As expected over the weekend Dunny and co released a bugfix update to BASin, the BASIC development tool (and oh so much more). With some available on the WOS Forum, there are a few important bugs fixed (including some which affect win2k users such as myself) and a couple minor additions. Groovsome - go get some.

So, I'm back from my weekend away, and this morning I received an email from Richard Tarjan mentioning that he's provided another update to his enormous tome "ZX Spectrum in the 21st Century" - which covers hardware for the ZX, and clones. Until I perform another webcheck I can't list what's changed on the page (and I'm not clever enough to spot what's new), but all current projects are apparently included and information is verified via the scene. Of course if you do spot anything that's incorrect or missing, let Richard know and give him some more work to do. Well worth a read, and a good reference for people wanting to know what's happening on our lovely machine. I also understand that he's now working on an update to his games list, so expect news on that soon-ish.

Well the weekend is coming up and I'm away for most of it, so news will have to wait until I get back. This site is in danger of becoming one of those never-updated places. Don't worry, all will get back to normal soon.
In the meantime, don't forget that next weekend is Forever2008 in Trencin, Slovakia. I'll be there, which is reason enough to visit the party.

With all the reaction speed of a well-honed sloth (to be fair I have been away, with nary a speck of decent internet access), I bring you the week-old news that the Spin team have released a new version of BASin. If you don't know it, BASin is a handy tool for editing and debugging Spectrum BASIC code. OK, it's more than that - in the past I've mostly used it to help me create loaders for programs, tho' I did use it to write Rotozlow. But I digress.
This latest version, r14, brings with it a host of fixes and new features. Most impressive (for me anyway, as I don't do a huge amount of BASIC editing) is the screen$ editor, which has a lot of really nice features. I've not played with them fully, as I'm only just getting back into the "news" thing, but it certainly looks the stuff.
So. If you're one of the few people who have not already downloaded this release, grab it from here and keep an eye on this thread for any bugs and stuff.
Well done.

Just a very quick note to mention that I'm going to be away for a few days (actually until sometime next weekend) and I'll be mostly without internet access. I say "mostly" because I'm sure I'll be able to find a cyber-cafe somewhere and check my emails. But I won't have access to my webchecking facilities, so you'll have to wait for proper news until then. Either that or keep checking Speccy Live, where you can get some interesting, pre-translation scene news.
As an aside, I'll have to delay contacting the raww.orgy winners until next weekend when I'm back. So don't worry, I've not forgotten you.

Speccy.org are reporting that there's a new version of gp2x ZX emulator GP2Xpectrum available. This is v1.7 and brings with it a bunch of newness including full .TZX support. Well worth checking out. Yes.

Over on JohnBach.tv a site which, yep, I've not seen before - you can find a just-posted interview with Yerzmyey of AY-Riders. There's talk of how he got started in the Chiptune world, the use of his music in film, and ooh, some other stuff. Go have a read. Go. Now.

You're sitting in your Belgian home, swigging Stella Artois and eating chocolates, and feeling sorry for yourself because all of the demoparties are in other countries. Well feel sorry no more, because Rewired 2008 has been announced. The party is taking place in Maaseik, North-East Belgium from the 20th to 22nd of June 2008. There's one oldschool demo competition, but if you produce ZX works then you'll possibly need to provide the compo machine - or contact the organisers. Hmm.

I'm sure psj3809 won't mind me namechecking him and pointing to his post on the WOS forums all about the latest issue of Retro Gamer - it's a Speccy Special. I've personally only just bought the previous issue (the one with Elite on the cover), but this issue looks like it could be good. There's even an interview with young Mr.Heide. Can't be bad.

Thanks go to kahwi triebkraft for adding the remaining 256b intros from last weekend's party to Pouet. If you've not already seen the releases then I urge you to check them out. Some quality work in there I think. It's good to see what people can do in such a small amount of space.