There are various ways to writing computer programs for the Spectrum Next ranging from developing on the machine itself, to writing the code on a separate PC and copying it across when done. The three main languages that can be used, in order of difficulty are: Here are some notes on these options. Programming in BASIC There are a few options for writing BASIC for your Spectrum Next. Sinclair BASIC This is the version of BASIC that came with original…
Here is a list of the file formats that I use within emulators, I prefer compressed files when possible as it saves on disk space. Generation System Best File Format Home Computer ZX Spectrum 7z Commodore 64 7z Amstrad CPC 7z Amiga 500 LHA Portable Game Boy 7z Game Boy Advance 7z Nintendo DS 7z Sony PSP CSO but don’t always work 3rd Atari 7800 7z Sega Master System 7z NES 7z 4th Sega Megadrive 7z SNES 7z 5th Sega…
Ares is a great multi-system emulator supporting a wide range of retro machines. It’s not obvious what file formats are supported though, so here’s a list: atari-2600 a26, bin bs-memory bs colecovision cv, col famicom-disk-system fds game-boy-advance gba game-boy-color gb, nbc game-boy gb game-gear gg master-system ms, sms mega-32x 32x mega-cd cue, chd mega-drive md, smd, gen, bin msx msx, wav msx2 msx2, wav myvision miv neo-geo-pocket-color ngpc, ngc neo-geo-pocket nap neo-geo ng nintendo-64 n64, v64, z64 nintendo-64dd n64dd, ndd…
I had issues with my Dell Optiplex 3050 micro PC not booting via UEFI into Batocera Linux. When trying to boot, I was stuck on a black screen with the message “Booting Batocera.linux” but the system wouldn’t continue to boot. If I switched the Dell Optiplex BIOS to use “Legacy” boot then it worked, but then the PC wouldn’t recognise other OS installations if I swapped out Batocera, and I didn’t want to have to keep fiddling with the BIOS…
Here’s a quick post on how I got some Z80 assembly code onto my Z80 SC114 SBC from Linux. This is using the fantastic Small Computer Monitor software that comes pre-installed. First, install the necessary packages. Be sure to use z80asm and z80dasm from the repositories rather than the one that comes with z88dk if you have that installed. From Linux: – sudo apt install z80asm z80dasm srecord Or from MacOS: – brew install z80asm z80dasm srecord Here’s…
Back in the 1980’s, if you were writing code for the ZX Spectrum, you could use the built-in basic interpreter or Z80 machine code for better performance. Now there are other options, including higher level languages such as C. z88dk is a great project that allows you to compile C for the ZX Spectrum and ZX Spectrum Next. It also includes some libraries to make doing common things easier. There’s a great getting started guide here and I’ve included my…
The Z88DK project provides C compilers and libraries for over 100 Z80 machines, including the RC2014, ZX Spectrum and ZX Spectrum Next. Here are some quick notes showing how I got Z88DK working on my Raspberry Pi 4. Just installing z88dk via apt resulted in an old version, so I opted to install from source instead. Dependencies First I installed some dependencies: – Code Download Then I downloaded and uncompressed it: – Compilation Here is how I compiled the software…
Here are a few emulators that I’ve found that are easy to install on a standard installation of Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian). To install them, use the following command: – sudo apt install <package-name> Without further ado, here’s the list: – fuse-emulator-gtk – ZX Spectrum osmose-emulator – Sega Master System / Game Gear stella – Atari 2600 openmsx – MSX nestopia – NES desmume – Nintendo DS dosbox – DOS yabause – Sega Saturn mame – MAME…
If you’re interested in the architecture of computers and how CPU’s, RAM etc. are built from logic gates, then here is my selection of some good books to read. Not only do they explain the fundamental hardware needed, they go on to explain assembly language, operating systems etc. But How Do It Know? by J Clark Scott This is a great book that explains how computers are built, from NAND gates up. Each chapter goes through how a particular component…
Books on Z80 Programming The classic book is Rodney Zaks’ Programming the Z80 from 1979-1981. It is freely available (with the author’s blessing) here. Another Z80 book from the late 70’s is “Z80 Assembly Language Programming” by Lace A. Leventhal. You can download a copy from the internet archive here. A more modern book for Z80 programming is “Jumpstart Z80 Machine Code” from 2016. It has mixed reviews on Amazon and focuses on the Ti-83 calculator but it may be…