Next Emulation

[PeterJ]

I'm ashamed to say that I've not really kept up with the development of the Next project, but now I know my Next should be delivered soon I'm starting to get excited! I was afraid it might have turned into another Vega so I intentionally avoided it to minimise potential upset.

What's the state of Emulation at the moment? Can I run a full blown Next with the latest firmware and all software via an emulator?

[Alessandro]

#Cspect and ZesarUX can emulate the Next, although I don't exactly know up to which extent because I have tried this just a bit. You can download the relative distribution images from: http://zxspectrumnext.online/cspect/

Latest version of #Cspect: http://www.javalemmings.com/public/zxne ... 2_12_5.zip

Also see here for some more information.

[PeterJ]

Thanks [mention]Alessandro[/mention]

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]Alessandro[/mention],

Ive been through the instructions you kindly provided, and after a couple of false starts its working just great. I'm currently using CSpect, but do like ZEsarUX from [mention]chernandezba[/mention] very much, so will try that next.

I tend to do all this sort of work on a virtual machine (either VMWare Player or VirtualBox) so I don't have loads of things installed on my main PC, but that is just my OCD!

Having downloaded the latest version of CSpect from the link [mention]Alessandro[/mention] provided, I unzipped it to my downloads folder.

Next I installed OpenAL to provide audio from:

https://www.openal.org/downloads/

Then I downloaded the 16GB SD Card Image along with the ROMS with this link:

http://www.zxspectrumnext.online/cspect ... t-16gb.zip

from

http://zxspectrumnext.online/cspect/

There are also 2GB, 4GB and 8GB Versions.

Unzip the three files into the root directory of where you unzipped CSpect, which in my case was:

C:\Users\Peter Jones\Downloads\CSpect2_12_5>

Then just run:

Code: Select all

CSpect.exe -r -brk -w3 -zxnext -nextrom  -mmc=cspect-next-16gb.img -tv

If you want to store the SD Card Image elsewhere just changed the path after -mmc, and if you downloaded a different size SD Card image just change the 16gb-img as appropriate.

[chernandezba]

Hi

The last ZEsarUX 8.1 stable version comes with a wizard to automatically configure tbblue and download the sd needed image

You just need to select machine tbblue and answer “yes” to all questions. That’s very simple. No command line settings difficult to remember, no difficult menus to select. Nothing more. Just select the machine and enjoy Next emulation!

See it in action here:

https://youtu.be/2a1Kv8HiP5M


Cheers
Cesar

[PeterJ]

Thank you [mention]chernandezba[/mention]

Works great!

[PeterJ]

Just something I came across this afternoon:

Adding the -basickeys flag makes keys like the comma key work as per a standard PC keyboard

Code: Select all

CSpect.exe -r -brk -w3 -zxnext -basickeys -nextrom  -mmc=cspect-next-16gb.img -tv

Edited by PJ

[PeterJ]

I got so frustrated with the problems with CSpect and Windows (Google now blocks the site, and Windows Defender blocks the download of the Zip and the execution of the .EXE) that I decided to run it on Ubuntu.

The pre-requisites are mentioned in the readme, but I thought them worth repeating here. I'm using Ubuntu 20.04, but these instructions will work with any modern Debian based distro:

Firstly we need to download Mono which is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework, and is supported by Microsoft.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mono-devel

Prepare the files as in the earlier posts then, the only change to the command line is preceeding the commands with 'mono'

Code: Select all

mono CSpect.exe -r -brk -w3 -zxnext -basickeys -nextrom  -mmc=cspect-next-2gb.img -tv

It works like a charm in Ubuntu and avoids all the false positive security issues, and having to disable antivirus and threat protection in Windows.

[Pegaz]

I usually put false postive exe files, as an exception in the AV program.
btw, is there a way to perform a hard reset in CSpect?
The F3 key only resets the system in 48k mode.
I also have trouble starting the Simon Owen Pacman emulator.
Selecting N (Next/+3 mode) doesnt work...

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]Pegaz[/mention],

Windows 10 AV does allow adding exceptions for both files and folders, but I was still having issues after the latest Windows update with blank screens in the emulator (may or may not be related). Anyway, I'm not keen on punching holes in my protection and have an Ubuntu machine in my home office so it just made it easier for me.

I will try out the reset and feedback to you.

[PeterJ]

[mention]Pegaz[/mention],

F3 works for me in Next mode.

Are you on the latest version?

Peter

[Pegaz]

Yes, I use the latest version.
Reset works in Next mode, but how do I get back to the Next main menu, after I start a game 48/128 mode?
F3 just does a soft reset with 48k main screen and doesn't return me to the Next main menu unless I restart the emulator.

[PeterJ]

Hi [mention]Pegaz[/mention],

It seems to work fine for me. I'm the 128K dizzy game, press F3, and it takes me back to the Next welcome page.

[Pegaz]

Thanks.
Who knows, maybe he doesnt like my windows 7.
Everything else works great...

[Pegaz]

btw, can you test Pacman emulator ?

[funkheld]

CSpect with tbblue and COM is wonderfull.

https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1986

https://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/view ... 5d0ffbaef9

greeting

[johansteyn]

I have tried both emulators and both have issues with sound. CSpect continue to have problems with OpenAL, which I have tried several times to get working. The other emulator keeps on getting clicks on the sound. Now it does not even open. I have tried this a few times over a few years. I think by now I'll stop trying.

Windows 10
AMD graphics

Everything else on my laptop works just fine.

[Luzie]

@johansteyn What means "CSpect has problems with OpenAL"? Can you please post some "sound-samples"?

If you are on FB: ZEsarUX has a FB-Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1222338521110303 - I think you can report your problem there´s even if the author @chernandezba don´t really like Windows

[funkheld]

put your program with the sound in here.
will test it with cspect.

greeting