Ahead of the return of our regular Homebrew section, we highlight the best games available for the Spectrum Next, and speak to the coding heroes who are developing new software for this wonderful system

Words By Martyn Carroll

» [Next] Inspired by the Game & Watch title Mario Bros, Sunteam’s Next Shift imagines what might be happening on the Next production line right now.

» [Next] The highly anticipated Melkhior’s Mansion, which is being ported to the Next by Kev Brady, is now back on and targeting a 2022 release.

» [Next] The cute demon Crowley is quickly becoming a mascot for the Next, and will soon appear in his very own platform adventure game.

» [Next] An enhanced version of The Lords Of Midnight is included in the Next distro, alongside various other games and demos.

» [Next] Lemmings designer Mike Dailly has shown off the Next’s capabilities with an impressive Shadow Of The Beast tech demo.

It has been two years since Retro Gamer lifted the lid on the Spectrum Next, revealing the machine that the Sinclair faithful had been waiting decades for. Back then, backers of the first Kickstarter campaign had yet to receive their Nexts, but they soon would. Now we find ourselves in a similar situation, where backers of the second Kickstarter campaign have yet to receive their Nexts. But they soon will.

The key difference now is software. Over the past two years, lots of games and applications have been released, so those people soon to receive their machines have a decent-sized library of great games to delve into. We’ve selected ten of what we feel are the best games, but if you visit specnext. com you’ll find many more, either available right now or in-development. Specnext’s list contains some unfortunate MIAs, particularly ones planned as stretch goals during the first Kickstarter (Rex Next, Nodes Of Yesod, No Mercy and Dreamworld Pogie). These have still yet to appear and it’s not clear if or when they will.

Thankfully the second Kickstarter stretch-goal games seem more realistic – and even more desirable. They include a follow-up to the brilliant Baggers In Space, the Next version of MSX homebrew title Night Knight (which our dear Jason Kelk awarded 92% in issue 196), and a ‘new episode’ of the 8-bit masterpiece Head Over Heels. Other anticipated titles include Crowley from Rusty Pixels, the onoff-now-back-on Melkhior’s Mansion from Kev Brady, and an update of The Way Of The Exploding Fist. Of course, the second Kickstarter was huge, attracting in excess of 5,000 backers, which means that more people will be compelled to produce software for this larger user base. Plus, new Next owners will also hopefully tinker and create their own games. We can’t wait to cover the developments in our Homebrew section when it returns.