archive.worldofdragon.org

This looks quite nice - almost fully funded within the first 24 hours:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18 ... ctrum-next

Disclosure: I'm not a backer or in any way connected with the ZX Spectrum Next project!

Ooh err that's a lot of money. I guess mostly allocated on injection mold tooling. The new case design is a work of art and really sells it. I can see why it has generated so much enthusiasm.

I've toyed with the idea of creating a replica Dragon main board and got as far as capturing a schematic into KiCad. More useful at the moment though would be a replacement keyboard. I'll get round to it one day...

There's a Spanish development, the ZX-Uno, that started as an implementation of ZX Spectrum models and evolved into supporting many more machines, Like the CPC, the Oric, Atari... you name it.

As I'm good friend with the creators, I'm telling them to implement the Dragon

Let's see how long it takes.

I'm really thinking about getting one of them, but I'm having to check my money and my (immense) time constraints.

I have a ZX-Uno, which is excellent value and very capable (more cores and more Mhz than the Next!), but it's a bit like the Pi - a board with lots of wires hanging out of it. But then again, if it has a Dragon core added...

You can get a case for the ZX-Uno and also an optional SCART or VGA output cable.

If you're interested I can tell you where to get them.

Since worldofdragon doesn't have an off-topic forum, but the Oric was mentioned above, I'll just put this link in here -- which looks like a pretty cool Oric game new for 2017 and based on the cult TV show Blakes 7!

http://www.defence-force.org/index.php? ... me=blakes7

The same site also has several other homebrew projects for Oric including a Space 1999 game!

Pere knows the Defence Force guys and worked with José A. "Jojo 073" González on Tiburon, so there is a tenuous Dragon connection.

Rick Dickinson has done an outstanding job on the Spectrum Next case design. What's inside it though? Is it an FPGA?

Also I gather they've added new graphics modes etc.?

Bosco wrote:Rick Dickinson has done an outstanding job on the Spectrum Next case design. What's inside it though? Is it an FPGA?

Also I gather they've added new graphics modes etc.?

It's an FPGA - "a bit bigger than the Uno's". It's a bit hard to keep track of the specs, but here's a reasonably up-to-date link: http://devnext.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page

CPU: Definitely up to 14 Mhz (but the new video modes don't work any higher than 7 Mhz), possibly a max speed of 28 Mhz (but they're having timing issues, so maybe not). Extra CPU instructions to speed up graphics handling.

Video: Standard ULA, Timex modes, ULAnext (a 256 colour bitmap with scrolling and sprites, also another lo-res 128x96 layer in 256 colours). BUT: No ULA+ or Radastan modes.

Audio: 3 * AY chips.

Other: 1 or 2 MB RAM, SD card, long filenames, extended BASIC supports new features, 2 joystick ports, optional wifi module, optional Raspberry Pi interface, etc.

Current ETA is March or April for the full system.