Emulator Comparison Spreadsheet

[azesmbog]

A little (not)constructive criticism of the table

LnxSpectrum - Storage Solutions - MB03 + Ultimate is indicated in the table, but the emulator does not fully emulate all capabilities, so it would be better to separately indicate support for Z80 DMA (MB02 compatible)
It is also the third emulator that supports SAA1099, however, the proposal for this option was successfully ignored earlier.
ULA + works with errors, zx48 \ 128 timings do not exist at all
The border is generally strange, but at least there is some, unlike the Speccy emulator
I will test the sound in SAA1099 later, but the demos are mainly for the Pentagon, they may not work, although given the strange timings, everything can be )
* grumbled a little *

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]azesmbog[/mention],

Feedback is good, that's what I want.

I'm after completeness, but don't want to go into extreme complexities.

I will add a note against MB03 + Ultimate emulation to say 'Partial'

Could you PM me and I'm sure I can make amends.

Peter

[PeterJ]

[mention]azesmbog[/mention],

Apologies that I missed your post about the Philips SAA1099. I've been dealing with personal stuff, so have probably missed this and others. If something is important it's best to PM me for the time being. I can't promise at what speed I will reply, but at least it will get seen.

Give me some information on SAA1099 emulation. What emulators support it, and what software can I use to test it.

Whilst I've included the clones, it's not an area which I have a huge amount of knowledge.with, mainly because of the language barriers and the sheer amount of different configurations. They are wonderful machines, but I just have limited time so have to focus.

Just a reminder that you can clone the spreadsheet and adjust to your own specific needs. There are no restrictions.

Over Christmas I plan to add the results of the various test suites, though for the average user I'm not sure they mean much.

[azesmbog]

Give me some information on SAA1099 emulation. What emulators support it, and what software can I use to test it.

https://velesoft.speccy.cz/saa1099-cz.htm
As far as I know, there is a module for zx48 \ zx128 for an external connector


It turns out now there is support in three emulators:
Unreal, Xspeccy, LnxSpectrum.
Of course, there is support in the SimCoupe emulator, but it is out of our consideration
There is at least one Spectrum game with this chip support, and quite a few music files, over 600 pieces, and a number of music demos available on the Mick page
http://micklab.ru/My%20Soundcard/ZXMSoundCard.htm#soft
There is also support for this sound card in MiSTer and ZXUno.
Well, my test still exists, for verification

[PeterJ]

Thank you [mention]azesmbog[/mention],

I will test some of the files, then add this feature to the list. Can you give me a link the game please? That link only seems to show the demos. Cheers.

There is a new version of XPECCY

https://github.com/samstyle/Xpeccy/rele ... 6.20201122

EDIT - Where do I set it up in XPECCY please? This is what I see in sound settings:

You are going to need to give me a bit of help here please.

[azesmbog]

As far as I remember, you need to press the SAA button to turn on

The game itself, there is support
https://www.speccy.pl/archive/prod.php?id=245
Well, and an almost complete archive with programs and demos, including my test
https://www.zxuno.com/forum/download/file.php?id=2473

All emulators emulate sound chips in different ways, SAA chip is no exception.
Therefore, the test was made - but it requires a good ear for music, which I do not have. Basically, problems with reproducing envelopes arise, but this is already on the conscience of programmers

Upd: I checked the SAA1099 sound in the LnxSpectrum emulator using my test.
I would say 3 out of 5, they still have a lot to grow
In general, the quality of sound emulation is a separate large and painful topic. I'm certainly not a music lover, but I still want more complete authenticity and accuracy

[PeterJ]

After struggling with XSPECCY trying to start TR-DOS, just read that:

only ZX Spectrum 48K romset w/o TRDOS

Just noticed we have Krunel here:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... rum/Krunel

Can't test any of the TR-DOS demos though in XPECCY. You guys don't make things easy do you! Reminds me of my early days with Linux.....

Anyway, I have added it for you with the three emulators you mention.

[azesmbog]

Can't test any of the TR-DOS demos though in XPECCY. You guys don't make things easy do you! Reminds me of my early days with Linux.....

There is not much I can do with the XPECCY emulator. I myself am sometimes in great confusion from him))))))))
Here one thing justifies it, that it is nevertheless made for Linux first of all, but it works in Windows ... mmm ... well, how does it work )
It does not have exact timings for zx48 \ zx128, it is not clear how contended memory works.
It has interesting tricks and solutions, but in general I am more surprised when I try to use it, no offense to the author
And further. There is a very good utility AYtest_v0.2 in the above archive with programs for testing AY and TurboSound.
So, in LnxSpectrum she talks about the absence thereof.
It is a very accurate utility. This means that the implementation is not entirely accurate / complete.
upd
launched two snapshots from the archive on Xpeccy. It's easier than .trd
The sound is good enough, the author corrected something in the SAA emulation at my request.
in the settings we set Machine-Pentagon,
It is also desirable to change the romset, but even with zx48, the snapshot started by default.

[Alone Coder]

You need this rompack for Xpeccy (NB ZX Evo ROM is outdated here): https://yadi.sk/d/YHkQUZLrwEaMEg
All the features are to be switched on manually...

[Guesser]

Spin has a gigascreen option.

Retro Virtual Machine has an "interlace blending" slider in the display options.

I wonder if that row should be marked Gigascreen/Interlace, though some of the emulators that look like they should support interlace don't seem to, at least not on Spectrum models (EsPectrum for example).

[PeterJ]

Will PM you later [mention]Guesser[/mention]

Edit. Changes made

[PeterJ]

I've made some updates for Lnx Spectrum, and also identified recent update releases for EightyOne, ES.pectrum, ZEsarUX, Speccy, SoftSpectrum 48,Xpeccy and ZXSEC. Row 106 has download links to the emulator homepage (where applicable).

[SamC]

Does anyone test a size of the emulated RAM for divIDEs/divMMCs, in emulators?
Classic DivIDE and also some popular cheap divMMCs have 32KB RAM only, too small capacity for a new software.
Currently it is important at least for esxDOS extensions, e.g. new Filebrowser needs bigger divMMC RAM.
This can be checked by Velesoft's DIVRAMKA utility:
https://velesoft.speccy.cz/zx/divide/divide-soft.htm

I've made some updates for Lnx Spectrum

Thank you.

[PeterJ]

I've updated the spreadsheet with the following changes:

Updated versions for the following emulators
EightyOne
ZEsarUX
Speccy
SoftSpectrum48
Xpeccy
ZXSEC
LnxSpectrum

New website address for Zero (Still sadly unable to test [mention]arjun[/mention] as not working on W10)

If I have missed any new features please could the authors let me know. Thanks

[TomD]

I know somebody has probably already mentioned this but I couldn't see it in the sheet. One of the things I've tested recently is accurate floating bus on the +2A/+3 models. FUSE doesn't work but Retro Virtual Machine does as an example. Happy to test a few more if that helps

Also accurate disk emulation on +3, again FUSE nope and Retro Virtual Machine yes.

Don't get me wrong FUSE and it is my favourite go to emulator but to test these two things in my games I do use Retro Virtual Machine.

TomD

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]TomD[/mention]

That would be very useful. Just message me a Yes/No list and I will add to the sheet.

Cheers

[Ast A. Moore]

FUSE doesn't work but Retro Virtual Machine does as an example.

RVM does an approximation of the floating bus behavior on the +2A/+3, but it’s not particularly accurate. The code is based on ZEsarUX, and Cesar had kind of dropped the ball on implementing that feature long ago.

SpecEmu does an excellent—probably the best—job at that. (Mark Woodmass was following my floating bus investigation very closely, and I helped him perfect the emulation with a couple of very specific tests.) SpecIde is another emulator that has good support for the floating bus on the +2A/+3 (again, with a little bit of help from yours truly). So does Spectramine. ZXDS also supports it, but I haven’t been able to verify the accuracy.

The most recent addition—Clock Signal—is getting close, too. It’s not perfect, but good enough.

If you want to test emulators, use my Woody’s Special test and verify the results against this video of the test running on a real +2A. (Press a key after loading the test and observe the flickering yellow stripes. They have zig-zagging breaks in very specific locations.)


P.S. I should probably create a separate list of emulators that support the floating bus on the +2A/+3. My article just mentions a couple and it’s hard to find them as they’re buried in the text.

[PeterJ]

Thanks for the explanation [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention]. I'm very happy to merge anything you are able to produce onto my spreadsheet.

[rastersoft]

I miss FBZX

[PeterJ]

I miss FBZX

Hi. Although I'm a Linux and Windows user, I'm only including Emulators that can run on the Windows platform for now.

You could always make a copy of the existing sheet.

I'm assuming it's your emulator?

https://rastersoft.com/programas/fbzx.html

[rastersoft]

I miss FBZX

Hi. Although I'm a Linux and Windows user, I'm only including Emulators that can run on the Windows platform for now.

You could always make a copy of the existing sheet.

I'm assuming it's your emulator?

https://rastersoft.com/programas/fbzx.html

Yes, it's my emulator. But don't worry.

[XoRRoX]

I've made some changes:

+ Z80Stealth; I tried to tick all of its features but I would appreciate it if someone knowing the emulator could please check.

+ Section "Sound Features" with sub-sections for AY (PSG & YM), WAV recording and if AY-3-8912/YM2149 is selectable.
I've left the options regarding this open for most emulators because this has to be checked for other emulators.

In a lot of emulators, I see Soundrive. It's not in the sheet yet (at least not under that name). I tried to search for info about it but couldn't find any.
I'd appreciate it if someone could provide some info?

For new features, I've left them open instead of putting "N" by default, as then we know that we still have to check that feature in the other emulators.

[TomD]

FUSE doesn't work but Retro Virtual Machine does as an example.

RVM does an approximation of the floating bus behavior on the +2A/+3, but it’s not particularly accurate. The code is based on ZEsarUX, and Cesar had kind of dropped the ball on implementing that feature long ago.

Interesting you say based on ZEsarUX as I can't get Woody's test to work on ZEsarUX v9.2 even in 48k machine mode, maybe I'm missing a setting. FUSE is fine in 48k (not +2A) and RetroVirtualMachine works in all modes.

TomD

[azesmbog]

+ Z80Stealth; I tried to tick all of its features but I would appreciate it if someone knowing the emulator could please check.

On Z80Stealth. More or less everything is correct. Checked

Based on the Unreal Speccy emulator. First, it is constantly being updated. Secondly, there are two independent branches (forks) of this emulator, and both are called Unreal
But there are also many differences between them.

[PeterJ]

What's the correct website [mention]azesmbog[/mention], as this says last updated in 2014.

http://z80.emu-russia.net/index.html