Will there ever be a new version of Spectaculator? I think the one I use every day is from 2012.
WHY OR WHY NOT? Has Jonathan Needle run off to Nintendo, like the Stamper brothers?
Good things about Spectaculator:
- perfect Windows GUI, the best one (proper shortcut keys etc.)
- emulates 48, 128, Pentagon, Scorpion, very nicely
- supports most file formats we care about
Bad things about Spectaculator (not much!):
- doesn't support various obscure hardware (though I think it might be possible to write plug-in DLLs, if you like Windows and RIFF)
- sometimes the screen display breaks after a tape load operation
- other tape stuff could be better (e.g. save into the middle of a tape -- although I'm not sure any emulator does this, and a real tape doesn't do it, hahahaha. I JUST WANT IT SO MUCH)
- RZX issues (it may break the recording if it's very long, or +3, or has Disciple attached...)
- it isn't free or open-source (I don't really see this as a bad point, since it's cheap and VERY worth the price, and man has to eat)
Come back Jon, you made the best thing ever. Then you disappeared.
Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
Re: Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
Spectaculator is still my go-to emulator when it comes to playing and developing games. I must admit I've never experienced any of those issues mentioned in the "cons" section. At the moment, it runs perfectly well under Windows 11 so I'm not sure it needs a new version.
Jonathan still responds to support emails. He helped me retrieve my licence key a couple of weeks ago when I needed to reinstall it on a new machine. To be honest, I would've happily bought a new copy if I couldn't had done that. I just prefer the UI of Spectaculator so much.
Jonathan still responds to support emails. He helped me retrieve my licence key a couple of weeks ago when I needed to reinstall it on a new machine. To be honest, I would've happily bought a new copy if I couldn't had done that. I just prefer the UI of Spectaculator so much.
Re: Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
He responded weeks ago? Damn, I'm going to report the tape issue then.
(Reminds me of GoldWave, an audio file editor I've been using for 20+ years with a great creator who responds to any questions, even my dumb ones.) As you say, the thing works, so MOSTLY we will only be making feature requests at this point. The last published Spectaculator 'moment' seemed to be "now we're on mobile!" which might be interpreted as "so f*** desktop!!" but errrr probably not, given the audience.
Dunny and Woody are allergic to UI changes because I would say "do you want some tips?" and then produce a 20-page Word document explaining why they aren't doing drag-drop properly.
[censored] says: "As we’ve been discussing on emulation channel, [Spectaculator] isn’t ideal for RZX. Pls consider using SpecEmu or Spin which do a better job of following the format closely to record stuff."
(Reminds me of GoldWave, an audio file editor I've been using for 20+ years with a great creator who responds to any questions, even my dumb ones.) As you say, the thing works, so MOSTLY we will only be making feature requests at this point. The last published Spectaculator 'moment' seemed to be "now we're on mobile!" which might be interpreted as "so f*** desktop!!" but errrr probably not, given the audience.
Dunny and Woody are allergic to UI changes because I would say "do you want some tips?" and then produce a 20-page Word document explaining why they aren't doing drag-drop properly.
[censored] says: "As we’ve been discussing on emulation channel, [Spectaculator] isn’t ideal for RZX. Pls consider using SpecEmu or Spin which do a better job of following the format closely to record stuff."
Re: Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
Jon responded that he is still happy to see bug reports and feature requests. So I have replied with the following details (and hopefully can send him some test RZX files at a future time)...
1. A feature idea: it would be so helpful, in the Cassette Recorder window, if we could "edit" the current tape. For example, I have a tape with Loader + Screen + Code, then I have changed the loader, so I want to replace it. Currently I have to use a tool like Tapir. But imagine if I could just go into the Cassette Recorder window, and remove a file from the tape (the old Loader), and then position the save point at the beginning and save my new loader there. Or, alternatively, I could save the new one at the end, and then drag-drop it to the start of the tape using my mouse.
2. A feature idea: RZX playback "seeking". A YouTube-style seek bar would be ideal, but I know RZXes are "generative" instructions rather than video streams, so this may be very difficult. But perhaps if you cached occasional states along the way, like video keyframes, it would be possible. If no seek bar, it would still be useful to say: "start playing from 50%" or something like that (maybe I don't need to see the first half of the game because I've already solved it).
3. RZX recording issues: it's usually fine, but sometimes it fails when finalising. The resulting file is unusable. This seems more common in certain cases:
(i) when the RZX file is very LONG, like hours of work (how I cried!) -- on this occasion I had a file about 50 MB and I got "Access Violation" when trying to finalise; (in the other cases below, the error is something else, about "missing frames" or something?)
(ii) maybe when it has been done in several sessions, i.e. Stop Recording and continue later;
(iii) maybe when I have changed the speed a lot -- for example I may jump back and forth a lot between 100 and 200% speed, or even more, to speed up boring sections: could this cause timing issues?
(iv) *especially* if it's a +3 or has the Disciple hardware enabled.
I don't have any example files, but I remember one that failed at least twice -- it was a +3 text adventure game called "Last Night at the Office". I never did get that RZX done, so I will try it again, and surely either get a working RZX, or a broken one that I can show you
Both good outcomes.
4. RZX playback: sometimes the percentage display at the bottom is wrong. Instead of gradually counting from 0 to 100%, it keeps looping rapidly 0 through 100 all the time during playback, like 10%...50%...100%...20%...40%...90%...10%... This doesn't seem to cause any problems but obviously it's not correct.
The next time I see this happen I will try to send you the file.
1. A feature idea: it would be so helpful, in the Cassette Recorder window, if we could "edit" the current tape. For example, I have a tape with Loader + Screen + Code, then I have changed the loader, so I want to replace it. Currently I have to use a tool like Tapir. But imagine if I could just go into the Cassette Recorder window, and remove a file from the tape (the old Loader), and then position the save point at the beginning and save my new loader there. Or, alternatively, I could save the new one at the end, and then drag-drop it to the start of the tape using my mouse.
2. A feature idea: RZX playback "seeking". A YouTube-style seek bar would be ideal, but I know RZXes are "generative" instructions rather than video streams, so this may be very difficult. But perhaps if you cached occasional states along the way, like video keyframes, it would be possible. If no seek bar, it would still be useful to say: "start playing from 50%" or something like that (maybe I don't need to see the first half of the game because I've already solved it).
3. RZX recording issues: it's usually fine, but sometimes it fails when finalising. The resulting file is unusable. This seems more common in certain cases:
(i) when the RZX file is very LONG, like hours of work (how I cried!) -- on this occasion I had a file about 50 MB and I got "Access Violation" when trying to finalise; (in the other cases below, the error is something else, about "missing frames" or something?)
(ii) maybe when it has been done in several sessions, i.e. Stop Recording and continue later;
(iii) maybe when I have changed the speed a lot -- for example I may jump back and forth a lot between 100 and 200% speed, or even more, to speed up boring sections: could this cause timing issues?
(iv) *especially* if it's a +3 or has the Disciple hardware enabled.
I don't have any example files, but I remember one that failed at least twice -- it was a +3 text adventure game called "Last Night at the Office". I never did get that RZX done, so I will try it again, and surely either get a working RZX, or a broken one that I can show you
Both good outcomes.4. RZX playback: sometimes the percentage display at the bottom is wrong. Instead of gradually counting from 0 to 100%, it keeps looping rapidly 0 through 100 all the time during playback, like 10%...50%...100%...20%...40%...90%...10%... This doesn't seem to cause any problems but obviously it's not correct.
The next time I see this happen I will try to send you the file.
Re: Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
[more]
Ah, I forgot one: the screen not updating in tape scenarios.
Okay, I can tell you for sure that this relates to the point where the tape "auto-rewinds". That is, we have fast-load enabled, and we are trying to load from the tape (LOAD "" or LOAD "filename"), but the file is earlier than the current seek point, so it has to wrap around to the start of the tape to find it.
Sometimes when this happens and it finally loads the file, then the emulator display doesn't update: I have to hit Pause-Unpause to see anything. It feels like a GUI bug where you aren't doing a repaint in response to certain events.
Again I can't reproduce it right now, but I think I could do it with time and patience, because it's quite common. (And surely not related to my graphics cards.) Will let you know.
Ah, I forgot one: the screen not updating in tape scenarios.
Okay, I can tell you for sure that this relates to the point where the tape "auto-rewinds". That is, we have fast-load enabled, and we are trying to load from the tape (LOAD "" or LOAD "filename"), but the file is earlier than the current seek point, so it has to wrap around to the start of the tape to find it.
Sometimes when this happens and it finally loads the file, then the emulator display doesn't update: I have to hit Pause-Unpause to see anything. It feels like a GUI bug where you aren't doing a repaint in response to certain events.
Again I can't reproduce it right now, but I think I could do it with time and patience, because it's quite common. (And surely not related to my graphics cards.) Will let you know.
Re: Will Spectaculator ever get a new version?
That's an RZX file that hasn't been finalised correctly, or at all. Every time it hits 100%, it's met a Rollback point, whereupon the counter starts again from 0%.equinox wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:33 pm 4. RZX playback: sometimes the percentage display at the bottom is wrong. Instead of gradually counting from 0 to 100%, it keeps looping rapidly 0 through 100 all the time during playback, like 10%...50%...100%...20%...40%...90%...10%... This doesn't seem to cause any problems but obviously it's not correct.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!