Think BIG and go RETAIL

[ugame]

Hi Guys,

Sorry if I'm late to the party. I've been catching up with all the retro computing stuff due to a recent pang of nostalgia that somehow forced me to pay 1989 RRP for a boxed Amiga 500 Batman pack on ebay, and I know that is just the beginning.

It would seem buying a Porsche was not enough for my midlife crisis. I assume it will end with an affair with a young blond, but at present, it's taken the "nostalgia tangent".

The more I learn about the Spectrum next, the more I like it. I was a +3 owner back in the day and I WILL be buying a boxed one of those at some point. But I am very tempted by the Next and VERY impressed by what you guys have done, based on what I've read of course.

You've ignored the emulation trend and gone for hardware recreation, and that deserves more than a round of applause and a handful of kick-starter backers. That deserves for you to GO BIG imho.

Are you planning on going full retail?

With all the "classic mini" products out there, there is clearly a market for this stuff, and your product, to be blunt, shits over all of those combined.

Now the elephant in the room is the "limited" spectrum following I guess. It was a UK hero. So if it were me, I'd probably play that strength and go for a retail UK product, aiming to be the "must have" gift for Christmas 2019, and leave the rest of the globe to order them online.

I'd LOVE to see this mass produced for the UK retail market.

I live in Australia, but I'll be there for Christmas next year. If this is sitting in PC World. or please god for the full nostalgia trip....WHS...I WILL buy one in store.

To encourage you, the "kids" that grew up with this, are now the mid lifers with the expendable income. You dont even have to "justify" it to the punters now. It's not parents buying it for their kids. It's the parents buying it for THEMSELVES. Or in many cases, it's the kids buying it for their parents lol.

I've rambled, but I just want to encourage you to maybe think bigger than you are. If the hype and the write-ups and the renders are all true, you have created something very very special, and I really want to see this in shops in time for NEXT Christmas.

[sol_hsa]

Wasn't "zx spectrum vega" the "speccy mini"? And that came out pretty much before the nintendo ones.. I have the impression that didn't fare too well.

But I'm pretty sure they won't have anything against going retail if you're offering to bankroll them.

[Sokurah]

Yeah, ugame, sell your damn Porsche and do your part

[SamusDrake]

Basically, to compete with the "minis" at the moment, the Spectrum would have to be emulated on what is essentially Raspberry Pi technology. The Next, being FPGA technology, is far too expensive for that market.

Its a shame because with a winning game pad that is SNES Classic quality, an emulated Spectrum 128K mini would rock hard. I think that once the Next is sent to backers that would be an ideal follow up product...especially if the Raspberry Pi itself could be used as the hardware - the Zero should be more than enough muscle for Spectrum games...

[Sokurah]

- the Zero should be more than enough muscle for Spectrum games...

But probably not for the Next ... which this is all about.

[EtchedPixels]

Can you make a ZX Spectrum Next for £10 ? If not by the time it's been packaged (kerching!), advertised (kerching!) deals cut (kerching!) and gone into a shop (kerching!) it's too expensive for the retro mass market.

Also in retail you get a high return rate as there is no cluelessness filter (most tech returns are perfect working order).

It's really really expensive to do retail especially for low volumes. There's plenty of reason everyone on the planet is trying to cut out as many middlemen as they possibly can, and the retail world is dying. It's not just about business rates.

[SamusDrake]

- the Zero should be more than enough muscle for Spectrum games...

But probably not for the Next ... which this is all about.

Yes. But this is also about it competing with the "mini" products on the market - in which the Next does not stand a chance at all due to its comparitively expensive price tag. Also, it would not fit the same retro theme because the Next is a "next generation" Spectrum machine, and not the Spectrum models we grew up with - the 48K/128K.