My new emulator - ZX Miracle

[Weiv]

I introduce my new emulator named ZX Miracle. The successor of Spectramine in emulation accuracy, it adds functionality and raises the bar for usability while trying not to compromise reliability) The emulator is available to donators who are ready to support its development with a self-selected amount regularly, as well as those who support (or supported) its development in other ways. For all questions, write to [email protected] , sorry, I will not answer questions here for internal reasons.

[Weiv]

At the moment the emulator has the necessary functionality for a comfortable game play / demo viewing - fullscreen, zoom, blur modes, saves, tape browser, simple key remapping, linking PC gaming devices to ZX interfaces. Tools, including monitor, are currently disabled, I want to focus on the emulator kernel for now. The emulator requires an internet connection for authorization and updating. OS - Windows .

The amount of monthly support is from one dollar at your discretion. I have Paypal for donations.

Also, now you can get a three-day trial period of using the emulator by writing a request to [email protected] or telegram @spectramine . I hope you will like it.

[Weiv]

In the meantime, the ZX Miracle emulator is gradually developing - a convenient, powerful, customizable monitor and other tools have been added. Also, the emulator has official alias Spectramine now) as the name ZX Miracle is a bit pretentious IMO.

The emulator is still only available to sponsors and those who have contributed to its development in other ways. Those who are not satisfied with the capabilities of existing emulators, interested in using a new one, and want to regularly sponsor its development with a sum of their own choosing, if the emulator suits him, as well as those who performed tests on real machines at my request, Spectramine donators, and the authors of the SpecEmu and EmuzWin, they can write to me in private messages / telegram @spectramine / e-mail [email protected], or just like this post and I will send them additional information.

Please consider donation not as a fee for using the emulator or a subscription, but as your participation and contribution to the development of the emulator, support for the project and its author. There are many free Spectrum emulators that are quite functional and convenient, so charging for using mine would be stupid. I feel about donations in much the same way, plus I want to limit the circle of users of my emulator to people who have somehow supported or are supporting my project - I feel more comfortable this way.

I express my gratitude to the donators of Spectramine and ZX Miracle, the authors of the SpecEmu and EmuzWin emulators, and everyone who performed tests on real machines at my request.

[Weiv]

I'm going to release a public demo of ZX Miracle one of these days. Be prepared for disappointment

[Weiv]

So, I proudly present the public demo version of the ZX Miracle emulator: https://easyupload.io/5fpfcw .



A few words about it: some functions are disabled, some functions have their names hidden, some functions are completely hidden. Video effects that you will quickly discover are limitations of the demo version. The purpose of this demo is to help interested people decide whether they want to support the development of the emulator and have access to the full version.

I checked it with Defender, and this time it didn’t swear, but I can’t guarantee that it won’t find trojans again where there are none, because before this there were many false positives. In fact, it depends on how the protector covered the executable file and whether its protecting code contains signatures from the Defender database. I made several covers with the Themida protector, and then, checking them with the Defender, I chose the one that he does not swear at. If it still blocks the emulator, try adding it to Defender’s exceptions. I didn’t install trojans, programming malware is not my profile at all, it’s not interesting to me.

Access to the full version is still only for supporters (and I don't plan to change anything in this regard). If you want to become a supporter and donate, or have previously performed tests on your real machines at my request, and want to get access to the full version, contact me by e-mail [email protected], in a telegram @spectramine or in private messages on the forum. (Just in case, I apologize in advance for the possible delay in response).

My thanks for their help in testing the demo version to: .koval, @Bedazzle , and my pals S.L., A.P., and S.B.

Thank you for your attention.

[hexaae]

Mmmh, Kempston stick doesn't seem to work (XInput devices tested: gamepad XBox One BT, 8BitDo Arcade Stick)...
And screen is a bit dark... and randomly gets darker leaving the emu in background (?). Default settings (and Direct3D).
Demo limitations?

Do you plan to add keyboard to joystick remapping? Useful for games requiring extra keys (jump, grenade...) remapped to stick buttons.

[Weiv]

Mmmh, Kempston stick doesn't seem to work (XInput devices tested: gamepad XBox One BT, 8BitDo Arcade Stick)...

Demo version doesn't support game devices, full version does.

And screen is a bit dark... and randomly gets darker leaving the emu in background (?). Default settings (and Direct3D).
Demo limitations?

Yes, the picture fades out, it's demo limitation, as well as Spec256 picture switching to regular Spectrum picture in a minute.

Do you plan to add keyboard to joystick remapping? Useful for games requiring extra keys (jump, grenade...) remapped to stick buttons.

Yes, I plan it.

[hexaae]

Mmmmh heavy crippled software to evaluate honestly. Fade out etc. are reasonable for a demo, but working external input devices and other features should be enabled just for testing and be sure the emu works fine with them...

[Weiv]

Mmmmh heavy crippled software to evaluate honestly. Fade out etc. are reasonable for a demo, but working external input devices and other features should be enabled just for testing and be sure the emu works fine with them...

Sorry, the contol form for game control adjustment is fully disabled In demo version. Believe me, input devices are works fine in full version (I checked it after your previous post ). But if something does not work fine, you inform me about it and I'll fix it in the nearest update on the week.

The demo version is not for testing at all - it is for people familiarization with the emulator interface and common abilities and decide whether they want to use it and support it.

I just finished new long post about the emulator, please check it out below.

[Weiv]

Some additional words about my creature


So, who might be interested in my emulator? Those who like to play Spectrum games on an emulator. The functionality of the emulator allows you to do this with additional comfort (among the functions disabled in the demo version are a training game mode, convenient reassignment of keys, and advanced control of emulation speed). Those who are interested in exploring/modifying Spectrum games - code, graphics, etc. (in the full version, in addition to the debugging/exploring monitor, there is a command monitor, which in its capabilities is far ahead of everything existing for ZX Spectrum). And those who make something for ZX Spectrum.

Who wouldn't be interested in my emulator? Those who are satisfied with the convenience and functionality of existing emulators. Those who run the emulator once a month or less. Those who prefer to play on real Spectrums. Those who run the emulator only to express their criticisms about its shortcomings - for such people, I specifically limited the functionality in the demo version, because I would not want such people to use it. And of course, those who are not ready to spend a modest amount to support the development.


A bit of info about what contibutors have with the full version, in addition to hidden functions:

1) regular emulator updates. The emulator has auto-update; every time you start, the emulator checks for an update on the server and downloads it in the background.
2) prompt communication with the developer - found bugs are promptly corrected, requests are implemented, wishes are taken into account. True, not always at once, and not all of them, they pass through the prism of my vision of how I want my emulator to be, but I am interested in making it more and more convenient and functional.


Why is my emulator closed, only for contibutors? First, I want to limit its users to people who are or have helped develop it, and I don't want people I don't like to use it. Secondly, I need money, and I am not satisfied with likes and approving posts about how cool my emulator is (at best, but usually what they don’t like about it, and what they would like to have without investing in it in any way). Thirdly, any public release is a lot of free fuss and headaches for testing and fixing compatibility bugs, etc., I'm fed up with this on Spectramine releases. But in this emulator I step-by-step add functionality in updates, promptly correcting new bugs.


Regarding the problems of the emulator with antivirus software. A good antivirus, I believe, should not only and not so much look for malware signatures, but recognize and block unwanted activity, warning the user about it. And in this regard, Defender or Kaspersky are bad antiviruses, relying more on their signature database than on their ability to recognize unwanted behavior, about which, moreover, the user is almost not notified - it simply displays a message that this program is a Trojan, without explaining , what exactly unwanted it does. In this regard, I like the Chinese antivirus Total 360 - it reports what suspicious activity is detected in the application, leaving the user to decide for himself whether this activity is unwanted. Among the unwanted activities of my emulator that he noticed was only reading the keyboard (I don’t know why he considers it unwanted). If you trust your antivirus and don't trust me, well, we're not interested in each other. I would like to note that Virustotal has no complaints about running the emulator in its sandboxes - that is, no unwanted behavior was detected, only suspicious signatures.

[Weiv]

The project is closed.

[djnzx48]

Oh no, that’s sad to hear. Of course, it’s your personal project and I completely understand if you decide not to develop it any more.

Does this mean that the emulator is now unavailable to those who missed it when it was released?

[djnzx48]

if you decide not to develop it any more

(or if development is suspended for some other reason)

[Weiv]

@djnzx48, thank you for your interest. You were interested in the project back in the day, and I implemented some of your requests in my monitor but sadly not all of them. But I still want to implement them someday)

As for your question, now I have some thoughts which I share in the posts below:

[Weiv]

Let's summarize. I was completely disappointed in the monetization scheme I chose. I found only one user who agreed to support the project according to the specified scheme, @Bedazzle . He supported the project (to be honest, the author) financially all this year, for which I am grateful to him. He was also an active participant in the project in terms of debugging it and suggesting new features.
But one user is not enough for me, so I decided to close the project.

I would also like to note that he was not the only person who supported the project and its author financially - @ZjoyKiLer made a generous contribution in gratitude for publishing the results of my research on the snow effect and its emulation. Some people also made feasible financial contributions, however, they all made donations before the official announcement of the ZX Miracle project, for my previous free project Spectramine. And many more people supported the development of the emulator informationally - by running my tests on their real machines and video recording the results. I'm gratefull to all of them.

[Weiv]

But now I am considering the possibility of releasing my emulator through a crowdfunding scheme. If there are people here who wants to support the author financially and sponsor the release of my emulator for free use, please write in a personal message the estimated amount of your donation in the subject field (but please ask your question in this thread). If the total amount and the total number of people who care about the project inspires me, I will do it.

Please feel free to choose any size of your donation that is comfortable for you. Perhaps a small amount chosen by a large number of contributors will ultimately have a big effect. Perhaps your decision to support the project will influence others who are considering this opportunity, through the infosphere. I promise that all contributors will be immortalized in About the emulator in order of donation size, and may also have other benefits.

[Weiv]

At the moment, apart from standard emulator functionality, the full version of my emulator has:
- multilanguage adjustable interface
- advanced window/picture customization
- extended ZX Spectrum emulation settings
- advanced emulation control
- smartest auto loading for media files
- best Spec256 mode support for existing game colorings
- NoFlick filter with sRGB mixing and its auto-option
- simple key remapping for games
- training mode for all games
- extended support of the game devices like joysticks, gamepads etc
- support of most common peripherals: Kempston Joystick, Kempston Mouse, Beta Disk interface, partially Interface 1 (microdrives, no network support), MGT+D interface, Didactic Melodik (48k AY), Fuller Box, Turbo Sound, 5 types of Covox, ULA+
- advanced monitor/debugger, very powerfull and customizable
- and some others nice things

This is the old demo version of the emulator, very truncated, but I still think it's enough to decide, whether you want my emulator or not: https://files.fm/u/by7p9kndmf or https://easyupload.io/01r89c . But I will update it if I get inspired. At least two constant users of my emulator,
@Bedazzle and @.koval, can confirm that the full version 1) exists; 2) is quiet qualitative; 3) has much more features than the demo version.

The emulator only works on Windows.

[Weiv]

Apparently, sooner or later I will have to admit the terrible truth - my emulator is not worthy of your money. Well, I can live with it)

[djnzx48]

@Weiv, thank you for explaining the situation. I want to support the emulator financially to some degree — let me experiment some more with the demo and get back to you. I don’t use Windows any more, but it seems to work okay in Wine.

[Bedazzle]

At least two constant users of my emulator,
@Bedazzle and @.koval, can confirm that the full version 1) exists; 2) is quiet qualitative; 3) has much more features than the demo version.

Yes, that's true. Emulator got many best things from other emulators, and additionally own unique features.