sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Emulator and emulator development specific topics
User avatar
Thunor
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:37 am
Location: Anglia
Contact:

sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by Thunor »

Description
sz81 is a Sinclair ZX80/81 emulator very much based upon the work of Ian Collier's xz80 and Russell Marks's z81 but employing the highly portable SDL and including additional functionality and features for desktop computers and portable devices.

Features in 2.1-5
  • Virtual keyboard with adjustable opacity, autohide on newline, sticky shift or toggle shift
  • Control bar with access to several regularly used options
  • Full mouse/stylus and joystick support throughout
  • Runtime joystick control remapping
  • The ability to run centred within any resolution
  • Runtime switchable scaling up to 3x on supported platforms
  • Toggling between a window and fullscreen on supported platforms
  • Support for portrait orientated screens such as 240x320 and 480x640
  • Maximum porting potential since it only requires SDL
The source code comes with additional support for AmigaOS 4, GPH GP2X and the Sharp Zaurus and there are downloadable packages available for these platforms. As sz81 is based upon the z81 emulator and z81-2.1 is sz81's SVN revision 1, z81/xz81/zx81get can still be compiled (the makefile is now Makefile.z81).

Porting to Other Platforms
This project requires SDL only, runs centred within any resolution, can be scaled-up up to 3x, can be operated entirely with a mouse/stylus or joystick and therefore will port to many different platforms and devices.

Immediate To-Do
The only thing remaining to be done to get this fully functioning on anything and everything is OSS (Open Sound System - Unix-like OS sound) to SDL API conversion which I am attempting now.

Near Future To-Do
Runtime options such as a graphical joystick configurator for desktop computers and a save-state system are new features that are noticeably needed, but if you have some portable suggestions then feel free to add a feature request on the project's support pages.

Screenshots | Downloads | Project Page

Regards,
Thunor
sirmorris
Posts: 2811
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 5:45 pm

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by sirmorris »

Pardon me for asking but why do you need sound for a zx81 emulator?
:lol:


Only kidding - it's for ZON, right?

It's great to hear of people's hard work - thanks for letting us know!
User avatar
Thunor
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:37 am
Location: Anglia
Contact:

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by Thunor »

sirmorris wrote:Pardon me for asking but why do you need sound for a zx81 emulator?
:lol:


Only kidding - it's for ZON, right?

It's great to hear of people's hard work - thanks for letting us know!
Hi sirmorris

Yeah, and for TV speaker "music" :D Toni Baker's Cathy's Program is interesting for a period of time; for the ZX80 too! OSS Sound (when it's used) is also currently providing the emulator's timing and so it's more important than is immediately apparent.

I actually simply converted the graphics and input to SDL in 2007 but I did it for my own use. When I released it 6 weeks ago I found an interest for a portable ZX80/81 emulator and decided to continue working on it. Another chap has also joined the project to work on the Amiga build and hopefully we'll attract some additional assistance to deal with some outstanding emulation issues.

Thanks for the feedback.
User avatar
XavSnap
Posts: 1940
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 4:23 pm
Location: 'Zx81 France' Fb group.

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by XavSnap »

Hi,

I'm unable to compil your ressources files on Windows platforme!
Somes of "h" files can't be found...
:(
Is there an downloadable "exe" file on the web?
Is an Amiga emulator is requiered?

Thanks in advence.
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
User avatar
Thunor
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:37 am
Location: Anglia
Contact:

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by Thunor »

XavSnap wrote:Hi,

I'm unable to compil your ressources files on Windows platforme!
Somes of "h" files can't be found...
:(
Is there an downloadable "exe" file on the web?
Is an Amiga emulator is requiered?

Thanks in advence.
Hi XavSnap

Sorry but we don't currently have anyone maintaining the source code for Win32 or providing a Win32 executable package. It also depends on which Windows development environment you're using (are you using MS Visual C++?).

An Amiga emulator is not required; the Amiga build is for AmigaOS 4.

I don't personally develop on Windows, but I do work on another project that does support it and so I'm aware of some of the situations that are being dealt with. If you search the net for the header file name plus "win32" then you'll get the information you'll need (dirent, unistd's getopt etc.).

sz81 was created primarily to support the platforms that the Win emulators aren't, but maybe in the future we or a third party will create a Win32 package since the code is open source and folk are free to do that.

Regards,
Thunor
maystorm
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:10 am

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by maystorm »

@Thunor

Looks very promising!

Thank you and keep up the good work!

Regards,
Alexander
User avatar
XavSnap
Posts: 1940
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 4:23 pm
Location: 'Zx81 France' Fb group.

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by XavSnap »

Hi Thunor,

I tryed to compile the cpp sources!
501 errors :shock:
... LoL ...

I use the DEV-CPP compiler in GCC (console mode)
But, several headers files are missing: SoundCard.h and Vga.h
I had to ran on the web to retrieve them...

How to use you "Patch" file?
No Patch.exe in my gcc compiler ! :oops:

Can you Zip your codes as is, without your patch device?
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
User avatar
Thunor
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:37 am
Location: Anglia
Contact:

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by Thunor »

XavSnap wrote:Hi Thunor,

I tryed to compile the cpp sources!
501 errors :shock:
... LoL ...

I use the DEV-CPP compiler in GCC (console mode)
But, several headers files are missing: SoundCard.h and Vga.h
I had to ran on the web to retrieve them...

How to use you "Patch" file?
No Patch.exe in my gcc compiler ! :oops:

Can you Zip your codes as is, without your patch device?
Hi XavSnap

I'll give you 10 out of 10 for perseverance :P

Currently in SVN is a greatly updated version, but I am still working on it right now and am not far away from releasing 2.1.6, so I recommend you wait a while because I have converted the sound to use the SDL API which has removed many header files. I've also added some runtime options and a graphical joystick configurator so that you can easily configure your joystick/pad if you have one.

"patch" was a requirement when the project was young. There have been two versions released since that are packaged as a complete project. I think you have an out-of-date version.

I'll post here when the next version is released and then you can try that :)

Cheers,
Thunor
User avatar
XavSnap
Posts: 1940
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 4:23 pm
Location: 'Zx81 France' Fb group.

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by XavSnap »

Hi Thunor,
Many thinks !
:P
I will try to reduce my gcc compilator score !
:mrgreen:
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
User avatar
Thunor
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:37 am
Location: Anglia
Contact:

Re: sz81 - a portable z81 based emulator using SDL

Post by Thunor »

Version 2.1.6.1 released

ChangeLog
  • Added a joystick configurator
  • Added fg/bg colour adjustment
  • Added joystick dead zone adjustment
  • Added volume control adjustment
  • Added key repeat delay/interval adjustment
  • Added a runtime options system
  • Replaced the Open Sound System (OSS) code with the SDL API
  • Fixed a couple of bugs
Screenshots | Downloads | Project Page

Regards,
Thunor
Last edited by Thunor on Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply