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 W
ENTERING THE
NEXT DIMENSION
elcome to our very first issue of Next Magazine. Incredibly, the
Spectrum Next has been in our lives for over seven years now,
and I was one of the original backers for a board only and a
boxed computer. It was an exceptionally exciting time that invoked many
of the feelings I had when I received my boxed Spectrum 48K when I was
thirteen.
As is always the case when you get a new console or computer, it’s
the availability of software that will make or break the platform. With the
successful delivery of a second batch of computers via what is known as
“Kickstarter 2”, there now seems to be a flurry of development activity for
the Next, with many new titles being released and even more in development
being regularly announced. This seemed like the best time to launch a new
magazine to cover this exciting new platform. Many requested that we cover
the Spectrum Next in our sister magazine, CRASH, and we will continue to
do that. However, many of you felt that the Next deserves its own publication,
including us here at Fusion Retro Books.
As you will see within these pages, we will primarily review games,
but there will also be regular features in each issue, along with tutorials by
leading names in the Spectrum Next community. And, beginning in the next
issue, if you fancy creating beautiful music on your Next, we will feature a
tutorial on how to use NextDaw. There will also be a subscription option for
the magazine, which we plan to produce bi-monthly. Watch out for magazine-
themed binders in the near future.

Enjoy the issue!

Chris Wilkins

NEXT MAGAZINE 3
 NextMagOS>
Contents SO...CIAL
Features Get your Next online and reap the benefits.
Columns
Previews
Reviews
Tutorials

32
issue 1 april 2024

Editor
SPECTRUM EVOLVED
Chris Wilkins Classic games updated for the Next generation.

Contributing Writers
Craig Turner
Gordon King
Paul Davies
David Saphier
Adrian Sinclair
TJ Ferreira
Chris Wilkins

Design & Layout

Ben Honebone

Next Magazine Logo

David Perkins
Ben Honebone

Cover Artwork
Trevor Storey

Proof Reading
6
Chris Wilkins
Paul Morrison

THE NEXT WAVE

NEXT Magazine Where we’ve been and where we’re going.
is published by
FUSION
RETRO
BOOKS
Dencer Drive,
Kenilworth,
CV8 2QR.

No material may be reproduced in

whole or in part without the written
consent of the copyright holders. The
opinions and views of correspondents
are their own and are not necessarily in
accordance with those of the publisher.

© Fusion Retro Books Ltd.

22
4 NEXT MAGAZINE
 HEAD OVER HEELS
The glorious Next reimagining of the isometric classic reviewed.

18

inside
ENTERTAINING, INFORMING, AND EDUCATING
WITH THE SPECTRUM NEXT COMMUNITY

features REVIEWS
6 Spectrum Evolved 18 Head Over Heels

22 The Next Wave 38 Bean Brothers

pREVIEWS 42 Celeste

46 Battle Tanks
16 Xeno Brigade 2
50 Crater Crawler
16 Tank War Next

17 Captain Square Jaw

17 International Ikari Plus

tutorials
32 So...cial
columns
52 Programming The
14 TJ’s Corner Spectrum Next (Part 1)

NEXT MAGAZINE 5
NextMagOS>
Feature

spectrum
spectrum

evolved
evolved

6 NEXT MAGAZINE
 CRAIG TURNER
In the wake of Sinclair’s demise as the
final decade of the 20th century rolled in,
Spectrum fans would forever be left with
the lingering feeling of “What if...?”. The
brand was milked for its last profitable
dN
pounds under Amstrad’s administration
before falling out of favour for the ad-
vancing march of the console competition
from overseas.
ever did the UK’s poster child of
the British micro revolution see any
kind of successor that might have
carried on the legacy of the decade-success-
ful Speccy. There was no new machine with a
more powerful architecture that could evolve
VERTICAL classic: STAR FARCE (Mastertronic, 1988)
SHOOTER evolved: WARHAWK (Rusty Pixels, 2020)
NEXT MAGAZINE
the familiar gaming experience to compete
with contemporaries. Any hope disappeared
with the rapid leaps in console capability
and the micro market eventually succumb-
ing to the rise of the IBM PC.
Fast-forwarding the best part of three
decades saw fans finally get to see just
where that next generation Sinclair might
have taken their gaming persuasions. With
at least five years of indie and Homebrew
experimentation on the Spectrum Next
in the bag, it’s easier than ever to show
newcomers how far we’ve come. It’s time to
take a look at how the platform’s expanding
library now offers Spectrum gamers a taste
of how the games they loved could have
evolved if someone had taken a brave step
forward thirty years ago.
A
rriving in the original Speccy’s
twilight years, Mastertronic deliv-
ered a solid starship shooter that
did its best to deliver arcade pace, craft, and
landscape detail in as smoothly-scrolling
stages as the humble hardware could
handle, all with smartly designed graphics
that offered a decent dash of colour without
too much of the obligatory attribute clash.
Though a competent and well-reviewed title
that showed the Spectrum was capable of
creating fast-scrolling arcade experiences,
even a casual side-by-side comparison with
similar titles on competing systems showed
a certain choppiness and lack of clarity
in busy moments, chiefly because of the
limited palette, lack of hardware sprites and
inadequate native scrolling.
Conversely, the fast scrolling shooters
of the Commodore 64, such as Hewson’s
Uridium, that actually saw a Spectrum port,
directly highlighted the hardware differ-
ences, whilst titles like Firebird’s Warhawk
never made the leap to a Sinclair system at
all, despite ports to the other 8-bit micros.
Original developer Michael ‘Flash’ Ware
would nevertheless remedy that situation in
7
 2020, thanks to the processing power of the
Next that embarrasses not only the original
Spectrum, but its old competitors and even
many of the 16-bit systems of the past.
Taking everything that made the original
game great, then multiplying the number
of enemies, stages, graphical layers, and
musical accompaniments, the Next iteration
of Warhawk from Rusty Pixels gave the platform
its definitive vertical arcade space shooter, just
in time for the arrival of the first complete pro-
duction Next systems. With power-ups, original
music, huge boss battles, and tricky-but-fair
bullet hell moments, it’s every bit the arcade-
comparable shooter fans of the genre could
hope for.

ACTION classic: CYBERNOID (HEWSON, 1988)

PLATFORMER evolved: DELTA’S SHADOW (SANCHEZ CREW, 2020)

H
ewson’s futuristic cavern crawler
is fondly remembered by many
a Spectrum gamer, lauded with
90%+ reviews in magazines of the time
thanks to its colourful presentation, tactical
platforming action, and cerebral routing
strategy. Piloting the titular ship to recover
equipment stolen by the space pirates and
collecting different power-ups to handle the
varied enemy firepower is still a very enjoy-
able experience to play when revisiting the
system today.
What does become obvious from repeat
visits, however, is that as expansive as the
maps were, experienced players wished
there could be more. Not only that, but a
little more variety in the action might have
broken up the gameplay a little, and as great
as the sound design was on every platform
the game made it to and no matter which
you prefer, it’s hard to argue the fact that the
SID harmonies of Jeroen Tel on the Com-
modore 64 added so much more depth and
resonance to the atmosphere.
When it comes to the Next, the chance
of seeing another Cybernoid may be unlikely,
owing to the rights still changing hands for
potential monetising of the IP elsewhere in
the present day. However, the talented guys
at prolific Next developers, Sanchez Crew,
did pull influence from another IP to bring one of the best games to be found on the Next
a futuristic action platformer to the system. to date.
Effectively a third entry in the Power Blade Taking control of special agent Nova as
series, albeit without the name attached, he battles an evil corporation welcoming an
Delta’s Shadow manages to not only offer alien invasion, players must navigate a series
a solid title in the genre, but incidentally be of Metroid-like technological dungeons,

8 NEXT MAGAZINE
combating robotic defences, seeking out
upgrades to a powerful exosuit, and eliminat-
ing a series of stage bosses to save the planet.
Where it shines over more humble games like
Cybernoid is in the variety of attacks, character
movement, navigation potential using the dif-
ferent power-ups, superb graphics and music,
and even a departure from the platforming with
PUZZLE classic: TETRIS (MIRRORSOFT, 1987)
evolved: CROWLEY’S WORLD TOUR (RUSTY PIXELS, 2019)
NEXT MAGAZINE
a third-person speeder bike stage, options
to simulate a classic Spectrum graphical
style, more stages, and even an expansion
pack adventure featuring a new character.
Action adventures of old could only dream
of having the power or storage space to
achieve this level of polish.
E
ven if the story of the West’s acqui-
sition of rights to bring Tetris to the
wider world is now legendary, few
releases outside of Nintendo’s console and
world-changing handheld port have attained
legendary status in their own right. The
game is undoubtedly addictive and, thanks
to its relatively easy design and coding, has
proven to be a popular title on every system
that saw an official release, but a simplistic
puzzle game needs that something extra to
give it some agency of its own.
Enter, then, an unofficial ‘4 block shape
line eliminator’ from Rusty Pixels, offered
as a free digital download for early Next
owners, featuring their mascot
blob character, Crowley, to
boost the presentation. As the
game progresses and players
level up, an on-screen illustra-
tion shows him travelling around
the world, with the in-game
music mixing and switching
to new themes that fit with the
location in question.
With a choice of controls,
and a clean playfield design with
distinguishable, coloured blocks
making faster gameplay easier
to follow, it’s leaps above the
rather ugly backdrop and low
contrast shapes of the classic
computer’s official Tetris game,
with a better replay factor for
puzzle addicts.
9
 RPG classic: ROGUE (MASTERTRONIC, 1988)
evolved: VRADARK’S REVENGE (SANCHEZ CREW, 2022)
was starting to look very dated in any guise,
especially when compared side-by-side with
console contemporaries. Had a Sinclair suc-
cessor arrived, there’s no doubt that the genre
would have been forced to evolve to keep up
with the competition. In 2022, Sanchez Crew
finally gave a glimpse of exactly how that evolu-
tion may have turned out.
After creating their Roguelike Vradark’s
Sphere in 2021 for the Spectrum Next, they
rapidly followed it with this fantastic sequel.
With the first game best described as a facelift-
ed Rogue adventure with similar movement,
combat, and thematic elements, ‘Revenge’

T
he OG of dungeon-crawling moved into the more modern definition of an
action RPGs was so iconic that action RPG, with comparisons to the partially
upon its arrival in 1980, it not isometric, top-down 2D adventures of The
only spawned ports to a myriad of 80s Legend of Zelda or the Mana series, as were
micros, but the premise forced reviewers so popular on Nintendo consoles throughout
and gamers to coin the term “Roguelike” for the early 90s. With the hero wizard capable of
similar strategic role-playing adventures that fluid 8-way movement and able to accurately
appeared in its wake. Though technically attack with a range of upgradable magic by
a sub-genre of the role-playing genre, the analog means, thanks to the Next’s PS/2 mouse
cautiousl dungeon crawling, item searching, support, and varied detailed landscapes both
and limited line-of-sight mapping promoted in and out of dungeons and shops to purchase
stealthy progress, careful routing, and a little upgrades, it’s every bit the “proper RPG” that
imagination to fill in the simulated action appeals to RPG fans of the pre-3D era.
on computers that would have a hard time
illustrating the combat and
atmosphere.
Whilst very well received
by gamers as a step above text
adventures and very static turn-
based strategy games, it was a
far cry from the more visual and
cinematic action RPGs that
were to become so popular in
Japan or were starting to cross
genres when powerful consoles
started to find their way into
British homes as the decade
drew to a close. Rogue was still
being enjoyed in 1988, when
the Spectrum got its iteration
of the game, by a nation that
primarily continued to game on
their trusty micros, but the title

10 NEXT MAGAZINE
ARCADE classic: KONG (OCEAN, 1983)
evolved: R.A.M.S (RUSTY PIXELS, 2020)
G
iven the arrival of video games in the
home was a direct result of the rise
of the video arcade in the late 70s,
it’s natural that the main goal of the earliest
games and, indeed, the driving force behind
most mainstream game creation until the end of
the century, was to bring the arcade experi-
ence home. With modest cost-saving home
hardware obviously unable to match the power
and creation costs of the cutting-edge arcade
technology and custom hardware it needed to
achieve that quality, replicating those experi-
ences was always going to be a mixed bag.
Even when the coding capability produced
respectable experiences and publishers were
able to afford the license to release those ports
for home systems, the term ‘arcade perfect’ for
the best of them was thrown around too often
in an era where that was clearly never going to
accurately describe what you got to play. More
often than not, in the early days, it was the case
that developers couldn’t afford the license or
the expectations of a licensee in a home port.
Instead, they knew it was a more bankable bet
to release an unashamed clone that may risk
the irk of more observant publishers if they
caught the attention of the wrong person, but
was far more likely to earn good money as an
acceptable substitute and fly under the radar,
with buyers fully content with their ‘cheaper’
NEXT MAGAZINE
alternative when not at their local arcade.
Such was the case with Kong, released
by Ocean Software in a less litigation-aware
time and perfectly competent in its own right
as a watered-down Donkey Kong. It wasn’t
the first and certainly not the last title to rip
off those stellar golden age arcade games.
Fast-forward to today and any semblance
of compromise can easily be missed, as
the team at Rusty Pixels leaned on a few
decades worth of history and development
in preserving great gaming by creating
R.A.M.S. - Rusty Arcade Machine Simula-
tor. Instead of creating near-perfect ports
or slightly modified versions of the code to
suit the Next’s more-than-capable hardware,
as they did previously with Scramble,
this package takes the real arcade ROM
data of several major games such as
Frogger, Pac-Man, Galaxian, and of
course, Donkey Kong, and interprets
them in a way that can be processed by
the Next’s programming language. The
exact proportions, enemy behaviour, and
gameplay aspects of the arcade originals
are fully preserved, with minor display,
palette, and AY sound interpretations
to suit the system’s native hardware. It
may have taken over 30 years, but the
ultimate goal of ‘arcade perfection’ on a
Spectrum is finally realised.
11
 RACING classic: SUPER HANG-ON (ELECTRIC DREAMS, 1986)
evolved: BIKERS DELUXE (CAVERN GAMES, 2021)
challenge, showing Next gamers what should
have been from a newer generation Sinclair
machine.
Originally released simply as Bikers, this
impressive motorbike racing title features full-
colour tracks from the third-person perspec-
tive, massive racer sprites, trackside scenery
scaling, and rapid terrain changes to finally
bring the much-needed arcade speed to a
Spectrum racing game. Though not as bril-
liant as the sound design on some other Next
games, players do get engine sounds, collision
sounds, and even a varied musical accompani-
ment to each of the varied stages to add to the

A
ttempts at bringing racing games experience.
with real pace to the original Though the initial release had some issues
Spectrum varied greatly, from ‘tech- with slowdown and difficulty complaints,
nically impressive considering’ to ‘outright Cavern also demonstrated another major
disaster’. Ports like Sega’s OutRun sadly dis- improvement over games of old by releasing
appointed on delivery, with ridiculous frame a Deluxe patch digitally and later replacing
rates and messy graphics, despite promising the basic game with this version for physical
magazine preview mock-ups. Others could release, addressing both of the issues and
really impress and offer competent, nippy making the game even better for consumers; a
gameplay, such as the port of Taito’s Chase much simpler method of product improvement
H.Q.. Falling somewhere near the latter, offered by the cost-efficient and user-writeable
Sega’s popular arcade motorbike racing nature of the SD software medium.
sequel made a decent
transition to the modest
Sinclair home micro, with
decent graphics, comfort-
able control, a zippy pace,
and even a little colour to go
with the decidedly slick bike
racing challenge.
That said, really getting
that illusion of speed most
gamers of the day expected
from a motor racing title
could never happen on a
system that leans so heavily
on a mostly monochrome
screen and can’t push
those pixels around fast
enough with scaling effects
to offer the excitement of
their arcade counterparts.
Cavern Games answers the

12 NEXT MAGAZINE
NextMagOS>
Column
TJ’s Corner
I am TJ Ferreira from Northern California, and you can see what
Sinclair Next shenanigans I am up to on my YouTube Channel.
Shaking my head as I write these first few
lines, I continue shaking my head (feel a
tad dizzy now) and asking myself, “how did
I get here, what the heck is going on, and
how could someone like me be writing for
the very first Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next
magazine?”
I
WHAT THE HECK IS
GOING ON?
O
K OK, yes, I am very excited,
as you can tell from the above
statement, but also quite amazed
that this bloke (me), TJ Ferreira from the
United States of America, not exactly a
Mecca for the Sinclair line of computers, has
been asked to write a column for this new
magazine. I mean, “do folks in the USA even
know what a Sinclair is?”, some may and
have asked me before.
Well sure, there are some, and stepping
back to the early 1980s there were a few
more, but here in the USA, it was mostly
about other 8bit computers like the TRS-80,
Atari 400/800, Commodore Vic & 64, Apple
IIs, and a few other oddballs, with the
Sinclair computers taking up a very small
sliver of that pie.
14
y www.youtube.com/macsociety
Now, some may think an oddball is not a
good thing, but I think different. I act different.
And... I know different. Many of these oddballs
were awesome computers, some strapped back
with less common features that the big boys
offered (probably to keep those prices really
low), to some just doing things a tad different
from the norm, carving their own niches as they
developed their product lines.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, did the young
me even know what a Sinclair computer was?
Surprisingly I did, and what seemed a second
choice for my first computer that I could buy
back in 1980 has become a computer platform
that I “almost” love more than any other, even
my original Atari! Let me explain.
n 1980, I was ready to buy my very first
computer. I had many choices, and
believe it or not, the Sinclair was on
my radar, as I had seen some advertisements
for this slick-looking wee-little white number
called the ZX80. It sure looked cool to my young
8-bit eyes, but I did my due diligence, exploring
all my options. You see, I had to buy my own
computer with my own money. Back in a time
when kids like me (not even a teen yet) worked
for money, I was a busy little dude.
Paper routes here were commonly handled
by young kids: waking up super early, wrapping
the papers with rubber bands, loading the
papers into double-sided packs we slung over
our shoulders. Then we either walked or rode
our bicycles, throwing said papers right at the
front doors of fine folks who would read the
newspapers with their cup of coffee. We worked
hard; I know I did with two paper routes, and
after many years of saving, I had about $1000
to spend.
After buying many computer magazines
to read reviews, and going to stores such as
Macy’s (yes, Macy’s sold computers), Kmart,
NEXT MAGAZINE

actual computer stores and the like, I honed my
choices down to two computers - the Atari 800
or the Sinclair ZX80. Two VERY different com-
puters! Now, you must be shaking your head in
amazement! And yes, I get why you would, but
let me further explain.
In 1980, the Atari 800 with a Cassette
Recorder was about $1200 off the top of my
memory. This was above what I had saved and
a boatload of money for a young kid like me. I
earned every penny of it and worked hard, but
man, you know how many other goodies I could
buy for $1000! As for my second choice, the
Sinclair ZX80 was just a tad under $200 US. I
could buy the computer and tons more games
for it AND have leftover $ for BB Guns, Wrist
Rockets, and tons of Candy! Haha.
I was in a pickle choosing what my first
computer would be, but went with the fun
factor of what I could do with the one I would
end up with (the Atari 800 won this kid’s heart).
However, I could not fully afford it after all. I was
$200 short! If memory serves, I chose the Atari
800 after seeing one at Macy’s and then started
to bug my parents to help me buy it. I seem to
remember they pitched in the $200+ to get the
cassette recorder and even a game or two.
Did I choose well? Hell yes! As much as I
love Sinclair now, there really is no comparison
between an Atari 800 and a Sinclair ZX80. We
can end that argument here; the Atari had color
and sound! Done. I mean, eye candy and kids
go hand in hand.
I
made the right choice back in 1980, but
how about fast-forwarding to 2017 and
some shenanigans going on in the retro
computer scene? Some blurb about a Spectrum
Next, with all sorts of social media and online
NEXT MAGAZINE
eye candy opening my eyes, I started to
have 8-bit dreams all over again, and some
new loves were stirring my heart. These 8-bit
dreams were not coming from my beloved
Atari but instead a sexy black little number
from the UK - the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next!
I started to stay up to the wee hours of
the night finding anything I could read about
Sinclair, specifically staying abreast of all
the news about the new Kickstarter that
would come for buying the new Speccy Next
Computer. Yes, I already started to get the
Speccy Fever, and the only cure was to buy
a cowbell. No, no, dummy, the only cure was
to dive deep into a new Rabbit Hole and buy
and play with many older Sinclair Computers
until that point in time I could buy a Next!
I fell in deep, and hard! I now own most
of the older vintage Sinclair computers and,
as of today, own two Speccy Next (Kick-
starter #1 and #2), and even created my own
video game for the Next, Invasion Of The
Cloud People – The Next Storm.
T
he story about the first game that
I made will come another day, as
I have run out of space here, but
wanted to say I am thankful, SO thankful,
that Chris Wilkins asked me to write for this
magazine. I have many stories to tell. even if
I am a funny little bloke from across the pond
where Sinclair did not rule but somehow
found a place in this old man’s heart!
15
 Next g a me
NextMagOS>
Previews
previews
WITH GORDON KING
E
X ON R
B IGE
DA 2
data
Dev: Les Greenhaigh (Greenman Software)
Date: TBC 2024
Link: https://bit.ly/3TumrOI (Xeno Brigade)
L
es Greenhaigh from Greenman Soft
contacted CRASH to say he’s busy
I
working away on Xeno Brigade 2
for the Next. This highly anticipated sequel
combines the tactical depth of Laser Squad
with elements of Lords of Chaos.
Continuing the saga from its predecessor,
players will delve into the relentless struggle
of the Xenos as they strive to reclaim their
dominion across varied landscapes, including
lush jungles, ancient Aztec ruins, treacherous
mines, and futuristic space stations. Expect
immersive turn-based combat mechanics
and engaging gameplay experiences tailored
for solo adventurers and multiplayer battles.
Look for its release later in 2024.
What do you mean you haven’t heard
of the first one? It’s only a hyperlink away
(above).
16
KNA T WAR E
N TX
data
Dev: Steve Baker
Date: TBC April 2024
Link: https://elegor.itch.io
n Tank War Next, players assume
the role of a battle tank commander
assigned the thankless task of pen-
etrating hostile enemy territories. The primary
objective is neutralising enemy turrets and
clearing the path for subsequent assaults
to secure and assert dominance over these
contested areas. To advance, players must
demolish multiple turrets on each battlefield
while contending with threats from enemy
tanks, infantry, and hazardous minefields.
The game features seven distinct maps
and six thematic environments (grassland,
desert, winter, swamp, moon, and lava),
offering an array of battlegrounds for explora-
tion. One of the key goals when designing the
game was to allow new maps and themes
NEXT MAGAZINE
to be easily added - DLC folks, DLC for our
Spectrum Nexts! It’s expected to be released
around April time. If this wargasm sounds like
your mutton, check out Steve Baker’s website
via the link to the left.
CAIA TP N SQR AU E
W
AJ - E HT
E M R T V O INA A
V
DA ENR UT ES
data
Dev: Michael Moore
Date: TBC Summer 2024
Link: https://bit.ly/3PxRRSZ
M
ichael Moore has been yelling up to
the penthouse at CRASH Towers
about the game he is currently
working on as the graphics artist. We’ve been
watching its progress on Facebook for some
time, and it looks very lush. It’s a fast-action
platformer which is sprawled over 50 glorious
levels (containing no fewer than 180 rooms)
where you control the main protagonist,
Captain Square Jaw, who is busy exploring
the mysterious environments, avoiding booby
traps and bashing all the various monsters he
encounters.
The magic word has also been used in
the game’s description - it’s a Metroidvania-
style game! That will pique many of our
NEXT MAGAZINE
readers’ interests. What really stands out in
this game are the lovely large sprites - for a
humble Sinclair computer, this looks remark-
ably 16-bit. Expect to see this released
around summertime this year in both digital
and physical formats.
INE
T RNIT A LANO
IKRA I S
ULP
data
Dev: Jimmy Biscuits
Date: TBC
Link: https://bit.ly/4akbSEA (Alpha Demo)
W
e all love a good tribute, don’t we?
We can’t accuse it of plagiarism
when it pays homage to an iconic
game. After chuckling at the cool name,
we decided to check out this early alpha. It
instantly transports you back to the day you
may have first laid your hands on a rotary
controller. It looks very much like the game
that inspired it, and the scrolling is mega-
silky. Instantly, we thought, if only Rambo on
the Speccy was like this.
The game is in its very early stages, and
there isn’t much to see aside from running
along the landscape and shooting, but with
no enemies to kill. Instead of the vertical
screen orientation, the game is in standard
horizontal mode. This has the potential of
being a great shooter for the Next. If you
want to try the demo, follow the link above.
17
NextMagOS>
Review
data
Dev: Michael “Flash” Ware,
Simon Butler, Space Fractal
Pub: Rusty Pixels
Date: Out Now Price: Free
Link: https://bit.ly/3VtLN1z
Keys: Redefinable Joy: Multi-button
Review: Gordon King
When you look at the Spectrum’s voted
lists, Head Over Heels is a consistent top
40 contender. I’d have said top ten in that
last sentence if it wasn’t for CRASH of
yesteryear’s placement at number 30. It
has endured well over the years, and the
original is just as playable today as it was
in 1987. And with a handful of remakes, its
popularity has remained strong since its
conception.
W
hat makes this isometric game
one of the system’s most popular
titles? Simply, it took the isometric
genre that Ultimate showcased and made
it infinitely better. With over 300 screens
and different worlds to visit, liberating these
enslaved regions and retrieving their stolen
crowns always seemed daunting. But we all
18
fell in love with the dynamic
duo that is Head and Heels.
Each character has their own
ability (jumping and gliding for Head
and running fast for Heels), and the pièce de
résistance is the union of both, which takes
a little time for that initial meet-up as they are
separated in prison when the game begins.
Head can climb atop Heels when they are in the
same room, and then they combine abilities -
the best of both worlds. This sets the basis for
solving the puzzles and accessing areas within
the game. Sometimes, you need both charac-
ters together, whereas other times, they must
separate again, only to rejoin at a junction point
further down the line. And with a simple press of
the ‘swap’ key, you can jump between charac-
ters as many times as your heart desires.
When the news hit that Michael “Flash”
Ware, Simon Butler and Space Fractal were
NEXT MAGAZINE
 joining forces to create a version of this
for the Next, the community took notice. If
you’ve perused issue 19 of CRASH, especial-
ly the insightful interview with Michael, you’d
know of his dedication and tireless efforts
towards crafting the definitive version of Jon
Ritman’s classic game. This new iteration
of the game not only retains all the original
rooms but also introduces an entirely new
area for exploration. All in all, with lots of spit
and polish (and probably a lot of swearing
from the team), we now have a well-expand-
ed game with over 500 rooms to explore.

Criticism
GORDON KING

R
ight from the outset, with the lovely
re-done loading screen, a wave
of nostalgia hits you like a career-
ing juggernaut, and the theme tune is like a
familiar voice that waggles its wet tongue in
your ears. Even before you begin the quest,

NEXT MAGAZINE 19
 modern options such as difficulty and game
speed settings allow you to cater to your
playing tastes. Once you’ve wiped the tears
of emotion from your eyes, playing the game
evokes the same feeling as when we first laid
eyes on it back in the day. As grown-ups, we
forget how much of a visual marvel the game
was in 1987, and this version is recreating
that moment - we are re-seeing the game as
if we were impressionable teenagers again.
Aside from the obvious improvements on
every front, the game is littered with subtle,
nuanced features - chiefly ancillary anima-
tions that add more soul to the game (watch
out for Crowley making an appearance). The
20
vast amount of tunes and ditties in the game
far exceeds the ones we heard in the original,
and you will find yourself humming these long
after the game has been turned off for the day.
The game isn’t tit for tat either; you will have
moments where you say, “I don’t remember this
route in Bookworld”, or such. This is because
the gang has added some additional fat to the
game, and there are new rooms with golden
hens to find and collect. These, in turn, can be
used for cash in the game’s shop for extra lives
or doughnuts. The angler fish save points are
still present, but they now physically save your
progress at that point, allowing for continued
playing at your liberty.
NEXT MAGAZINE

The additional world - Techtown - is just
the cherry on top of the icing, adding the total
screen count to over 500 rooms. Ultimately,
Head Over Heels on the NEXT plays as well as
it ever has; it looks fantastic, sounds incredible,
handles perfectly and has quality-of-life im-
provements that try to tackle some of the issues
that were present in the original. Let’s call this
the director’s cut (minus the original director),
and let’s agree that this is now the definitive
version of the game to play.
Criticism
PAUL DAVIES
W
hat a delight to see these two friendly
furry faces again, and it’s even more
delightful to see their furry faces in full
colour for the first time. As upgrades go, this is
up there with the best. Retaining all of the origi-
nal’s charm and quirkiness, Head Over Heels
has been given a massive facelift and makes
full use of the Next’s powers, pushing it way
up ahead of the Speccy original. Every detail
has been given a lick of paint and polished to
perfection, with the game playing as smoothly
NEXT MAGAZINE
and beautifully as before.
Polished, expanded, and with some
beautifully crafted music through-
out, it goes without saying that if
you enjoyed the original, you will
absolutely adore this incarnation. The
subtle extras really make this game
extra special; from the animated crea-
tures coming out of the walls to the
suits of armour giving you the eye,
it’s those little details that show you
that the team behind this really, really
put the effort in to bring us the best
that’s possible for this cat and dog
duo. You’d be barking mad to miss
this one. As Tears For Fears once
sang, “Something happens and I’m
head over heels”. That “something”,
I’d wager, would be this beautiful
offering, Roland.
ScoRE >
NEXT MASTERY 95%
GRAPHICS 94%
PLAYABILITY 94%
AURAL DELIGHTS 93%
ADDICTIVE QUALITIES 91%
To recreate such a massive game and make it
even larger borders on lunacy. Mike’s coding
prowess, Simon’s graphic design skills, and
Space Fractal’s audio expertise collectively
mirror the merging of abilities within the
game. While impressive on their own, when
combined, they form an unparalleled synergy
that elevates the overall experience to
94%
extraordinary levels.
21
NextMagOS>
Feature
the Next
w ave
CRAIG TURNER
Lockdowns. Brexit. The first change of
monarch since the end of the British Empire.
Not forgetting, the death of Sir Clive; the
nation’s most beloved entrepreneur. So much
has happened since the arrival of the first
Spectrum Next machines, it’s easy to forget
that the true spiritual Sinclair successor has
now been out in the wild for around 6 years.
For the majority of Spectrum enthusiasts out
there who are far from still being a spring
chicken, 6 years can pass in the blink of an
eye.
C
onsider the original Spectrum
computer, and the six years from
launch until the final year of the
decade represented the system’s main lifespan.
Outlasting Sir Clive’s ownership and seeing half
a dozen models released in that timeframe, it
22
went from being the small, affordable, revolu-
tionary 16k colour computer of the people, with
its single-screen Manic Miners and Jet Pacs, to
a 128k integrated media reader with AY sound
and an Amstrad copyright screen. Though it
survived another couple of years as Brits and
Europeans slowly lowered their resistance to
the incoming tidal wave of powerful dedicated
gaming consoles, the hardware and software
evolved so much in the same length of time the
Spectrum Next has been around.
The story of the system’s origins and dif-
ficult development years was already covered
in the very first revived CRASH magazine issue,
so interested readers wishing to catch up can
always do so by casting a glance back there.
However, much has happened since the arrival
of the first full production Nexts, so where
exactly does the project stand today?
NEXT MAGAZINE

FROM ONE KICKSTARTER
TO THE NEXT
F
ollowing a limited release of the first
development boards and Issue 2A
project boards into the hands of
trusted coders and initial backers of the first
Next Kickstarter campaign in 2018, enthusi-
asts got to see the first practical examples of
dedicated software that used the new system’s
capabilities. Even though the first two years
saw massive changes in the included instruc-
tion sets, the BASIC commands, and the entire
user experience of the NEXT-ZXOS operating
system, early users were already experimenting
with housing their motherboards and expan-
sion devices in custom casings to use more
practically.
Early devs from the core Next team, as
NEXT MAGAZINE
well as fringe supporters and independent
developers such as Software Amusements,
Lampros Potamianos, Gari Biasillo, and others,
began working on games and supporting
software packages that both impressed and
prepared eventual users for what to expect over
time. Tools like the NextDAW sound creation
package, games like Nextoid, Dungeonette,
Montana Mike, and the many demos that were
worked into the official firmware distribution
package, showed the very minimum of what the
Next was going to be capable of, with promises
of a competent software line-up being available
by the arrival of the full production systems.
Although faced with a changing global mar-
ketplace and the extremely drawn-out impact of
the U.K.’s exit from Europe making international
sourcing and production issues very difficult,
the first boxed production Nexts finally got their
final run and an expected delivery date. Though
a majority of pre-ordering enthusiasts were
still highly excited by the impending arrival, the
delays did discourage many sceptics, and some
apathy was publicly voiced in the months pre-
ceding the intended delivery date. Discussion
groups did become rife with arguments both
promoting the system’s appeal and criticising
23
the delivery of the product, with some doubting
the system’s success based on the moving
goalposts, slowing announcements, and
concern for community engagement. Never-
theless, around Christmas of 2019, word that
Nexts would be arriving in the first quarter
of 2020 silenced many of those voices, and
followers of the project on both sides of the
argument watched with reserved enthusiasm as
the boxed systems did indeed begin to arrive in
March of 2020.
The global pandemic did little to aid the
initial reception of the Spectrum Next, with
monetary concerns and unprecedented real-
world distractions forcing many to part with
their long-awaited systems immediately
upon arrival. A strange situation
arose whereby those who

were still steadfastly in

support of the system began to
buy games for it, shout loud about it on
social media, reveal their active home develop-
ment, and generally sing the system’s praises
to the point that everyone who hadn’t heard
of it or missed out on the first crowdfunding
campaign now desperately wanted one.
This created a situation where those who
had them and boasted about them hung on
tightly to them, and so the first few sales posts
that appeared on Facebook and eBay saw
boxed consoles being sold for up to four times
the initial backer price. The knock-on effect was
such that those who were not convinced of its
longevity, or needed the money but were unsure
if it was wise to let go of such a relatively rare
system, began to successfully sell their systems
at hugely inflated prices touching £1000 to
those desperate latecomers now stuck at home
during lockdowns and wanting
to get a piece of this impressive new
hardware to fill their time.
With a decent amount of software already
out and previews of new games on the horizon
starting to become a regular occurrence, it was
clear that demand for the Next was going to be
so much higher than the initial 4000 systems
that all the early promotional work had gener-
ated in orders on the first Kickstarter.
With the extremely active work in firmware
updates encouraging followers, the release

24 NEXT MAGAZINE

of the CSpect emulator to allow
replication of the Next experience on
desktop computers, and the open nature
of the system cores, firmware and OS allowing
enterprising third parties to rework some of their
FPGA project boards to run Next software (en-
couraged by the Next developers themselves),
exposure of the Next had become much wider
by the time the first boxed systems arrived.
Though it was never a guaranteed position
for the project to be in, the wider exposure
encouraged more development, and the issue
of demand became a self-proliferating result.
With the primary aim of the Next being far more
about delivering a real next-generation Sinclair
system for enthusiasts first and foremost,
and notions of profit and reinvestment being
a distant second, notions of ever producing
any more systems were always contentious.
Even if those involved did want to see the Next
succeed in any capacity, no one deserves to be
NEXT MAGAZINE
out of pocket to make
that happen, and issues of
spiralling part costs, moulding
issues, and the uncertainty of the
global market made both the creators
and the backers doubt more than once if
the first systems could ever reach completion
without massive losses.
However, the inner enthusiasts in Henrique
and the team eventually won out, and knowing
there were lessons learned in how to save
costs, a massive continuing demand, and a
physical product now actually in physical exist-
ence, they would forever regret if they didn’t at
least attempt to create another run, if they could
iron out those few humps in the road. It took
little time to be convinced, and no sooner had
the first systems arrived than talk of a second
Kickstarter surfaced on the socials. With no
time to waste and demand at its highest, the
second Kickstarter began in August of 2020 in
the midst of various international lockdowns
and with a lot of people sat at their PC screens
looking for something to brighten their day.
A WHOLE NEW USER BASE
P
erhaps unsurprisingly, the second
Kickstarter far surpassed the popular-
ity of the first. With a physical proof
of product quashing any feelings of doubt that
may have existed with the first potential Kick-
starter, when little more than a few prototype
25
boards and some nice renders had been
created, backers knew there was little likelihood
of product delivery issues. Though the cost of
the second production systems had inevitably
risen due to global chip shortages, it also gave
the production team a chance to work out some
flaws in the board design and product packag-
ing to deliver a more cost-effective and refined
end product.
With the plans well documented and
communicated to backers beforehand, the
second Kickstarter saw 5236 backers and just
shy of £2 million raised. Though there were
some observations that more backers this time
were pledging for multiple Nexts with the likely
intention of reselling the second at a possible
profit, it was recognised that this would at
least address the likely immediate supply issue
if, upon delivery of a second production run,
other newcomers who missed out were looking
to purchase one for themselves and a third
production run may never arrive. Regardless
of whose hands they eventually ended up in,
the official Next user base was going to more
than double - a positive sign for the increasing
number of software publishers now turning their
attention to the platform. team continued to work on improving the
Though expectations were high and CSpect emulator for those wishing to just play
optimistic for the upcoming ‘Issue 4’ second the games or experiment, as well as using
Kickstarter systems arriving in the promised some of the downtime between production
delivery window of 12 months, the continuing stages to work with creators of clone hardware
issues of global supply exacerbated an uncer- to improve the compatibility of the Spectrum
tain economy in the wake of the pandemic and Next FPGA core. Between 2021 and 2023, the
created new problems which the production ‘N-Go’ and ‘ZX Uno’ project boards, with price
the team had hoped would be avoided second tags more than £100 lower than a boxed Next
time round. Personal professional battles of Kickstarter pledge and ready availability, gave
team members needing to earn money during those newly discovering the Next (and realis-
tough lockdown times, the perceived minimal ing the window to obtain one had closed for a
reworking of some of the power and visual second time) a chance to own a new piece of
circuitry, adjusting for the new FPGA chip, and hardware that would function as a workable
problems with production and shipping red tape Spectrum Next.
from overseas led to a much longer preparation General compatibility with the most recent
time than anticipated. With backers this time Next core versions and being able to run a large
disappointed there would again be a long wait, amount of the system’s new games drew the
the national issues affecting everyone the same attention of not just latecomers, but also those
meant they were at least fully understanding already invested in a genuine Next and realising
of the delays in delivery. Even if the constantly the clones’ cost efficiency. With creators of the
extending timeframe turned away some people, clones realising the opportunity to capitalise on
selling their pledges to others who were the delay of the second Kickstarter systems,
prepared to wait at the blessing of the produc- efforts were made to increase the output of
tion team, the impatient were at least offered an those boards and market them heavily towards
alternative. Next enthusiasts.
Mindful of the delays, the development Rather than scoff at these efforts and

26 NEXT MAGAZINE
discourage potential Next owners from pursuing
the alternatives, the Next team openly encour-
aged the use of them, wisely understanding that
the clones would never be as attractive or as
fully supported as the production systems, but
were a budget alternative that would only serve
to increase the user base and the development
field for new software. Even with the delays in
the new production run, interest was kept high
in part thanks to all of the alternatives, and
gave developers and project followers some
additional possibilities to focus on in the interim.
OVER NINE THOUSAND!
A
t long last, after a rocky couple of
years of real-world problems but
plenty of background development
activity through the difficult times, the second
production run of Spectrum Nexts began
arriving on the doorsteps of European backers
in November 2023. Excited backers from all of
the key areas were delighted to find that their
brand new Spectrum was likely going to be
NEXT MAGAZINE
ready to open on Christmas morning, just as
many of them did on that same day 40 years
earlier. Even if a few unfortunately missed the
mark by a few weeks or were forced to wait
until the new year for a little more red tape
because they lived in more distant parts of the
world, the Issue 4 machines have now mostly
reached their intended final destinations.
As well as the revised production machines,
which arrived in a new red-accented packing
box showing updated screenshots of newly
released games, owners were given a larger,
branded accessory box including a new power
supply bearing the system logo and the much-
requested inline power switch. This addition
saves wear and tear on the power jack of
the revised system board, which features the
new larger capacity FPGA at its heart and the
promised circuitry and case changes to improve
power efficiency and general use. Though
intentionally functionally identical to the original
issue 2 production systems to ensure software
compatibility, the systems received their own
firmware updates and remain potentially
capable of more possibilities in the hands of
users, should they wish to delve that deeply into
the deeper programming of their new system.
27
 The occasion was even marked with the
arrival of a handful of extremely limited edition
white production Nexts, reserved as gifts for
key contributors to the platform’s development
and as special fund-raising prizes for charity,
with one such example being given away to a
lucky visitor of CRASH Live 2023, hopefully to
be cherished as the collectible rarity it is.
Not only does the arrival officially double
the number of official system users out there,
but when added to the many getting their Next
fix by way of emulation or through the purchase
of clone hardware, it’s reasonable to estimate
that the total Next user base has finally topped
10000; far beyond the expectations of the
original project and one of the few major new
computer hardware success stories to come
from crowdfunded resources in recent years..
Given the challenges faced in hardware
redesign, viral marketing, and community net-
working to make the Next a reality in a troubled
global marketplace and uncertain British
economy, it’s an understatement to say what
an achievement this milestone is, especially
given the niche appeal of the overwhelmingly
British nostalgia for all things Sinclair.
who really wanted the system to be created.
There is already open talk of a potential third
crowdfunding campaign to meet the continuing
demand for the physical system, carrying the
Next beyond the six solid years it has already
enjoyed. Many new bedroom coders have
written or are in the process of coding new
software for the platform, the instruction set
continues to be expanded, and several small
publishers have been able to make names for
themselves by testing the possibilities of the
hardware and releasing commercial titles that
have sold in encouraging enough numbers to
see new titles constantly being worked on.
The increase in software production has
been slow but steady since 2018. With the
earliest paid physical copies from Software
Amusements coming shortly after the first
project boards arrived in 2018, upcoming titles
were being previewed at a rate of about one
completed title per month. Since the first pro-
duction systems arrived in 2020, there was a
slump because of pandemic complications, but

THE FUTURE STATE

OF PLAY

I
f doubts on the system’s longevity
were once of high concern to casual
observers and sceptical critics, at this
point the Next has done more than enough to
prove its viability as far more than a failed niche
project, elevated itself to more than a unique
curiosity for an obsessive few, and actually
reached the status of an accessible and
potentially even profitable ‘new/old’ system for
independent coders to develop for. With a user
base now in five figures, the number of active
Next gamers actually exceeds the number of
users of some failed major company hardware
releases of the past.
For a “hobbyist” project with little com-
mercial investment to achieve these kinds
of numbers is a rarity, and the key difference
is that those numbers were achieved out of
an active desire by that number of people

28 NEXT MAGAZINE
we started to see new physical games released
at about the same rate, with digital release
games sporadically seeing release in the back-
ground whilst publishers awaited supplies to
compile physical copies.
From that point until 2022, we began to see
physical releases of premium quality games
from Rusty Pixels in the form of Warhawk and
Tyvarian, and free side projects like R.A.M.S.
and Scramble proving the system’s emula-
tion ability. These were joined by impressively
presented arcade clones such as D-Leo’s
Q*Bee and Cavern’s Bikers Deluxe, as well as
independent mobile-styled games like Shpeed,
Dougie Do!, and Vegetables Next showing what
can be done in the extended Next BASIC.
When it comes to showstoppers though,
games like the expansive action-platformer
Delta’s Shadow, with its DLC expansion pack
and option-heavy presentation, have really
opened eyes as to the possibilities. Teams like
NEXT MAGAZINE
Sanchez Crew have started to experiment with
new genre boundaries with combined mouse
and keyboard controls in the action-RPG
Vradark’s Revenge, and are continuing to dem-
onstrate potential new hits in the pipeline.
With all of these games fuelling creativity
and the second production wave inevitable,
2023 continued to see groundbreaking de-
velopment increasing in pace and complexity
to demonstrate to new owners that there is
so much more to look forward to in 2024 and
beyond. The amazing work on the Head over
Heels and Way of the Exploding Fist remakes
shown at recent events and the highly playable
graphical showpieces of TX-1696 and Magnum
show that as the software library grows to over
the 100 title mark, successive releases are only
going to take Next gamers to levels they never
thought possible on a Sinclair machine. If there
is to be a third production wave, the Spectrum
Next can only go to even loftier heights.
29
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NextMagOS>
Tutorial
how do you connect a
Next to the internet and
why would you want to?
Adrian Sinclair (no relation) likes to
“tinker”. His current projects include
scratch-building a laptop case for his
N-GO with no 3D printer (WTF?), making
his own backlit Next keyboard, and one
day he dreams of making a Warhawk
arcade cabinet with an X-Berry Pi. He’s
also been seen waving a lightgun about,
and some Sega jopypads have recently
succumbed to being tampered with! Given
he seems to have way too much time on
his hands and can be seen regularly
stalking the social media pages of our
beloved Next, we thought his time would
be better spent pulling together some-
thing useful for us.
So, welcome to “the So...cial”.
Adrian SINCLAIR
L T 1.43 or greater installed. For GETIT
et’s face iit, most Speccy fans
have a massive library of games
– many in digital format - and
love nothing more than opening up Fuse
and playing 3D Starstrike when on confer-
ence calls (cough!). But now you’ve a
lovely Next, it’s a bit of a pain having to
whip out your SD card and copy across
all those games, let alone adding the new
ones that come out weekly. This is where
the Next’s Wi-Fi comes in.
Providing your machine has the ESP
module (the KS1 model does not), you
32
can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. If you
don’t have the ESP module, it’s as cheap as
chips, and available from Richard Spencer at
https://store.activeconsult.co.uk. Pop it in
place, and you’re ready.
Using the excellent ZXDB-DL and GETIT
software, you can access thousands of legacy
Spectrum and many free Next software titles
without getting out of your comfy chair or
cramping those sausage fingers trying to
extract the SD card from its little slot. But
that’s not all; if you’re a developer, you can
transfer files from a PC to your Next using
Nextsync (available via GETIT), and even print
to a wifi printer with the ‘wifiprn’ driver written
by Chris Taylor and available at https://github.
com/taylorza/zxn-wifiprn.
SETTING UP ZXDB-DL & GETIT
o use ZXDB-DL, you’ll need firmware
you need firmware 1.44 or greater. So, which
firmware do you have? At the time of writing
the latest ’distros’ are as follows:
Kickstarter2 (KS2) users have the latest Next/
System 23.06, Next ZXOS 2.08, firmware
v1.44.
The last official distro for Kickstarter 1 (KS1)
and clone users is Next/System 22.10, Next
ZXOS 2.07, firmware v1.43 and can be found
NEXT MAGAZINE
 at https://specnext.com/latestdistro.
fig 1

Finally, there’s the “bleeding edge” distro found

at https://gitlab.com/thesmog358/tbblue.
This is a BETA test version of the KS2 distro,
and is available for use by KS1 and clone
users only. User discretion is advised as it’s a
work in progress. However, many users (myself
included) use this version, and programs
including GETIT need it to work.
For KS1 and clone users, to see which
fig 2 distro you are using, check the bottom right
corner of the opening black boot screen on
your next (fig 1), or go to BROWSER and open
the README.MD file.
If you need to update, installation details
and the above bleeding edge link can be found
at https://specnext.com/latestdistro. At the
time of writing this article, KS2 users do not
need to update.
fig 3

SETTING UP WI-FI

O ready to connect to the internet. For KS1

nce you’ve sorted out your distro, you’re

and KS2 Bleeding edge users, Wi-Fi setup is

in the main ZXOS menus. From the opening
Menu, select:

MORE>TOOLS>WIFI SETUP> (fig 2-4)

fig 4

Press ENTER to load Wi-Fi setup. Alterna-

tively, you can go to:

BROWSER > APPS > WIFI > SETUP > select

WIFI2.BAS and press ENTER.
Fig 3

NEXT MAGAZINE 33
 For KS1 users using firmware v1.43 you
need to navigate manually:

BROWSER>DEMOS>ESP>WIFI2.BAS

Press ENTER

USING WIFI2.BAS (BASIC SETUP)

fig 5

T the opening screen with current Wi-Fi

he picture to the right (fig 5) shows

status, IP address, and a list of options.

Press 5 to scan for your network and the
Next will scan all available networks.

Press ENTER when activity stops to view

all available networks. Pick your network, fig 6
enter its password and press ENTER (fig 6).

If successful, your network and an IP

address will be displayed at the top of the
screen. You can now quit. Your Next will
store the information and connect auto-
matically on boot. If you have problems try
changing location, using a mobile hotspot
or press 9 to refresh and rescan.

A NOTE ON PASSWORDS fig 7

P spaces and speech marks (“) have

roblems using special characters,
been noted. Wrap speech marks within
speech marks. For example ‘Pass”ord’ on
the Next would be ‘Pass”””ord’.
You may need to adjust your network
password to accommodate the limita-
tions of your Next. Further help can be
sought from the community here at https://
facebook.com/groups/specnext.
KS2 and KS1 bleeding edge distro users:
Go to BROWSER > APPS > WIFI > ZXDB-DL
and press ENTER on the zxdb-loader.bas file
KS1 users using firmware v1.43:
Go to BROWSER > TOOLS > ZXDB-DL and
press ENTER on the zxdb-loader.bas file

On the splash screen (FIG 7) press ENTER.

USING ZXDB-DL
Once connected (fig 8), at the “Search:”

F
ancy playing Stunt Car Racer at
14mhz? ZXDB-DL comes bundled
with firmware v1.43 or greater and allows
you to download and play legacy Spectrum
games on your Next.
prompt, enter the name of the game you want
to download. A list of commands is shown on
screen to help you. You’ll get a wider hit if you
enter part of the game name. Use the arrows to
choose your file, press ENTER, and the game

34 NEXT MAGAZINE
 fig 8
I Next. I will be installing my version in
will download to the downloads folder within
the ZXDB-DL folder on your Next.
Follow the on-screen prompts for options and
to play the game. If you press ENTER to play,
make sure you select the correct personality
mode to load the game.
MAKE IT GO FASTER!
Not all legacy games will run at the faster
speeds:
Press the yellow NMI button on the left of your
Next and use the left/right arrows to select a
clock speed.
Press BREAK to escape back to the game.
That’s legacy software taken care of. What
about Next software?
WHAT’S GETIT AND HOW
DO I GET IT?
G
ETIT is a content delivery tool that lets you
browse free games, applications, demos
and music from an online archive. You can
search the https://zxart.ee music database
to download and play music, and search and
download Amiga MODs from modarchive.org.
You don’t even need the Pi installed to play
them.
You can also upload to GETIT. The service
is free to use (you need to register at https://
zxnext.uk/p). This is a must-have utility for
NEXT MAGAZINE
developers wanting to share software or
game demos. GETIT works on all Nexts
running distro v1.44 (Next ZXOS 2.08) or
greater – so KS2 and KS1 bleeding edge
users.
INSTALLING GETIT
nstallation is done directly on your
the APPS folder on my KS2 Next. This is
where ZXDB-DL can be found so it keeps
both programs together. You can install
where you wish.
Select BROWSER > APPS >WIFI (or
choose your location) and press BREAK.
Select COMMAND LINE from the menu and
press ENTER.
Installing GETIT is done using DOT
commands. Make sure you add the DOT at
the start of each line and any spaces. Press
ENTER at the end of each command. Text is
case sensitive -
.mkdir “GETIT”
.cd “GETIT”
.http get -h zxnext.uk -u /go -f install.bas
Once done, you will just see the flashing
blue/white cursor.
Press EDIT to exit COMMAND LINE then
select EXIT then BROWSER.
You will default to the GETIT folder. Select
the install.bas file and press ENTER.
You may get the error “E out of data 90:1”.
If you do, enter the following line of code
into the basic program:
15 RESTORE
Then press ENTER
Then type RUN and press ENTER.
35
 Choose an ESP Speed. The recommended
fig 9
setting is 2. GETIT will then install.

When you see the black square in the

bottom right (right) press ENTER then reset
your machine.

GETIT is still in development, so for any

errors, help can be sought from the com-
munity at https://.facebook.com/groups/
specnext.

fig 10
USING GETIT

A GETIT folder which is in your chosen

fter rebooting you will default to the

location (in my case APPS>WIFI).

Select BROWSER, then select getit.bas

and press ENTER.

You will see the GETIT splash screen (fig10)

and opening. Like ZXDB-DL, the program is
intuitive to use (fig 11).

You can enter a search term or press

ENTER for a full list of the software listed,
or choose a category to browse. Use the
arrow keys and ENTER to navigate.

If you want instant nostalgia, download

Skramble (fig 12) for an arcade perfect
version. Make sure you have a joystick
connected. GETIT will prompt you with
requests when you download files: fig 11

To exit, select “file management” and

“quit to basic”.

The developers are working on making

improvements to expand the app’s use in
future. If your Next seems to freeze when
“checking wifi” do a hard reset (power off).

On restart, select COMMAND LINE and

type the following DOT command:

.espbaud -dfR 115200 fig 12

36 NEXT MAGAZINE
Press ENTER.
This resets your ESP and reconnects to Wi-Fi.
Press EDIT then select EXIT and try loading
getit.bas again from your chosen GETIT folder.
GWHERE CAN I FIND GAMES
FOR MY NEXT?
T - both in physical and digital form.
here are over 300 titles for the Next
Unfortunately these are not (at present) in one
location. However, thanks to Clive Townsend,
one of the most comprehensive Next software
lists can be found at www.clivetownsend.com/
next.
Yes! “Mr. Saboteur” himself has very kindly
created a list of games (including his own
games), both physical and digital releases for
the community and it’s expanding weekly. The
page shows the games and where you can
find them. If you know of a game that needs
included you can contact Clive via his website
https://clivetownsend.com with details. You
can also try https://itch.io where many games
can be found by searching “zx spectrum next”.
WHERE CAN I GET HELP AND
KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL
THINGS NEXT?
Well, apart from here in this brand new publica-
tion, there is a fantastic online resource at the
following locations:
The official ZX Spectrum Next website:
https://www.specnext.com
The website contains everything you need,
including the latest firmware (distro) and an
indepth wiki. There’s even a forum.
NEXT MAGAZINE
Facebook Groups:
ZX Spectrum Next: https://www.
facebook.com/groups/specnext
The official page for the Spectrum Next and
associated clones and a very active group.
If you have a question, this is the place to
ask it. You’ll likely get an answer in minutes.
The files section is full of useful information,
and members of the team moderate and
actively take part.
Spectrum Next Games: https://
www.facebook.com/groups/
SpectrumNextGames
If you are developing games for the Next,
this is the page to make people in the com-
munity aware of your latest offerings.
Spectrum Next Dev: https://www.
facebook.com/groups/SpectrumNextDev
If you need help with code or want to
develop a peripheral or something else for
the Next or its clones, then this page is for
you
Basic on the ZX Spectrum Next:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
ZXNextBasic
Next Basic is a powerful language with a
raft of enhanced features including sprites,
scrolling, tile maps, and 9 channel sound.
Commercial games have already been
released using this easy-to-use program-
ming language. If you are just starting out
and have a question, need help with code,
or wish to share a program, this is the place
to be. The files section also contains lots of
useful information.
Spectrum Next Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/Kn33JQkCbz
The Spectrum Next channel is very active
and one many Next users and developers
regularly frequent.
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@
SpectrumNextStuff
37
NextMagOS>
Review
data
Dev: David Crespo Tascon
Date: Out Now Price: Free
Link: https://bit.ly/3x3UNR3
Keys: Q, A, O, P
Joy: compatible
Review: Paul Davies
Mr. Bean... Sean
Bean... erm, that’s
about as many
famous people I can
think of called ‘Bean’
(and one of them isn’t
even real), so imagine my surprise when
I saw a game called Bean Brothers. ‘Sean
Bean has a brother?’, I thought. But then
I quickly thought to myself ‘Just shut up,
and get on with it’. So I did.
B
ean Brothers sees you control
two brothers named Fabe and
Lubi in a platformer-cum-arcade
game that will test your wit, skill, and
reflexes as you battle across 40 levels of
mayhem. If you thought maybe you’d seen
this game before, then you’d be right. The
brothers Bean made their first appearance
on the ZX Spectrum back in 2018, though
they’ve now ‘bean’ brought up to date and
38
given the Next treatment by coder David
Tascon, who sought permission from the
original creator Dave Hughes to create this
new incarnation of the game.
Throughout the levels there are many
hazards, enemies, and puzzles to get
through in order to escape each room.
With your standard two-player game,
you usually get the option to either play
co-op with a friend or the computer may
be helpful and control the other player for
you - not so here. Here, you take control
of both players - luckily, only one at a
time - alternating between each character
as you make your way up or across the
room to reach the exit door. How hard can
it be to control two different characters,
one at a time, whilst trying to read the
room and plan your moves whilst the other
character is less than a second away from
being killed by an errant alien? Easy peasy.
*cough*
NEXT MAGAZINE
Criticism
PAUL DAVIES

S
etting off on level 1 sees things get off to a moderately
easy start, but as we see with these types of games, the
difficulty starts to ramp up as the level numbers increase. I
want to say Fabe and Lubi look rather cute, but then
I’d be lying. Fabe, well, maybe he could get away
with a slight cuteness, but when you look at Lubi with
his droopy weeping eyes… well, that’s a face only a
mother could love. Both characters bop up and down
when stationary, with their moves seemingly bopping
along in time with the game’s excellent music, and
have a great cartoon-like appearance.
Going back to the controls, and yes you can only
control one brother at a time - when one brother is

NEXT MAGAZINE 39
 active, the other will stand station-
ary with his eyes closed, whilst he
waits for you to finish your move.
Pressing the ‘switch’ button will
allow you to take control of the waiting
brother, but then this will in turn send
the original brother to sleep. This way
of controlling each character will really
test your anticipation and planning of
each level - sometimes it will not be a
problem to leave one brother sleeping
whilst you ponder your path out of the
room, investigate various areas, and work
out which levers and knobs do what, and
then switch back and forth between each
brother as you make your escape. Where
things get tricky is when, at the start of a
level, both characters are thrown into the
firing line, as it were, when both parties
are in the path of an incoming enemy.
Quick switching between each brother is
40
essential as you
switch back and
forth numerous times; take one brother
and jump over an enemy, then quickly
back to the other brother to do the same
thing… but wait - that enemy is on its way
back again and is about to kill the sleeping
brother! QUICK! Switch back! *Switch*
Quickly! Jump! Phew, made it. Ooh, now
what’s this thing coming towards me?
ARRGGHH! DEAD.
You will come across this scenario
frequently, truth be told (if you’re as bad as
me, anyway), but luckily there are no set
amount of lives, and you can attempt each
level as many times as you want. Woo
hoo. I had a lot of fun playing this, though
it has to be said, I also found many exple-
tives coming out of my mouth. Additional-
ly, I inadvertently taught myself a few new
swear words along the way,
so every cloud, and all that.
NEXT MAGAZINE
Criticism
GORDON KING

W
e’ve already reviewed Head Over Heels in this very issue, and
here we are again, talking about dynamically controlling two
characters in symbiotic relationships to achieve the game’s goals.
I’m not complaining, as this is fun, and it takes what could easily have
been a standard single-screen platformer and gives it some life. It requires
thought, partnership,

ScoRE >
and a pinch of intelligence to
figure out the levels. Talking of
levels - there’s an ample amount,
so you have a good bit of lon-
NEXT MASTERY 75% gevity there. Who would have
GRAPHICS 80% thought that playing with yourself
and being a platforming god
PLAYABILITY 83% wasn’t reserved for your teenage
years? It’s a shame it only offers
AURAL DELIGHTS 83% single-player co-op, as imagine
the fun of tackling these levels
ADDICTIVE QUALITIES 81% with a friend or sibling - that
would be on another level.
A very competent arcade platformer with This pleasantly surprised
the extra element of one-player co-op play, me and gave me Amiga PD
adding to the intensity and stress-manage-
ment levels of the game. Featuring cutesy game vibes.
cartoon graphics and brilliant funky tunes
throughout, it could have benefitted from
some different backgrounds as the levels do
look a bit samey after a while. If stress-man-
agement games are your thing, it’ll be right
up your street, though there is enough here to

83%
keep the casual gamer happy too.

NEXT MAGAZINE 41
NextMagOS>
Review

data
Dev: David Crespo
Date: Out Now Price: Free
Link: https://bit.ly/3TIdR02
Keys: Redefinable
Joy: Compatible
Review: Gordon King

42 NEXT MAGAZINE
Celeste, which originated on the Pico-8, the
fantastic fantasy console of the century,
introduced the world to the grassroots
version of what would soon become an indie
smash hit. The Next version strives to deliver
that core experience from the original and
give the Sinclair fanbase a tight platforming
adventure.

T
he premise is simple: the auburn-
haired girl, Madeline, whom the
player controls, seeks to ascend to
the top of Celeste Mountain. This requires her
to leap, wall jump, and air dash. Each screen
is a perfectly designed level from hell, where

precision, fast reflexes, and a modicum of

thought are required. Madeline must reach
the exit at the top of each of these levels.
Luckily, the game has infinite lives, and she
will need every one of them.
The air dash serves as an extension to
her leap, but it’s more complex than a simple
“double jump”. The player can determine
the angle of the air jump, catapulting the
redhead like a flaming arrow. Combining this
with the wall jumping (and sliding) makes
what initially seems a daunting level into a
doable one. There’s one catch - to achieve a
follow-up air dash, Madeline must land two
feet on a platform again to re-energise her
ability. Pesky game terms and conditions.

Criticism
GORDON KING

M
any people may not have played
the original Celeste, but with the
explosion of success for its indie
polished version, it paved the way for many
copycat games in its wake. I’m incredibly im-
pressed with the Next iteration - it takes the
Pico-8 masterpiece and delivers it verbatim.
In fact, I’d say that it’s more fluid. It’s nigh on
impossible to discern the difference visually
between the two - it looks like the same
game. That’s not a bad thing, by the way - I
love the graphical style; the pastel hues add
to the wintry chill of the lofty mountain.
Where the game excels is in its fluidity,

NEXT MAGAZINE 43
 which takes practice - but
once you are au fait with the
control system, you will learn
to leap around the screen like
a ninja on steroids. As your
confidence grows, the game
becomes more focused and
precise, akin to Neo from The
Matrix when he fully embraces
his abilities. It’s great to see
an acclaimed game appear
on the Next. Yes, it’s hardly
an original title, but it’s
borderline iconic. Prepare to
be addicted, frustrated and
possibly to even invent some
new swear words.

Criticism
PAUL DAVIES

I
’d not seen or played
the Pico-8 version of
this game before, but it’s seriously discovered that you can, in addition, bounce
impressive on the Next. I do love it when off and slide down walls too, as an aid to
people make games with what seem like reaching required platforms. Great to look at,
relatively ‘blocky’ sprites and graphics great to listen to, and with enough challenge
but then make them come alive with great to keep you playing for a long time indeed.
animations and gameplay.

ScoRE >
Initially, you could consider my hair well
and truly pulled out until I started to get to
grips with the air dash (though I admit, I’m
still not a professional with it!), and also
NEXT MASTERY 86%
GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 90%
AURAL DELIGHTS 90%
ADDICTIVE QUALITIES 92%
If you haven’t played Celeste before, this
is the perfect opportunity. It’s a visually
impressive precision platformer. The AY audio
enhances the original music and adds further

90%
atmosphere to the game.

44 NEXT MAGAZINE
NextMagOS>
Review

data
Dev: Sanchez Crew
Date: Out Now Price: Free
Link: https://bit.ly/3VrakEu
Keys: Q, A, M/SPACE/ENTER
Joy: compatible
Review: Paul Davies

If there are two things that really get me
going games-wise, it’s destruction and a
good soundtrack, so imagine my excitement
and uncontrollable joy when I heard that
one of my favourite developers, Sanchez
Crew, had created a game that had both. Re-
sponsible for the almighty Aliens Neoplas-
ma (one of my absolute favourite games of
the last few years), Mighty Final Fight, and
Delta’s Shadow, you could say that they
have a mighty fine reputation when it comes
to Spectrum and Spectrum Next games.
make too, but in essence, it’s a kind of ‘destroy
everything in sight’ assignment. So yeah, right
up my alley.
Criticism
PAUL DAVIES
T
he first thing that hits you - the Metal.
No, not the tanks, but the music.
Oh, it’s fantastic. If there’s one thing
to get you in the mood to go on the rampage
and blow things up, it’s Metal. After spending a
good few minutes nodding and tapping my foot
on the ground, I thought I’d better press start

T
he game here is rather simple
in premise - blow up the other
players’ tanks along with their
base to move onto the next level. OK, it’s
not quite as simple as that, as you have
your base to defend and some decisions to
and see if the game matched the quality of its
soundtrack.
Before you start, you can choose what
colour you would like your tanks to be, should
you have a favourite colour. I don’t particularly

46 NEXT MAGAZINE
have one, but initially, I chose yellow in the vain
hope that the enemy would see it and go easy
on me - no such luck. So, I thought maybe red
would be seen as a dangerous colour, and they
would run away scared… again, that didn’t
work either. There was only one thing for it: I
needed to use my brain. Eep.
Though, that said, not a lot of brainwork is
required as the tanks move around the screen
and get on with their jobs in hand, thanks to
their built-in AI, and your job is to choose what
type of tank to materialise at the right time. To
NEXT MAGAZINE
the right of the screen, there are four tank sil-
houettes, ranging from small to large. Above
these is a money counter that increases as
the seconds go by - each tank has a price,
and when your balance hits each price, you
have an opportunity to purchase the corre-
sponding tank or wait longer for your balance
to increase so that you can purchase a more
powerful tank. This is where you have to get
your thinking cap on and think of a strategy
- do you buy multiple small tanks and hope
they get the job done, or do you wait for
47
 the stronger tanks and hope that the enemy
doesn’t make too much ground and take
over your base?
The tank AI works pretty well as they
appear next to your base and make their way
around the roads, heading for the enemy
base and attempting to blow up each enemy
they come across. Additionally, there are
some power-ups to help along the way, with
varying levels of helpfulness. These include a
helmet that provides temporary invincibility, a
clock that temporarily pauses enemy tanks,
shells that increase your firepower, and a
boat that will allow your tank to move across
the water amongst the bonuses available. It’s reflects the future of military operations). I
quite satisfying watching your fleet of tanks initially didn’t share Paul’s enthusiasm for this
going about their business as you supervise one - I thought this was limited and little was
from up high and away from any danger - I happening. But after several goes, I realised
never liked getting my hands dirty - and it’s an hour had passed, and I was hooked on this
also rather satisfying when your plotting goes game. I can’t describe the addiction; it just is
your way and you see the enemy base go up compelling to continue playing. It’s all about
in a large puff of smoke and flames. The only timing, patience and decisions. Do you wait
thing letting it down slightly is that the tanks for the funds to build the more robust tanks
are 100% AI-controlled, meaning you can’t or attack with attrition and have many
get as involved as you may want to when smaller vehicles? That is the role of
it comes to deeper tactics, but it’s still very the administrator. It certainly isn’t
enjoyable nonetheless. Advance Wars, but I would like
to call it Next Wars.

Criticism
GORDON KING

B
attle Tanks is a game of resource
management. As a battle admin-
istrator, deciding which tanks to
deploy, when to deploy them (and whether
you can afford them) is all in your control.
How they fight is up to them (this scarily

48 NEXT MAGAZINE
 ScoRE >
NEXT MASTERY 83%
GRAPHICS 80%
PLAYABILITY 84%
AURAL DELIGHTS 84%
ADDICTIVE QUALITIES 84%
A war game of epic proportions. Simple to
play but infinitely addictive and playable.
Simple-looking tanks with nice details on the
terrain and explosions, and enjoyable explosive
sounds along with neat speech. The soundtrack,
however, is epically awesome – Metal! It’s hard

84%
to put this one down. Great stuff.

NEXT MAGAZINE 49
NextMagOS>
Review

data
Dev: Kevin Phillips
Date: Out Now Price: Free
Link: https://bit.ly/4aren8h
Keys: Q, A, O, P, SPACE
Joy: compatible
Review: Gordon King

The only worthy Moon Patrol

clone/port/conversion (delete as
applicable) was Ocean’s Moon Alert from
1984 (awarded a CRASH SMASH in issue 6).
Although still brilliant to play today, it’s
not without its flaws. So, as to why the
Spectrum never saw a de facto version, it
beggars belief. Much to our delight, this
Spectrum Next version seeks to remedy this
miscarriage of justice and give us some-
thing arcade-like to play.
don’t like intruders. They will fire bombs down
on you, with many adding to the already present
craters on the surface (if they don’t collide with
your vehicle). So, not only do you have to blast
the adversaries from orbit, but you also have
to leap over indentations and destroy boulders
that impede your progress. The game is divided
into stages, so when you reach stations at set
points, your score tallies up depending on how
quickly you made it to each checkpoint. After
that, it’s onto the next stage, with even more

T
he premise is simple: you must hazards.
control your lunar vehicle driving
along the moon’s surface. It’s
evident why man has not returned to Earth’s
natural satellite in so long - it’s a hostile
environment. Flying in its low gravitational
pull are aliens of different assortments who

50 NEXT MAGAZINE
Criticism
GORDON KING
I
mpressibly written in NextBASIC, the
game runs at a good old pace - just
as frantic as the arcade original. The
visuals are glorious - from the bouncing wheels
of the buggy to the subtleties of the parallax
scrolling, it’s evident the game has been
crafted with love and passion. Sadly, there is no
in-game tune (humorously hinted at for V2.0 in
the intro screen) - this is a shame, as with the
arcade counterpart, the music helps create the
feel of urgency and pace to the game. Despite
this, Crater Crawler is a very competent game
that delivers entertainment.
Its only real issue is the difficulty curve - this
needs to be refined a little. Even though you
can configure many game factors within the
options, you still get bombarded with too many
aliens early on, making progress difficult, and it
may be offputting to players unfamiliar with the
game. Some refinement in this area would make
for balanced gameplay. On occasions, I found
the collision detection to be a tad cruel - espe-
cially at the front end of the buggy - lives were
lost in an untimely fashion. Perhaps because
I have spent an insane amount of hours with
the original arcade version, I’m more sensi-
tive to these points than a casual player. Still,
this version is really onto something, and with
NEXT MAGAZINE
that little bit more refinement, it would be a
surefire winner.
Criticism
PAUL DAVIES
I
’d only ever played Moon Patrol on
the odd occasion and I can’t really
tell you what format it was on, truth
be told. People also praise it a lot, so I was
excited to get my mitts on this and see what
I’ve been missing.
Honestly? Ugh, I really struggled to get
into this one. If it wasn’t the craters creeping
up on me, it was the spaceships from up
above taking me out (I guess that’s the
game, but stay with me), and it seemed no
matter how hard I tried, concentrated, and
practised, I saw those wheels flying off my
buggy more frequently than my trips back
and forth to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Maybe
it’s the fact that you can’t alter the angles of
your shots. Maybe it’s because the crater
holes are too big. Maybe it’s the collision
detection being off. Maybe it’s something
else. But it’s definitely not my lack of skill.
Alright???
ScoRE >
NEXT MASTERY 80%
GRAPHICS 81%
PLAYABILITY 80%
AURAL DELIGHTS 80%
ADDICTIVE QUALITIES 80%
This is a commendable take on the arcade classic
by Irem and, by far, the best version we now have
on a Sinclair computer. With a few more refine-
ments, such as a better alien spawning pattern
and some in-game music, we’d be closer to the
80%
thrills and frills of the original.
51
NextMagOS>
Tutorial

52 NEXT MAGAZINE
 DAVID SAPHIER
We all love the power of NextBasic, which has
produced some excellent games so far and
improves with each release, but there comes
a time when you want a little more, some
more speed, some more direct control of the
hardware but you’re not quite ready to go full
assembly on this, you need an inbetween. Well,
that’s where Boriel’s ZX compiler comes in.
B
oriel, otherwise known as Jose
Rodrigez, has been curating his basic
compiler for over a decade now and
continues to this day. The compiler runs on
a modern operating system and produces
binaries (files) that you can run on your ZX
Spectrum; in our case, it will be the Next.
One of the neat features of Boriel’s compiler
is you can create your own libraries - these
libraries can contain optimised assembly
GETTING SETUP
Nagnostic (fancy way for saying should
extBuild has been designed to be OS
work on all OSes that support Python at least)
but we will be using Windows for our sins but
should have similar steps for MacOS or Linux,
should you be that way inclined.
STEP 1
DOWNLOADING VSCODE
AND NEXTBUILD
W github where NextBuild
e need to head over to
lives to download the latest
release. The release is reason-
ably stable so go to https://
github.com/em00k/NextBuild
and find the releases text on the
right hand side. For those of you
who might be feeling lost, there’s
a handy screenshot to the right.
We’re looking for the
NEXT MAGAZINE
accessing hardware or devices connected to
the Next such as the ESP or Pi0. Or maybe
you want to write a routine to place a tile on
to the 256 colour screen, Layer2? This is
where libraries come in to allow Boriel’s ZX
Compiler to expand well beyond its original
target of the classic Spectrum.
So what does all this have to do with our
journey into programming? Well, this is where
NextBuild comes in. “NB’’ is a suite of tools
partly created curated by my good self which
uses Boriel as the engine to compile the
code, nextlibs is the library that contains all
the routines to access the Next’s hardware,
and finally we have VSCode integration to
offer auto-complete and in-editor hover help
(eh what?) on all the keywords and more.
The aim of these articles will be to get
you set up, show you around a little and
get you creating your own stuff as soon as
possible. Marvellous! Let’s dive in…
NextBuildv7.51.zip link on the release page;
download the zip and extract it to a place on
you hard drive - I would certainly recommend
you pick a location without spaces in the
filenames as that can trick some of the pre-
compiler scripts.
Once extracted you should have a folder
called NextBuild7 - now we need an editor
to work with, the editor of choice is Visual
Studio Code which many of you will already
be familiar with and for those of you
53
 just starting out - you will be happy to find
VSCode very user friendly but also incred-
ibly powerful due to its ability to be extended
with user submitted extensions.
STEP 2
VSCODE
F“Vscode” and the top link should take
ire up your browser and search for
you to https://code.visualstudio.com where
you will need to click the “Download for
Windows” button. Finally, run the setup and
complete the install; now we’re ready to run
some code!
Using Explorer, open the NextBuild7
folder and doubleclick Launch VSCode.bat
- VSCode will start up and “ask do you trust
Holy Moly,
What’
What’s This?
Wthis can be done by finding the explorer
e need to load some code into our IDE;
on the left hand side - find HolyMoley, click
the plus and load HoleyMoley.bas - If you
press F5 VSCode should kick a bunch a
54
this author?” Obviously you should be very
cautious about allowing extensions to launch -
however, this is being provided by myself with
NextBuild so perfectly safe, choose Yes. You
will be asked to install a bunch of extensions
that make NextBuild work; this should happen
automagically and should be pain free. If you
are getting stuck or lost there is a handy video
explaining these steps on my YouTube channel.
What you should be looking at now will look
like a very over engineered text editor - which
to be honest that’s what it is. VSCode is known
as an Integrated Development Environment
or IDE which means it’s geared up to help
programmers’ lives be easier (as if they need to
be any easier!). The holy grail of programming
is one touch builds - which means you hit one
key and get a final output without extra manual
steps - holy grail leads us nicely on to our first
examples.
compilation scripts into action - you can also
manually do this by using the Terminal menu
and picking Run Task.. Run In CSpect.
You should see some information being
written in the bottom text console in VScode;
this area is quite important in telling you whether
the compilation of a program has succeeded or
failed, and if there are any warnings you should
know about.
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 If everything is successful, NextBuild will
take the binary created by Boriel and now wrap
this into a NEX file. All the assets required for
the game will be contained in the one NEX file
- a NEX file for those who do not know is the
defacto executable for the Next. The file format
was designed by legend of the computer scene,
our friend and yours Jim Bagley! So it must be
STEP 3
PUT THE CODE IN THE BOX
Sfor you and a mini-game launched with
o hopefully the demo HoleyMoley ran
CSpect. Now for those of you that don’t know
it yet, CSpect is, in my humble opinion, the
best ZX Spectrum Next emulator available, it’s
written by another industry legend; Mike Dailly,
of Lemmings & GTA fame no less. Mike has an
itch.io site where you can grab the latest version
here: https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect
CSpect is incredibly powerful not only
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good! Jim designed the NEX for distribution
of the Baggers titles but everyone else found
it super useful and it has been universally
adopted. This makes distribution of your
award-winning title very, very simple. But that
isn’t to say you can’t load files from SD card
from within NextBuild - it has support for that
too - more on that later. Let’s carry on…
because of its accuracy to real hardware but
also for its debugging features which we will
dive into later in this series, but for now, baby
steps.
You can use ESCAPE to quit out of
CSpect and head back to VSCode. From
here I would recommend you load up some
of the other examples and compile them to
see what might be possible. The compiler
is very powerful and capable, some great
Next titles have been written that have used
Boriels ZX Compiler & NextBuild; Bikers,
Shovel Adventure, Bomb Jack, Night Knight,
Xenobrigade just to name a few.
55
 STEP 4
FINDING OUR OWN WAY

Oloaded some examples, now

K, so we’ve set up VScode,

it’s time to write some of our own

code. We need to create a folder to
contain our code; we can do this by
right clicking in the sources window
on the left hand, for those with limited
imaginations I’ve included an image
as an example.
Let’s call our folder “MyFirstDe-
mo”, make sure there are no spaces
in the filenames or folders we use or
create. Spaces can mess up the build
scripts and you will just thank me
later. Don’t miss this step, we want to
create another folder inside MyFirst-
Demo called data - this will house
all our data files that we require. More on that If not, don’t stress! Down in the text console
coming up. there is a PROBLEMS tab you can use that
Inside our newly created folder we are going will tell you if there’s a problem you need to
to right click again. This time we are going to fix before a NEX can be created, but fingers
pick New File, called it “MyFirstCode.bas” crossed all went well and you got the above
without the quotes mind you - and it’s impor- screen. Hit ESCAPE and let CSpect close.
tant that the file ends with .bas, as this will tell
VScode what type of file it is editing and what
type of extensions to use. Taking things
ADD THESE LINES IN THE FRESH WINDOW: apart.

Wto figure out what is going on in our

‘!org=32768 hile you don’t exactly need to be Kojak
print “HELLO WORLD”
do first example, we will examine exactly what
loop we did at the top of the next page.
You might notice that the first line looks
a little different from the rest of the text you
PRESS F5 OR USE THE TERMINAL MENU, can see in VSCode. The reason behind this
RUN TASK, RUN IN CSPECT. COMPILA- is that NextBuild has a pre-build proces-
TION SHOULD HAPPEN AND WE SHOULD sor, which basically means it processes the
SEE OUR FRESHLY BAKED CODE DISPLAY source file before compiling. This allows
EVERY CODER’S FAVOURITE: us to set up memory addresses or include
assets into our NEX file, then pass over to
Boriel to compiler our code. We will learn
more about the preprocessor commands
later on in the series.
The rest of the lines are fairly standard in
the world of BASIC languages, a print state-
ment prints and a do : loop does exactly

56 NEXT MAGAZINE
 ‘!org=32768 ‘ This tells NextBuild where in memory the program will start
print “HELLO WORLD” ‘ Uses the classic ULA screen to print the message
do ‘ Do a never ending loop as our program end
loop
that: a never ending loop. Why a never ending
loop? Our code ends at a certain address and
if we printed HELLO WORLD and just let our
program continue it would run off into RAM and
cause a crash and we want to leave the head
scratching crashes until later on!
While the aim of these articles will be to get
you going in NextBuild, it’s not really meant to
teach you BASIC, but even if your knowledge is
slim, do stick with us as seeing code in action
can really help, especially when you have good
comments and explanations. You can head
over to Boriel’s website if you want to familiarise
yourself with the more of the compiler keywords
here: https://zxbasic.readthedocs.io/en/
docs note that these do not include keywords
included in NextBuild
Ba brief discussion on how the Next
efore we step any further we can have
accesses the new hardware packed inside the
FPGA heart. The Next, being as compatible as
possible with the classic ZX Spectrum, requires
some sort of mechanism to talk to the hardware,
and this is done via things called Next Regis-
ters. Next Registers can be read
or written and are responsible
for all the fancy things you
see a Next do, such as the
hardware sprites, tilemaps, or
even sample sound playback. A
Next Register is a special Z80N
(that’s the name we call the
CPU instruction set for the Next)
op-code that is a shortcut to
writing and reading ports. Now
PORTS have existed since the
dawn of the original Spectrum
and that’s how it managed to
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talk to samplers, Kempston interfaces, light
pens, mouses (or is that mice?!), and so
on - all done via ports, and that is the same
mechanism we use today with Next Regis-
ters. There are quite a few of these registers
and even the most experienced code can’t
remember them all, which is why we have a
handy Wiki that explains each and every one
in all its glory and is one of my most visited
sites, you can find the link to the ports on
the WIKI here: https://wiki.specnext.dev/
Board_feature_control - this will become
your bible.
Back to MyFirstDemo - lets see if we
can get a sprite on screen. We will need a
sprite first of all and we can generate one
in a number of ways. NextBuild comes with
UDGeedNext which I will promote shame-
lessly because I wrote it; it has shortcomings
and is Windows only, you will find it inside
the NextBuild7/UDGeedNext-4.6 folder.
The program is quite self explanatory
and you can find some .SPR files in the
example folders that you can load up and
play around with to get a feel of the applica-
tion, but hey! Why have one, when you can
have two? That brings us to Remy Sharp’s
awesome online/offline sprite editing tools.
I can write code but I cannot draw. I
know my limits - its UDGeedNext sprite
editor (below)!
57
 Remy site https://zx.remysharp.com/sprites/ has an excellent sprite editor which pretty
much matches all the features of UDGeedNext, and Remy’s tools will work on any OS, even
offline. Once you have decided which tool to use, draw a single simple sprite:

Click the “Download Sprite Sheet” button in the top left of the Remy tool or Save All Sprites
in UDGeedNext, we want to save the file in our MyFirstDemo/data folder. It’s important to
save it into the data folder as this will be the “root” folder for our NEX file.

So we now have a sprite file in the MyFirstDemo/data/ folder. Let’s write some code to
display that on screen. In the MyFistCode.bas add these lines:

‘!org=32768
#include <nextlib.bas>
LoadSDBank(“myfirstsprite.spr”,0,0,0,20)
InitSprites2(1,0,20)
UpdateSprite(32,32,0,0,0,0)
print “HELLO WORLD”
do
loop

58 NEXT MAGAZINE
 e have now used #include
W <nextlib.bas> which tells
Boriel we want to include the nextlib
library. LoadSDBank(“myfirstsprite.
spr”,0,0,0,20) is a special command that
doesn’t actually do anything in the code itself,
it’s there to tell the preprocessor that we have
a file we want to include in a bank (the Next
extended memory). The 20 at the end is the
bank that the file myfirstsprite.spr will end up
in. The zeros represent address, length and
offself and can mostly be ignored unless you’re
doing something more adventurous.
InitSprites2(1,0,20) is a command
that uploads sprite data from a bank into the
Next’s Sprite RAM. Special super fast RAM
which is separate for normal RAM and you
can only upload into this RAM. Then 1 means
load 1 sprite, the 0 is the address offset and in
most cases this can be left at 0 and finally the
bank is set to 20. The last command is quite
powerful and is the UpdateSprite command
Links to everything you need to follow
this tutorial with your Next computer:
NextBuild download:
https://github.com/em00k/NextBuild
Boriel ZX Compiler:
https://zxbasic.readthedocs.io/en/docs
NEXT MAGAZINE
- UpdateSprite(32,32,0,0,0,0)
translates into (x pos, y pos, sprite id, image
is, attribute 4, attribute 5). The attribute
bytes are responsible for mirroring, rotation,
zoom etc which we are not going not going
to be using just right now. We start x & y
positions at 32 because sprites can be
displayed in the border area and because we
haven’t specified that we want sprites over
the border, the default is for them to appear
behind and therefore we wouldn’t see them,
setting them to 32, 32 ensures that they
appear at the top left of the ULA screen.
If you have typed the example in correctly
and pressed F5 you should see your sprite
displayed in all its glory (below).
L look at some control and get sound
et’s wrap this up now, next time we will
working. Make sure your file is saved and I
will see you next time… maybe…. em00k.
CSpect Emulator:
https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect
Remy Sharp’s Tools:
https://zx.remysharp.com/sprites
Spectrum Next WIKI:
https://wiki.specnext.dev
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