Classic '80s Console ZX Spectrum Reborn

New Sinclair Spectrum Vega microconsole can play all ZX Spectrum Games; Sir Clive Sinclair's company backs project.

Sir Clive Sinclair, the revered inventor and entrepreneur who launched a range of seminal home computers in the 1980s, has backed a new project to revive the ZX Spectrum brand.

His team's new invention is the Sinclair Spectrum Vega; a microconsole that comes with more than 1,000 ZX Spectrum games pre-installed. Resplendent with a familiar aesthetic, the Vega is a miniaturised version of the ZX Spectrum that is both a games controller and console in one.

Once hooked to television sets, the device is capable of running more than the 14,000 games developed during the Spectrum era.

Its creators, a UK firm called Retro Computers, seek £100,000 from the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to help commercialise the project and build the first 1,000 units.

Sinclair Research, the company responsible for the 1982 original, is a shareholder in Retro Computers.

Some 21 hours since the project launched, Retro Computers has raised about £6,800 of total funding. It will need to raise the remaining £93,000 within the next sixty days.

A ten percent royalty of Vega sales will go to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.