zxsp – the Sinclair ZX Home Computer Simulator
zxsp is a simulator for the historic Sinclair ZX home computer families. Main supported platform is Mac OS X. Versions for classic MacOS and old versions of Mac OS X are available from the Old versions/ directory.
zxsp simulates the black&white models ZX80 and ZX81, the ZX Spectrum models with 16K and 48K ram, the +128, +2, and the +2A/+2B including the Spanish and French localised versions. If you still own one of the emulated machines and find that the simulation does not match the original, you are welcome to contact me for further improvement. Just keep the original thing ready for testing. :-)
zxsp can load from and save to a built-in virtual tape recorder or a real-world cassette recorder or a real-world computer. It also can dup real-world cassette tapes to ".tap" files or vice versa.
zxsp supports ".sna" and ".z80" snapshot files, ".tap", ".tzx", ".80", ".81", ".o", ".p" tape files, ".scr" and ".gif" animated screenshots, excellent sound, precise screen and border effects, joysticks, a virtual tape recorder and virtual keyboards.
zxsp comes with a debugger with register edit for the main chips, a video beam position indicator, single stepper and memory disassembly. The machine can be throttled down to 1 Hz or overdrived to 20 MHz cpu clock. You can directly load Z80 assembler sources into zxsp or you can use zasm for assembling. The built-in assembler is a spawn of zxsp, so you may want to look into the zasm documentation anyway.
Version overview:
- All current versions of zxsp are built as Universal Binary and run on PowerPC and Intel Macs.
- They are compiled for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), but seemingly also run well on Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther).
- 0.7.1.XX is the current public release version.
- 0.7.2.pre.XX are snapshots of the current state of development. They are compiled with lots of debugging code enabled and require at least 500 MHz for smooth execution. They may not always work on every Mac, and in case it doesn't work for you please drop me a line. (or it won't be fixed!)
- Older versions for classic Mac OS and Mac OS X 10.3.8 or earlier are in the directory Old versions/.
2008-05-24 - Preview Version 0.7.2.pre15
New in the preview version:
- Added the Bi-Pak ZON X and ZON X-81 sound module.
- Audio input from and output to file. (requires OSX 10.4)
- Included Paul Farrow's newest emulator roms for ZX80 and ZX81 emulation.
- New: Jupiter Ace emulation using Paul Farrow's rom. No load or save yet.
- New: audio output is now stereo.
- New: context menus in the keyboard panel and in the tape recorder, e.g. to insert a new tape.
- New: Instant load from & save to file in "Options" menu.
- New: audio output volume slider in options menu. (requires OSX 10.5)
- Fixed: Internal clean-up and error fixes.
I'm now building on an Intel Mac and OSX 10.5
This preview release should still run on 10.3.9 and 10.4.
The next public release of zxsp is close ahead, so if you find errors in this preview release, please report them, or they won't be fixed!
2007-07-28 – Version 0.7.1
New in this version:
- Kempston mouse interface emulation.
- Saving ".z80" files in version 3.0 now. Defined IDs for all supported machines.
- Save ".80", ".o", ".81" and ".p" tape files for ZX80 and ZX81.
- Save and load ".z80" snapshots for ZX80 and ZX81.
- Save highres and flashing Gif screenshots. I create minimum common denominator gif files which all programs, incl. open source, freeware and Firefox should understand.
- Save highres Gif movies.
- Extended audio handler to work with physical devices with more channels.
- Fixed a very old bug (and, in OS 9 days, a dirty hack and not yet obviously a bug) in ".z80" file compression.
Supported machines:
- ZX80 and ZX81 (emulated).
- ZX Spectrum 16k, 48k issue 2 and 3, 128k, +2 and +2A.
- Spanish Inves ZX Spectrum+ and Spanish Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ 128K, +2 and +2A.
- French +2.
- Portuguese Timex TC2048 (work in progress).
Features:
- Multiple instances
- Screen zoom factor x1 to x4
- Fullscreen mode
- Excellent sound
- Precise screen and border effects
- Virtual tape recorder and keyboards
Supported file formats:
- Load .sna, .z80, .tap, .80, .81, .o, .p, .tzx, .tzx v1.20, .rom, .ass and .scr files
- Save .sna, .z80, .tap, .80, .81, .o, .p, .rom, .scr and .gif files
- Instant-loading .tap, .o, .p, .80 and .81 files
- Load .sna, .tap, .o, .p, .80, .81 files from assembler source
Supported real-world machinery:
- Load from and save to real-world Specci or cassette recorder
- USB joysticks and game pads
Supported virtual peripherials:
- Kempston joystick interface
- Built-in joystick ports of the +2, +2A and TC2048
- Sinclair Interface 2 for joysticks and rom cartridge
- Kempston mouse interface
Integrated debugger:
- Speed control from 1 Hz to 20 MHz
- Load assembler source files
- Z80, Ula/CRTC/MMU and AY sound chip register edit
- Single stepper
- Memory disassembly
- Breakpoints for exec, read or write access
- Video beam position indicator
The Files:
zxsp is a simulator for the historic Sinclair ZX home computer families. Main supported platform is Mac OS X. Versions for classic MacOS and old versions of Mac OS X are available from the Old versions/ directory.
zxsp simulates the black&white models ZX80 and ZX81, the ZX Spectrum models with 16K and 48K ram, the +128, +2, and the +2A/+2B including the Spanish and French localised versions. If you still own one of the emulated machines and find that the simulation does not match the original, you are welcome to contact me for further improvement. Just keep the original thing ready for testing. :-)
