Spectrum emulators for various machines

Amiga

• Spectrum 1.7 by Peter McGavin <peterm@kea.grace.cri.nz>
  • Multitasks.
  • Loads/saves snapshots in Mirage Microdrive .SNA format compatible with JPP.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files from/to tapes [through a sound-digitizer] or Amiga disks [in this case, each block is written into a separate file]
  • Is reasonably fast on 68030/25MHz, but slow on 68000/7.14MHz machines. At least 68020/14MHz [A1200] and FAST RAM are recommended.
  • Color palette is a bit strange.
  • Some programs don't work.
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with cursor keys on keyboard and Kempston Joystick with joystick connected to Port 2 of Amiga.
  Retrieve Spectrum 1.7 via FTP..
• KGB 1.3
  • Loads/saves snapshots in the format described below.
  • Doesn't multitask.
  • Loads/Saves Spectrum files from/to tapes [through a sound-digitizer].
  • Isn't completely compatible with ZX-Spectrum
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with cursor keys, and Kempston Joystick with a joystick connected to Port 2 of Amiga.
  • Has a pitch-compensated mode, that transposes the sound two octaves up (handy on slow Amigas)
  • Operates in a monocrome mode as well as in color.
  Retrieve KGB 1.3 via FTP.

IBM PC / MS-DOS

• JPP by Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@nvg.ntnu.no>
  • Loads/saves snapshots in Mirage Microdrive .SNA format compatible with Spectrum 1.7.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files from/to tapes digitized into .VOC files.
  • 386/25MHz or faster is needed for the best perfomance. 486/25MHz or 386/44MHz is needed for good sound emulation.
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with arrow keys and [Alt] key. Emulates Kempston Joystick with IBM PC joystick.
  • Some games don't run.
  • Screws up system screen mode on quit. Restore with MODE 80 command.
  • Includes special program to convert snapshots between various formats such as .SNA,.PRG,.Z80,.SP and RAW.
  • Needs ROM image file (included).
  • Includes program reading and converting snapshots from MGT disks.
  Retrieve JPP via FTP.
• SPECEM (a.k.a. irish emulator)
  • Works reasonably fast on 286 and a bit faster than necessary on 386/486 systems. 386/40MHz or 486/25MHz is needed for good sound emulation.
  • Allows to select between VGA and EGA modes.
  • Loads/saves snapshots in .PRG format.
  • Runs most games.
  • Includes program loading snapshots from MGT/Datel Plus-D disks.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files to/from disk.
  • Both Cursor and Kempston Joysticks are emulated by cursor keys. Kempston [FIRE] button is emulated with [ALT].
  Retrieve Specem via FTP.
• SP (a.k.a. polish emulator)
  • Doesn't load/save snapshots.
  • Works in either CGA or EGA mode.
  • Stores files in so-called .SPC or .ZX format. Each such file is an exact image of corresponding tape, with blocks written into the file one after another. Thus, .ZX file may contain several games. Program splitting .ZX files into separate blocks which can be later loaded into Spectrum 1.7 emulator and saved as .SNA files is available from fms@wam.umd.edu.
  • Needs ROM image file called ROM.SPC (not included, use one from JPP package).
  Retrieve SP via FTP.
• Z80 3.02 by Gerton Lunter <gerton@rcondw.rug.nl>
  • Emulates both Spectrum 48k and Spectrum 128k.
  • Is fast on 286 and *very* fast on 386/486.
  • Shareware. Some options are disabled in PD version.
  • Has lots of options including monochrome option.
  • Has small built-in debugger.
  Retrieve Z80 via FTP.
• Elwro 800-3 Jr v1.0 by Piotr Schmidt & Piotr Wolter
  • has not a 100% compatibility with ZX Spectrum (the real Elwro had problems with JetPac while other games were ok)
  • capability of running CP/M system
  • runs either in CGA,Hercules or EGA mode
  • emulates 2 disk drives, accessed via * commands (e.g. SAVE * "file") with capacity of about 700kB. These are physically files.
  • allows ROM changes (simply type a new file name)
  • could change interrupt freq (45,50,65,70 Hz) on Joystick
  • all system messages were in polish (good and bad at the same time)
  • not the tape support
  • had a utility to read the real Elwro Junior disks on PC
  • released commercial only
• SPECTRUM v0.99c [IBM PC] Author: Pedro Gimeno
  • Loads from tapes through a wire connected to the parallel port.
  • Uses .SP format for snapshots.
  • R register and I/O [other than tape] are not emulated.
  • Matches real Spectrum speed at 386/25MHz.
  • VGASPEC emulator is an *illegal* prerelease of this emulator.
  Retrieve Spectrum via FTP.

Acorn Archimedes

• Speculator by Dave Lawrence
  • Is not officially available at the moment - any copies circulating are pirate copies. As a result, documentation of the file format is not complete, and the conversion programs supplied with it do not work correctly.
  • Is extremely fast on an ARM3 machine. To get normal Spectrum speed an ARM2 machine or an ARM3 machine with the cache turned off is required.
  • Can save and load in its own file format.
  • It is possible to return to the desktop from the emulator, and then re-enter the emulator at the point you left off.
• !Speccy by Karsten Witt
  • Runs at normal Spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine and very fast on an ARM3 machine. The speed is adjustable.
  • Saves/loads Spectrum files to/from disk in its own file format.
  • At the moment does not load/save in any snapshot formats. Apparently, the author is currently working on making it run in the desktop (multi-tasking) and allow loading of .SNA files.
  • Comes with application and instructions for transferring files to/from tapes through the serial port.
  • Doesn't fully implement the R register - however this doesn't affect most programs.
  • Has an enhanced keyboard layout - there are keyboard short cuts to Caps Lock, Extended Mode, and also the cursor keys, the keypad, and other symbols (commas, colons etc.) can be entered easily.
• !MZX v1.0 [Acorn Archimedes] by Graham Willmott
  • Multitasks. (can also single task if required)
  • Loads/saves snapshots in .SNA format.
  • Doesn't emulate R register correctly, or certain undocumented instructions.
  • Runs at ~60% normal spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine, and considerably faster on other machines - currently there is no speed control available.
  Retrieve MZX 1.10 via FTP.

Other computers

• ZX-SPECTRUM Emulator v1.2 [Atari] by Christian Gandler
  • Works with ST (>=1MB), TT and Falcon030 in ST-low and ST-high.
  • Doesn't load/save snapshots.
  • Performance is ~70% of original Spectrum on plain STs.
  • Emulates Kempston and Interface 2 Joysticks.
  • Emulates Interface 1 (Microdrives and RS232).
  • Only keyboard ports read are those mentioned in the orange manual.
• xzx v0.5 [Unix+X] by Des Herriott <dnh@mfltd.co.uk>
  • Emulates a 48K Sinclair Spectrum.
  • Needs approx 486/33 to run at the correct speed (this is from general impressions, not exact timings). Sparc 10 or DEC Alpha will run it very fast.
  • Makes heavy use of the MIT-SHM X11 extension, and works a good deal slower without it.
  • No sound, tape or printer emulation, yet.
  • Reads and writes .SNA format and reads .Z80 format snapshots.
  • Emulates Kempston joystick with preset keys.
  Retrieve xzx 1.0.1 via FTP.
• zx80 [Unix+X] by Ian Collier <ian.collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk>
  No info
  Retrieve xz80 0.1b via FTP.
• MacSpeccy [Macintosh] by Danny Keogan <djkeogan@unix2.tcd.ie>
  No info on this emulator. PLEASE, send me the information about it!
  Retrieve MacSpeccy 1.1 via FTP.