The best Spectrum emulator?

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:34 am

Which is the best Spectrum emulator???

I'm debating speed here:
http://folkvagn.commodore64.org/phpbb/v ... 4&start=30

...and want to run some basic tests...

/Anders

Schlowski · Post by **Schlowski** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:40 am

No idea about the Speccy emulator, but trying to read the messages you pointed us to is another hint that I should learn some swedish... Now I only need some spare time for this

Björg

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:21 am

I downloaded this one which claims to be accurate:
http://www.ramsoft.bbk.org/realspec.html

But... whoahh! What a pain the Spectrum basic is!!!! First of all, you need a picture of the spectrum keyboard (which I have) to see where the commands are... and... no sings, like = , . etc are where they are supposed to... commands are completed, and right now i'm trying to write FOR a=1 and I cant write TO because I'm not in the command button mode any longer!!! What is this? No wonder people bought the Commodores instead...

Schlowski · Post by **Schlowski** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:57 am

This was one reason (beside the larger RAM

) I decided to buy a VIC-20 instead of a ZX-81 looong time ago. The keys on the ZX 'keyboard' had 5 different mappings and the strange "command-completion-mode" was nothing I could get used to.

Only reason why this computer were sold in the UK was mainly its price and because Sinclair was a UK company. I think the spectrum was mainly an 'upgrade computer' for all the Sinclair guys, just as VIC-20/C=64/C-128 was the upgrade path for the Commodore guys...

A world map showing where each 8-bit computer was mostly used would be very interesting. As far as I know the C16/C116 for example were mostly used in eastern europe, the VIC-20 in germany and scandinavia, the Speccies in UK etc.

Björg

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:05 am

Try Klive. Written by a guy I know, it's a good Speccy emu

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:09 am

I made the tests now on RealSpec. The vic-20 basic is totally almost twice as fast. The only thing the Spectrum did faster was handling constants. The spectrum basic also lacks string handling features like MID$, RIGHT$ and LEFT$ and any timing functions (TI and TI$). At least I couldn't find any in the manual:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ZXBasicM ... nappc.html

/Anders

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:37 am

I believe the top three are RealSpec, FUSE and Spectaculator, in no particular order. The latter is shareware, but there exists older freeware versions on the Internet.

Sinclair came up with this one key system to save ROM space, since almost no syntax checking is required if each key is preprogrammed with a command (or five commands in some cases).

If you emulate a Spectrum 128 or better (2+, 3+), you will be able to enter commands like you're used to. It was only on the ZX-81 and first generation ZX Spectrum that they used one key input.

Sinclair Basic does string handling like A$(1 TO 5). Dunno about timing, probably you need to PEEK somewhere - but don't tell Speccy users, they relate all kinds of POKE and PEEK to the ugly "Commodes".

It is well known since the early 1980's that Sinclair Basic is very slow, among the slowest of all home computers. VIC-20 was relatively fast, but Acorn computers such as Atom and BBC were even faster, although I'm unsure whether they run at 1 or 2 MHz 6502. Actually there is a version of BBC Basic for ZX Spectrum too. It is not a free download, but I've read that it runs much faster than the Sinclair Basic.

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:14 pm

Thanks! Now I have included the string test too...

(Spectrum: 14 seconds, Vic: 5.08 seconds)

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:15 pm

carlsson wrote: It is well known since the early 1980's that Sinclair Basic is very slow, among the slowest of all home computers. VIC-20 was relatively fast, but Acorn computers such as Atom and BBC were even faster, although I'm unsure whether they run at 1 or 2 MHz 6502. Actually there is a version of BBC Basic for ZX Spectrum too. It is not a free download, but I've read that it runs much faster than the Sinclair Basic.

Is it okay if I put this quote on that forum?

/Anders

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:37 pm

Err.. sure. You can get some benchmark figures too.

http://vintage-computer.com/vcforum/vie ... =4969#4969

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:33 am

Great, Thanks!!! The IBM PC in the test, did it run at 8MHz?

/Anders

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:26 am

Most probably it was an original IBM PC, 8088 @ 4.77 MHz. ROM Basic!

Lloyd Mangram · Post by **Lloyd Mangram** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:27 pm

I use Spectaculator a lot.