ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

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chernandezba
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:30 pm

ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

Hi

I'm the developer of a ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator

http://sourceforge.net/projects/zesarux/

It compiles on Unix systems (Linux, Mac, etc..)
Main features are:

Emulates 16k, 48k, Inves Spectrum +, Spectrum 128k (English and Spanish), Spectrum +2 (English, Spanish and French), Spectrum +2A (English and Spanish), Microdigital TK90X (Portuguese and Spanish), TK95, ZX80, ZX81
Runs on any Unix system
Uses Video drivers: X-Windows, ncurses, aalib, cacalib, stdout(console)
Uses Audio Drivers: Alsa, DSP(OSS), CoreAudio (Mac OS X). Also supports dumping audio to disk
Handles tape format: TAP, TZX (binary only)
Handles snapshot format: Z80, ZX, SP, P


You may try the stable version (0.4) or any snapshot version; I'm working these days on real video emulation on zx80/81

Thanks
Cesar
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
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XavSnap
Posts: 1940
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 4:23 pm
Location: 'Zx81 France' Fb group.

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by XavSnap »

Hi,
There's a problème on your web page...
The page is greyed and it asked "Google cookies..." [...] "Are you Argee ?"
I can be agree, and i can't read the web page.
Will have a look to another emulator!
:evil:
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
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zsolt
Posts: 214
Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:43 am
Location: Fót, Hungary

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by zsolt »

Hi,
Last evening I had more success - downloaded, compiled, and it ran at reasonable speed on my old hardware (testing with some traditional zeddy game).
Sadly, in my experience, it does not handle the hi-res graphics :( (ZX81/WRX)
The menu system looks good, but a bit cumbersome.
Keep up that good job!
Zsolt
ZX81 (8K), ENTERPRISE 128, [ZX SPECTRUM (48K,+,+128K,+2,+2A), TS1000, TS1500, TS2068, Cambridge Z88, PRIMO A64 (red)]
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chernandezba
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:30 pm

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

XavSnap wrote:Hi,
There's a problème on your web page...
The page is greyed and it asked "Google cookies..." [...] "Are you Argee ?"
I can be agree, and i can't read the web page.
Will have a look to another emulator!
:evil:

Sorry but these cookies message may be some error with sourceforge page, not mine.. Have you tried with another web browser?

Regards
Cesar
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
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chernandezba
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:30 pm

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

zsolt wrote:Hi,
Last evening I had more success - downloaded, compiled, and it ran at reasonable speed on my old hardware (testing with some traditional zeddy game).
Sadly, in my experience, it does not handle the hi-res graphics :( (ZX81/WRX)
The menu system looks good, but a bit cumbersome.
Keep up that good job!
Zsolt

Hi

Thanks for testing the emulator :)
WRX is not supported yet; and special video modes (like QS Defenda, Breakout, etc) are in beta stage...
Why do you think the menu is cumbersome? What can I do to make a better menu interface? Any suggestions are welcomed :)

Regards,
Cesar
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
swensont
Posts: 76
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Location: SF Bay Area
Contact:

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by swensont »

Getting support for WRX would be nice. Right now I am using sz81 and it does not have support for WRX and there is no on-going development, so I can't try out any of the new programs.

For the Menu, I found that the number of keystrokes was fairly high to load a .P file. With sz81, once I navigate to the location of the .P file, I just click it and it is loaded. For this emulator, once I navigate, I have to exit out of that menu and then hit a key to get back to the emulator. The file browser is also picking up all "hidden" Linux files (those that start with a period). So, it takes longer to find the directory with my .P files. It might be nice to have a config option to set the starting directory for loading.

I do like that the emulator does both ZX81 and Spectrum. I'm not a big Spectrum user (not available in US), so I have not gone out and picked one up. With this emulator, I might try a few Spectrum games or such.
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chernandezba
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Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

swensont wrote:Getting support for WRX would be nice. Right now I am using sz81 and it does not have support for WRX and there is no on-going development, so I can't try out any of the new programs.
Maybe in the future It will support WRX; ZX80/81 video emulation is very difficult, more than ZX Spectrum, you need a perfect timing of all the opcodes or the display won't be drawn perfect
swensont wrote:

For the Menu, I found that the number of keystrokes was fairly high to load a .P file. With sz81, once I navigate to the location of the .P file, I just click it and it is loaded. For this emulator, once I navigate, I have to exit out of that menu and then hit a key to get back to the emulator.
I will consider changing this behaviour; you are right, it's better that when you select the snapshot, the menu disappears
swensont wrote:
The file browser is also picking up all "hidden" Linux files (those that start with a period). So, it takes longer to find the directory with my .P files.
Perhaps I will include some option to show/hide hidden files
swensont wrote:
It might be nice to have a config option to set the starting directory for loading.

I do like that the emulator does both ZX81 and Spectrum. I'm not a big Spectrum user (not available in US), so I have not gone out and picked one up. With this emulator, I might try a few Spectrum games or such.
Yes, the fileselector has to remember the last directory; I will also consider changing this in next versions

Thanks for all the suggestions :)

Cesar
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
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chernandezba
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:30 pm

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

swensont wrote: So, it takes longer to find the directory with my .P files.
Remember you can press the initial letter of the file/directory you are searching ...
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
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chernandezba
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:30 pm

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by chernandezba »

swensont wrote:Getting support for WRX would be nice. Right now I am using sz81 and it does not have support for WRX and there is no on-going development, so I can't try out any of the new programs.

.

Hi

I'm working on WRX and some other non-standard and high resolution modes on the ZX80/81. You can try it downloading and compiling the snapshot version:

http://sourceforge.net/p/zesarux/code/ci/master/tree/

Thanks

Cesar
----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
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zsolt
Posts: 214
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Location: Fót, Hungary

Re: ZX80/81/Spectrum emulator for Unix

Post by zsolt »

OMG Cesar,
What you did?

I was glad to read about your improvements, but when i recompiled the new version... :shock: :cry:

Your product requires 100% of the CPU time (on my poor HW) :o , and dos not respond in real time
(for example: the ESC pressed and after 6-7 seconds :!: showed the menubox, and the menu items responded more slowly)
Are you familiar with the FUSE emulator? I have used the GTK+ version of it - it required only 10-15% of the CPU time.

Last weekend I did some test with (previous version of) your program and with the "competitors" - this picture shows my experiences.
ClckFreq_test.jpg
ClckFreq_test.jpg (91.86 KiB) Viewed 5484 times
Regards,
Zsolt
Attachments
linux-emutest.zip
(119.59 KiB) Downloaded 255 times
ZX81 (8K), ENTERPRISE 128, [ZX SPECTRUM (48K,+,+128K,+2,+2A), TS1000, TS1500, TS2068, Cambridge Z88, PRIMO A64 (red)]
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