Sir Clive Sinclair crowdfunding new ZX Spectrum computer
UPDATE: £100k target smashed after just two days. First limited edition sold out.
UPDATE 03/12/2014: The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign is a success.
After just two days its £100,000 goal was met.
The first 1000 limited edition Vega computers are sold out, Retro said in an update. However, a second limited edition production run of 3000 units will take place around two months after the delivery of the first limited editions.
A full retail launch is planned for before the end of 2015, with a £100 launch price.
ORIGINAL STORY 02/12/2014: British video game legend Sir Clive Sinclair has returned with a crowdfunding campaign for a new ZX Spectrum computer that plays all the Sinclair Spectrum games.
The Sinclair Spectrum Vega is a new micro-controller computer, based on the influential Spectrum products of the 1980s, that will be sold for under £100. It comes with 1000 games built-in, but you can download more from the internet for free. Its creators say that to their knowledge the device runs over 14,000 games developed during the Spectrum era.
Retro Computers, a Luton-based start-up of which Sinclair's company, Sinclair Research, is a shareholder, is behind the project. It's launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise £100,000 for the manufacture of the first 1000 Sinclair Spectrum Vega computers in the UK, and to cover company running costs.
The Sinclair intellectual property is owned by a company called Sky In-Home Service (a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting), which grabbed the rights from Amstrad. The Vega is under license.
Retro said it was speaking with the owners of software rights to Spectrum games to donate a combined software royalty to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. The royalty is 10 per cent of the selling price per Vega computer.
