8-bit Emulators for the PC By Richard Hewison In a previous issue of SynTax, Phil Richmond looked at a Spectrum emulator for the Amiga. There are quite a few 8 bit emulators that run on the PC, so I thought I'd do a brief summary of those I have seen. The best Spectrum emulator on any machine is Z80, written by Gerton Lunter. A new version of this excellent program appeared in November '94. Version 3.02 has quite a few new features over the older version 2.01. For starters, it now emulates the DISCiPLE and +D disk interfaces. However, to use the latter you have to supply your own ROM file from an original +D interface. Romantic Robot's Multiface 128 is also legally emulated, although at present it only emulates the later version of the interface, so you might find that some M128 saved games won't descramble as they are supposed to. Hopefully this problem can be overcome in future updates. Hi-resolution effects can now be emulated (like the extended border effects used in CRL's "Academy" (sequel to "Tau Ceti"). You can now sample in multi-load games either via a soundcard or via the cassette interface. The emulator will then read in the VOC file as if it was a real tape. This works some of the time, but I've not managed to get an entire game to sample in properly yet. Lots of smaller features and bug fixes have also been included. It's also the only emulator I know that emulates the 128k Spectrum as well as the standard 48k models. The Shareware version is available from the SynTax PD library, or you can order the full version by contacting B.G. Services at 64 Roebuck Road, Chessington, Surrey, KT9 1JX. The PC also has a few C64 emulators. One which has been around for a while now is called C64S and has been written by Miha Peternel. A new shareware version appeared a few months ago which superseded versions 0.9a and 0.9b. Version 1.0 has been tidied up, and contains a proper manual (on disk). It emulates all you need to play all your old favourite C64 games (like Commando, Elite, etc). Details are supplied on how to make a lead to allow you to transfer your C64 disks to the PC. A cassette interface is needed to load in tapes, and this is made available to registered users. Unlike the earlier demo versions, version 1.0 only allows joystick emulation via the keyboard. Analogue joysticks can only be used in the full version. The only problem with this emulator is that, at present, only details for U.S. users are included on how to register. There's no news regarding European registration as I write, but this may change soon. Another slight annoyance is that to load in a cassette or disk file, the files must be named TESTTAPE.T64 and TESTDISK.D64 respectively. Previous versions of the emulator came with lots of .T64 files, so to use them on version 1.0 be prepared to have many file renaming sessions! I can only assume that this is not the case with the full registered version. Apart from the obvious Spectrum and C64 emulators, there are also a few others available. Marco Vieth has written an Amstrad CPC emulator. You won't be able to use it unless you have a real CPC and the necessary leads to transfer the ROM onto the PC, as it doesn't come with the ROM files included. Once you have the ROM files, the emulator seems more than fast enough on a 486. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it running any transferred software yet, so I can't really comment on how good it is. As with other 8-bit emulators, it allegedly handles disk and tape software. A demo disk file with a few demo files is included to prove that it works, but they are nothing more than the type of basic files you get on an introductory disk. The emulator needs at minimum a fast 386 running EMS. Paul Burgin has written a Dragon emulator that can also emulate a Tandy Colour Computer II as well as the Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 machines. As with the Amstrad CPC emulator, you need to find your own ROM files before you can use this emulator. Since I've never owned any of those machines, I haven't seen this emulator running at all yet. According to the manual though it allows for tape sampling into .VOC files, and all the other usual features. The ZX81 is catered for thanks to a program written by Carlo Delhez. It's called "Xtender" and it works really well. A whole selection of programs are included with the emulator. It runs very fast on a 386, and you can even load up a slower version for those running it on a real high speed machine. The old 8-bit Atari machines (the 400 and 800XL models) are covered by the Atari emulator Xformer v2.0, written by Darek Mihocka. This one runs fine without the need for ROM files, but as I don't have any programs to run on it (apart from the demo files that come with it), it would be unfair of me to comment on how good it is. Finally, there is also a Tandy TRS80 Model 1 emulator, brought to you thanks to the hard work of Jeff Vavasour. As with other emulators, you can't use this one unless you have a way of getting your own ROM files. (I have fond memories of the Tandy TRS80 as it was the first home computer I ever saw. A friend down the road where we used to live was bought one back in 1980, and it served to introduce me to the text adventure game genre). As you can see, emulators are very popular at the moment. At present we know about emulators for the Tandy TRS80, ZX81, Spectrum 48k and 128k, Commodore 64, Tandy Colour Computer II, Dragon 32, Dragon 64, Atari 400, Atari 800, and the Amstrad CPC (all models). Rumours suggest that a BBC Micro emulator is also in the works for the PC. @~Richard contacted me recently to let me know that there have @~been a few changes since this article was written. The Amstrad @~CPC emulator is now up to version 1.2 and it legally contains @~the Amstrad CPC ROMs, thanks to Amstrad's agreement. He may do @~an updated article later. - o -