SOME 33 years after launching the ZX Spectrum computer - Sir Clive Sinclair’s new games console has gone on sale.

Sir Clive launched Retro-Computers Ltd last December and has now started taking orders for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega, a console which will come pre-loaded with 1,000 of classic games enjoyed by Spectrum fans in the 1980s.

Priced at £100 the Vega became possible after Retro Computers Ltd raised £154,000 in a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

The venture has already benefitted from suggestions made by some fans nostalgic for the days of the original ZX Spectrum computer, which sold more than five million units in the 1980s.

Chris Smith, Retro Computers’ technical director, who designed the Vega, said: "We are especially grateful to those Spectrum fans who have made suggestions as to additional features they would like to see in the Vega, and we have taken all those suggestions seriously, we have discussed them, and we have decided to implement two of them in the first release of the Vega.”

The company expects to deliver the first 1,000 Vegas at the end of May, and the next 3,000 units the following month.

The Vega, which is being manufactured by SMS Electronics Ltd in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, is then expected to continue with a 10,000 unit production run in August or September.

For more information on the Vega, log on to www.zxvega.co.uk.