Glad to see it has a good home now! That one also has the RasPi accelerator installed, in case it didn't say anywhere.

Now you can Horace & The Spiders on an widescreen tv!!

I am also one of the soon-to-be-happy owners of KS2 SpecNext. I found your channel not through this video, but by the ZX Spectrum Assembly playlist. I just started watching it, but i can already see it would be very helpful for me - thanks for all the effort you put in your videos!

Nice video ! Im getting a ks2 speecy hopefully in a couple of months. Look forward to seeing ur videos on this great little machine.

You don't have to press space after the line numbers :) The space will be inserted for you when you type the keyword. Saved you one keypress per line! :D :D

23:55 Wow some of these games look great! Fun video, thanks 👍🕹

Can't wait to get my KS2!

Nifty little machine!

I'm eager to receive my KS2 Spectrum Next. The unboxing of the KS2 is going to be spectacular is they're keeping the box design and stuffing a closed secret so we can all experience it around the same time. Cant wait but we should get it in the next couple of months. 🙂

Got mine from the last production batch yesterday! Yeah! 😀 What these guys accomplished is phenomenal!👏👏👏 Due to the Chip crisis they replaced the FPGA by its successor with much better capabilities! Hence the project was heavily delayed. But boy, to be patient was worth the time! 👍👏👏👏

Very interesting. I have a KS2 coming in the next few months. Looking forward to seeing more content about this system on your channel.

@cottonfoo

11 ай бұрын

Me too, looking forward to it.

@TransCanadaPhil

10 ай бұрын

yeah I pledged for the KS2 3 years ago now. I'm so looking forward to finally getting this in the next few months hopefully. I never paid for a computer 3 years in advance before. :-)

This was very generous! I couldn't give mine up!

Nice! Can’t wait to finally get my KS2 one. Been a long wait!

@SpeccyHorace

10 ай бұрын

The latest KS2 delay really is a kick in the balls

@andrewholt5659

10 ай бұрын

@@SpeccyHorace Yes it is, but what can we do? I had almost forgotten that I paid for this Kick Starter. Has been my first and last one - never again.

I bought Alien Girl and ran it on the Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB in the Vilros keyboard/touchpad hub with an 8bitdo N30 wireless mouse and a controller. I run Berryboot Retro Pi mostly. It's like a stealthy black C64.

I have that same DELL monitor on my desk right now - watching this video on it!

@Firefoxfifty

10 ай бұрын

Those 4:3 Dell Monitors work well with the Spectrum Next, I use one too with mine.

The “overscan area” is actually more to do with the limited video RAM of an 8 bit computer. Standard definition video is 480 line (NTSC) or 576 line (PAL) interlaced. Half that (so you’re just doubling the same frame at the full field rate) and you get 240 or 288 lines. The standard Spectrum video output is 256 x 192 pixels so you have 48 or 96 vertical lines that aren’t being used, and if you want to retain aspect ratio you have a bunch of pixels on the left and right of the screen that aren’t being used either. Quarter VGA (320 x 240) would have needed 10.5KB just for Spectrum style attribute graphics and 37.5KB for 16 colour bitmap graphics, which is a big chunk of a 48K machine’s available space. The 256 x 192 format was chosen because it needed only 7K of RAM, plus the fact that a 3.5MHz Z80 couldn’t handle memory that quickly anyway. It was also simple to implement in binary logic so that the gate array was relatively cheap. Overscan was more of an excuse rather than the primary reason.

I had a TS 1000. 16 k ram pak. So frustrated with the rampack moving and losing everything I finally bought a surplus keyboard and put everything in a case soldered. Then I was on to a C-64.

When will a quad core pie zero be compatible as an accelerator?

If you want RGB/VGA I think you hold down the r key then turn on the machine, and for HDMI hold d (for digital) it's in the manual anyway. You only have to do this once (unless you change monitors).

@slithymatt

11 ай бұрын

Thanks, I'll try that (and maybe RTFM, too)

@stephenelliott7071

11 ай бұрын

@@slithymatt I didn't want to quite put it like that, but yes lol...Another tip is to get a magnifying glass for some of the tiny text in that manual too! Unless you have reading glasses ofcourse which might help.

@128eggz

11 ай бұрын

Or grab the pdf of the manual from the website.

You are funny... AhAhAh!!!! Old times... old nights

QAOP & SPACE....Who's with me?! :)

@slithymatt

11 ай бұрын

I'd say there's a valid argument there. Especially for left-handed people!

@tedcrilly1

11 ай бұрын

@@slithymatt Target Renegade, there was no other way! 😆

@ChrisWalshZX

9 ай бұрын

I'm good with that although to be honest, my "go to" is actually IF2 Joystick "67890" or (less so after I got my +2 in around 1987) cursor keys "5678 0". I'm hardcore speccy! 🙂

I'm so pleased we are going backwards not so pleased how much this thing is ....my 48k was 60 pounds brand new back in the day

Can you attach a physical floppy disk drive to it ?

È uno spettacolo bellissimo! C'è anche il manuale uaoo!!! Qui in italia non si trova su Amazon Like😁👍🏻

Great to see that they sticked with D-9 and not some "SNES Because I want more than one button" solution, by those we shan't name. (yeah still salty about that remark).

TZX are zipped and that it to hard for an 8 bit Z80 to unpack so they are loaded by via the PI Zero. The PI Zero converts the TZX to sound and the Next loads the sound is as a tape. You can speed up by running the Next at 14 MHz (with 28 MHz the pitch becomes to high so that usually fails). Once running switch back to 3.5 MHz via the NMI menu. You should not get a tape loading error, that is strange. I'm puzzled why you got that with 2 different games. Unless maybe the chosen model is wrong an incompatible or you had other things connected to the input too? Ultimate Play the Game programs can be a problem because they use a debug output port which happens to be same as the bank switch register used on the 128K and later. The Spectrum needs to be in 48K mode with bank switching disabled. It is not a Next thing, it is also a problem with the Spectrum 128k and later. Fur sure there are Z80 snapshots that load instantly of the ones you tried. For a lot also TAP files exists but TZX might be required for custom loaders.

ok, looks like a very interesting machine, capable of running amazing things! But how to classify it? The old ZX Spectrum is obviously a true representative of the "8-bit" category but what about this new "Next"...would it be an "improved" 8-bit? Or maybe a 16-bit, 32-bit or even a 64-bit with an "8-bit" varnish "?

@slithymatt

10 ай бұрын

It's still fully an 8-bit Z80-based system, it's just a slightly modified Z80 in FPGA, but still very much an 8-bit processor in a computer with an 8-bit data bus.

@lazlogurzogonas878

10 ай бұрын

@@slithymatt I agree! looking strictly from a computational point of view you are totally right! because the programming codes of all software written specifically for the ZX-Next are written to run on an 8-bit CPU similar to the original Spectrum, differing only in a higher clock speed! But... on the other hand, all the new graphics modes are implemented based on 16 or 32 bits (FPGA logic) processing and "mixed" with the "true 8 bits" graphics generated by Next's z80, so I think that by definition Next is still a true 8 bit machine t but with additional 32-bit graphics processing support, something similar to what happened in the late 1980s with NEC's PC-Engine, a console with an 8-bit CPU aided by 16-bit graphics coprocessors, but still so by definition an 8-bit machine!

How can I get it? Really good. Great job...

@slithymatt

8 ай бұрын

That's the hard part, for now. There are 1000s of units being shipped now for people who pledged to the last Kickstarter in 2020. But I fully expect a good portion of them will end up on eBay at a big markup at first. Luckily there are clones out there that can run the same firmware

@edmundoeisfeldrosa5945

8 ай бұрын

I'll be looking for.@@slithymatt

I realize that the architecture of FPGA alone was used for the sake of cost, but had I been the one in charge of that project, I would have used an external Zilog EZ80 for the main CPU, with the Graphics, I/O, Sound, and clock system chipset on the FPGA. But that's just me. YMMV.

@stevetodd7383

10 ай бұрын

But doing so would ruin Spectrum compatibility. The EZ80 doesn’t have the same cycle count per instruction so code would run differently even at the same clock speed. You’d still need an FPGA for the video at a minimum, and probably the audio and decode logic too. The likes of the Agon Lite don’t try to be compatible with existing hardware so can get away from such details.

@benbreeck3363

10 ай бұрын

@@stevetodd7383 but the ratio of the Z80's relative clock efficiency to that of the EZ80 is a known factor. They simply need to clock the EZ80 to 546,875 hz for legacy backward compatibility mode.

@stevetodd7383

10 ай бұрын

@@benbreeck3363 it’s not that simple. Down clocking the EZ80 gets you to the same average speed as the Z80, but much old Z80 code relies on exact cycle counts to work. The EZ80 has single cycle instruction loads and pipelining, so cycle exact emulation will never work correctly.

All the graphics mode types? The original speccy only had one graphics mode. The TS 2068 had more and I believe some of the Eastern Bloc clones might've had some too.

@stephenelliott7071

11 ай бұрын

Yes but this isn't an original speccy. As an example the remastered Magnetic Scrolls adventure games like the Pawn uses Amiga graphics in 256 x 192 and the text with a 512 x 192 mode to make the text more readable.

@andrewdunbar828

11 ай бұрын

@@stephenelliott7071 Oh I should've put in a timestamp. I commented well before we got to the actual new graphics modes. I think he was talking about combinations of colour attributes but I'm not sure.

@slithymatt

11 ай бұрын

I meant UDG characters, block graphic characters and straight bitmap graphics, all available on the original Spectrum. Of course, the Next has a lot more!

@dans.8198

9 ай бұрын

@@slithymattUDG characters are not a graphics mode. There is no text nor tiles mode on the original Spectrum. All characters are drawn as bitmap graphics.

I didn't know Sinclair died in 1986, properly because of the C5 plopped, they owned 7 million in debt so sold the Sinclair ZX Spectrum IP to Amstrad, that Sky now owns, Amstrad payed 5 million for it so the Amstrad ZX Spectrum's were clones, well they would be because they are not made by the original company, like how they make consoles and computers that are ARM based now, theey are based on FPGA because that was out 20 years ago and was the first SoC(System on a Chip), like the C64 DTV that came out in 2005, first time I saw a FPGA, its just a black blob on the C64 DTV pcb.

I want one, but there is no way to buy them, they don't have any contact information, no store and their forum does not work. The forum will never activate my account, never.

@128eggz

11 ай бұрын

Sales were/are purely kickstarter based for the most part. When KS2 is delivered there may be a small number made available via the store - they keep some back from the production run in case of any breakages/screw ups in shipping and release them when they are sure they are no longer required. At least they did after ks1. Realistically your best bet is ebay - especially after KS2 is delivered. You could keep your fingers crossed for a ks3. If you don't care about the case there are clone bare boards that can be fitted in reproduction 48k cases.

*promo sm* 🙃

Matt, please spend some time learning the nuances of the Next. You have made a number of incorrect statements about it. Check the ports in more detail (including the mini HDMI and micro USB ports which are actually from the Pi Zero you have inside), learn why VGA didn't work on your first attempt and the several running modes which explain why Manic Miner and JetPac didn't work, etc. Your audience will thank you for that.

@carvoloco4229

11 ай бұрын

Maybe you can elaborate on that?

@128eggz

11 ай бұрын

@@carvoloco4229 This is going to be long, but this is what I spotted (as a KS1 Next owner): The Next isn't really a general consumer focused plugin-and-play product like e.g. TheC64 Mini/Maxi. It's a recreation of the original hardware, warts and all, plus enhancements and with some workarounds for the modern environment it finds itself in. The initial tone heard at first start up is the Next starting to cycle through its video output modes. The "ideal" mode is 50Hz VGA (called mode 0) which most closely matches the video timing of the original Spectrums (so games/sound will play at the correct speed, and modern software using timing tricks will work as expected) - however many monitors can't cope with that, fail to sync and give a black screen. So the Next slowly cycles through a number of alternatives on first boot, slowly ramping up the speed until (hopefully) the test card appears on screen. This is a *very* common stumbling block for new users - I had thought that the manual covered it well but now going back and re-reading Chapter 01 Introduction it could have been clearer. It will be interesting to see the changes made to the Kick Starter 2’s manual. Matt seeming gave up on the first beep, had he waited the Next and Monitor may have been able to negotiate something that would work (although probably not at an “accurate speed”). If he wants to try again on pure VGA, hold V when turning on to restart the process for VGA. Incidentally the Next doesn’t output over VGA and HDMI at the same time - it’s one or the other. There are similar timing problems in HDMI land because the timings needed for an “accurate” Spectrum are outside of the official HDMI specs, so many TVs and Monitors wont like them. There’s a similar try-it-and-see process that can be started by turning on and holding D. And as a further aside the HDMI out is labelled Digital Video Out because of the out-of-spec output it produces - it wont pass HDMI certification like that and so couldn’t be labelled HDMI out. And as a further aside to the further aside, the second Digital Video Debug port on the back is connected to the Raspberry Pi - originally intended to the the HDMI (compliant and certified) output for the system, but now is basically unused. For the time being at least. JetPak and Manic Miner. Those appear to be TZX file’s he’s loading rather than TAP images. There are likely two things at play here. TZX files are meant for emulators and are essentially a compressed version of the audio on a tape - they take significant computing resources to unpack for use - something the base Next (without Pi) doesn’t have - but the Pi accelerator does. When the Next (with Pi) loads a TZX file the file is decrunched on the PI and the audio piped back to the Next to load. The raster bars and sound seemed very fast - slowing the load speed down may fix the tape loading error. TAP files are a simpler and safer bet for loading. TZX is for accurate software archival. Had Jetpac managed to load I think there might still have been a problem. Remember the Next is a re-implementation of the hardware, warts-and-all. Loading Jetpac on an original Spectrum 128 results in a broken game (you can hear the sound but see none of the action). There were some hardware and firmware changes between the original 16/48k Spectrums and the later 128k model (and even more changes in later revisions). Jetpac would need to be loaded in at least the Next’s 48k mode where a number of workarounds are applied. If it’s particularly fussy software you can hold space at boot and select a straight forward 48k Spectrum implementation/”personality” ( with no Next features). It really is a beautiful machine, supplied with a wonderfully detailed manual. However I would never describe it as just plug and play and so couldn't honestly recomend it for somewone who just wants to indulge a bit of casual nostalgia (i.e. TheC64 market). Matt doesn't have the "advantage" of having grown up with the base system and being familiar with the 'gotchas' that existed then - and which have been carried through to now. Mix in complications of trying to make 40 year old designs work with modern peripherals and it gets...complicated. lIMO Fackie's reponse while accurate was not particularly helpful. Hopefully this one is.

@coolbeans4u

8 ай бұрын

@fackie please spend some time learning the nuances of communicating with human beings.

pcbway have nothing to do with the spectrum next. please avoid false shit!

@pe1dnn

11 ай бұрын

I wanted to comment the same thing. It might be a fine company but they have no relation to the Next team at al, none whatsoever.