Emulators: Difference between revisions

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{{EmulatorListTop}}


{{Emulator|name=CSpect
===== WARNING: =====
|author=Mike Dailly
|downloadurl=http://dailly.blogspot.co.uk/
|description=Emulates many features of the Next and includes an assembler
|sourceavail=N
|supportlores=Y
|supportlayer2=Y
}}


{{Emulator|name=ZEsarUX
The current Next emulators are work-in-progress, missing several features of real HW Next, and emulating other features in less than cycle-accurate way (which become a "norm" for classic ZX Spectrum after two decades of emulators development). The differences in results between real Next and CSpect or ZEsarUX are to be expected - as a developer test your SW also with real HW to find any problems early. It may also help to read the known-bugs pages to have some rough idea what works and how accurately. There're also multiple test-suites and free games and demos which you can try to go through and compare the emulator output with real machine, to get familiar with the differences and adjust your workflow and expectations.
|author=César Hernández Bañó
<br><br>
|downloadurl=https://sourceforge.net/projects/zesarux/
|description=A full feature emulator including a debugger - frequently updated to support Next updates
|sourceavail=Y
|supportlores=N
|supportlayer2=Y
}}


{{Emulator|name=NX
Also make sure to explore the command line options and configuration of each emulator, as there are multiple ways how to run them with different fidelity of emulation. When in doubt, you are welcome to join the official ZX Spectrum Next discord chat and ask for help at #emulator-help channel.
|author=Matt Davies
<br><br>
|downloadurl=https://github.com/next-dev/nx
|description=An in-development emulator
|sourceavail=Y
}}


{{EmulatorListBottom}}
Currently the most UI and performance friendly emulator seems to be #CSpect, the most accurate and performant emulator is MAME.
 
{| class="wikitable"
!Name||Author||Known bugs||Description||OS||Source||Maintained
|-
|[https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect CSpect]||[https://lemmings.info/about/ Mike Dailly]||[[CSpect:known bugs|List]]||Emulates many features of the Next and includes a fully featured debugger, complete with 24bit breakpoints and an assembler||Windows ([https://lemmings.info/installing-cspect-on-a-mac/ mac]/[[Development_Tools:Linux_setup##CSpect_emulator|linux]] with mono - mostly works)||No||[https://www.patreon.com/posts/crash-and-cspect-143597332 Statement of maintenance and support]
|-
|[https://www.mamedev.org/ MAME]||[https://github.com/holub holub] (Next), many contributors (MAME)||[[MAME:known bugs|List]]‎||Mature multi-system emulator with relatively recent Next support. See [[MAME:Installing|installation notes]].||Any||[https://github.com/mamedev/mame Yes]||Yes
|-
|[https://gitlab.com/garrylancaster/zenext ZENext]||[https://github.com/chernandezba César Hernández Bañó], [https://gitlab.com/garrylancaster Garry Lancaster]|| |||ZX Next-only fork of ZEsarUX emulating most of the core 3.1.10 features to make it run NextZXOS 2.07 (and possibly 2.08/2.09) (missing some features like CTC timers).||Any||[https://gitlab.com/garrylancaster/zenext Yes]||Occasionally
|-
|[https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases ZEsarUX]||César Hernández Bañó|||[[ZEsarUX:known bugs|List]]||A full feature emulator including a debugger - sometimes updated to support Next (TBBlue)||Any||[https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux Yes]||Yes
|-
|[https://github.com/ped7g/zesarux/tree/tbblue_small_fixes2 ZESERUse]||César Hernández Bañó, [https://github.com/ped7g Peter Helcmanovsky]||[[ZESERUse:known bugs|List]]||Fork of older ZEsarUX 8.2 with improved emulation accuracy of (rather old) core 3.1.5||Any||[https://github.com/ped7g/zesarux/tree/tbblue_small_fixes2 Yes]||Rarely
|-
|[http://www.desdes.com/products/oldfiles/zeus.htm Zeus]||[https://www.desdes.com/ Simon Brattel]|| || A PC cross-assembler which includes an IDE and Spectrum 48/128/+2/+3 emulator. Includes support for Next MMU banking, sprites and UART only, with remote debugging on Next hardware.||Windows||No||No
|}

Latest revision as of 22:47, 15 November 2025

WARNING:

The current Next emulators are work-in-progress, missing several features of real HW Next, and emulating other features in less than cycle-accurate way (which become a "norm" for classic ZX Spectrum after two decades of emulators development). The differences in results between real Next and CSpect or ZEsarUX are to be expected - as a developer test your SW also with real HW to find any problems early. It may also help to read the known-bugs pages to have some rough idea what works and how accurately. There're also multiple test-suites and free games and demos which you can try to go through and compare the emulator output with real machine, to get familiar with the differences and adjust your workflow and expectations.

Also make sure to explore the command line options and configuration of each emulator, as there are multiple ways how to run them with different fidelity of emulation. When in doubt, you are welcome to join the official ZX Spectrum Next discord chat and ask for help at #emulator-help channel.

Currently the most UI and performance friendly emulator seems to be #CSpect, the most accurate and performant emulator is MAME.

Name Author Known bugs Description OS Source Maintained
CSpect Mike Dailly List Emulates many features of the Next and includes a fully featured debugger, complete with 24bit breakpoints and an assembler Windows (mac/linux with mono - mostly works) No Statement of maintenance and support
MAME holub (Next), many contributors (MAME) List‎ Mature multi-system emulator with relatively recent Next support. See installation notes. Any Yes Yes
ZENext César Hernández Bañó, Garry Lancaster ZX Next-only fork of ZEsarUX emulating most of the core 3.1.10 features to make it run NextZXOS 2.07 (and possibly 2.08/2.09) (missing some features like CTC timers). Any Yes Occasionally
ZEsarUX César Hernández Bañó List A full feature emulator including a debugger - sometimes updated to support Next (TBBlue) Any Yes Yes
ZESERUse César Hernández Bañó, Peter Helcmanovsky List Fork of older ZEsarUX 8.2 with improved emulation accuracy of (rather old) core 3.1.5 Any Yes Rarely
Zeus Simon Brattel A PC cross-assembler which includes an IDE and Spectrum 48/128/+2/+3 emulator. Includes support for Next MMU banking, sprites and UART only, with remote debugging on Next hardware. Windows No No
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