Enhanced ZX Speccy (Alike system?)

[Dobsa007]

I've thought about this for years, I'm sure many have, but never seen anything done.
Why not have a fast Speccy (alike) emulated with good graphics on our 3.5 GHz CPU's ?
Use the source code for the eZ80 emulator, 24 Bit Z80 code compatible,
Display - 1920x1080x16 bit, The underlying CPU does that, just write the buffer in sequence
There's a lot to play with

[SamC]

Above all, better graphics means improving the simple video system and addressing the huge memory requirements, all with an eye on digital-video connectivity. So far the only capable hardware I know is the HGFX of the eLeMeNt ZX platform, which allows to exceed 256 pixels in height and offers 512*384 and 720*546 resolutions, while still supporting the ZX screen.

The simple solution is to buy a raspberry pi and run something like this: https://github.com/ZXDunny/SpecBAS/releases

[Ralf]

If I understand correctly, you'd like to have an "emulator" of some unexisting machine which you call "enhanced Zx Spectrum". Yet it has modern graphic resolution, colour depth and is probably free of attribute limitations.

Am I missing something or are you trying basically to emulate a modern PC on a modern PC?

Also at first it would have zero software. And I'm not sure if someone would like to write it.
A system is as good as the software written for it.

[SamC]

I'm not sure if someone would like to write it

The zx-scene is big enough to try different approaches.
ZX-Uno, Chloe/SE, ATM 2/3, ZX-Poly, TS-Conf, Sprinter, ULAX...

[Cheez26]

Above all, better graphics means improving the simple video system and addressing the huge memory requirements, all with an eye on digital-video connectivity. So far the only capable hardware I know is the HGFX of the eLeMeNt ZX platform, which allows to exceed 256 pixels in height and offers 512*384 and 720*546 resolutions, while still supporting the ZX screen.

The simple solution is to buy a raspberry pi and run something like this: https://github.com/ZXDunny/SpecBAS/releases

ngl, SpecBAS looks rather handy, but how do I get this running on Raspberry Pi OS instead of Windows?

[PeterJ]

Welcome @Cheez26,

Nice to have you here. For the benefit of people on mobile phone with small screens, could I ask that when quoting that you only quote the salient points. Just makes it easier for us oldies and reduces the amount of scrolling.

I look forward to your contributions! It's nice that the Speccy gets some US love!

Peter

PS. I'm a Linux fan like you, but I believe SpecBas is Windows only. You could possibly run it under Wine?

[Cheez26]

Nice to have you here. For the benefit of people on mobile phone with small screens, could I ask that when quoting that you only quote the salient points. Just makes it easier for us oldies and reduces the amount of scrolling.

Thanks for the heads-up. I honestly forgot about the importance of mobile-friendliness for some people.

Anyhow, I've edited the image out in the quote thing of my previous post. You're welcome.

EDIT: I saw the PS and yeah, I figured it might be Windows only.

[spider]

Would not a Sam Coupe (or a modern FPGA implementation of such) provide a slightly better graphical output (no clash in one speccy mode) for your needs ?

And by using a 48K rom/emulator within most 48K games should run, in theory.

[SamC]

You could possibly run it under Wine?

It works fine in the Wine. The picture was taken in my desktop of the MX Linux XFCE

[ketmar]

one of the funniest things in "retro-programming" is working with the machine limitations in mind, i believe. otherwise we could simply write software for modern computers, and don't bother with attr clashes, counting ticks, and so on.

using cross-development systems is not a cheat, though, because many software houses did that back then. ;-) but the final result should still work on the original hardware.

Spoiler

that's why i'm not developing for ZX Next, for example. it is a great machine… but it's not Speccy anymore for me. it spawned it's own scene, though, and it's great. i like to play some ZX Next releases on the emulator. ;-)