ZX Spectrum Heaven and Hell | Show & Tell | Vega+ Omni and more 

Thank you for watching. Did you put money on the Indiegogo Vega+ campaign? Did you receive your device and if so what are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you. Be sure to say hi to Mark from The Cave over on his channel ru-vid.com - Neil - RMC

Hi. just discovered your channel, i was born in 1958, in the eighties, for a short period i used a ZX80, which i bought in a electronics shop, later the ZX Spectrum 48 became a huge favourite after that, when i worked at a airline company, i bought games and VHS tapes in London (i live in the Netherlands) So the most fun i had, was with the Sinclair Spectrum 48, I also went to Sinclair events that were organized and shake sir Clive's hand once, and have a signed book, I used the cheat poke input progs. from the magazines to put the the games on Microdrive, to overcome the so called tick-headers protection on tapes, made a composite video exit on my Spectrum, made a Kempston centronics interface, which was easy. Some good memories ! and happy with your channel !

Ooo, my Just Speccy 128 ;) and some other my interfaces ;) I feel proud ;)

Thanks to Neil for having me over to the cave! Had a great time and got a free mug to boot. Just sorry that I had to show him Spectrum Hell whilst I was there!

I've personally never seen or touched a ZX Spectrum but after so watching so many ZX videos it's become like an old friend. ;)

The shine on the Vega screen - jesus how can you see anything in anything other than a dark room?!

So much ZX goodness in just one video... Very, very exciting stuff.

I've been holding out for the ZX Spectrum Next, but I might jump the gun and get one of those OMNI 128 HQ desktop machines in the meantime. Cool to see Mark on your channel!

A side by side overview of all the most common spectrum "clones" out there. It is just what we needed.

great episode guys.. mark is a legend :) love his channel. shame we couldn't see the omni working, it looks very impressive..

Great video, I have an Omni that is absolutely fantastic and encourage people to get their hands on. Just a bit of correction it's not FPGA based. It's essentially a Harlequin which is a clone where the ULA functionality has been reproduced by a collection of logic chips. It's essentially a 128 Spectrum ULA done there are no different cores just different ROMs selected by the dipswitches and it's portable cause it can be run on batteries !

That Omni looks great. I'd never even heard of it before.

Great episode. My very first computer was a rubber keyboard zx spectrum 48k, but only had it for 4 years as some of the keys stopped work properly. I blame Daley Thompson for that!! Then just put the board into a dk tronics keyboard for another couple of yrs. Then went for the plus 3 and it still works too with my old tape games to and most of them still work. One of those onmi's looks the business, might have to get one.

I’m an Amiga child, but still enjoy videos about the 8-bit home computers. An entertaining and informative video, thank you chaps!

What a lovely fella Mark is, he now has 1 new subscriber!

Great Scott, 8bit power once again! Plenty of interesting stuff here! Thank you and Glory to the the Cave :D

Ah, what a lovely, relaxing nerdy way to spend 30mins after work (Vega+ excepted, obviously) - That Omni machine is impressive, I'd love one of those! And Mark just picked up a sub!

It's channels like this that give me hope for the world. Social media has and is causing so many problems culturally and politically but this is the kind of stuff that it was meant to do and should be doing. Thank you for existing!

Great collaboration. Subbed to both.

Great team up guys, really enjoyed the video.

Awesome video, thank you guys!

Fantastic video guys :D

Great to see you here, Mark! :)

The problem with returning Kickstarter and Indiegogo stuff is, it's quite easy to successfully argue that you didn't buy a "product", and thus aren't covered by traditional consumer protection laws. What you do is invest in a concept, and are given a product upon completion as a reward. Even if they accepted the return of the device, they wouldn't be obliged to return your money.

Another great one keep up the great work.

Nice to see mark on your channel 💪🙂👍

Instantly transported back to 1984. 3d ant attack blew me away back then.

Love that Omni, might have to add that to my Christmas list

On the Just Speccy 128K the website says the connections is for ZX 48 membrane, will that keyboard in the Spectrum + case work?

I’ve been waiting for you to do a vid on this! You didn’t dissapoint! 🤘🏻

I was thinking the same thing re becoming a collectors item, at least the ones branded as Sinclair. I'll just stick with my ZX-81 original kit still in its box which I have displayed nicely (and several Timex Sinclair's loose) - I just love the design of that kit, both now and when I was a little kid.

It's sad that someone who had a license made such an inferior product compared to a guy that just loved the Spectrum and its community. It'd honestly be worth it to have the Omni be a higher price if it could get an official license, and actually have a mass produced run. At the very least he's done more to improve the Sinclair branding than the Vega+ ever would have.

Marks channel is well worth a sub,some cool and interesting stuff.

Another superb video great work chaps

Can you put the ULAPlus from the ZXHD device into the Just Speccy 128 ULA socket and then put an HDMI output on the case?

Loved that, Spectrum was technically my second computer but the ZX81 before it only lasted 2 weeks till I returned it and swapped for a Speccy. Whilst Amiga is my true love, I quite fancy one of the Omni systems :-)

Trivia piece: In Brazil the ZX Spectrum was introduced by a clone system named "TK 90x" produced by Microdigital Eletrônica Ltda, It had a build in joystick port and the optional 16kB or 48kB of RAM Edit: Originally i have mixed the names TK 85 is a ZX81 clone while the TK 90X and TK 95 are the ZX spectrum clones.

Some more information : 1) The OMNI128HQ is not FPGA-based. the processor is an actual Z80. The CPLD on board is for the DivMMC part. 2) it is based on the project Harlequin which is a ZX Spectrum recreation using "standard" chips instead of the ULA : the High Frequency video stuff is removed, the 16 RAM chips replaced by one modern ram and the freed room used for the ULA implementation. 3) OMNI128HQ is based on Harlequin128 (not Harlequin48) which is a recreation of the ZX Spectrum 128K. The sound chip used is a AY-3-8912 clone but you could use a real one. 4) the OMNI has a LiPo battery charger module, two 18650 battery-connectors and a switched power-supply regulator (instead of the 7805 which used to heat quite a lot). It's internal electronics is 5V-based (not 3.3V as it's the case with most FPGA-based systems) and is nearly fully compatible with the ZX-Spectrum peripherals (although you may need to turn off the DivMMC part) 5) The HDMI out is planned as an add-on module. There is a connector to plug the module with the required signals inside the OMNI but as is, without the module, the HDMI connector isn't connected to anything. I own two of these, one awaiting for the second part of the shipping to become a laptop version (the lead time for the screen is bigger than the lead time for the desktop version so you first get the desktop and can already use it while you wait for the screen) The Spectrum NEXT is FPGA-based and it's not really a spectrum : the Z-80 core has added instructions (which could bring some incompatibilities), there is a lot of extra RAM, new video modes, several sound cores, a specific Basic with lot's of extras, a different clock speed, ... The "board only" version is already out for the backers and can be fitted in a ZX-Spectrum case. It's a nice project but definitively not a spectrum...

Very cool vid, Thankyou.

That thing about the video out on the Vega being doubled up like that with the odd and even scanlines sounds like a stride problem. I don't know about the actual video formats involved, but I know bitmap strides. If you have a 256-pixel wide screen (like the ZX) and let's say each pixel is a byte, your stride would be 256 bytes. If they're xRGB, your stride would be 1024 bytes -- four bytes per pixel. The actual stride and format doesn't matter much, though. What I'd imagine is that the video output is at double the stride it should be, whatever the right stride might be, which would put each odd scanline on the right, next to the even scanlines, and then run out after 96 lines total, giving you an effect comparable to four-player splitscreen. Instead of drawing a 256x192 pixel screen.

What was the Game Gear doing on the table and what is the handheld device next to it?

I never had a Sinclair machine back in the day, being a Commodore owner, but I'm very glad these modern day gadgets exist. Apart from the Vega+ (minus?), of course.

Joking aside, I may well have all the spectrum games on cassette tape. Nice review!!!

Great video really enjoyed it 🙂

09:03 My PSP with FUSE installed makes for a brilliant Spectrum handheld.

Can I get other analog formats out of the Omni? I live in the US so RGB displays are uncommon.

I have a +2A with a DivIDE and a recreated zx spectrum with a raspberry inside ( with a rereopie image with full library )

Mark fixes stuff. Self explanatory, subbed.

Great video.

I had an uno & sold it on as I purchased a mist, Think I want an omni now

Great Spectrum GOODNESS!!!!

They made a module that simulates the legendary SID chip, just like for the ULA chip.

Does the spectrum Omni come with games or do you have to download your own roms?

The sad story of the Vega+ which even more sadly will be a collectors item going for ridiculous money. Such a pity that this acheivable crowdfunder didn’t make it. They screwed it up. Nice to see the Omni and the other gear. Although a BBC B man myself, you have to love and acknowledge the Speccy.

Can you feature Ben Heck's portable ZXSpectrum?

I have a Amstrad E3 E-mailer.. :) I was thinking of putting a ZX Spectrum Vega inside it, well it did play Speccy games, I made a simulator of the E3 software instead in Flash so its clock works in Adobe Air SDK on Android and looks like the real thing, I might make a video of it sometime, I made a sim because the real hardware will not be around forever and most of them deactivate themselves.

Hiya. How much does the Omni cost? I looked on the site but so no mention of it at all. :)

I have the standard Vega + 16GB Micro SD card and a sh!t load of games which is OK but I'm sooooooooooooo glad that I didn't back the junk Vega+

I didn't finance the Vega+, but the original Vega was pretty cool actually.

So we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly ZX Spectrum recreations

Great double act. more please 👍💐🎂

Nice. If I didn’t think I’d be awakening Frankenstein’s monster, I’d fire up my 128k.

I do have a ZX Uno - comes with the VGA daughter board, a sexy see-through case and is the 2MB version. I have found loading tapes to be very hit and miss - although that could be just me? I originally bought it for the ZX Next option, which I couldn't get working and then found out that they'd (ZX Next guys) basically filled the FPGA so getting it on the Uno was a no-no unless someone was going to minify the firmware. We'll have to wait and see on that one. It does also come with a Sam Coupe emulator! ;)

3DOs ! I have an FZ-1 with a dodgy CD drive, couldn`t fix myself, can he fix that ?

i really wish the zx spectrum next was still in production, kinda of a shame as i would love to own one but i was alas late to the party when it launched

Still waiting for my Vega+ lol. Think it's still in the post.

Oh Mark, you haven't aged a day!

Sounds gouda Neil. We need to see your pro gaming skills in action playing those timeless classics for sure. I would recommend Magician Lord first. 8^) Anthony..

I just wish speccy didn't have attribute clash. And sound that didn't interrupt cpu cycles.

Hi Mark!! Your the best 😀

That ZX Omni looks really neat! Being American, I can't really get my hands on a Spectrum that easily/cheaply, and then getting over the power and video hurdles would be a pain in the ass. So to see a modern clone like this with HDMI and all that is really very neat. Maybe I'll look into buying one!

Now we certainly know that Neil is having fun as usual.. It's enough to make anyone jealous. Nice work as always bro. Keep up the great work for sue. 8^) Anthony...

What's the game called Mark is playing on the Vega+?

Awesome stuff, I'm gonna have to look into emulating some Spectrum stuff, since I never had one here in the states, and space for me is starting to become an issue with retro collecting.

Always a pleasure Neil. 8^) How are you enjoying the SNK Arcade Classic Vol.1 game for the Playstation 2 bro? Anthony..

When you plug all that shit into an original 48K spectrum, you've practically made what look likes a polaroid camera :D

05:27, 07:54, 09:05 - Is there someone on the floor above you walking around? Or is it someone coming up/down the stairs to/from yours?

Dont think they sold more than 10 of these in America, remember seeing them on the shelf and they had dust on them.

Why is everyone using HDMI when you can use DP without paying license fee?

ZX Spectri!

*@**16:40** and they said Apple invented 'dongles' in MacBook ;)*

As I recall, the first model of Spectrum came with either 16 and 48k (RAM).

Only Amiga and C=64, best retro! 💪 RULEEEZ

That quib about insurance premiums didn't age well for poor Mark.

That was brilliant Neil 😀 hi to mark too and I think the Vega+ is shite too😁😁😁😁😁Kim😁😁😁😁😁

About the ZX Spectrum ROMS, as far as I know, they were made available for free by Amstrad (or it's successor ?) for use with emulators. Not sure if it apply for harware clones.

Just one note, the Omni isn’t FPGA based, it has a real Z80 in there :)

Live stream & now this? Ohhh Ambassador RMC, you do spoil us with your -Ferrero Rocher- videos !

The Vega Plus is a test version, not a retail version so it would have problems with it and how its made, they made about 400 test versions but I have only every seen 2 on RU-vid so do not knot know if thats real or not, it was not worth what you paid for it, someone should take the thing a part, it not like the real thing(Coke anyone.. :), and its a test version that does not work as intended because its not the finished product so blanks they get from the factory. Take it apart, I like to see if it has a Alwinner A20 in it(same as THEC64 Mini) or not or anyone that has one and if thing was built by hand, soldered by hand.

please develope the hand held version

What are you going to do with all these Speccy clones you 2?

The production quality of your videos are really great :) Something just a bit weird to me is when you shake your guests hands in front of the camera, surely you have already done that before you turned on the cameras :P Obviously not important, just a bit funny to me :) your content is awesome.

Neil seemed to look very preoccupied for the rest of the video after publicly condoning downloading roms 😂😂

I don't believe the omni is FPGA it's a recreation with discrete logic chips like the last machine you showed. It's really amazing btw, and a great solution if you aren't in PAL country.

"take me to heaven, Mark" - said with such longing after the travesty of the Vega+

Mark blows up stuff, lol! Well it is fun to blow stuff up...

Attack of the Spectrum Clowns aaaaaaahhhh!!!!! I meant clones. Must be the most cloned system out there. At least the new one is going to break the direct clones mold a little boasting a new system and Spectrum clone in the one device.

Man.. I had such a ha..on watching this..

It is ashamed because I think the Vega + is an attractive handheld!

Retro Computers *Limited* indeed...