Online Emulation Update

Broken link? Feature request? Anything related to the Spectrum Computing website here.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

I'm pleased to let you know that on-line emulation has been rolled out throughout the site. We have decided to use JSSpeccy internally and QAOP externally. Any game pages which have a downloadable TAP file will also have playable links (This is indicated by the Joystick Icon).


Image

A good example is:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=32228

We encourage all authors to provide .TAP versions of their files.

Thanks to [mention]pavero[/mention] for the coding, and Ricardo [mention]4thRock[/mention] for the styling.

Online emulation is never the same as playing on real hardware or a dedicated downloaded emulator, but it gives you a good feel for the game.
User avatar
Kweepa
Manic Miner
Posts: 311
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 6:14 pm
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by Kweepa »

This is awesome!
One minor niggle is that if you choose JJSpeccy in a wide browser window it clips off the bottom of the screen. (It can be fixed by narrowing the browser window (or running the QAOP version, which scales so that the screen fits on both x and y).)
hikoki
Manic Miner
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:54 am

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by hikoki »

Thanks!

Styling looks like this on my tablet

Image


Image
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by Einar Saukas »

PeterJ wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:31 pmWe encourage all authors to provide .TAP versions of their files.
Or TZX!

Although Spectrum Computing doesn't provide TZX emulation right now, I'm sure it can be worked out. There's no need to flood ZXDB with TAP versions of existing TZX files! :)
User avatar
pavero
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1570
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:49 pm
Location: The Czech Republic
Contact:

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by pavero »

Einar Saukas wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 10:24 pm
PeterJ wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:31 pmWe encourage all authors to provide .TAP versions of their files.
Or TZX!

Although Spectrum Computing doesn't provide TZX emulation right now, I'm sure it can be worked out. There's no need to flood ZXDB with TAP versions of existing TZX files! :)
TAP files are always needed. DivIDE/DivMMC, etc. can't handle TZX format at all. ;-)
User avatar
Juan F. Ramirez
Bugaboo
Posts: 5102
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:55 am
Location: Málaga, Spain

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

This is really a cool feature.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

I forgot to mention that following feedback that we received a few months ago, the image of the tape has been rotated 180 degrees.thanks Ricardo!
User avatar
4thRock
Manic Miner
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:35 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by 4thRock »

Did some minor changes to the layout that should fix the Download listing on the iPad portrait display.
Also made JJSpeccy smaller on landscape view (all devices). Not perfect but should work with no clipping or scrolling.

Thanks all for feedback, I just hope I didn't break anything else in fixing this :D
hikoki
Manic Miner
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:54 am

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by hikoki »

4thRock wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:04 pm Did some minor changes to the layout that should fix the Download listing on the iPad portrait display.
Indeed,thanks

however emulator links do not fit on portrait on smaller devices
an easy fix could be placing joystick links first, to the left of tape links
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

What device are you using [mention]hikoki[/mention]? I have an old Samsung S5 Android phone and it displays fine in I'm using Chrome on mobile. What are you using, and can you post a screen grab? If it's a modern browser it should resize due to the use of Bootstrap.

This is the problem nowadays with so.many different devices and each browser handles pages separately. It's anightmare!
hikoki
Manic Miner
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:54 am

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by hikoki »

A shot on Chrome from my Huawei Ascend Y530
Image
Last edited by hikoki on Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]hikoki[/mention], sorry so are you meaning it goes into two lines? You must have a very small screen?
User avatar
Spud
Manic Miner
Posts: 372
Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2017 8:50 pm
Contact:

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by Spud »

Fantastic feature! To everyone involved: thanks for all the hard work.
hikoki
Manic Miner
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:54 am

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by hikoki »

PeterJ wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:40 pm @ hikoki, sorry so are you meaning it goes into two lines? You must have a very small screen?
It's a 4.5 inch device
I suggested to place emulator links on the leftmost side before tape links or..maybe leave more space between tape and joystick links so they fall on different lines :)
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

Spud wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 6:49 pm Fantastic feature! To everyone involved: thanks for all the hard work.
Thank you for your kind words. That's the sort of comment that keeps us all pushing forward!
User avatar
4thRock
Manic Miner
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:35 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by 4thRock »

Thanks for the feedback. It's hard to get it right on all devices because there are many variations. I always simulate a few but it's never 100% accurate. I'll sort it out no problem 😀
hikoki
Manic Miner
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 10:54 am

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by hikoki »

No problem. One amateur tip to test the layout from the PC is just resizing the browser window in many wild ways :)
User avatar
4thRock
Manic Miner
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 9:35 am
Location: Portugal

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by 4thRock »

Yes, that works but it's not 100% accurate.
On a PC you still have the scroll bar, the screen DPIs are different, fonts are rendered differently and orientation doesn't change.
So it's OK to release with minor bugs and correct as needed :D
User avatar
druellan
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1466
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:19 pm

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by druellan »

Regarding this feature, there are games that will never work with the online emulators, like: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0027394
Of course you can't tests everything to ensure it will work, but in cases like this one, when we KNOW is not going to work, perhaps worth have a blacklist?
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

Good idea, if you find anymore just PM me.
User avatar
RMartins
Manic Miner
Posts: 776
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:26 pm

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by RMartins »

Very nice feature ...

However, for me JSpeccy is too slow (Firefox).
QAOP runs fine (Firefox).
zx81
Microbot
Posts: 138
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:33 pm

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by zx81 »

RMartins wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 9:04 pm Very nice feature ...

However, for me JSpeccy is too slow (Firefox).
JSpeccy don't works as an applet. You are using another emulator, I guess...
User avatar
Guesser
Manic Miner
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:35 pm
Contact:

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by Guesser »

zx81 wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 9:49 pm JSpeccy don't works as an applet. You are using another emulator, I guess...
Obviously a typo for JSSpeccy...

Incidentally I notice that the results pages also have a (different) typo, 'JJSpeccy'.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by PeterJ »

Hello [mention]Guesser[/mention]

Good spot. We will get that sorted.

Peter
User avatar
RMartins
Manic Miner
Posts: 776
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:26 pm

Re: Online Emulation Update

Post by RMartins »

zx81 wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 9:49 pm
RMartins wrote: Mon May 14, 2018 9:04 pm Very nice feature ...

However, for me JSpeccy is too slow (Firefox).
JSpeccy don't works as an applet. You are using another emulator, I guess...
Obviously not, it's a Javascript emulator that runs on the browser.
Applets, also run on the browser, when the required Java plugin is available, but most browsers no longer support it, or support is sketchy.
Post Reply