SPECCYAL readme & FAQ (rev. 0.30)

• • What is Speccyal ?
  • What does it have to offer compared to other emulators ?
  • What are these menu options used for ?
  • What are the requirements to run Speccyal ?
  • Known bugs/limitations
  • Is it free ?
  • Where can I get the source code ?
  • Who is the Author ?
  • Versions history

What is Speccyal ?

Speccyal is a 48k Spectrum emulator. It can play (almost) all your favorites games, providing they are in .sna, .z80 or .tap format.

It has been exclusively written for Windows, and it uses DirectX (DirectDraw, DirectSound and DirectInput). It was my first step into the emulation world (and into the windows programming world) and I'm happy with it ! It all started as a personnal challenge, and I decided that everyone should benefit from my work. I hope everyone will be pleased with it!

What does it have to offer compared to other emulators ?

Yeah, you are right, there are lotsa other speccy emulators out there. Why would you use mine ?

What I intended to do when I first created this program was to offer an easy to use and straightforward 48 k Spectrum only emulator. This is by no means the best spectrum emulator and I know that but just read below ...

Until now (version 0.72b), it can do the following things :

• Exclusively written for DirectX (DirectDraw, DirectInput and DirectSound)
• Runs in 16 or 32 bits color modes only for now (preliminary 24 bits support added on 26/2/2000, 8 bpp will never be supported, sorry !)
• Fullscreen mode (640x480x16) supported if you want more speed and more accurate "look"
• Window is resizable
• Compatible with up to 95% of all games and the number is growing every day (I wrote the z80 CPU from scratch, so it is not perfect)
• All z80 documented opcodes + all undocumented ones too.
• Partial (80% complete) flags 3 and  5 emulation.
• Support for IM0, IM1 and IM2 Interrupt modes.
• Can load .SNA, .Z80, .TAP and .SCR file formats and save .SNA and .SCR files.
• Support for all windows attached joysticks
• Kempston/Sinclair1/Sinclair2/Cursor emulation (joystick or keyboard arrows keys)
• Experimental two joysticks emulation. Not tested yet (should work).
• Sound (altough not perfect)
• Accurate speed (on a fast machine at least :) )
• Ability to change speed up to 4 times the speccy speed if your machines enables it, so sluggish 3d games like Driller are playable
• Change colors palette (Dark/Normal/Light) - temporary removed on 26/2/2000.
• Save all options in an .INI file
• Quick load of 6 last used snapshots
• Basic integrated z80 debugger
• Border (scanlines mode) emulation (not 100% accurate)
• You can switch between border (scanlines) and fullscreen modes simply by pressing ALT-ENTER
• There is a shortkey for every menu option
• It's TOTALLY FREE !!

Version V0.75 should bring the following features (see notes below about the V0.75 WIP release):

• Support for Neil Bradley's MZ80 cpu core, and you can switch "on the fly" between MZ80 and my own cpu core.
• AY-3-8910 sound (taken from MAME).
• Sound preferences dialog box letting you choose panning and volume for each AY sound channel and beeper channel.

What are these menu options used for ?

Well, I think it's so straightforward I don't need to help you about this.

What are the requirements to run Speccyal ?

• A powerful processor. Everything should run fine from a 266 mhz processor (I heard it ran full framerates on such a machine, I guess a P200 should be allright too).
• A good DirectX compatible graphics cards (anything from at least a TNT1 should suit the needs).
• A joystick or your keyboard if you cannot afford it.
• A DirectSound compatible soundcard (no PC beeper support, sorry !).

Known bugs/limitations

These are not really handicaping but I could reach one of the best Spectrum emulation levels if I could fix all these problems (no one can claim his emulator is 100% bugsfree).

• Cpu core emulation is not 100% complete, some minor bugs are lurking, and thus some games could not run (from what I have been able to test, more than 90% of games I have can run without any problems). Don't forget I have completely written the cpu core from scratch (I could have used one of the existing z80 emulators, but I like challenges !).

• The sound is a bit far from perfect. I have to think a bit more about it, and if someone can help me, he's welcome ! Again, I sound has been programmed using empirical methods, it's maybe not the best way but it is working (partially fixed in V0.75 WIP release).

• There are some cases where you could lose keyboard input, I know where it comes from but it's not vital to the emulation, so I forget this bugfix for now (FIXED as of 04/02/2000)

• Sound is playing continuously even when you select a menu option. I have to say, it's *very* annoying but like the above bug, not vital... (FIXED as of 04/02/2000, in some menu options)

• It only supports .SNA, .Z80, .TAP and .SCR files (easiest formats ... well, .z80 format is not that easy to implement :) ). In the near future, other formats could be supported too.

• Crash when changing desktop mode while emulator is running. I require help from DirectX programmers for fixing this one (should be easy to fix).

• Slow if you don't have the appropriate hardware. Should be a lot better starting from version V0.62 and even better in V0.63 (fullscreen mode added on 04/02/2000, should be considerably faster).

Is it free ?

Yes it is completely free !

Where can I get the source code ?

The source code WILL be available, as soon as I feel the code is clean.

The Z80 cpu core is available on my homepage (version V0.1). Just head to http://user.online.be/~ota105875/ to grab it !

Who is the Author ?

My name is Stephane Schmitz, this is my first contribution to the emulation world. If you want to send me comments (they are welcome), email me to :

stephane_schmitz@hotmail.com

The official Speccyal homepage:

http://speccyal.vintagegaming.com

Or if you are happy with it and want to contribute to future enhancements, you can motive me by sending a beautiful postal card to the following address :

Stephane Schmitz Rue des Vergers, 6/bis 4801 Stembert BELGIUM

Versions history
 

Please note that it's just a WORK IN PROGRESS, it's just a taste of things to come. Don't consider this as the final V0.75 version !

Some features which were previously working in the version aren't working anymore. If you want the last stable version, get Speccyal V0.72.

Don't say that you have not been warned !

What's new:

- Support for Neil Breadley's excellent MZ80 cpu core. Some games which were buggy (for instance commando) should be perfect now. But unfortunately some rare other games don't run anymore (now that the source is released, I hope someone will be able to find where this problem comes from :) I think it comes from the way I'm handling interrupts but I'm not 100% sure). You can switch between the two different cpu cores by selecting an option in the "options menu". The current cpu core is displayed in the status bar

- Added AY-3-8910 sound directly taken from MAME. Please note that the sound quality is not very good but I'm quite happy with it, especially if you consider that it's my first try. You could experience some slowdown with AY sound switched on. It's better working in scanlines mode than in "screen drawn in one pass" mode (F3).

- Beeper sound code has been recoded. Much better (pitch is correct now) but like AY sound, there are some glitches (I'm losing some buffer segments and sometimes the sound skips). Honestly, I'm happy with it now, even in its current state.

- Added a sound preferences dialog box. Used now for selecting the sound options (panning and volume for each of the 3 AY soundchip channels and beeper volume/panning as well)

- Speccyal has been tested on a NT 2000 box and hey, it's running! In 15,16,24 and 32 bits as well as fullscreen mode.

- Released the source code. Please don't make another speccy emulator out of this source, there are already too many speccy emulators out there ! I released it just for learning purposes (and for help purposes hehe,
I hope you guys will help me enhance my emulator)

THINGS THAT REMAIN TO BE DONE TO GET OUT OF THE WIP VERSION


- Loading .TAP files does not work anymore
- AY sound is crappy, probably due to the way I'm handling interrupts, directsound buffers ... Now that the source is online, some help anybody ?
- Switching between MZ80 and my cpu core sometimes lock the emulation
- Neil Bradley MZ80 implementation is not complete, probably because of some lack of decent interrupt support (look into InterruptHandler in z80_2.cpp)
- Compatibility with NT2000. I got it to work but there's a problem with directsound. With a little bit fiddling I'm sure it will be almost 100% compatible.
- The source is crap :(, it has lots of commented lines and contain ugly code. I'm aware of it and I'll try to do my best.

I just fixed the quick load option that I added in the last version. It was not running at all to say the least ... again, sorry about this.

- Fixed a bug which could help the "quick load" option from correctly working (and even crashing) on some precise configurations (if you had selected in windows explorer the option to view files extensions, because I was using a system dependent file function, which was implicitly using this
option)

What's new in V0.72:

In summary, all the previously addressed issues have been (completely or at worst partially) fixed.
I mean slow speed in windowed mode, wrong palette and unfinished z80 cpu core (some bugs remain to be discovered). The next weeks will be spent rewriting the whole thing, so that the code is clean, in preparation for a source release ! Plus, there are other enhancements, read below ... This release will be the last one for a long time.

- Z80 cpu core has been enhanced (better stability, compatibility, added undocumented opcodes, flags 5 and 3 partial emulation (80% complete)). Some more games are running now (GreenBeret, Marble Madness, Imask2, Spindizzy ...) bringing the compatibility to a high level, in fact more than 95%. Out of 230 games I have tested, only 9-10 had problems, mainly graphics bugs, but none of them refused to work

- Palette routine has been rewritten for the nth time... this should be the last version and it should work on 99% graphics cards now). As a counterpart, it's not possible to switch colors (dark, light...) anymore but I think it's more important to have a perfect colors palette. Also, the colors are a bit more realistic (technically, I'm using an hardware independent pixel plotting function)
(thanks to Fabian Schmied and John Leather)

- Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash if an error message was displayed

- Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash if the spectrum rom file could not be found

- The cursor blinks a bit faster ;) almost like the real thing

- The 6 last loaded games are saved and can be quickly selected in the file menu (not deeply tested, may lead) to unexpected errors ...). You can even (unofficially :)) quick load games in fullscreen mode by pressing alt-f.

- Preliminary support for 24 bits desktop mode (sluggish and tested on one card only, try to avoid it!)

- The DirectDraw primary surface was created in video memory. Now, it's created in system memory and windowed mode speed is now on par with fullscreen speed :) (tested on a Matrox Mystic 170 graphics card, which was previously lagging in windowed mode, now it's perfect, at
least on my test machine) (thanks to Fabian Schmied)

- New logo :)

What's new in V0.71 beta:

In summary, I added fullscreen support and fixed the purple/blue palette problem on some graphics cards
in 16 bits colors mode.

- Fullscreen mode, at last :) It is *considerably* faster than windowed mode.
For example, on my office PC, the windowed mode lags between 20 et 25 fps where fullscreen
mode is running at a top notch 86 fps. You can consider the emulator is running at least
at twice the windowed speed. Press ALT-ENTER to switch between fullscreen / windowed mode.
Be warned tough that it should be considered a beta implementation.

- 2 joysticks emulation. I don't have two joysticks so I haven't been
able to test this feature but it should work. Choose Kempston for player 1 and
either Sinclair1, Sinclair2 or Cursor for player 2. The new "2 joysticks emulation" checkbox
in the joysticks options windows just tell the emulator if Sinclair1, Sinclair2 and
Kempston joysticks emulations should be usable only with the second joystick.
Be warned that it has not been tested at all and will certainly exhibit weird behavior at some
moment. For example, I don't event test that two different joysticks are selected. I added this
functionnality as a gift :)

- I rewrote my palette routine. All I can say is that it perfectly works now !
Peoples who had "mauvish colors" problems should be pleased with it. I haven't been to find a
computer here at my office which have problem with it (some tested graphics cards: Nvidia TNT1,
TNT2 M64, Matrox Mystique 170, Intel i740, S3 Virge DX). Arghhh this damn RGB 555 colors mode ! The next version should include a new hardware independant pixel plotting function.

- Added a new option ("Blit attributes"). This option can help some games to go faster. For example, in Silkworm, I went from 80 to 95 fps simply by switching this option on. Hopefully, the fullscreen option is there if you have speed problems.

- Switched from MSVC++4 to MSVC++6. Perhaps the generated code is now compatible with k6-2
processors (I know my emulator wasn't running on these "compatible" chips). Just tell
me if it's working now, I'm curious to know about it.

- Fixed keyboard input problems, which happened from time to time when the emulator
was launched.

- Fixed the "continuously playing sound" problem when entering some menu options. Now the
sound is off when loading a snapshot, diplaying the joystick options or keyboard layout...

- Better border emulation ! Now the border lines are almost completely synchronized with
the emulation (Vectron is my test game, and the border is always slighty out of sync,
but it's *much* better than previous border emulations).

- Fixed several opcodes cycles, mainly the undocumented ones.

- Fixed some bugs in my z80 core and in the debugger (the side effect of switching
to a newer compiler enabled me to find these bugs). I don't even know how the old version
was running because after having recompiled my emu with the new compiler version, it wasn't working at all !

- Added a status bar (windowed mode), with the current fps, screen and cpu speeds. Better
than the previous OSD.

- Added support for .TAP files. To make it work, start from BASIC, load the game and
type LOAD "" (altough, there's always a bug that causes a crash when pressing the F4/RESET
key :( , due to some opcodes overwriting the rom).

- Other minor bugs fixed

- HTMLized the doc (readme.htm)

In the following releases, I'll intend to implement the following features:

- Better cpu core (flags 3 and 5 emulation, bugfixes ...), maybe I'll switch to another z80 cpu core (mz80?raze?)
- Support for ZIP files
- AY-3-8910 emulation (I'm not sure if I have the required knowledge to include it, so if you can help me, you're more than welcome). I saw that MAME supports the soundchip but how can I include it in my DirectSound code ?

And in the (far) future, I could also add this:

- Plugins architecture (some tests have already been done)
- Mutliple computers/consoles (z80 based) support
- Network support (first speccy emulator to support newtork play?)

Since I'm alone to code this emulator, I could spend some time to achieve these tasks.
So I'm searching for good win32/c++ programmers who have knowledge in the emulation developpment
process. Together, we could make out of Speccyal one of the best windows emulators.

Cu!

Stephane
 
 

• Added an option to switch between scanlines mode and no scanlines emulation mode If scanlines emulation is set, the screen is drawn on a line per line basis otherwise it is drawn entirely during the interrupt. This can have many impacts on games: speed can vary (no scanlines mode should be faster), sprite flickering is less visible in some games depending on the mode, and sprites can even diseappear in some games which require perfect sync with the screen drawing. For example in "bc'quest for tyres" the sprite is invisible if you select the "no scanlines emulation" option.
• Removed F7 (fps off) and F2 (Sound OFF) and made an option out of the two (this means these options act now like a switch, this is a little bit clever and I have now saved some funtions keys for future options).
• Added an option in file menu to load an debug a snapshot
• A snapshot filename can be passed as an argument to the program! This can be of use if you want to associate .z80 and .sna file types to my emulator and automatically launch games. This works but requires the 48.rom file to be copied in the snapshots directory.
• Four bytes opcodes are now correctly displayed in the debugger (more exactly, the fourth byte is displayed)
• Begun to implement the "run" option in the debugger window. This is disabled fow now because it's not really working yet but at least there's an attempt! I think this option should be working in the next version
• All options are now saved in the inifile (I mean *ALL*, not like before just joystick and path to snaps dir :) )
• Added support for .SCR files (loading and saving)

• I just finished to code the scanline graphics routines. Just try this version and tell me what you think about it.

UPDATE

• Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash if window was reduced too much. Does not worth the download anyway if you didn't noticed the problem, and IMHO you should wait until the next version.

I didn't want to make a new version, so I included this bugfix in the current V0.67 version.

Planned in the next version: better z80 debugger support, and maybe a scanline emulation (your favorite border :) ), but I'm not sure at all if I'll be able to implement it, as all my efforts to do so had previously resulted in crashs.
 

• Now the main emulator window is resizable !
• Drawing surface not erased when another window overlaps it or when you resize it.
• At startup, the window is displayed at the center of the screen.

• Added an integrated z80 debugger. - Added a Spectrum keymap picture.

• 0.64b (bugfix) : Changing colors palette was not working in 32 bits desktop mode. Fixed now.

• Added a speed selection option (x1,x2,x3,x4).

• Added colors selection option.

• I did some optimizations so the emulator is faster (I cannot exactly tell how much). Slower PC owners should be a bit more happy now. Please can you report me the speed difference between V0.61/V0.62 ?

• Added complete support for .Z80 files ! I promised it yesterday, here it is !

• Added support for .Z80 files (48k snapshots only, 128k snapshots support will be included in the next release). If the game resets, it is a version 2.01+ snapshot and sorry, you won't be able to load those files right now. But support for Z80 files is a great step forward and should give access to a lot more games ! Please note that support has not been extensively tested so in some cases some games could not be working.
• Minor GUI bugfix: OK button from the joystick options dialog was not working if no joystick was present. Should work now.
• ROM is packed with it now (a big "thanks!" goes to Amstrad).

• Minor update: fixed "save snapshot" option that was not working if filename was different.

• Better timing ! Now I'm using high performance windows timers, thanks to Boris Donko for his help. Please note that FPS counter is not accurate anymore, it shows the maximum framerate that your computer could display (but it is internally locked to 50 fps), and if it's below 50 fps it displays the real speed on your computer. I usually get between 100 and 120 fps on my 450 mhz Celeron.

• Added support for 32 bpp desktop graphics mode !

• First public release