Emulator for Lambda 8300

[mrtinb]

Hi

I'm trying to find emulators for Lambda 8300.

• I've found EightyOne, which does great emulation of the Lambda 8300
• Then JSZeddy supports Lambda 8300 as well
• Look like MESS also supports Lambda 8300. This one I havn't tried yet.

Edit: Added 12 July 2020

• And NO$ZX 2.0 supports Lambda 8300 as well

Is there any other emulators with support for Lambda 8300, that I have missed?

[David G]

I'm having trouble using the Lambda 8300 emulation in EightyOne

* Using ROM "Lambda.rom" with 32K works. By the way, this ROM requires typing out of keywords, e.g. LIST is L,I,S,T

* Using ROM "Lambda.rom" with 16K shows a blank screen, doesn't respond to the keyboard. F1 shows the green Lambda keyboard image

* Using ROM "LAM10061(LanbdaV1).BIN" (downloaded from here) has a blank screen, doesn't respond to the keyboard. Changing to 32K allows a little typing but all I see is a flashing cursor

* Using ROM "8300.rom" in EightyOne v1.21 the display works, but keyboard is wonky
F1 displays the ZX81 keyboard image
The backspace key doesn't work but shift-0 (RUBOUT) does
R key types out RUN, but then Enter types other stuff
J key doesn't type out LOAD or it does, but then " causes the cursor to move before LOAD

[David G]

By the way, what's the difference between Lambda and PC8300 - are these the same hardware but with different ROMs? And EightyOne also references "LambdaColor" as separate hardware

[mrtinb]

With the Lambda 8300 you type out commands. The only “one-key” command is PRINT, which is Shift-Z.

And remember Delete on the Lambda 8300 is not Shift-0, but Shift-period.

Make sure keyboard emulation is setup right. You don’t want EightyOne to “help” you so it converts e.g. a comma to Shift-period, or backspace to Shift-0. No you want EigthtyOne to use the key position only, and you manually do the Shift-ing, when needed.

Lambda 8300 was an OEM product, so the seller decided name, color and translated their own manual. There’s basically 2 ROMs. First version just displays a cursor. The Chinese company got a lawsuit, because most of the code was copied from the ZX81. Next version of the ROM displays READY, and includes commands for the Colour Pack expansion, and a lot of the code has been moved around to stop the lawsuit. This makes machine code difficult on the Lambda 8300, so some software only work for one version or the other.

[David G]

Make sure keyboard emulation is setup right. You don’t want EightyOne to “help” you so it converts e.g. a comma to Shift-period, or backspace to Shift-0.

I see you are correct
* Shift-0 enters a RUBOUT/backspace (as on the real keyboard)
* Shift-8 moves the cursor right
* Shift-5 enters a " (quotation mark)

The emulation keyboard mapping for Backspace and Right-Arrow does something else. Backspace types a comma

Did you say there is a way to setup the keyboard emulation? The "Open Tape" feature auto-types the LOAD command, but uses all the wrong keys (looks like it is typing J-LOAD). However typing LOAD "" manually works fine. OK, i found something that affected it:
* Option menu "Keyboard" by default it is checked
* Uncheck it and "Open Tape" types correctly
* Check it again and it continues to work correctly (???)
This is with the default "Lambda.rom". With 8300.rom it's still not working

I've been testing with EightyOne v1.28 and (as far I can tell) the Lambda emulation works same as v1.2

Part of the problem is if I start from the EightyOne folder it works fine, but if I copy EightyOne.exe to another folder, Lamba doesn't display any characters on screen, as you type the cursor moves but nothing appears. Although after moving the EightyOne.exe it continues to work fine as ZX81. Where does EightyOne
store it's configuration? I don't see an INI file

[1024MAK]

Don’t forget, the Lambda uses a different ULA to a ZX81, it not just the ROM and keyboard that are different. In a Lambda, the character font / bit patterns are in the ULA. Whereas in a ZX81 the character font / bit patterns are in the ROM.

When I was last playing with a modified ZX81 ROM, I renamed the existing ROM that I wanted to replace, then copied my modified ROM to the correct folder and renamed it so that the emulator would use it as the default ROM.

All the ROMs are in a folder, but I can’t remember the path off the top of my head.

Mark

[David G]

Thanks Mark. The roms are kept in the subfolder of Eightyone named ROM. I was using the UI to change roms which is a bit awkward. Your idea is easier and automatable with a batch file

Change_Lambda_ROM_to_Lambda.rom.bat

Code: Select all

COPY /Y ROM\Lambda_.rom ROM\Lambda.rom
EightyOne.exe

Change_Lambda_ROM_to_8300.rom.bat

Code: Select all

COPY /Y ROM\8300_.rom ROM\Lambda.rom
EightyOne.exe