Version 6.30 is now available for download. This version is a free upgrade for all registered users.
Please note: If you have an expired trial edition of version 6.x installed, installing this version will not give you an extra 30-day trial period.
What’s new in version 6.30
Spectaculator now runs on Windows Vista: Added Windows Vista application manifests so Spectaculator runs natively, without any File/Registry virtualisation. There is still a bug which crashes Spectaculator when hardware DEP is enabled (although it runs fine on XP SP2). The cause is the software licensing system. We’re working with the vendor (who are working with Microsoft) to get this resolved but, in the meantime, the installer will add Spectaculator to the DEP exemption list. Microsoft have removed WinHlp32.exe from the Vista distribution. This prevents the context-sensitive help on the dialog boxes from working correctly. See KB917607 for more details. Fixed initial population of the favourites list. Fixed a critical bug that could randomly crash the emulator on Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Quite a few people have reported this as a Vista problem but it’s actually hardware specific. Fixed a bug which, under certain circumstances, allowed the emulation to be paused when recording an Action Replay (RZX file) in tournament mode. Various minor bug fixes.
Version 6.2 is now available for download. This version is a free upgrade for all registered users.
Please note: If you have an expired trial edition of version 6.0 or 6.1 installed, installing this version will not give you an extra 30-day trial period.
What’s new in version 6.2
Cycle-accurate emulation of the 16k, 48k, 128k and +2 ZX Spectrums. Finally worked out the last few quirks of the ULA in these models. All programs should now run on Spectaculator exactly as they do on real hardware. This includes all those demos that produce fancy multi-colour effects as well as the game Sidewize which no longer flickers during gameplay. If you find one that doesn’t, please let me know. Added support for TZX files that are polarity sensitive. This includes Basil the Great Mouse Detective, The Mask and La abadia del crimen. Added Softlock and a couple of other custom loaders to the flash loader. Fixed loading from CSW files. Spectaculator would previously play an extra pulse per block which resulted in playback sounding ‘slower’ than it should. Fixed the Quick-load option.
Version 6.1 is now available for download. This version is a free upgrade for all registered users.
Please note: If you have an expired trial edition of version 6.0 installed, installing this version will not give you an extra 30-day trial period.
What’s new in version 6.1
Added the Favourites menu, which maintains a list of your favourite games and programs for easy access.
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.
What’s new in version 5.3 Version 5.3 is a small update released to fix a couple of problems with RZX tournament recording for Speccy Tour 2003 when using Windows 9x or ME.
All players should install the update immediately to avoid having their scores invalidated at a later date.
The specific changes are:
Spectaculator can now replay Speccy Tour 2003 RZX files created by Fuse or MacFuse. As there is no snapshot information in these files, you will be prompted to locate the correct one on your hard disk. Fixed a small problem on Win9x and Me machines which could cause corrupted RZX files to be produced when in tournament mode. Version 6.0 has also entered the final testing phase and will be released shortly. It will be distributed as a fully-enabled, 30-day trial edition.
What’s new in version 5.2 Digitally-signed Action Replay (RZX) files. Spectaculator can digitally sign RZX action replays for use in tournaments such as Speccy Tour 2003. Fixed IM 0 instruction. For some reason it was internally using an RST 00H instruction rather than an RST 38H. Fixed a bug in the Multiface 3 code which stops Gazza II working properly. Spectrum +2 Z80 snapshots now load properly again. Introduced a bug in 5.1 which incorrectly switched the emulation to 16k rather than +2. Flunky’s loader was incorrectly triggering the cassette recorder’s auto stop feature in error. Fixed. Spectaculator can now load +2 and +2A snapshots created by Fuse. Fixed a couple of typos in the keyboard map.
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.
I’ve been toying for a while now with the idea of allowing Spectaculator to create AVI files. This could be useful if you want to transfer some RZX action replay files to video or something.
Spectaculator 5.1 does this. You can save full uncompressed frames at up to 50 frames/second or, if you desire, Spectaculator will compress the video on the fly using any video compressor supported by Windows.
What’s new in version 5.0
Spectrum +3 emulation: Full implementation of NEC µPD765A command set. Emulates up to 2 disk drives (the maximum the +3 can take). Automatically switches the drive emulation between a +3 3" (CF2) drive and a standard 3" DSDD drive depending on the type of disk image inserted. Accurate emulation to load all those disks with copy protection schemes such as Speedlock +3, Alkatraz +3, Three Inch Loader, Hexagon etc. Fast disk access mode. Significantly reduces load and save times. Autoboot disks feature. Inserting a bootable disk into drive A: will cause the Spectrum to automatically reset and start loading from the disk. Hold down Shift to override. Disk drives window for easy management of disk images. Disk images can be write protected, formatted, ejected and inserted. Disk image formatter. Allows formatting of 3" disk images to their full capacity (720 KB) which +3DOS cannot do. Also allows 3" (CF2) disk images to be formatted with the Amstrad CPC SYSTEM and DATA formats. Disk images are automatically saved and restored when using zx-state (snapshot) files. Interface 1 enhancements: RS-232 serial port emulation. Spectaculator can use files for serial I/O or a free serial (COM) port on your computer. Using a suitable cable, it’s possible to connect Spectaculator to a real Spectrum and transfer data between them quickly and easily. Microdrives window allows opening cartridges from zip files. Previously, you needed to use Open from the File menu. Added a toolbar to the Microdrives window to allow quick formatting of cartridges. Added authentic generation of the Microdrive motor noise (both with and without a cartridge inserted). Fixed a bug when restoring the Microdrive state from a zx-state file that could possibly cause a crash. Cassette Recorder enhancements: Improved accuracy of loading noise generation. High frequencies (especially turbo loaders) sound much nicer - no buzzing or other aliasing artifacts. Real Spectrums now like them too. Added boost volume of loading noise option. With this enabled, it’s possible to use the cassette recorder to play cassette files directly into a real Spectrum (depending on the output levels of your sound card). Added Stop at end of tape option. This was needed to stop certain multiload programs like Defenders of the Earth from trying to load the second side of the tape before you could insert the TZX of it. New Enable writes to Multiface ROM option. Required by certain programs such as SoftCrack. Added a Generate NMI option which triggers an NMI even if the Multiface is disabled. Added context-sensitive help that was previously missing from some dialog boxes. Revised the online help to include the new features in this release.
