I can't see how it would have worked...

[5MinuteRetro]

Does the Amstrad e-mailer come under that remit? Allegedly it could load Spectrum games, somehow, though it was on a black and white LCD screen so I can't see how it would have worked...

Off the wall but yeah, bang on - I’d completely forgotten about that. Pretty sure I secured the first review of that, too. Heady days.

[5MinuteRetro]

The Sprinter and some other Russian clones, I think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprinter_(computer)

Thanks. That wasn't on my radar at all. Doesn't really give me the 'feels' though. Probably a bit too Russian.

[Alcoholics Anonymous]

No, I mean bona fide attempts to reboot the Speccy as a hardware thing in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Anything?

Well that example has very little to do with the c64 but is rather an effort to capitalize on the c64 name. Such a thing was just a weak pc with an emulator bundled. There were several attempts to capitalize on the c64 name as the brand passed through several hands over the years.

The Amstrad emailer thing mentioned is probably a similar example using the Spectrum name. But things like the Sprinter and Pentagon models would not be similar as those would be actual (extended) spectrum hardware. I can't think of anything except that emailer thing that would be similar in the 90s/2000 time frame.

[1024MAK]

The only ZX Spectrum recreations from companies are those that you have already mentioned.
The only others are the Next and the various hobby or small scale systems.

Mark

[clebin]

Does the Amstrad e-mailer come under that remit? Allegedly it could load Spectrum games, somehow, though it was on a black and white LCD screen so I can't see how it would have worked...

If I was on The Apprentice and Alan Sugar criticised an advert I’d made, I’d remind him of this shocking effort:

https://youtu.be/iN21f7p-1sI

[akeley]

One of a more shameless nostalgia rip off efforts, this.