New Turbo modes: 14 and 28MHz

*Update: as of Jan 2018, the 28MHz mode is not working. We’ll try to fix this later with some tweaks to timings and update the firmware accordingly. Otherwise, 7MHz and 14MHz are working, with 14MHz presenting some bugs to users using membrane keyboards (PS2 keyboards are fine). The 14MHz membrane issue should be fixed shortly. 😉

The Next has just gained two extra Turbo speeds, 14MHz and 28MHz, on top of the original 7MHz mode — getting it as fast as it can possibly be. These new speeds will be available to all Spectrum Next models and boards, as standard.

We had these upgrades planned for a while, but since they were untested we decided to keep them under wraps until such time we were certain they worked fine on the Next hardware. After testing them on a few games and demos, we’re now comfortable to announce the upgrade, and sure the Next users have one more reason to love their computer.

While these extra speeds are not usable on every game (just try Manic Miner…), they work great for some 3D gems like Driller, Dark Side, Castle Master, Doom, Wolfenstein etc. But their primary use will be on new software, allowing much more power in the hands of developers.

Check out Victor giving the Turbo mode a quick spin!

And some 3D games as requested by the community: