/ZX-ESPectrum-IDF

A ZX spectrum 48K/128K emulator running on the Espressif ESP32 SoC

Primary LanguageCGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

ESPectrum

This is an emulator of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer running on Espressif ESP32 SoC powered boards.

Currently, it can be used with Lilygo's TTGo VGA32 board, Antonio Villena's ESPectrum board and ESP32-SBC-FabGL board from Olimex.

Just connect a VGA monitor or CRT TV (with special VGA-RGB cable needed), a PS/2 keyboard, prepare a SD Card as needed and power via microUSB.

This project is based on David Crespo excellent work on ZX-ESPectrum-Wiimote which is a fork of the ZX-ESPectrum project by Rampa and Queru which was inspired by Pete's Todd PaseVGA project.

Features

  • ZX Spectrum 48K, 128K and Pentagon 128K 100% cycle accurate emulation (no PSRAM needed).
  • Perfect Z80 emulation (Authored by José Luis Sánchez)
  • 6 bpp VGA output in three modes: Standard VGA (60 and 70hz), VGA 50hz and CRT 15khz 50hz.
  • Support for two aspect ratios: 16:9 or 4:3 monitors (using 360x200 or 320x240 modes)
  • Multicolor attribute effects emulated (Bifrost*2, Nirvana and Nirvana+ engines).
  • Border effects emulated (Aquaplane, The Sentinel, Overscan demo).
  • Floating bus effect emulated (Arkanoid, Sidewize).
  • Contended memory and contended I/O emulation.
  • AY-3-8912 sound emulation.
  • Beeper & Mic emulation (Cobra’s Arc).
  • Dual PS/2 keyboard support: you can connect two devices using PS/2 protocol at the same time.
  • PS/2 Joystick emulation (Cursor, Sinclair, Kempston and Fuller).
  • Two real joysticks support (Up to 8 button joysticks) using ESPjoy adapter or DIY DB9 to PS/2 converter.
  • Emulation of Betadisk interface with four drives and TRD (read and write) and SCL (read only) support.
  • Realtime and fast TAP file loading.
  • TAP file saving to SD card.
  • SNA and Z80 snapshot loading.
  • Snapshot saving and loading.
  • Complete file navigation system with autoindexing, folder support and search functions.
  • Complete OSD menu in two languages: English & Spanish.
  • BMP screen capture to SD Card (thanks David Crespo 😉).

Work in progress

  • On screen keyboard.
  • TZX support.

Installing

You can flash the binaries directly to the board if do not want to mess with code and compilers. Check the releases section

Compiling and installing

Quick start from PlatformIO:

  • Clone this repo and Open from VSCode/PlatFormIO
  • Execute task: Upload
  • Enjoy

Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS/X. This version has been developed using PlatformIO.

Install platformIO:

  • There is an extension for Atom and VSCode, please check this website.
  • Select your board, pico32 which behaves just like the TTGo VGA32.

Compile and flash it

PlatformIO > Project Tasks > Build , then

PlatformIO > Project Tasks > Upload.

Run these tasks (Upload also does a Build) whenever you make any change in the code.

Prepare micro SD Card

The SD card should be formatted in FAT16 / FAT32 and you must create the following folders in root directory:

  • ".p" folder -> Will be used for persist snapshots.
  • ".c" folder -> For BMP screen captures.

PS/2 Keyboard functions

  • F1 Menu
  • F2 Load (SNA,Z80)
  • F3 Load custom snapshot
  • F4 Save customn snapshot
  • F5 Select TAP file
  • F6 Play/Stop tape
  • F7 Tape Browser
  • F8 OSD Stats ( [CPU] microsecs per CPU cycle, [IDL] idle microsecs, [FPS] Frames per second, [FND] FPS w/no delay applied )
  • F9 Volume down
  • F10 Volume up
  • F11 Hard reset
  • F12 Reset ESP32
  • Pause Pause
  • PrntScr BMP screen capture (Folder /c at SDCard)
  • CTRL + F1 Hardware info
  • CTRL + F5..F8 Screen centering in CRT 15K/50hz mode

ZX Keyboard functions

Press CAPS SHIFT + SYMBOL SHIFT and:

  • 1 Menu
  • 2 Load (SNA,Z80)
  • 3 Load custom snapshot
  • 4 Save custom snapshot
  • 5 Select TAP file
  • 6 Play/Stop tape
  • 7 Tape browser
  • 8 OSD Stats ( [CPU] microsecs per CPU cycle, [IDL] idle microsecs, [FPS] Frames per second, [FND] FPS w/no delay applied )
  • 9 Volume down
  • 0 Volume up
  • Q Hard reset
  • W Reset ESP32
  • P Pause
  • S BMP screen capture (Folder /c at SDCard)
  • I Hardware info
  • Z, X, C and V Screen centering in CRT 15K/50hz mode

Hardware configuration and pinout

Pin assignment in hardpins.h is set to match the boards we've tested emulator in, use it as-is, or change it to your own preference.

Thanks to

And all the involved people from the golden age

And all the writters, hobbist and documenters