Hi dear GOG,

First of all, I would like to thank you for such a games you provide.

I have one question:

Is that possible for you to provide us with some ZX Spectrum games as there are plenty of free emulators available?

Or you just tend to provide games from the PC platform?

For the time being, GOG is only doing PC games, and I really doubt Spectrum games are on the horizon to be honest. Most of the best stuff is in rights limbo, and the other stuff is simply conversions of better versions of a game. We do have Lords of Midnight and Doomsdark's Revenge here, but you'll have to stick with emulators when it comes to games like 3D Deathchase, Head over Heels and Tir Na Nog I'm afraid.

Although there is a wonderful free remake of Head over Heels, which I can strongly recommend.

At the moment there are no ZX-Spectrum games. Next step will be first the support of Linux.
If GoG commercially offers games that need a (free) emulator to run, like they do with Dos, they are also obliged to give support for those emulators. Which again requires someone's time. So I think that other platforms/emulators will come first, since GoGs personell is limited and platforms like the C64, the Amiga or several old consoles have a bigger active fan-base. I.e. more customers.

But you can wish for the support of ZX-Spectrum games on the wishlist. If there are enough customers wanting such a support, GoG might get around to do it eventually.
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/games_and_emulator_for_816bit_systems_msx_commodore_amstrad_cpc_zx_spectrum_atari_st_amiga
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/add_zx_spectrum_games

Just forget about it. Never going to happen. If you want to play Spectrum/C64/Atari XL/XE etc. games - head directly to abandonware sites.

Moreover, if you want to play with a spectrum games, you can find websites with a lot of games. From my point of view, the best one is World of spectrum

Yeah, as with all emulators, the rights to the BIOS ROMS would probably be a big sticking point, if GOG was that interested, I think the Speccy was one of those platforms that was big in some territories but unknown in others and is a bit old, even for GOG now

The big speccy-only title that immediately comes to mind is Julian Gollop's 'Chaos' which is coming back:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1206403106/chaos-reborn-from-the-creator-of-the-original-x-co

(or will do if it meets its goal!)

Nor is the rights situation to those ROMs particularly clear. Amstrad has owned the rights to the Spectrum since it bought the rights to Sinclair Research's ZX Spectrum properties in 1986, but not directly to the firmware, although it has given unlimited permission for redistribution under retention of copyright. Sinclair Research has remained silent and probably doesn't have much to say on the matter except regarding the use of its trademark. Nine Tiles Networks - the company that developed the OS - has released it under the GNU GPL.

:o Awesome.

For Spectrum stuff head to World of Spectrum, their infoseek has thousands of the old games there. Granted a few are either missing or distribution has been denied but you can get most of the popular games there for download. Emulator I use is ZXSpin which is completely free and you can set it to the early Spectrum 16k machines up to the last Amstrad released machines like +2A/B & +3, also has QL support on there and it all works great.

As for C64 there is Gamebase 64 which has thousands of C64 games, use WinVICE emulator. There are also loads of other places to get C64 games, either tape or disc to use in Vice.

Atari ST (Steem emulator) & Amiga (WinUAE emulator - does require original kick rom though, 1.3 for older stuff and 3.0 for 1200 AGA stuff) use Planet Emulation for games

As for those games coming to GOG I very much doubt it in all honesty, with being able to get the stuff legally and free elsewhere (World of Spectrum in your case) there is no need to go that far back with their catalog. Things like Gerry the Germ, Willow Pattern etc (Firebird stuff alongside Microprose etc) were acquired by Tommo recently but I don't think people would buy them here, I know I would with it being my generation and still owning my machines from back then, but I would sit firmly in a small minority.

Oh God my back log was insane before but I've recently been adding freeware adventures, emulation ROMS and now free, classic remakes it's officially out of control!

SO many games so little time...

I buy stuff for my Spectrum, C64, Atari ST & Amiga every month!

I also have an Amstrad CPC464 with color screen coming this week, an analogue tuner is also coming for the screen which accepts RF input so will be able to hook other machines up to the Amstrad monitor.

There's also the corresponding Batman remake, which was made using the same engine (seeing as the original Spectrum versions of Batman and Head over Heels were as well).

Hell, Retrospec is an awesome site for retro remakes in general.

To be honest, I'd be wanting something other than the strangeness that is the Zed. How about the oddness that is the MSX2 instead?

Actually MSX2 is great too - would enjoy to play Maze of Gallious, Firebird or USAS

Is there some reason to want ZX Spectrum games, if one has no fond memories of the system?

I had one friend who had ZX Spectrum, but to me its games merely seemed like inferior versions of the same games that appeared on e.g. Commodore 64, similar case as with Amstrad CPC. Were there some Spectrum exclusives that everyone should play? "Horace Goes Skiing" doesn't count.

It is a similar reason I'm not that interested to see pre-1989 PC games on GOG.com, as I know there quite often were vastly superior Amiga versions out there. After 1990 or so, PC started to hold its own, thanks to VGA and sound card support.

But I guess, even getting the inferior version is better than no version at all (as GOG doesn't carry Amiga games either)...