Sub £10 ZX Spectrum games console with N64 style controller

This years' Xmas must have

By Robert Blincoe • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 25th October 2000 15:16 GMT

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Updated The top selling games console at Christmas is unlikely to be a player offering 36 old ZX Spectrum titles - but at £9.95 the retro gamer could do a lot worse.

The player was spotted for sale in a giant Poundstretcher style warehouse of crap in Wolverhampton. The games console has a controller that had been directly copied off the Nintendo 64's controller. This plugs directly into a TV and was powered by a transformer plugged into the mains.

It offered 36 Spectrum games, including Tank, Tetris, and Macross, a sideways scrolling Defender style shoot 'em up. Image quality looked a little worse than I remember the Spectrum to be, but what do you want for under a tenner.

The product is probably not exclusive to the Wolves outlet, called Springfields, and will undoubtedly be available from emporiums of tat all over the country in the run up to Xmas. The controller didn't have any brand on it and I was unable to track down a box, so I can't tell you what the product is called. Sorry.

Springfields was also selling some fibre optic Christmas Trees and some of those perfume fakes - 'Its my Saki' for 'Issey Miyake' and 'Huge Buzz' instead of 'Hugo Boss'. So if you visit there you can do all your Christmas shopping in one go. ®

Update

The device is called the MegaJoy 2000. The first online outlet to tell us they sell it is games-console.com, and they promise it will be priced at £9.99 in the next couple of weeks. The Speccy things have also been spotted at a 'hypervalue' in Cardiff.