iOS-emulated ZX Spectrum games coming down amid licensing controversy

Elite Systems is taking steps to remove a line of classic ZX Spectrum games from the iOS App Store amid questions from a number of developers over royalty payments and rights licensing surrounding those games.

The controversy began to bubble up near the end of Elite's Kickstarter effort to produce a Bluetooth-enabled replica ZX Spectrum keyboard. That keyboard is designed to work with about 200 ZX Spectrum games that Elite has ported to iOS as part of various game collections. It would also work with subsequent Android and Windows apps.

The Kickstarter project recently finished after reaching its goal of over £60,000, but not before a number of the game developers involved spoke out on blogs and forums. Some said they did not give permission for their games to be used, and others said they had stopped receiving promised royalty payments from the iOS sales.

"Over time, it became clear that royalties due under the agreement... were not being paid," Odin Computer Graphics developer Steve Wetherill wrote on his blog in a representative take on the situation. "It is now over three years since this agreement was signed and to date no royalties have been paid."

Now, in an open letter to the community, Elite Director Steve Wilcox says he has withdrawn all of his company's ZX Spectrum apps from the iOS App Store as he takes steps to contact all the developers involved and to nail down the rights and royalties situation.

"The public statements [from developers] are far too wide-ranging to be addressed in this single response." Wilcox writes. "However I acknowledge that I, as a Director, may have failed in my duty to ensure that some of the reports and some of the payments—due to the ZX Spectrum game developers, with whom Elite has contractual relationships—were made in accordance with the agreed terms. I am working toward that unacceptable position being remedied within the next 28 days, sooner if possible."

Customers who have already purchased the games will still be able to play them as this process goes forward, but new customers will not be able to download the apps or make in-app purchases for new games. Wilcox says that receiving in excess of 450 e-mails in a single day over these issues "has been a personally chastening experience."

We hope this rights situations gets worked out soon so the ZX Spectrum can rejoin the Atari 2600 and the Vectrex (but not the Colecovision) in the group of classic video game consoles with officially licensed emulators for mobile devices.