Emulators

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 features/accurate emulation of core3.1.5 (but far from perfect) has ZESERUse (fork of ZEsarUX).

{{#subobject:CSpect

{{#subobject:ZEsarUX {{#subobject:ZESERUse {{#subobject:ZENext {{#subobject:Zeus

Name	Runs on	Source	Capabilities
name=CSpect	author=Mike Dailly	description=Emulates many features of the Next and includes a fully featured debugger, complete with 24bit breakpoints and an assembler (pre-made SD card images here)	os=Windows (mac/linux mostlyworks through mono)	downloadurl=http://www.cspect.org/	sourceurl=	knownbugspage=CSpect:known bugs	sourceavail=N	supportrasterint= }} {{#cargo_store: _table = Emulator	name=CSpect	author=Mike Dailly	os=Windows (mac/linux mostlyworks through mono)	description=Emulates many features of the Next and includes a fully featured debugger, complete with 24bit breakpoints and an assembler (pre-made SD card images here)	downloadurl=http://www.cspect.org/	sourceurl=	knownbugspage=CSpect:known bugs	sourceavail=N	supportrasterint=	supporttripleay=Y	supportopcodes=Y	supportsid=N	supportspecdrum=Y	supportwifi=Y }}	CSpect - Mike Dailly Emulates many features of the Next and includes a fully featured debugger, complete with 24bit breakpoints and an assembler (pre-made SD card images here) download   known-bugs	Windows (mac/linux mostlyworks through mono)	N	Sprites Lores Layer Layer 2 3xAY audio Next Opcodes Specdrum/Covox DAC Wifi Module
name=ZEsarUX	author=César Hernández Bañó	description=A full feature emulator including a debugger - sometimes updated to support Next (TBBlue)	os=Any	downloadurl=https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases	sourceurl=https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux	knownbugspage=ZEsarUX:known bugs	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint= }} {{#cargo_store: _table = Emulator	name=ZEsarUX	author=César Hernández Bañó	os=Any	description=A full feature emulator including a debugger - sometimes updated to support Next (TBBlue)	downloadurl=https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases	sourceurl=https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux	knownbugspage=ZEsarUX:known bugs	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint=	supporttripleay=Y	supportopcodes=Y	supportsid=N	supportspecdrum=Y	supportwifi= }}	ZEsarUX - César Hernández Bañó A full feature emulator including a debugger - sometimes updated to support Next (TBBlue) download   source   known-bugs	Any	Y	Sprites Lores Layer Layer 2 3xAY audio Next Opcodes Specdrum/Covox DAC
name=ZESERUse	author=César Hernández Bañó + Peter Helcmanovsky	description=Currently most complete core3.1.5 emulation based on ZEsarUX 8.2 version (for windows executable check official Next discord or build it yourself - make sure you are building the "tbblue_small_fixes2" branch).	os=Any	downloadurl=	sourceurl=https://github.com/ped7g/zesarux/tree/tbblue_small_fixes2	knownbugspage=ZESERUse:known bugs	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint= }} {{#cargo_store: _table = Emulator	name=ZESERUse	author=César Hernández Bañó + Peter Helcmanovsky	os=Any	description=Currently most complete core3.1.5 emulation based on ZEsarUX 8.2 version (for windows executable check official Next discord or build it yourself - make sure you are building the "tbblue_small_fixes2" branch).	downloadurl=	sourceurl=https://github.com/ped7g/zesarux/tree/tbblue_small_fixes2	knownbugspage=ZESERUse:known bugs	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint=	supporttripleay=Y	supportopcodes=Y	supportsid=N	supportspecdrum=Y	supportwifi= }}	ZESERUse - César Hernández Bañó + Peter Helcmanovsky Currently most complete core3.1.5 emulation based on ZEsarUX 8.2 version (for windows executable check official Next discord or build it yourself - make sure you are building the "tbblue_small_fixes2" branch). source   known-bugs	Any	Y	Sprites Lores Layer Layer 2 3xAY audio Next Opcodes Specdrum/Covox DAC
name=ZENext	author=César Hernández Bañó + Garry Lancaster	description=ZX Next-only fork of ZEsarUX emulating most of the core 3.1.10 features to make it run NextZXOS 2.07 (missing some features like CTC timers).	os=Any	downloadurl=	sourceurl=https://gitlab.com/garrylancaster/zenext	knownbugspage=	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint= }} {{#cargo_store: _table = Emulator	name=ZENext	author=César Hernández Bañó + Garry Lancaster	os=Any	description=ZX Next-only fork of ZEsarUX emulating most of the core 3.1.10 features to make it run NextZXOS 2.07 (missing some features like CTC timers).	downloadurl=	sourceurl=https://gitlab.com/garrylancaster/zenext	knownbugspage=	sourceavail=Y	supportrasterint=	supporttripleay=Y	supportopcodes=Y	supportsid=N	supportspecdrum=Y	supportwifi= }}	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 (missing some features like CTC timers). source	Any	Y	Sprites Lores Layer Layer 2 3xAY audio Next Opcodes Specdrum/Covox DAC
name=Zeus	author=Design Design	description=A PC cross-assembler which includes a Z80 emulator, which can emulate the ZX Spectrum 48K/128K hardware.	os=Windows	downloadurl=http://www.desdes.com/products/oldfiles/zeus.htm	sourceurl=	knownbugspage=	sourceavail=N	supportrasterint= }} {{#cargo_store: _table = Emulator	name=Zeus	author=Design Design	os=Windows	description=A PC cross-assembler which includes a Z80 emulator, which can emulate the ZX Spectrum 48K/128K hardware.	downloadurl=http://www.desdes.com/products/oldfiles/zeus.htm	sourceurl=	knownbugspage=	sourceavail=N	supportrasterint=	supporttripleay=N	supportopcodes=Y	supportsid=N	supportspecdrum=N	supportwifi= }}	Zeus - Design Design A PC cross-assembler which includes a Z80 emulator, which can emulate the ZX Spectrum 48K/128K hardware. download	Windows	N	Sprites (partial) Next Opcodes