[FAQ]
[Frequently Asked Questions] [Resources] [Emulators] [Where Is...?] [File Formats] [Technical Information] [Pinouts] [Acknowledgements]

SPECCY EMULATORS FOR CBM AMIGA

This page last updated on 2 May 2000

[DOS] [Windows] [UNIX/Linux] [OS/2] [Mac] [Archie] [Amiga] [Psion] [Windows CE] [ST/TT] [Java] [Playstation] [QL] [Other Platforms]
[Benchmarks]

11 emulators listed:

[ASp] [CBSpeccy] [Icarus] [KGB] [Speculator '97] [Speccylator] [Spectrum] [Spectrum128] [ZXAM] [ZX-Spectrum] [ZX Spectrum Emulator]

Note: All the Aminet links are to the UK site. Choose a mirror closer to you for quicker access :-).

[Updated!] ASp v0.75b (Ian Greenway)

  1. Emulates the 48K Spectrum (with AY sound), 128K Spectrum and various joysticks.
  2. Loads .SNA and .Z80 snapshots, and from .TAP tape files.
  3. Saves .SNA and .Z80 snapshots.
  4. No real tape support.
  5. Requires a 68020 or above, native chipset, Workbench 3.0 or above and approximately 800K of RAM.
  6. Runs at real Speccy speed (not adjustable).
  7. Freeware.
  8. Multitasks and system-friendly. Very comprehensive Z80 core emulation. Small codesize. Now has an Arexx port for communication with other programs.
  9. Native chipset only. A bit slow on a 68030. No rainbow effects, needs an MMU and Thor's mmu.library.
  10. Actively under development.
  11. Available from the ASp Home Page or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

CBSpeccy v0.25b (Rst7 and Max Iwamoto)

  1. Emulates the Pentagon (Russian Spectrum clone) with TR-DOS and various joysticks and the Kempston mouse.
  2. Loads .SNA, .Z80 and possibly other format of snapshots, .TAP and (partially) .TZX tape files and .TRD, .SCL and .DSK disk images. (The .DSK format is a different TR-DOS format, not a +3 disk).
  3. Saves an unknown snapshot format and to .TRD, .SCL and .DSK disk images.
  4. No real tape support.
  5. Needs an A1200 with a 68030, 040 or 060 and 8Mb RAM.
  6. Auto-adjusts to real Spectrum speed; speed can't be changed.
  7. Freeware.
  8. The best 128K emulator for the Amiga. Disk and tape images cached in memory, so you can play around with images and not affect the copy on the Amiga's disk. Two R register modes for compatibility. Has rainbow effects, but these are for Pentagon timings and so most 128K games will look a bit funny. Can now use non-standard ROMs as well.
  9. Now works on 030s, 040s and 060s. No 48K sound or AY white noise.
  10. Thanks to Chris Young and Joe Mackay for many of the above comments.
  11. Available from the CBSpeccy Home Page or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

Icarus Spectrum Emulator v1.0

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum (presumably), interface 1 & Microdrives.
  2. Loads its own format of snapshots (more info welcome).
  3. Saves its own format of snapshots.
  4. No real tape support.
  5. Requirements? Old, so probably just a basic A500.
  6. Slow.
  7. Freeware?
  8. Fully multitasking.
  9. Microdrive emulation using standard Amiga disks.
  10. More information on this one welcome; any Amiga owners fancy downloading it, trying it out and letting me know the results?
  11. Was available from http://www.cybercity.dk/users/ccc14241/icarus10.dms, but this site has vanished. Anyone?

Back to top

KGB v1.3

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum, cursor joystick (with cursor keys) and Kempston joystick (with Amiga joyport 2).
  2. Loads .ZX snapshots.
  3. Saves .ZX snapshots.
  4. Loads/saves from/to real tapes via a sound-digitiser.
  5. Requires monochrome or colour.
  6. Speed not known.
  7. Freeware?
  8. Has a pitch-compensated mode, that transposes the sound two octaves up (handy on slow Amigas).
  9. Doesn't multitask. Isn't completely compatible with ZX-Spectrum; several games don't work, e.g. Chronos, Starstrike II.
  10. Version 2.0 is due soon, with more snapshot formats supported, better real tape support, better speed, multitasking, Microdrive emulation and some bugfixes.
  11. Available from NVG or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

Speculator '97 (William James)

  1. Emulates 48k Spectrum. Can load in 128k .Z80 files, so long as the extra memory is not used. Supports +D disks (via a supplied DOSDriver) and the Kempston Joystick.
  2. Loadable formats: ZX82, KGB, Z80, ZX, SP, SNA.
  3. Saves custom ZX82 snapshot.
  4. Can load in normal files through serial port interface.
  5. Kickstart 2.04 and 68020 or higher required.
  6. On an A1200 with a 25Mhz MC68030 Viper card + 32Bit Fast RAM, Speculator will run at around the 100% mark; seems faster than ZXAM on some games.
  7. Shareware - £10.
  8. Fastest of the Amiga emulators. Lots of support utilities. Multitasks.
  9. Emulation is buggy and downright weird in places (Poking 23659,0 in BASIC doesn't lock up Speccy like it would on real Speccy). No .TAP support. Only saves in custom format.
  10. Not updated since early 1997.
  11. Available from Aminet or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

Speccylator v1.0 (Richard Carlsson)

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum, Kempston joystick.
  2. Loads .SNA snapshots, no tape support.
  3. Saves .SNA snapshots, no tape support.
  4. No real tape support.
  5. Requires just any Amiga with Kickstart 2.0 and around 435Kb of free memory.
  6. 'Faster than most' - except Peter McGavin's Spectrum on a 68000-based Amiga.
  7. Freeware.
  8. Fully multitasking, nice graphical interface, better sound than Peter McGavin's Spectrum. Can dump Spectrum screen to an IFF ILBM file. Preferences can be set globally and for individual snapshots. Better Z80 emulation than ZXAM. Full BCD flags emulation.
  9. No particular bad points, unless you count lack of features - e.g. no file support.
  10. The idea behind the project was to create a Z80 emulation kernel that could run on any 68000 machine, i.e. not using any Amiga specifics. The Z80 emulator kernel can therefore be used for an emulator on any other 68000-based machine, e.g. the Atari ST. Recently updated (September 1996), with Kempston joystick emulation the next thing on the author's to-do list.
  11. Available from author's homepage, Aminet or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

Spectrum v1.7 (Peter McGavin)

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum, cursor joystick (with cursor keys) and Kempston joystick (with Amiga joyport 2).
  2. Loads .SNA snapshots and tape files from separate .header and .bytes files on Amiga disks.
  3. Saves .SNA snapshots and tape files to separate .header and .bytes files on Amiga disks.
  4. Loads Spectrum files via a parallel port sampler, saves via Amiga audio.
  5. Works on any OCS, ECS or AGA Amiga from 68000 to 68060 with Kickstart 1.2 and up.
  6. Is reasonably fast on 68030/25MHz, but slow on 68000/7.14MHz machines. At least 68020/14MHz (A1200) and FAST RAM are recommended. Not as fast as ZXAM. Comes with different versions for the 68000/68010/68020, as well as a 'corner-cutting' version for the 68000.
  7. Freeware?
  8. Multitasks.
  9. Colour palette is a bit strange.
  10. Very old, and not supported any more. There is a version 2.0 around, but this is a fake: it's just v 1.7 with the version strings changed.
  11. Available from Aminet or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

Spectrum128 v0.2 Beta (Alberto Ordóñez)

  1. Emulates 128K Spectrum.
  2. Loads .SNA, version 1 .Z80 files, and 128K version 2 and 3 .Z80 files.
  3. No saving.
  4. No real tape support.
  5. None mentioned.
  6. Very slow on a 68030.
  7. Freeware.
  8. First and foremost, emulates the 128K on an Amiga! Can be made slightly faster by switching to a less compatible mode (interrupts not emulated so accurately), and also has a simple built-in debugger, mono mode and can multitask.
  9. No sound or GUI; keys don't always respond. Monochrome screen is green on white (!), and the colour palette in general is a bit funny.
  10. Thanks to Chris Young for bringing this to my attention and reviewing it; all the above comments apply to v0.1 and so may be out of date.
  11. Available from Aminet or World of Spectrum; see also the author's home page.

Back to top

ZXAM v2.0 (Toni Pomar)

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum, Kempston, Sinclair II and Cursor joysticks. Also emulates the 128K's AY-8910 sound chip, so 128K-enhanced games that use only the sound chip and not the extra RAM often work and give better sound.
  2. Loads .SNA, .SP, KGB and .Z80 snapshots. Can theoretically load any format via ARexx scripts (a .TAP script is supplied). Loads tape files as .header and .bytes files from disk, the same as Spectrum v1.7.
  3. Saves .SNA and .SP snapshots. Once again, can use ARexx scripts to do any other format (scripts for .Z80 and .TAP are supplied). Saves tape files to disk as .header and .bytes.
  4. Real tape support via a custom tape interface (diagram and instructions to make this are supplied).
  5. Kickstart 2.04 and 68020 or higher required.
  6. Runs quite well on a 14MHz A1200.
  7. Shareware.
  8. Runs in a window on Workbench screen, on a separate draggable screen, or in exclusive mode. Automatic speed adjustment for fast machines. Can save snapshots to a real tape for loading on a real Spectrum. Can load PowerPacked snapshots if you have the powerpacker.library in the LIBS: drawer. Comes with an ARexx-based monitor/debugger.
  9. At least 38 games (including Chronos, Starstrike II and Head over Heels) do not work; so emulation obviously isn't perfected.
  10. Not being developed any more. There is a thing called the ZX Poke Guide which is not an emulator but instead it's an AmigaGuide by Richard Koerber full of POKEs (about 784 games). It uses the ARexx port of ZXAM to make the pokes and run/stop the emulator from the AmigaGuide itself. Gerard Sweeney has brought another such program to my attention; Hack Attack III which has around 400 more games than the ZX Poke Guide, 90% of which have been tested by the author ('Rastan'). It is also apparently easier to add more pokes to HA3 than to ZXPG.
  11. Available from Aminet or World of Spectrum. Aminet has the ZX Poke Guide and Hack Attack III.

Back to top

ZX-Spectrum v5.0 (Jeroen Kwast)

  1. Emulates 48K/80K/128K Spectrum, interface 1, Opus, Specdrum, Currah uSpeech.
  2. Loads .SNA and .Z80 snapshots, .TZX tape files and a proprietary snapshot format also.
  3. Saves .SNA and .Z80 snapshots, .TZX tape files and a proprietary snapshot format also.
  4. Has real tape support.
  5. Requires any Amiga.
  6. 25 MHZ 68030 = 48K 100%, 33 MHZ 68030 = 48K 132%, 7 MHZ 68000 = 48K 32%.
  7. Freeware?
  8. Good points?
  9. Bad points?
  10. No other comments.
  11. Never going to be publicly released after the author got harrassment from the emulator scene; the previous version (4.71) is available from NVG or World of Spectrum.

Back to top

ZX Spectrum Emulator v0.10 (A.Schifano)

  1. Emulates 48K Spectrum, presumably, and Kempston joystick.
  2. Loads snapshots (type unknown) and from tape (AmigaDOS files).
  3. Presumably saves snapshots and to AmigaDOS files.
  4. Real tape support via a tape interface.
  5. Requires any Amiga.
  6. Speed? Has three video modes; monochrome, where you choose the overall PAPER and INK colour for the screen; colour 1 with limited updates of the screen and colour 2 with full updates (slower).
  7. Appears to be a commercial product. The demo does not include tape support or snapshot support, and resets after a certain amount of time.
  8. Good points?
  9. Spectrum ROM doesn't come with the emulator; apparently Amstrad denied permission (perhaps because this is a commercial product). A hacked version of the demo does include it, illegally.
  10. Information here comes from a brief Readme file in a hacked demo version of the emulator. More information welcome.
  11. Available from DigiMail in Italy:
    Digimail Srl
    Via Coronelli 10
    20146 Milano
    ITALY
    Phone: ++39-2-427621
    Fax: ++39-2-427768

Back to top

-----

This FAQ is maintained by Philip Kendall; distribution is permitted only under the conditions specified in the copyright notice.
Primary site for this FAQ: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~pak/cssfaq/index.html.