Which emulator? (Sorry!)

[5MinuteRetro]

Yes, I really should know better. But heck, I'm not new around these parts and I figure you can all take one for this particular a-bit-drunk member of the team. Yes I've Googled but... SpecEmu is leading me nowhere currently. I'm not averse to paying but I try to avoid a-bit-drunk purchases. So, please, someone -- which is the current preferred/'best' (<-- so often subjective) free Spectrum emulator for Windows 10? Is it Fuse?

[Nitrowing]

I Fuse

[Ast A. Moore]

I use SpecEmu in Wine for (additional) development purposes (namely, to test the floating bus on the +2A/+3 without having to run code on my actual +2A, and because it has a very nice debugger). Natively on the Mac, however, my main emulator is Fuse.

I’m sure feature-wise, it’s almost identical to its Linux/Windows counterparts, so I can fully recommend it for your Windows 10 environment.

[cmal]

I'm also using SpecEmu these days on Windows 10, for similar reasons as Ast. It has a nice debugger and it seems to be a very accurate emulator.
My second go-to emulator on Windows is Spectaculator.
Outside of Windows, I use ZXBaremulator on a Raspberry Pi. It's very accurate and works well with a recreated Spectrum keyboard and Xbox One controller.

I guess you just need to pick a couple of emulators, try them out and if there's something you don't like about a certain emulator, see if that thing can be changed/turned off. If not, then find another emulator to try. [mention]PeterJ[/mention] has set up a spreadsheet comparing Windows based emulators. That would be a good place to check:

Emulator Spreadsheet

(question for anyone: how do I make a link like above into a single word with a hidden URL? I should know this by now )

Edited by PJ - See post below for explanation

[PeterJ]

(question for anyone: how do I make a link like above into a single word with a hidden URL? I should know this by now )

Hi [mention]cmal[/mention], having checked, the way of doing this is to put URL tags around the link. I have taken the liberty of editing your post for you. Hope that is OK.

Source of information is here.

[hitm4n]

I really like InkSpector.
Spectaculator has been great for years, but costs money. Its still great to this day, still costs money though.

But i haven't tried them all, nor Fuse, and i'd like this discussion to continue where people suggest why one emu is better than another.

InkSpector for me has run a few things where other emus failed. I've had emulators even fail at running Sabre Wulf for some bizarre reason, and if i find one that can run it, i feel like it must be better... right?

InkSpector is easy to use, supports many different variations of the systems including ZX81 (thats a win for me), and addon peripherals too. Don't think theres many file formats it doesn't support. Scalable or fullscreen, alterable border sizes, easy config. I just like it

What does Fuse do better guys?
Whats a good emulator for tools like Launchbox, i'm thinking about ease of exiting a game back to the launchbox menu or jumping into the settings to change things and right back to game again. Are there any emus that handle this better?

Cheers.

[PeterJ]

[mention]hitm4n[/mention], I've no problem with paying for software. Yes, Spectacular is quite old, but t's very good.

Best thing to do is to install Fuse and give it a go. Everyone has their own requirements.

Launchbox works with any emulator as long as it accepts command line parameters. You would still need to close the emulator though between games or a new instance would be open.

Try all the emulators on my spreadsheet (see my footer) and see which you like. Its a very personal choice sometimes.

[Pegaz]

Fuse supports a lot more peripherals, including spectranet for example.
This is my first choice outside of Windows, mostly on the Raspberry Pi and Linux in general.
On Windows, I mostly use SpecEmu for testing and lately RetroVirtual Machine, which recreates the Spectrum feel in a really great way.

[llewelyn]

FUSE without a doubt when it comes down to simply wanting an idiot proof way to access the games you are most likely to want to play.

I cannot say that its the best for the various esoteric things that people here wax eloquent about - like T states, for example, what the hell is a T state?

However for your every day happy idiot like me who just wants something that needs no technical knowledge to get the most out of, I've been running FUSE for ages and its never disappointed me. I've never even updated it since I first downloaded it about 3 maybe more years ago.

[5MinuteRetro]

Thanks all. Let's just say that last night's "a bit drunk" became this morning's "OMFG, my head!". And on a school night, too.

[druellan]

I use a bunch but FUSE is my daily driver: the emulation is solid, looks and sounds great, supports up to pentagon machines and is fully drag & drop, including zip files.

If I want to test some video effects including Gigascreen, then Retro Virtual Machine. Is not so immediate as FUSE, but the experience is superb.

[Alone Coder]

Unreal Speccy is the best for Russian software. Used by most Russian developers.

[hitm4n]

@hitm4n, I've no problem with paying for software. Yes, Spectacular is quite old, but t's very good.

Nor me, bought a lifetime BigBox license recently for my emulation PC and will gladly register/pay for emulators if needs be. But... when there are a billion other emulators for free, and many people seemingly like Fuse more, i'll save the pennies. I really need to try Fuse it seems

Launchbox works with any emulator as long as it accepts command line parameters. You would still need to close the emulator though between games or a new instance would be open.

Yes, been using Launchbox with multiple emulators for a fair while now. The Spectrum is one i still need to set up (MiSTer is getting the same treatment, maybe even today!). My question was a little broad i suppose. What i'd like to understand is what results have people gotten from various emulators (ZX ones) in relation to Launchbox. Particularly with the ease of launching and closing a game. Even including command line options like "start emu with this rom", "load emu with this model of spectrum, with this rom". How redefinable are the quit keys for controllers so when done on one game, quick press of a button on wireless controller of choice and back to launchbox it goes for another game choice. I don't want to click a game in Launcbox, then have to press something else, load an emu menu, change the machine type, load the game and hit reset to play. These, to some degree, still seem to be things i need to do even on PC. Drag and drop of roms takes a lot of that pain away, but from an emu front end, from the couch and a controller, thats not so easy.

I guess the emulator that fits the bill doesn't need anything fancy. It's not going to need dissassemblers built in, memory pokey doodars, code stepping, debug modes, or scr saving options, it just needs to play games and play nicely with Launchbox.

I'll check out Fuse for sure.

[Ralf]

You can try to search for the last free version of Spectaculator. If you want just to run some programs in tape format then
it should be enough for you.

[XoRRoX]

[mention]cmal[/mention]

Very nice and extensive emulator information you created there - bravo!

I didn't check everything but did notice that Es.pectrum (v0.9.1) now has divMMC, Betadisk and divIDE.

RVM also support the ZX-Uno and with it thus ULAplus, TurboSound and the Timex video modes.

[1024MAK]

... - like T states, for example, what the hell is a T state?

So which answer do you want?

¾ of a state?

Or

It’s the microprocessor clock period

Or

Zilog says...

Spoiler

All instructions are a series of basic operations. Each of these operations can take from three to six clock periods to complete, or they can be lengthened to synchronize the CPU to the speed of external devices. These clock periods are referred to as time (T) cycles, and the operations are referred to as machine (M) cycles.

The choice is yours...

Mark

[PeterJ]

@cmal
I didn't check everything but did notice that Es.pectrum (v0.9.1) now has divMMC, Betadisk and divIDE.

RVM also support the ZX-Uno and with it thus ULAplus, TurboSound and the Timex video modes.

Have you checked out my emulator spreadsheet? Let me know if you find anything missing.

[XoRRoX]

Very sorry Peter, didn't look carefully enough to see it's actually yours

Then I guess my comments regarding the features is directed at you then

[Hedge1970]

Spectaculator because it’s MDR format and it’s SNA / .z80 format Transfer to my real Speccy perfectly so if I need to transfer a TAP or TZX that won’t load direct I can do it via Spectaculator.

Spin (free) for its machine code debug and it’s very good so far (not done everything) match to Pasmo assembler.

[XoRRoX]

machine code debug

I think you mean to say "machine code assembler"? As I think SpecEmu's debugger is unmatched.

[Hedge1970]

machine code debug

I think you mean to say "machine code assembler"? As I think SpecEmu's debugger is unmatched.

No, I build in notepad++, I use pasmo assembler and launch in Spin. Then for my lightweight needs the debug in spin works very well.

[RMartins]

"Zero" emulator (by Arjun Nair) is also a nice emulator with good support for debugging (loads symbols files too), drag & drop , etc...
https://github.com/ArjunNair/Zero-Emulator