Sir Clive Sinclair to launch handheld ZX Spectrum with 1000 games

The classic ZX Spectrum computer wasn’t exactly large, but a color display for it sure was.

Vega+ will be marketed by Retro Computers, a Luton-based start-up in which Sinclair Research is a shareholder.

Costing £100 ($145) for the console only “perk”, the Vega+ sports a color LCD screen, 1,000 pre-installed games, stereo output, and a port for connecting to your home TV. It’s set up like most handhelds you’ve played, with a d-pad on the left and a bank of buttons on the right.

Unfortunately, Retro Computers hasn’t yet revealed exactly what’s inside the Vega+, and whether or not it has the processing chops to run anything other than Spectrum games.

“The present surge of interest in retro products inspired me to plan the Vega+ as a handy games console which can be played anywhere”.

The Indiegogo listing also notes that the Vega+ will also be capable of running all 14,000 of the sometimes brilliant and often weird 8-bit games that graced the original ZX Spectrum. There are plenty of Android handhelds like it, though, so it shouldn’t take a Herculean effort to put one together.

I’m talking as if this is definitely happening, but at the time of writing the IndieGoGo campaign is £4.5k off its £100,000 goal; I fully expect that to be met by the end of the day, if not in just a few hours.

Retro gamers will also be able to buy a special once-only limited edition number of units with three different coloured bases: red, white and blue (see below), in addition to the regular black base. If all goes well, you’ll receive it by September of this year – and there’s no reason to think that won’t happen.

If you grew up in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, you likely either had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum or a Commodore 64.