Sinclair ZX Spectrum targets retro fans — and U.S. gamers — with a new handheld console

A little over a year after reviving the ZX Spectrum brand with a microcontroller computer that plugs straight into your TV, Sir Clive Sinclair and Retro Computers have returned to Indiegogo to crowdfund the next incarnation of the retro games machine, and this time he’s bringing a handheld console to market.

For the uninitiated, Sir Clive Sinclair was instrumental in launching the U.K. gaming industry back in the 1980s with the popular ZX Spectrum computer, which was the main competitor to the Commodore 64 in Great Britain. We’ve seen a wave of nostalgia across the gaming realm in recent times, so it’s perhaps not so surprising to see the return of Sinclair with yet another console. Retro gaming is also a growing market, with publishers releasing collections and remasters of older games. Even GameStop, the largest gaming retailer in the world, is also selling older games.

And this matters to U.S. gamers because the Spectrum was a British product — it didn’t make its way to the States, so unless people imported the pricey computers or used emulaters to play the games, Americans missed out on many of these early PC gaming classics.

The original crowdfunding campaign for the ZX Spectrum Vega easily met its £100,000 ($145,000) crowdfunding campaign last year, and at the time of writing, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ is already a third of the way toward its goal. That said, it’s a flexible crowdfunding campaign, which means the creators can keep the money regardless if it succeeds or fails.

At £100 ($145) for the console-only “perk,” the Vega+ sports a color LCD screen, 1,000 installed games, stereo output, and a port for connecting to your home TV.

Above: Vega+

Above: Vega+

The crowdfunding campaign for the original Vega was launched without the direct support of Sir Clive Sinclair — Retro Computers sought his permission after developing their machine. This time around, however, the man himself is endorsing the console from the get-go, which will serve as a major marketing coup for any would-be doubters out there.