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SPECCY EMULATORS FOR WINDOWS |
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This page last updated on 11 Aug 2000
[DOS]
[Windows]
[UNIX/Linux]
[OS/2]
[Mac]
[Archie]
[Amiga]
[Psion]
[Windows CE]
[ST/TT]
[Java]
[Playstation]
[QL]
[Other Platforms]
[Benchmarks]
13 emulators listed:
[MultiMachine]
[PASMulator]
[SEM]
[Speccyal]
[SpecX]
[vbSpec]
[WinXZX]
[WinZ80]
[WSpecEm]
[ZX]
[ZX32]
[ZX Plus]
[ZX Spectrum Simulator]
As well as the emulators listed here, many of the
emulators for DOS will run successfully
under Windows.
- Emulates 16/48/128K Spectrum, +2/+2A/+3 and the Timex TS2068.
- Loads .ACH, .PRG, .SNA (both 48K and 128K variants), .SNX, .SP,
SLT (and LLT), .Z80 and .ZX snapshots, from Z80's and Warajevo's .TAP,
.TZX and .VOC tapes and from .DSK disks.
- No saving yet.
- No real tape support.
- Requires Win95/NT and DirectX 5.0 (DirectX 5.0 is currently not available
for WinNT though :-(); ports to other OSs are planned.
- Runs faster than a real Spectrum on this P100.
- Freeware.
- Good contended memory emulation, nice UI and generally well-polished.
- Incomplete Z80 emulation(?): some snaps cause a crash (eg Match Day II); no 'flash' loading of tapes, and loading of 128K .SNA snaps is broken.
- MultiMachine is so called because not only does it
emulate all the main Speccy models, it also emulates the Amstrad
CPC 464/664/6128/464+/6128+, the ZX80/ZX81/TS1000, the Jupiter Ace, the
Elan Enterprise, with plans for the MSX, PCW 8000 and Tandy TRS-80 ranges!
- Available from the MultiMachine Homepage or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum/TK95 (Brazilian Spectrum clone), and a whole load of arcade machines.
- Loads .SNA files.
- No saving.
- No real tape support.
- Requires Win9x and DirectDraw.
- Speed?
- Freeware?
- Comes with a built in monitor/disassembler; source code (Delphi 2.0) also available.
- Spectrum emulation is pretty simplistic.
- No other comments.
- Available from the PASMulator Home Page.
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- Emulates the 48K Spectrum and all common joysticks.
- Loads from .SNA and .Z80 snapshots.
- Saves to the same.
- No real tape support.
- Requires a 32-bit version of Windows.
- Speed?
- Freeware.
- Has an `Undo' feature to go back 10 seconds.
- Bad points?
- No other comments.
- Available from the SEM Home Page or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum and all common joysticks.
- Loads from .SNA and .Z80 snapshots, .TAP tape files and .SCR screenshots.
- Saves to .SNA snapshots, .TAP tape files and .SCR screenshots.
- No real tape support.
- Needs Windows 9x (or NT?) and DirectX.
- Speed?
- Freeware.
- Basic built-in debugger/monitor included.
- Bad points?
- No other comments.
- Available from the author's home page or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum with Kempston and Cursor joysticks.
- Loads from .SNA snapshots and from .TAP, .RAW and .WAV tape files.
- Saves to .SNA snapshots.
- No real tape support.
- Needs Win95/98/NT4, DirectX and a 2Mb graphics card.
- Much faster than a real Spectrum on this P2-233, but can auto-adjust to real Spectrum speed. Author states that a P133 is required for true speed emulation.
- Shareware (£10); unregistered version times out after 10 minutes and cannot save emulator settings.
- Comes with 1x1, 2x2 and full screen modes with and without scanlines. Has a simple 'Poke memory' option for Multiface pokes.
- Nothing obviously wrong, but there are certainly emulators which more features available.
- This is basically a port of SPEC to the Windows environment.
- Available from the author's SPEC homepage or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates the 48K/128K/+2 Spectrums.
- Loads from .SNA and .Z80 snapshots.
- Saves to .SNA and .Z80 snapshots.
- No real tape support.
- Requires 32-bit Windows.
- According to the author, full speed on a 266 MHz PII.
- GPL.
- Good points?
- Bad points?
- Written entirely in Visual Basic!
- Available from vbSpec's Homepage.
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- Emulates 48/128/+3 with Multiface 128, Interface 1 and
Microdrive, Kempston Joystick.
- Loads .SNA, .Z80, .SLT (LLT also) snapshots and from .TAP,
.MDR and .DSK files.
- Saves to .SNA, .Z80, .SLT, .TAP, .MDR and .DSK files.
- No real tape support.
- Requires MS Windows 9x or NT.
- Around 36% Spectrum speed on a P100; can reach 100% on a PII-233,
but the automatic speed adjustment doesn't work properly.
- Freeware.
- Quick 1, 2 and 3 times normal screen scaling settings. Spectrum
screen can be saved to SCR file or printed. Quite nice GUI.
- Slow. Fiddly to set up tape/disk/microdrives because
these are buried in the options dialog. TAP routines seem buggy (many
I tried didn't work or appeared to have no blocks within them).
- Lots of options to play with, including optional FLASH and border
emulation. Multiface 128 ROM is not included due to copyright
problems. Also available for Unix/Linux
and BeOS. This version is has no new
features over the previous one, but is no longer time expired.
- Available from the WinXZX Homepage or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K/128K with Interface I, SamRam (author's own ROM), Multiface 128, Currah microSpeech, SpecDRUM, various joysticks and the Kempston mouse.
- Loads .SNA, .Z80, and .SLT (LLT also) snapshots, from .TAP, .TZX,
.RAW and .VOC tape files, from .MDR cartridge images, RS232 save
files and .SCR and .GIF screenshots.
- Saves to all the above except .TZX files.
- Can sample from any Windows wave device.
- Requires Windows 3.x/9x/NT. Around a 486-33 needed for full speed emulation, depending on options chosen.
- Fast; easy to slow down to real Speccy speed though.
- Shareware. Shareware version has no real-tape support and is time-limited.
- Resizable windows, very good AY and flag emulation, a very nice
monitor/debugger/assembler, and lots of features you won't find
anywhere else.
- GUI perhaps not as polished as some other Windows emulators.
- Clearly the best Win 3.x emulator, and stands up very well on
9x/NT as well. A related (but not identical) DOS version
also available. Can make a reasonable attempt at loading any .GIF file
onto the Speccy's screen!
- Available from World of Spectrum (this file includes both the DOS and Windows versions).
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum with Kempston/Sinclair joystick.
- Loads from .SNA, .SNX, .Z80, .SIT, .SP, .RAW, .PRG, .ACH, .SLT (and LLT) snapshot files and from .TAP tape images.
- Saves to all the snap formats listed above apart from .SLT, but not to tape files.
- Real tape support provided via an extra program.
- Requires Windows 3.x/9x/NT and WinG.
- Around 25-30% Spectrum speed on a 486SX/25 @ 800x600 res, 64K colour
Cirrus video card, 8MB machine. Runs at a bit over 100% speed on
a P75 with otherwise identical setup. Note these speeds are for 1x1
scaled window, /3 frame rate. Larger sizes and full frame rate are slower.
Runs at over 100% speed on this PII-233, but can be slowed down.
- Freeware - GPL; all the author wants is a postcard.
- Resizable window, with quick 1, 2 and 3 times normal size settings
as well. Quick save/load function for saving a snapshot and reloading
it without going through a file selector. Drag and drop snapshot
loading. Saves Spectrum screen to SCR and PCX files. Now has a nice
installation routine for Win95; though it registers a lot of
extensions (for different snapshots) which may interfere with other
registered extensions (e.g. SIT is also a type of archive file, PRG is
an Atari TOS program, and so on).
- Doesn't save SLT snapshots yet.
- Currently two versions: v1.31 for Win 3.x and v1.4b for 9x/NT; v1.4b
plays the beeper through your soundcard and sounds much better. No longer
being updated.
- Available from author's old web page; v1.4b is available from World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum.
- Loads from .SNA and .Z80 snapshot files, and from .TAP, .RAW and .WAV tape files.
- Saves to .SNA and .Z80 snapshot files.
- Real tape support via a SoundBlaster card.
- Requires Win 9x and DirectX. Didn't work on an NT machine I tried it on.
- Not that fast, but runs at full Speccy speed on my PII-233.
- May be freely distributed in its original archive.
- Nothing obviously wrong.
- Didn't run very well in a double size screen on my machine, but was fine running full-screen.
- No other comments.
- Available in English
or Italian from World of
Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K/+/128K/+2/+2A/+3/, Kempston/Sinclair/Cursor joysticks and the Multiface 128.
- Loads .SLT, .Z80, .SNA, .SP and .ZXS snapshots, from .TAP, .BLK, .TZX
and .ZXT tape files, from .CPD, .DSK and .ZXD disk images and from
.SCR screenshots. (The .ZX? formats are zx32's own format).
- Saves .Z80, .SNA and .ZXS snapshots, to .TAP, .TZX and .ZXT tapes,
to .CPD, .DSK and .ZXD disks, and to .SCR screenshots.
- No real tape support.
- Requires DirectX, Windows 95 or NT (4.0 or higher), 486DX2/66, P75 recommended.
- Very fast on a P100 with 32Mb, Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI video card
(sets itself to normal Speccy speed by default, speed adjustable).
- Freeware.
- Fast and very professionally done - help file, install/uninstall
routines. Freely changeable window size, plus fullscreen mode (with
rounded edges and scanline emulation), rainbowing and quite good
AY emulation too, with selectable frequency/volume/noise masking. Can
open snapshots/tapes from within ZIP files without you having to unzip
them. Good contended memory emulation. Automatically starts/stops tape
files as needed, and gives a pretty good approximation of loading noise
if you want it.
- Bits 3 and 5 of the flags not perfectly emulated.
- One of the best Windows emulators currently available. Multiface 128 ROM is not supplied with the distributions. Latest beta versions support 24 and 32-bit colour modes.
- Version 1.03 available from the ZX32 homepage or World of Spectrum;
the update to 2.00.04.04 (you need the main file first) is either on
the ZX32 homepage or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates the 48K and 128K Spectrums.
- Loads from .SNA and .Z80 snapshots.
- Saves to .SNA snapshots.
- No real tape support.
- Requires Win 9x and DirectX 7, but doesn't use the normal GUI. Screwed up the display of the NT machine I tried it on.
- Runs at true Speccy speed on this PII-233.
- Freeware?
- Good points?
- Feels buggy: a fair proportion of the snaps I tried (eg Manic Miner,
Match Day II, Xeno, etc) didn't work
correctly. Version 0.21 also confused the display I was running on,
and didn't display anything sensible at all on the NT machine I tried
this on.
- Above comments written for v0.22, as I don't have DirectX 7 on this machine.
- Available from the ZX Plus Home Page or World of Spectrum.
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- Emulates 48K Spectrum.
- Loads .SNA snapshots.
- Saves .SNA snapshots.
- No real tape support.
- Requires Windows 3.11 (with Win32s?) or Win95/NT.
- Selectable speed; can go much faster than a real Spectrum on this P100, but doesn't auto-adjust to real Spectrum speed (or give an indication of how fast it is going).
- Freeware?
- Good points? This version is certainly much better than v1.01.
- Bad points?
- I haven't had time to play around much with this version yet, so some of the above may be untrue.
- Available from SunSite Poland or World of Spectrum.
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This FAQ is maintained by Philip Kendall;
distribution is permitted only under the conditions specified in the
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