Spectrum Next Delayed to 2026
Unfortunately 2025 has not been a very good year me personally, hopefully it has been better for you, dear reader. It has also not been a great year for various retro gaming kickstarters which have been delayed until 2026. The most significant and the one which I personally have been looking forward to the most, the Spectrum Next has been one of the casualties. It was originally scheduled to be shipped out to backers by December. However as the date approached there was an ever increasing wall of silence from the honchos behind the Spectrum Next kickstarter. I was one of the foolish few who had misplaced their trust in the Spectrum Next team by defending them when others said that they would never meet the projected deadline. In November when updates regarding production should have been posted there was nothing. As the silence grew and November slipped away so did the belief that the Next would ship by it’s predicted date. Of course, what the majority of backers had suspected, that we wouldn’t see our Issue #3 Next’s this year was becoming inevitable. When their should have been updates by excited developers there was radio silence. And as November came to a close with no updates it became obvious there was news and it wasn’t good.
As December came it had been way too long since there was any update, and as it was the month scheduled for the Next’s to start shipping out the dev’s had no choice but to tell the backers the bad news. So an update was released today, the 2nd of December which stated that the Spectrum Next shipping has been delayed to LATE February. What this means is that most people won’t receive their highly anticipated Next’s until March at the earliest as we all know international shipping takes a long time. This may even extend into April for people living far away from Spectrum Next HQ in Europe somewhere – like those of us in Australia, which is probably the absolute worst location in the world when it comes to receiving things by mail. We are always left out and considered last due to the small population and insanely strict customs regulations and laws. For those of us in Australia who have backed the Spectrum Next, only God knows when we will actually see our units. Could be June or July or even later, so if you are in ANY other part of the world besides Australia, New Zealand and the surround island nations consider yourself blessed that you aren’t at the mercy of insanely long shipping times. For those who are in Europe, USA, Canada and even Asia you are likely to get your Next’s in March IF there are no further delays, touch wood.
This post has had a distinctly negative tone and I’m sorry about that however I am just expressing the reality of the situation and also my frustration of having the already extremely long waiting time extended. But I can’t end this post on such a sour note, I have to look at the silver lining, which in this case is what we can look forward to in 2026. Since 2025 was such a bad year we can only assume that 2026 will be much better, for one thing all the delayed kickstarters must finally be delivered so let’s have a look at what we can look forward to next year and the best retro games and hardware that came out this year.
Best Retro Games & Hardware of 2025
- ModRetro Chromatic – The 1st Edition launched in December 2024 but sales continued into this year including the Game Stop Edition
- MiSTeR MultiSystem2 – Pre-Orders for this advanced FPGA console began in May and shipped to gamers in August 2025
- SuperStation One – The world’s first affordable FPGA console, even cheaper than the Chromatic. New batches still being released.
- Super Tilt Bro – An innovative NES game, it was available to non-kickstarter backers in 2025 from homebrew-factory.com
- Farming Simulator 16-Bit – This awesome gem surprised everyone in early 2025 and it was a treat for Sega Mega Drive owners
- O – A stunning platformer for the Spectrum Next, it was available for purchase in late 2025 with great fan fare and special big box edition
- Luft Gears – Another 2025 kickstarter game, it nearly reach 800% of it’s initial funding goal now available to buy at the RG.N webstore
Retro Games & Hardware to Look Forward to in 2026
- Spectrum Next KS3 – As mentioned expected to ship in February so delivery is likely March to July (depending on location)
- Cronela’s Mansion – Original release date was November 2025 so it’s likely be completed and sent to backers before the end of 2026
- Former Dawn – There is only a very slight chance that it may be ready in 2026 but realistically 2027 is much more likely
- Vectrex Mini – The mini is scheduled to start shipping out to backers in September 2026, hopefully it won’t get delayed
- ModRetro M64 – This FPGA modern Nintendo 64 will likely be released next year, an awesome console to look forward to in 2026!
- Super NES Rumble Controler – This beauty is set to ship in late February 2026 to those lucky few who pre-ordered back in August
- Urb X Warriors: The Lost Temple – Scheduled for release in April 2026, this one may actually be the only Kickstarter to ship on time!
So we had an average year, though quite a few decent games and hardware was released and we have a lot to look forward to in 2026. There is quite a bit to look forward to on that list there and that is far from exhaustive. I’m sure there are many more hardware and homebrew releases that I’m forgetting or may not even know about. I’m interested in what you are looking forward to the most in 2026. Or maybe you already have one or more of these pre-ordered or backed in Kickstarter. I would love to know, so please comment or email me and let me know, I really love to hear from my readers and other fellow retro gamers. Maybe I’ve been looking at 2025 a bit harshly, a lot of good games and hardware have also come in 2025 so let’s have a look at the retro gaming fruits that we got to sample this year.
Relevant Links
- Spectrum Next kickstarter 2026 delay update [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectrum-next-issue-3-0/posts/4556106] Backers of the Spectrum Next issue #3 worst fear come true 🙁
- SuperStation One batch 3 pre-order [https://retroremake.co/products/superstation-one] Available to pre-order for 2026 delivery
- Farming Simulator 16-Bit order page [https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/products/farming-simulator-16-bit-deluxe-edition-mega-drive-genesis] About 95 copies of the deluxe version remaining
- Limited Run SNES rumble controller pre-order page [https://limitedrungames.com/collections/all-in-production/products/snes-rumble-controller] Unfortunately all stock is gone, pre-order’s due to ship in late February
- MiSTeR Multisystem 2 order page [https://shop.heber.co.uk/mister-multisystem2-fpga-analogue-console-system-black-enclosure/] Pre-order a MiSTeR for the current production run
- Super Tilt Bro order page [https://www.homebrew-factory.com/nes/47-super-tilt-bro-nes.html] Order the only NES game that can be played online on real hardware
- Vectrex Mini kickstarter page [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1852390947/vectrex-mini/description] Kickstarter campaign is over but late pledges are active till January 2026
- Cronela’s Mansion kickstarter page [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cronelasmansion/straynus/description] Late pledge’s still active, I highly recommend pledging for a port if you haven’t yet
- Former Dawn’s kickstarter page project updates [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/something-nerdy/former-dawn/posts] See the latest update’s regarding this epic NES game’s progress
- Urb-X Warrior’s kickstarter page [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tonywarriner/urbx-warriors-an-original-game-for-the-spectrum-next/description] Late pledge’s no longer active, game due to ship in April 2026
- ModRetro’s M64 pre-order page [https://modretro.com/pages/m64] No pre-order available yet but you can subscribe to a mailing list to be kept informed
- Fusion Retro Books publisher’s O order page [https://fusionretrobooks.com/products/o-spectrum-next] All deluxe big box copies have been sold but many standard copies still available
- Luft Gears RGN webstore order page [https://retrogame.news/product/luft-gears/] Order this highly successful 2025 homebrew kickstarter Game Boy DMG game while stocks last
