Spectrum Computing

Hi!

I have uploaded a new ZEsarUX 8.1 BETA version. You can download compiled versions for Windows, Mac, and the source code from:

https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux ... 1-07112019

Changelog is:

Added ZEsarUX Network Gaming protocol (ZENG), which allows you to play to any emulated game, using two ZEsarUX instances,
located each one on any part of the world or in a local network. Games doesn't have to be modified, you can use any existing game

Added Pentagon 16C colour mode emulation
Added 1024 KB RAM emulation for Spectrum & Pentagon
Added support for .scl files: can be converted from file selector menu pressing space
Added SNA saving support
Added PZX tape file support
Added ZX81 online game browser
Added Spectrum online game browser
Added total run time statistics
Added checking for updates
Added sending anonymous statistics use
Added setting --disablemenuandexit: it closes the emulator when the menu is going to be opened.
It's the same behaviour as previous --disablemenu. Now --disablemenu only disables the menu but does not close the emulator

Added Borland Gui Style

Added ZRCP commands:
-cpu-code-coverage: working with code coverage
-cpu-history: working with cpu history
-get-ui-io-ports: to get keyboard state and joystick
-get-snapshot: get a ZSF snapshot from ZRCP
-print-footer: print message on footer
-put-snapshot: put a ZSF snapshot from ZRCP
-send-keys-event: simulates key press/release
-set-ui-io-ports: to change keyboard state and joystick
-write-port: write value to a port

Added internal zip decompressor: no more need to use external unzip program
Added setting to reset configuration file to default values

Improved Debugging:
-added setting to dump .zsf snapshot when a cpu panic is fired
-debug CPU window: can now resize height and have more debug lines
-cpu transaction log: faster when opening transaction log file
-added key 'n' for "run" on debug cpu. Does the same as closing all menus and returning back to emulation

Improved TBBlue emulation:
-added scroll x,y on ula layer
-optimized ula,lores render routines: 2% less cpu on my computer
-added 1-bit tile mode

Improved Hex editor: can now copy to a different memory zone
Improved menu:
-can now use PgUp,PgDn to jump menu pages
-added setting to disable File Utilities menu
Improved assembler: added defs command
Improved AY Sheet: now you can select which AY Chip to show
Improved file selector: when asking for a directory, only shows directories, not files
Improved curses driver: symbol @ simulates ESC on menu
Improved snapshot loading: now setting "--sna-no-change-machine" becomes "--snap-no-change-machine" and applies to .sna and .z80
Improved curses driver: now can use utf "blocky" characters and have 64x48 resolution
Improved accurate Z80 timing: IM mode 0 is 1 t-state shorter than IM mode 1
Improved real tape loading: acceleration is disabled by default, added setting to save configuration

Fixed Pentagon border: now ukflag demo is perfect
Fixed Spectrum 128k machines border: now ula128, scroll2017 demos are perfect
Fixed f_seek call on esxdos handler
Fixed segfault error when using breakpoints like peek/opcode in config file
Fixed bug on zxuno changing video ram 5/7 when paging was disabled by bit DI7FFD
Fixed average cpu statistics when footer is not enabled
Fixed kempston mouse emulation on Next machine: wheel bits always return 0
Fixed bug extracting PAWS words when a word is a pronoun
Fixed undocumented opcode ED76: I had IM0 but it's IM1
Fixed loading and saving +3 .z80 snapshots
Fixed placing menu windows when using zx desktop and machines TSConf, TBBlue, CPC and QL
Fixed bug loading .sna files when rom 1 paged in
Fixed very-old bug when loading Rocman game. This bug existed even on ZXSpectr. It fixes return flags when using tape traps.
Rocman loading screen was shown wrong (having the "any flag loading setting" disabled), but loaded. Enabling that setting crashed the game

Nice work! But did you forget to include a DLL for the Windows version? It seems to require pthreadGC-3.dll to run.

I noticed that too, it's the first time that a new version of the emulator shows a missing DLL file error and refuses to run.

Edit - I found a workaround: rename the pthreadGC2.dll file to pthreadGC-3.dll.

Thanks for reporting the dll
Seems not all users need it (I don’t have it). But I will include it

Cheers

Seems to crash on MAC running Catalina when I go to load a game that's in a folder 3 tiers down a file tree. If I add the same file to the my_files folder then it works fine.

Just to expand on the new game browser functionality. A couple of months ago Cesar contacted me regarding enabling a link to Spectrum Computing so games could be searched for and downloaded via the emulator.

I introduced [mention]chernandezba[/mention] to [mention]kolbeck[/mention] and they worked together to produce this marvellous new feature. To search for games on the SC website you need https enabled in in the emulator build (which speaking to Cesar this evening and having just tested, worked fine on the Windows build). Apparently the Mac version does not include https (as this is apparently not included by default) currently so uses WoS (But obviously only finds titles up-to 2013 - Will WoS ever get updated? I do hope so.).

I just tested it and it seems to work really well. I would like to see some sort of visual results such as screenshots rather than just titles displaying, but its still a fine achievement. I urge you to give it a go.

Thanks Peter
Yes, @kolbeck did a great job adapting his api to be queried from ZEsarUX. All searches made from ZEsarUX using the “speccy browser” menu are sent to his api.
Then the downloads come from WOS (if you don’t have https support compiled) or from Spectrum computing website/archive.org, if you have https support
You can query about a game name, an author, a brand name, etc. It’s very powerful!

Cheers

I should have mentioned, that as well as searching you can download them and play the game all within the emulator. Wow!

PeterJ wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 12:15 pm I should have mentioned, that as well as searching you can download them and play the game all within the emulator. Wow!

Of course! Searching only wouldn’t be funny The browser allows you to search & play games!

Showing the new ZEsarUX Speccy online browser, which allows you to search and download games from Internet

https://youtu.be/orWvStxAVAk