Sir Clive Sinclair in tech tin-rattle triumph

£160k raised in three days for ZX Spectrum Vega+ console

Sir Clive Sinclair has in just three days tin-rattled his way to over £160,000 towards production of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+, described breathlessly as "the world’s only hand-held LCD games console with 1,000 licensed games inside that can also connect to your TV!!".

Following the success of the similarly crowdfunded Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega, Sir Clive and his Retro Computers colleagues have enlisted Rick Dickinson - designer of the original ZX Spectrum computers - to put his stamp on the Vega+.

The Indiegogo blurb says:

In this new conception of what a games player wants from their games console, our design team has taken advantage of major advances in technology to achieve big cost savings, by replacing most of the electronics in the early Sinclair computer products.

Instead we have chosen a fast but low cost micro-controller with software designed and developed by a leading world expert on Sinclair Spectrum technology. Our software is used in clever ways, allowing us to build this exciting product which can run every Spectrum game that exists, 14,000 or more of them from the past, most of which were developed during the years when some 5 million of the original Sinclair ZX Spectrum were being sold.

And the low component cost means we can afford to keep the price of the Vega+ very affordable, especially for a product with 1,000 licensed games inside for you to play as soon as you open the box.

By "affordable", Retro Computers means 100 quid, which is what you'll have to pledge to get your hands on a Vega+. There's still a month left to run on the fundraising campaign, after which the console will go into production (in the UK, natch) for delivery in September. ®