What's new in version 9.0.2

This version has significant enhancements to the debugger:

• Add debugger projects to save and load debugger sessions (breakpoints, watches, labels, comments, bookmarks).

• Significant enhancements to the breakpoints system:

  • Breakpoints can now be disabled and enabled without having to delete them.

  • Break on condition (execute, memory r/w, i/o r/w, hit count) with expressions.

  • Common C-like expression language for debugger expressions.

  • Assign labels for easy reference in the new breakpoints window.

  • Helpers for common i/o breakpoints such as ULA, keyboard rows, Kempston joystick, memory paging.

• Watch window:

  • Watch memory locations based on expressions.

  • Convenience functions to quickly watch system variables.

• Enhanced disassembly window:

  • Added inline assembler.

  • Undo/redo when editing bytes or assembling code.

  • IY+d/IX+d are now hyperlinked.

  • Ctrl-click a hyperlink to open the link in the Memory Inspector.

  • Context menu option to open an address in the Memory Inspector.

  • Added bookmarks for quick navigation.

  • Add comments to the disassembly.

  • Make selections using the mouse.

  • Cut, copy and paste memory blocks.

  • Copy to the clipboard as DEFBs for inclusion in external tools.

• Memory Inspector:

  • Toggle between bytes, words and ASCII values.

• Call stack window:

  • Shows the call stack (stack pointer) when stepping through code.

  • Double-click to jump to the disassembly window at the call site.

  • Use Quick Peek to quickly see the code at the call site.

  • Push and Pop the stack.

• Screen Inspector:

  • Show the active, normal or shadow screens.

  • Show only pixel values.

  • See immediate updates when stepping through code in the debugger.

  • Quick access to set pixel/attribute read/write breakpoints via context menu.

• Graphics Inspector:

  • Find and show sprites, fonts and other graphical data.

  • Support tile sizes up to 256x256 pixels.

  • Set pad bytes to skip metadata.

  • Copy sprites and other graphical data to the clipboard.

  • Export sprites and other graphical data to PNG files.

• Quick Peek:

  • Mouse over an address to see the disassembly, bytes and ASCII values behind it in a tool tip window.

• Other debugger improvements:

  • Memory map added to the registers window.

  • Extra Run until options:

    • Run until a condition is true.

    • Run until an event (e.g. tape stops).

  • Added support for the inline assembler to the Find window.

  • Option added to Advanced Settings to pause the emulator when switching to other applications

  • Fix Run to start of frame and Run to end of frame not always breaking at the correct time.

• Other fixes/enhancements:

  • Support for high DPI displays

    • UI elements are now scaled correctly.

    • Zoom options now scale correctly.

    • Text is now crisp and clear on high DPI displays.

    • Overlays scale correctly.

  • Improved compatibility with multi-monitor setups:

    • Full screen on any monitor

    • Prefer fullscreen, windowed mode (Desktop) in the advanced settings to avoid changing the screen mode.

    • Can use your entire desktop without Spectaculator minifying if you leave its monitor.

    • Windows will no longer snap back to the primary monitor on start up.

  • Fix audio output for TZX 1.20 GDB blocks in some scenarios.

  • Fix .tzx files only containing GDBs not being playable.

  • Fix AY noise period.

  • Fix AY envelope generator overflowing the volume for the %1101 shape. With thanks to Franck Sutton.

  • NMI key is now Alt+F5 to stop debug F5 triggering it by accident.

  • Auto load now randomises the system state.

  • Fixed COMCOM keyboard joystick typos in UI to COMCON.

  • Fixed crash when HDMI audio is disconnected during monitor sleep.

  • Fixed early/late timings resetting to early.

  • Escape ampersands in file names and the recent files list.

  • Fixed crash when displaying long file names in the Cassette Recorder window title bar.

  • Clear P/V flag on an interrupted LD A,I/R as per known Z80 bug.

  • Fix timing for sequences of $FD/$DD prefixes.

  • +2A/+3: Switch screens between pixel and attribute byte fetches. With thanks to Patrik Rak.

  • Fixed clipping of display on ultra-wide monitors (e.g. 32:9 aspect ratio) in full screen mode.

  • Interface 1 ROM is now mirrored at $2000 due to partial address decoding.

  • Custom ROMs are now initialised at startup again.

  • Fix storing path to disk files in .szx snapshots in Unicode builds.

  • Add option to pause the emulator when Spectaculator loses the focus.

  • Use UTF-8 encoding for license key names to avoid problems with non-ASCII characters.

  • GAC can now save runnable adventures to tap/tzx files.

Minimum requirements are now Windows® 7 /w SP1, all cumulative updates and hardware-accelerated Direct3D 9 graphics.