Spectaculator 6.0 released!

  • Emulation of the Russian Pentagon 128 and Scorpion ZS 256 machines:
    • Up to four virtual disk drives can be connected at any one time.
    • Supports the .trd, .scl, .fdi and .udi TR-DOS disk image formats (.fdi and .udi are read-only).
    • Autoboot facility to automatically reset the Pentagon/Scorpion and boot from a disk inserted into drive A: (including .scl files). Hold down shift to override.
    • Disk drives window for easy management of disk images. Disk images can be write protected, formatted, ejected and inserted.
    • Emulation of Covox sound system (port $fb for Pentagon and port $dd for Scorpion).
    • General Sound emulation (provides the Pentagon and Scorpion with 4-channel 8-bit digital stereo sound).
  • Simple integrated debugger/monitor:
    • Browser like disassembly window with colour-coding and hyper-linked addresses.
    • Unlimited breakpoints.
    • Various trace options including Step Into, Step Over, Step Out, Run to Cursor, Run until Interrupt, Run to End of Frame.
    • Find facility that will search for bytes, strings and words (little-endian) in main memory.
    • Displays can be switched between hex and decimal.
    • Register values can be changed using the registers window. Colour coding shows which registers have changed during single stepping.
  • zx-state snapshot file format has been extended to support the Timex TC2048/TC2068, the General Sound Interface, Covox sound, and the Pentagon 128 and Scorpion ZS 256 machines.
  • Enhanced TZX renderer:
    • New versions of Injectaload protected programs now load correctly.
    • Enhanced flash loading to load many programs even faster.
  • The Keyboard Joystick can be changed from the Control menu. There are short cut keys for most of the supported joysticks.
  • Added ability to use the Ctrl key for symbol shift like other emulators.
  • Player 1’s joystick settings can be changed from the Control menu. There are short cut keys for most of the supported joysticks.
  • An 800 x 600 fullscreen mode can be selected which displays the entire Spectrum border.
  • Option to not restore joystick settings from snapshots (Advanced tab on the options page). Useful for Speccy Tour competitors that don’t want to use the joystick settings from the Tour’s snapshots.
  • Exporting of raw machine code and data from either main memory or a specific RAM page.
  • Fixed the instructions feature on the Help menu (this appears to have been broken for quite some time).
  • Quick save/load snapshot feature to get you through the hardest parts of any game.
  • CSW (Compressed Square Wave) version 2 support has been added to the virtual cassette recorder.
  • New short cut keys (Alt+F9 and Alt+F8) for AVI Movie and Action Replay (RZX) recording.
  • The + and keys on the keypad can now be used to increase and decrease the emulation speed.
  • New zoom level: 300%.
  • Fixed a bug in the +3 FDC code. New Zealand Story now loads (rather than crashing after the first part).
  • Handling of 128k SNA snapshots has changed. They can now only be saved in Pentagon mode as the format was specifically designed for this machine. Loading a 128k SNA snapshot will automatically switch to Pentagon mode, rather than Spectrum 128 mode.
  • Slight change to the handling of Interface II ROM cartridges so the ZX81 emulator can be loaded and used.
  • Spectaculator will now play RZX Action Replay files without embedded Snapshot blocks. You will be asked to locate the snapshot file used to create the RZX file.
  • In addition to the APPS key, the Scroll Lock key is now also mapped to the Spectrum’s EXT MODE key (IBM Thinkpad users).
  • Bug fix: The Pentagon border is now correctly rendered in 24-bit windowed modes.
  • Bug fix: The Zip dialog (which appears if there is more than one supported file in a zip file) can now be controlled using the keyboard.
  • Bug fix: Rockfall 2 can now be recorded to an RZX file. This used to fail randomly due to a quirk in the RZX spec.

Spectaculator is now shareware. It is distributed as fully-enabled, 30 day Try ‘n’ Buy software. This means you can download and use it for free for a period of 30 days from the date of installation. After this time, you must purchase a copy to continue using it.

It installs side-by-side with version 5.3 so there’s no need to worry about losing the earlier version if you choose not to upgrade.

If you have previously purchased a copy of version 5.x or have made a donation, you are entitled to a free copy of version 6.0. You should receive your serial number within the next week or so.