Spectrum emulator for XBox?
Some weeks ago JMC mentioned that he was writing a Speccy emulator for the XBox (which already has emulators for other "computers" [ahem], such as the C64 and the Vic20), but there hasn't been any update posts since (to the best of my knowledge). How is this coming along? And does anyone know of any other Speccy emulators for the XBox at all (other than Dreamspec, which is simply a one game demo, sadly)?
Forty million(ish) Spectrum emulators for the PC, but not one for the XBox. Sickening...
Forty million(ish) Spectrum emulators for the PC, but not one for the XBox. Sickening...
Post edited by ewgf on
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is as much as I can tell you.
Cheers.
[ This Message was edited by: asterix* on 2004-04-02 15:05 ]
is *still* as much as I can tell you...
But it's about, as in, the port is on it's way, at some point?
That's all I'd need, just something to hang on to! Desperate, me? Yup.
I hope so. As I said above, it's not me doing the port, so this is ultimately out of my hands.
Thanks for the quick replies, Fuse is great (I use it on the Mac here) and would love it on the Xbox for home use.
Obviously, you'd need a keyboard, but you can pick one up for about a tenner, or grab a cheap USB-Xbox adapter and use a USB keyboard you already own...
Can you bung up the details, please? I'd prefer to run X128 (my emulator of choice), as Z80 isn't nearly as good, but I don't know if X128 would run fast enough - if not, then I'll use Z80 (or Warajevo) until an XBox native Spectrum emulator arrives.
And as for being desperate for a Speccy emulator, I'd hardly put it like that. I can handle it, I tell you. I can quit anytime... Just give me my Chuckie Egg now!
I'll put together a ZIP with everything but DosXBox and the registered Z80 (for obvious reasons, the shareware one works fine) - I'll have to do it at home tonight though.
:)
Pity...
>I'll put together a ZIP with everything but DosXBox and the registered Z80 (for obvious reasons, the shareware one works fine) - I'll have to do it at home tonight though.
That's brilliant, thanks.
1. Get hold of DosXBox (V3), Z80 (Shareware or registered) and ensure you've got a recent dashboard installed (I'd recommend UnleashX, mainly because of the built in text editor and file manager). You'll also (definately) need a keyboard.
2. UnRAR (or whatever) DosXBox and it's files into E:\apps\emulators\dosxbox on your Xbox (or wherever you keep your emulators).
3. Run DosXBox, wait for the MS DOS prompt, and then press CTRL-ALT-W (to save the current default config).
4. Exit DosXBox, and using Unleash's text editor find the config in E:\SAVES\DOSXBOX\ and edit it. Using the Keymap.txt in the DosXbox installation, set up the keys for joypad left, right, up, down and A to match the keypad.txt definitions. You might also want to set up the white button to act as F3 (to load game from Z80), B as return and X as space, for example, for certain speccy games.
5. Now unzip Z80 on your PC, and FTP it to a /games/ folder inside your DosXBox installation on the Xbox. For example, Z80.exe would sit in e:\apps\emulators\dosxbox\games\z80.exe
6. Inside THAT folder, create another called SNAPSHOT (or whatever) and copy in your favourite .sna and .z80 files.
7. Now re-run DosXbox. This time, once the MS DOS prompt is displayed, enter Z80, and Z80 should load up.
8. Now you might need to adjust the display (Z80 on my TV only showed up in the top quarter of the screen). Firstly press CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE (I think) to unlock the screen move mode. Now you can hold down CTRL and ALT and use the cursors to move/stretch the screen to your liking. Once done, lock the screen mode again (CTRL, ALT, BACKSPACE again) and save the default config - CTRL ALT W.
9. Now quit DosXbox, and restart it to make sure it's worked. The DOS prompt might be all stretched, but should be fine once you've run Z80.exe
10. Now you need to adjust the speed of DosXbox. Use Z80 to run a speccy game, and press F4 to see the current speed of Z80 emulation. You might need to spend a few minutes doing this, but basically CTRL and F11/F12 (or ALT and F11/F12 for smaller/bigger steps) adjust the emulation speed. Do this a few times, quit Z80 and re-run it until when it quits, the emulation speed is at least 100%. Mine runs at about 250% (but is obviously locked at 100% by Z80). Again, once it's set to at least 100%, save the default config by CTRL-ALT-W. (DosXbox automatically loads this default config when it starts up).
11. Now some fine tuning if you want - edit the config (in E:/SAVES/DOSXBOX i think) and sort out the sound (which was really stuttery on mine) - a smaller cache will probably help, try about a quarter of what it's set at for starters.
12. You can also add the line "Z80" without quotes to the very bottom of the config to automatically launch Z80 when DosXbox starts.
13. If you set the keyboard maps, then you'll be able to use the Xbox controller d-pad and A to control the kempston, cursor etc in Z80 and white to load a new game! It's possible to set up keys for all the joypads so you won't even need the keyboard once it's set up. You might be able to use the remote too, but I'm not sure.
I can't think of anything else, but if that doesn't work, let me know and I'll try and help!
Cheers,
Al
It has some issues but it does not need keyboard as dosbox.
I'm working on porting fuse to the xbox.
So far I can play things.
The only things that are left is acctually the user interface (selecting games and so on)
I'll post more infrormation when it's done.
Had alot to do lately, but soon I hope I'll have the time to finish what I started. =)
Check www.zxbox.com for updates (working on the site also, so please be patience =) )
/Jimmy
[ This Message was edited by: Jmc on 2004-04-08 17:27 ]
JMC, will you be supporting SGD's .ini files, .txt files, .scr files, a virtual keyboard (see the one in Winstonx, where you click the left thumb stick to call up the keyboard, for an example of an excellent virtual keyboard), a speed up feature (where the emulator runs at maximum speed for as long as you press the right shoulder button) and definable joypad controls?
Sorry for such a long list, but I'd love for the XBox to have a perfect Spectrum emulator (I've been spoiled on the PC with X128 and SGD), and I can't wait for the first release!
sgd? whats that?
As for speed up, I'm not sure if the first release will have that.
I guess we'll find out =)
/Jimmy
Brilliant!
>sgd? whats that?
Spectrum Games Database, a brilliant DOS frontend, available from this site (World of Spectrum). It uses .dat files, containing many relevent details about Spectrum files, so that instead of loading (for example)
JSW.TAP
the GAMES.DAT file provides the "real" game name of the file JSW.TAP, and other info, so that JSW.TAP is listed as
Jetset Willy, Software Projects, 1984, written by Matthew Smith, 48K mode
etc. If you could use the .DAT files in your file select box then it'd be brilliant (instead of trying to remember what your Head Over Heels file was called, you could just search for the name Head Over Heels, as all the games would be listed by their .dat entry, although you might have to have two load options, one to load SNA/Z80/TAP/TZX, and one to load according to the .DAT data, as of course any new files on the XBox wouldn't be listed in the .DAT files until the user added them to the .DAT file).
Also, SGD uses the .scr files (screenshots), .pok (POKEs for games, infinite lives and so on) and .txt files (game instructions), so that if you highlight (for example), DDAN2.Z80, then
if there is a file called DDAN2.TXT then you will have the option of viewing it, if there is a file called DDAN2.SCR, then that file will be displayed (it's a Spectrum screen screenshot) and if there is a file called DDAN2.POK then that file contains POKE values along with descriptions, i.e.
40002 0 Infinite Lives
43118 22 Infinite Bombs
48992 255 Walk Through Walls
and you will be given the option of setting any of the POKE values, should you load the game).
If you like, I can e-mail you a quick example zip file, that will show you what I mean.
>As for speed up, I'm not sure if the first release will have that.
>I guess we'll find out =)
Can't wait ;o)
Thanx Carch!!
ewgf:Please do,I don't think version 1 of the emulator will have support for that though but I have though of simular functionality later on.
For those who have ideas of any kind please send them to me.
zxbox(a)antropoid.se
/Jimmy
:)
I've e-mailed you the file, please let me know if there are any problems.
[ This Message was edited by: asterix* on 2004-04-19 10:01 ]