Spectaculator 5.1 released

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  • Added preliminary Pentagon 128 support (no Beta 128) to run demos requiring Pentagon timing. Examples include Rage, Eye Ache 2, PSG-Wins, Tryptomine dream. Thanks to Matt Westcott for providing the demos to test 🙂
  • You can now run multiple instances of Spectaculator on the same machine at the same time. (Actually, I just removed the code which ensured only one instance ran at once).
  • Support for the built-in RS-232 serial port of the Spectrum 128/+2/+2A/+3. Output can be redirected to a file, a COM port or an LPT port. This means you can LLIST or LPRINT from 128 BASIC straight to a real printer.
  • Support for the built-in Centronics parallel port of the Spectrum +2A/+3. Output can be redirected to a file, a COM port or an LPT port. This means you can LLIST or LPRINT from +3 BASIC straight to a real printer.
  • Record AVI video clips at up to 50 frames per second. The video can be compressed on-the-fly, if you have a suitably fast PC.
  • Several silly mistakes in the +3 FDC code have been fixed:
    • Both sides of DSDD disks are now read and written correctly.
    • Minor change to the SEEK command to get Vindicators working.
    • Fixed the FDC FORMAT command. Forgot to set the UNIT and HEAD bits in ST0 on completion. DU54 and various other disk formatters now work.
    • Enhanced random sector data generation. Hopping Mad and Dixon’s Premiere Collection now load.
  • Slight change of keyboard handling. On US keyboards, the (“) key is now mapped to Symbol shift-P. This does not affect UK keyboards which have an (@) key instead.
  • The extra keys on the Spectrum+, 128, +2 and +3 (extend mode, graph, edit etc.) are now mapped to keys on the PC keyboard.
  • Added short cut keys (Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-) to toggle between normal normal and 1000% emulation speed.
  • Minor bug fixes and enhancements to .z80 snapshot loading / saving. Player 1’s joystick preferences are now saved and restored. A small bug which could result in the R register being loaded with the wrong value has been fixed.
  • Added an option to turn off rounded corners in full screen mode.
  • Fixed 128k .POK file support.
  • Added saving and loading of keyboard and joystick data to .szx (zx-state) files.
  • Wrote up the zx-state file format specification which is available here.
  • The Spectrum’s display can now be copied to the clipboard or saved to disk as a Windows bitmap (.bmp) file.