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https://github.com/remogatto/gospeccy

A ZX Spectrum Emulator written in Go
https://github.com/remogatto/gospeccy

concurrency emulator golang zx-spectrum-emulator

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A ZX Spectrum Emulator written in Go

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# GoSpeccy - An evolving ZX Spectrum 48k Emulator



GoSpeccy is a free ZX Spectrum (Speccy for friends) emulator

written in [Go](http://golang.org).



# Quick start



Installing and starting GoSpeccy with Go1 is simple:



    go get -v github.com/remogatto/gospeccy/src/gospeccy

    gospeccy

    gospeccy -wos="interlace demo"



# Description



GoSpeccy is based on a [concurrent](http://github.com/remogatto/gospeccy/wiki/Architecture) architecture.

We think the concurrency is a strong peculiarity of GoSpeccy as it opens new

interesting scenarios when developing and using the emulator.



Go has interesting features that help in emulators development:

 

* it has "low-level" similarities with C while allowing more productivity

  than C in certain cases



* it is strongly typed and type safe so you are aware about certain errors at

  compile-time



* it is garbage collected so there is small chance of memory leaks



* it has an uint16 built-in type that helps dealing with 8/16 bit

  emulation



* it has goroutines to enable concurrency in the emulator design

  and implementation



The Zilog Z80 CPU emulation is the core of GoSpeccy. The CPU emulation

code is generated using a modified version of the z80.pl script

shipped with [FUSE](http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/) (one of the best ZX

Spectrum emulators around). The script has been hacked to generate Go

code rather than C code.



Another source of inspiration was

[JSSpeccy](http://matt.west.co.tt/spectrum/jsspeccy/), a neat

Javascript Speccy emulator.



The Z80 emulation is tested against the excellent test-suite shipped

with FUSE.



If you like this software, please watch it on

[github](http://github.com/remogatto/gospeccy)! Seeing a growing

number of watchers is an excellent motivation for the GoSpeccy team to

keep up this work :) Bug reports and testing are also appreciated! And

don't forget to fork and send patches, of course ;)



# Features



* Complete (almost) Zilog Z80 emulation

* Concurrent [architecture](http://github.com/remogatto/gospeccy/wiki/Architecture)

* Beeper support

* Initial support for Kempston joysticks

* An interactive on-screen console interface based on [clingon](http://github.com/remogatto/clingon)

* Snapshot support: SNA, Z80 formats (48k versions)

* Tape support (TAP format, read-only)

* Accelerated tape loading

* ZIP files support

* SDL backend

* 2x scaler and fullscreen



# Using GoSpeccy



To make the screen bigger try the "-2x" command line option,

or type "scale(2)" in the interactive console.



To try the classic Hello World try to press the following keys:



    p

    CTRL+p

    hello world

    CTRL+p

    RETURN



For a nice picture of the speccy keyboard layout visit this

[page](http://www.guybrush.demon.co.uk/spectrum/docs/Basic.htm).



To load a program run:



    gospeccy file.tap



To enable tape loading acceleration use the accelerated-load

option. For a complete list of the command-line options run:



    gospeccy -help



If you can't wait to see what this machine can do, try the nice

[Fire104b](http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=54076) intro by Andrew

Gerrand included in the gospeccy distribution! In the gospeccy folder,

run:



    gospeccy -2x snapshots/Syntax09nF.z80



To automatically download a program from [World of spectrum](http://www.worldofspectrum.org),

and start it:



    gospeccy -wos="horace*tower"



For more, try searching the Internet for ZX Spectrum 48k

games and demos in Z80 and TAP format. For example:



* [World of spectrum](http://www.worldofspectrum.org/archive.html)

* [Pouet.net search](http://pouet.net/prodlist.php?platform[]=ZX+Spectrum)

* [Forever](http://forever.zeroteam.sk/download.htm)



# Key bindings



    Host computer   ZX Spectrum

    ---------------------------

    CTRL            SYMBOL SHIFT

    LEFT SHIFT      CAPS SHIFT

    [a-z0-9]        [A-Z0-9]

    SPACE           SPACE



For more info about key bindings see file spectrum/keyboard.go



# Proprietary games and system ROM



Generally, games/programs are protected by copyright so none of them

is included in GoSpeccy. However, it is possible to find tons of games for

the ZX Spectrum on the Internet. The system ROM for Spectrum 48k can be freely

distributed and so it's included in the GoSpeccy distribution.



# Convention over Configuration



Loading files in the emulator relies on a Convention over

Configuration approach. To enjoy it, you should create the following

folder structure:




mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gospeccy/roms			# System roms folder

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gospeccy/programs		# Scripts folder

mkdir -p $HOME/.config/gospeccy/scripts			# Scripts folder




If you like to add your custom search path, In the scripts folder,

create file `config_local.go` with the following contents:




// Search path for programs, scripts, etc

addSearchPath("/home/user/gospeccy")




After this, to load `/home/user/gospeccy/programs/somegame.z80` simply execute:




gospeccy somegame.z80




# Screenshots



Manic Miner running on GoSpeccy.



![Manic Miner running on GoSpeccy](http://sites.google.com/site/remogatto/gospeccy_running_scaled.png)



# To Do



* Fix some memory and I/O contention bugs

* Add support for more file formats (take a look [here](http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/formats.htm))

* Add support for tape saving

* Better general performance

* Add more filters and improve the scaler

* Add new graphical backends (Go's exp/draw?)



# Credits



* Thanks to [⚛](http://github.com/0xe2-0x9a-0x9b) for giving a new

  whole direction to this project.

* Thanks to the people on

  [golang-nuts](http://groups.google.com/group/golang-nuts) for giving

  feedback and support.

* Thanks to Andrew Gerrand for the crackling Fire104b demo.



# Contacts



* [email protected]

* http://twitter.com/remogatto

* http://www.facebook.com/remochat

* http://remogatto.github.com/



# License



Copyright (c) 2010 Andrea Fazzi



Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining

a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the

"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including

without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,

distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to

permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to

the following conditions:



The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be

included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.



THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND

NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE

LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION

OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION

WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.