We recently brought you the news that a third batch of Spectrum Next computers was going up for pre-order on Kickstarter. Well, the campaign is now live, and eager Spectrum fans have a final chance to get their hands on the homage to Sir Clive Sinclair’s legendary hardware. According to the team behind the project, this latest iteration of the Spectrum Next is “the most ambitious leap yet for this modern reimagining of a classic”.

This latest design adds several new features to the previous iterations. The biggest update is a new core, called QL, which turns the Spectrum Next into a dual-CPU system. The new core boasts a dual Motorola 68000/68020 CPU running at 44MHz with on-the-fly switching, full Sinclair QL compatibility, SD card, WiFi, joystick, and RTC support, 65K colour display, expansion port integration, and instant access to nearly the entire QL software catalogue. This new core will ship pre-installed on all units shipped in this third campaign, but is already freely available for current Next owners.

A statement from the Spectrum Next team said. “With over 16,000 units already in the wild, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next community has grown into a vibrant ecosystem of developers, players, and retro computing fans. Issue 3 isn’t just another batch, it’s the final push to get boxed, cased, and ‘manualled’ Next machines into as many hands as possible, creating a larger market for games than ever seen before with this miracle reinvention designed by the legendary Rick Dickinson.”