Christmas Surprises

Today I was reviewing the magazines Next Annual 2026, ZX Dreams Next, and On The ZX Spectrum: Nextra #12. This is necessary for tracking game ratings, and a third tab in the database was created specifically for this purpose.

The first two magazines are available to those who backed the corresponding Kickstarter campaigns.

Nextra is completely free, and anyone can subscribe to new issues or even support the author by gaining access to some exclusive issues.

Magazines are usually behind the times and are more focused on retrospectives, but in my case, things turned out differently. Next Annual 2026 lifted the veil of secrecy on the Nextcade collection. Adrian actually talked about this disc earlier, in the Facebook group, but now reviews with screenshots have arrived.

So, Nextcade is a game menu designed by Matt Neale back in 2024. Or maybe even earlier. In 2024, we first saw Adrian's arcade machines using this menu. It also became the basis for the Nextcade collection, which, in addition to some familiar games, included several completely exclusive ones, as well as demos of projects currently in development:

• Atlantis: The Next Battle
• Crash: The Game
• Ghost Rush
• Ghost Rush 2: Pak's Revenge
• Spencer in Subterranea

Some screenshots:

In addition to games, we also closely monitor the development of the rest of the Next ecosystem. A couple new of utilities for Next deserve mention:

• .ping (Johan Engdahl's version)
• .cal, and ZNC Libraries by Ian "Nuntis" Jukes.

My devlog is gradually turning into a news blog, but I really enjoy writing about all of this.

I'd like to especially thank everyone who supports the database's development with kind words, news, or donations. I'm glad we're working together on this exciting project, preserving Next's legacy.