SPECTRUM EMULATORS FOR ACORN RISC OS

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5 emulators listed:

[!MZX] [!Speccy] [Spec128] [Speculator] [Z80Em]

!MZX v1.10 (Graham Willmott)
Emulates48K Spectrum
Files recognisedLoads and saves .SNA snapshots
Tape supportNone?
Disk supportNone?
Requirements?
PerformanceRuns at approximately 60% normal spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine, and considerably faster on other machines - currently there is no speed control available.
NotesFreeware? Multitasks (can also single task if required). Doesn't emulate R register correctly, or certain undocumented instructions.
AvailabilityAvailable from World of Spectrum and mdfs.net.
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!Speccy (Carsten Witt)
Emulates48K/128K Spectrum and Interface 1.
Files recognisedLoads and saves tape files from in its own file format.
Tape Real tapes can be loaded directly using the supplied instructions.
Disk supportNone?
RequirementsARM 2 or ARM 3 Works best on a mulstiscan monitor if you want to multitask, as the display is inherently a hires display, and you get extended pixels, (i.e. twice the height). Does not run on StrongARM / RiscOS3.7, Runs on RO2-3.6.
Performance Runs at normal Spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine and very fast on an ARM3 machine. The speed is adjustable. For games such as Jet Set Willy & Manic Miner exact LDIR implementation can be switched, to run the games at the correct speed.
NotesThe only RISC OS Spectrum emulator with Interface 1 support
Not freeware as previously suspected; cost £25 several years ago; may have changed now. Updates are free.
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.
Doesn't fully implement the R register - however this doesn't affect most programs.
Still doesn't load .SNAs. Carsten's format is a compressed type. !Speccy runs in the desktop very satisfactorily, providing you take into account the above comment about multiscan monitors. Considered the best of all Acorn emulators by at least one person.
Availability Available from the author:
Carsten Witt
Rostocker Str. 5
45739 Oer-Erkenschwick
Germany
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!Spec128 0.15 (Joe Kelleher)
Emulates48K / 128K Spectrums
Files recognisedLoads and saves .Z80 and .SNA snapshots, loads .SLT snapshots.
Tape supportNone.
Disk support?
Requirements?
PerformanceFaster than a real Spectrum.
NotesThe only freeware 128K emulator for RISC OS. +D Disk Interface emulation, among other features, is planned for future revisions. Screenshots can be saved as Mode 27 Sprites with palette and no border and AY sound emulation is included. Further information is available from the Spec 128 web page.
AvailabilityAvailable from World of Spectrum.
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Speculator 1.04 (Dave Lawrence)
Emulates48K Spectrum
Files recognisedLoads and saves .SSN Speculator Snapshot files. Loads .STA Speculator Tapefiles, v1.04 also loads .TAP tapefiles.
Tape supportNone.
Disk supportNone.
RequirementsRuns on RISC OS 2 and RISC OS 3. Some problems running on RISC OS 3.50 or later.
PerformanceIs extremely fast on an ARM3 machine. To get normal Spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine or an ARM3 machine turn the cache off.
NotesThe patches written by J.G.Harston fix some problems and allow it to read standard .TAP tapefiles. I/O instructions generate a service call to allow other programs to emulate I/O hardware. In the absence of any response from Dave Lawrence, J.G.Harston has been maintaining Speculator.
AvailabilityAvailable from mdfs.net.
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Z80Em 3.00 (Michael Borcherds)
Emulates48K and 128K Spectrums with cursor and Kempston joysticks
Files recognisedLoads .RAW, .SNA and .Z80 snapshots. Saves .Z80 snapshots. Loads and saves .TAP tapefiles.
Tape supportNone.
Disk supportNone.
Requirements?
PerformanceRuns quite slowly on slower machines. On a fast enough machine will run at exact Spectrum speed.
NotesCommercial product - can be bought along with a CD full of games, the CD comes cheaper this way than if bought separately. On its own it costs £15 + VAT.
Has superb sound emulation, redefinable keymap, POKE feature. An expansion pack of utilites is also available. Level-loader support expects different filenames from the standard - instead of "GAME1.DAT" it wants just "1", etc.
A demo version is available, though it runs 'for a few seconds' only.
There a couple of patches for it here
AvailabilityAvailable from Warm Silence Software; the downloadable demo version available from here. Warm Silence's postal address is:
Warm Silence Software
PO Box 28
Woodstock
Oxfordshire
OX20 1XX
Telephone: 01608 737172
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Please be aware that the release versions of these emulators may not work on RISC OS 5 systems. Contact the author or refer to their web site for further information.