ESP32-S3 ZX Spectrum - Update 22-06-2024

It's been just over a week since I announced the ESP32-S3 ZX Spectrum and the response has been amazing!

We’re now live on Crowd Supply! Please head over there to register your interest.

Thank You!

I just wanted to do a quick update to thank everyone for signing up to receive updates on the ESP32-ZX Spectrum. It’s been an amazing response! 432 and counting people have signed up for updates. Thank You everyone!

432 subscribers and counting!

I’m incredibly grateful for the support that has been shown for this project. I’ve no idea how many of you will convert to actual purchasers - but to be honest just having you along for the journey is great ❤️.

Progress

I’ve made a lot of progress in the last week:

Applied to Crowd Supply

I’ve applied to Crowd Supply to add the product to their platform. I’m really hopeful that we’ll get accepted - 100% of funded projects on Crowd Supply have delivered to backers or are on track to do so. So it’s a getting accepted would be a big validation of this project and would also make it even more likely to be successful.

However, I’m not too worried if we don’t get accepted - I’ll just use the usual selling platforms such as Tindie to distribute.

Almost finished the next prototype

I’m pretty pleased with progress on this and should get it sent off for manufacture this weekend.

I’ve got a few things to tidy up - but it’s pretty much there. There are some great features on this board:

• Fixes the keyboard ghosting with minimal BOM costs (I’m using an IC that has a lot of manufacturers and is widely available for 10’s of cents!

• Adds another QWIIC connector giving us two connectors for peripherals (such joysticks)

• Adds an “expansion” port. I’m pretty excited about the possibilities for this. It breaks out the SPI connections for the display along with some other spare GPIO pins

• Adds a power switch so we can turn the board on and off

Created New Artwork

I’ve also created new artwork for the keyboard. I was using some vector art that I purchased off of Etsy, but that came with a very restrictive license. I’ve now got some new artwork that I created from scratch from a high resolution image of the ZX Spectrum keyboard.

It’s pretty interesting to see which keys are worn out and try and correlate them to particular games - I’m suspecting that my friend who took this might have played a lot of Elite…

Narrowed down the display options

I’ve found a suitable display on both AliExpress and AliBaba. I think that we will end up going for AliExpress due to the large MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) that AliBaba sellers expect.

Next Steps

• Follow up with Crowd Supply

• Get this new version submitted to PCBWay

• Do a video on how I fixed (hopefully!) the keyboard ghosting

• Get the GitHub repos into a decent shape so they can be made public

Questions and Answers

Why can’t you just add an HDMI/DVI/VGA output?

I’m aiming for a completely self contained system with the display - so the current answer is no. However - there are a lot of possibilities with the expansion port… so maybe at some point there could be an extra “display card” option.

Will you support 128K versions with the AY sound chip?

Possibly - the speaker is just like the original 16K/48K Spectrum and I’m planning on keeping it that way. But with PDM sound output you can get quite good results. So it’s a possibility.

What emulator software will it be running?

Currently, it’s running some software that I’ve created myself based on a GPL Z80 emulator. However, I am looking at ESpectrum as an option. My concern at the moment is that modifying this to use the TFT display could be a lot of work - which would prevent me from actually shipping a working system.

Will you be shipping with any games?

This is a definite no. Unfortunately, many ZX Spectrum recreations have failed due to not being able to license games. It’s basically a mess and even tracking down who to license the games from is a challenge in itself. There are lots of places where games can be downloaded (e.g. World of Spectrum and other unofficial sources) - so this will be left as an exercise for the buyer.

How much will it cost?

I’m trying to keep this as affordable as I can whilst minimising the risk of losing money on the project. To a certain extent the final cost will be determined by how many people actually commit to buying it. But there is a still a baseline cost that will be hard to go below. My current target selling price is $49.95 - This feels like a price that Sir Clive would have liked. But we’ll see how things progress. I may be being wildly optimistic and the most important thing with pricing is to make sure the project actually succeeds.

How are you going to sell it?

As I wrote earlier, I’ve applied to Crowd Supply, and I’m hoping this application will be successful. That would be my preferred route as I just need to ship their distributor all the finished products and they’ll send them out. If that application doesn’t succeed then I’ll use stores like Tindie.

Thanks For Reading

That’s probably it for this update. I need to focus on getting the latest design sent off for manufacture and assembly. Thanks again to everyone for signing up for updates. Please share the project with anyone you think would be interested.