We all know the ZX Spectrum is better than the Commodore 64, but even better is the Spectrum emulation on the RP2040 chip, better known as the Raspberry Pi Pico, suitable for modern screens. It has a video output.
officially pointed out Raspberry Pi Twitter account (opens in new tab)the emulator works with a great name Flying foxes on Github (opens in new tab)they also ported blister on pi (opens in new tab).
This software has several advantages over the original 48k and 128k ZX hardware. Quicksave slots, USB keyboard and joystick compatibility, an on-screen menu system, and the ability to load from .z80 snapshot files and .tap tape images. The whole thing is still a work in progress as we added Sinclair and Kempston joystick compatibility just a few days ago.
The project recently Pimoroni’s FatFS (opens in new tab) Due to SD card pin issues no-OS-FatFS-SD-SPI-RPi-Pico MicroPython libraries are provided to support everything from simple breadboards to Pico-based hardware. retro VGA (opens in new tab) Universal computer emulator by bobricius.
Although relatively advanced, the emulation still has issues. There are currently many audio filters on GitHub that attempt to do different things to the sound output. If anyone finds a filter that sounds particularly good, please submit it. In our recollection of the Spectrum it wasn’t a particularly good sounding device, especially when loading games, but it’s good to see what the community comes up with. There is also the issue of being interrupted every 60 Hz frame. This is because the original machine sent frames at 50 Hz, but increasing the processor speed to 4 MHz (from 3.5 MHz) helps.
All code for emulator is available on Githubhas full instructions for their own build, and Fruit-Bat posted a screenshot of the new ZX Spectrum game running. the herd is coming (opens in new tab) Just in case you’re wondering what to do once compiled if you can’t see the rubber keyboard.
