More Info on the ZEsarUX Emulator

One of the best emulators out there, and the only one that emulates the ZX Spectrum Next, its name reminds me of a dinosaur joke... He-Saw-US... lol...  

ZEsarUX - ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX

Created by Cesar Hernandez Baño

github.com/chernandezba/zesarux

It's a ZX Machines Emulator for UNIX based operating systems (and Windows), including all the Sinclair computers:

MK14
ZX80
ZX81
ZX Spectrum
QL
Z88

And also:

Microdigital TK80, TK82, TK82C, TK83, TK85, TK90X (Portuguese and Spanish), TK95 (Portuguese and Spanish)
Timex Sinclair 1000, 1500, 2068
Timex Computer 2048, 2068
Inves Spectrum +
Sam Coupe
Pentagon
Chloe 140 SE, 280 SE
Chrome
Prism
ZX-Uno
ZX-Evolution BaseConf (beta)
ZX-Evolution TS-Conf
ZX Spectrum Next
Jupiter Ace
Amstrad CPC 464, CPC 4128, CPC 664, CPC 6128
Amstrad PCW 8256, PCW 8512
MSX1
Spectravideo 318/328
Colecovision
Sega SG1000
Sega Master System

ZEsarUX source code and binaries are distributed under GNU GPL license. ZEsarUX also includes a folder, "my_soft", which has some programs and data made by me. The entire folder is also covered by the GNU GPL license.

ZEsarUX also includes third-party roms, media, programs and games NOT covered by this license.
This is my second ZX Spectrum emulator after ZXSpectr github.com/chernandezba/zxspectr
I recommend you to read FEATURES, INSTALL and HISTORY files, as well as other documents in this emulator. You can open them from the help menu or from an external viewer.
ZEsarUX distributed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE v3. You may read it on the LICENSE file.
Please read the other licenses used in ZEsarUX, from the menu Help->Licenses or just open files from folder licenses/

Binary compiled versions:

GNU/Linux 32/64 Bits
FreeBSD 64 Bits
Mac OS X
Windows
Raspberry pi (raspbian)
Other by 3rd party:
Arch Linux
Slackware
Retropie/EmulationStation
Open Pandora
PocketCHIP
MorhpOS

Also an experimental Docker image

ZEsarUX has won the "Best Emulator" award from Retrogaming Total blog on 2015 and 2017

DONATE

ZEsarUX is free software and you don't need to pay to use it. ZEsarUX will always cost you nothing to use, but that doesn't mean it costs me nothing to make. So if you want to demonstrate your appreciation to it, you can donate using Paypal. Just click:

ZEsarUX donation

All donors will appear in the DONORS file

Thanks!

FEATURES

Runs on any UNIX based operating system and Windows: tested on GNU/Linux x86, GNU/Linux x86_64, GNU/Linux Raspbian, GNU/Linux RetroPie, FreeBSD x86_64, Haiku, Mac OS X, Windows native, Windows + Cygwin

Emulates:

Science of Cambridge MK14
Sinclair ZX80
Sinclair ZX81
Sinclair ZX Spectrum models: 16k, 48k (English and Spanish), 48k+ (English and Spanish), Spectrum 128k (English and Spanish), Spectrum +2 (English, Spanish and French), Spectrum +2A (English and Spanish), Spectrum +3 (English and Spanish)
Sinclair QL
Cambridge Z88
Microdigital TK80, TK82, TK82C, TK83, TK85, TK90X (Portuguese and Spanish), TK95 (Portuguese and Spanish)
Timex Sinclair 1000, 1500, 2068
Timex Computer 2048, 2068
Inves Spectrum +
Sam Coupe
Pentagon
Chloe 140 SE, 280 SE
Chrome
Prism
ZX-Uno
ZX-Evolution BaseConf (beta)
ZX-Evolution TS-Conf
ZX Spectrum Next
Jupiter Ace
Amstrad CPC 464, CPC 4128, CPC 664, CPC 6128
Amstrad PCW 8256, PCW 8512
MSX1
Spectravideo 318/328
Colecovision
Sega SG1000
Sega Master System
Is the only emulator for machines: Chloe 140/280, Prism and Chrome

Almost perfect emulation of timing of all Spectrum machines

Emulates undocumented Z80 flags, features, and MEMPTR register

Emulates idle bus port, contended memory, ULA early/late timings

Emulates Motorola CPU 68008 (Sinclair QL)

Emulates SC/MP CPU - INS8060 (MK14)

Emulates perfect ZX Spectrum 16k/48k colour palette

Emulates ULAplus: Standard 64 colour palette, linear modes with 16 colours per pixel: Radastan Mode: 128x96, ZEsarUX modes: 256x96, 128x192, 256x192

Emulates Chroma81 ZX81 Colour mode

Emulates Spectra Video Modes

Emulates Amstrad PCW Colour Video Modes

Emulates Timex Video modes (Mode 0 standard, 1 dual screen, 2 hires colour 8x1, 6 512x192 monochrome)

Emulates Pentagon 16C mode

Emulates All Video modes from Prism machine

Emulates ZGX Sprite Chip

Emulates snow effect on Spectrum models

Emulates interlaced, scanlines and Gigascreen effects

Emulates hi-res modes on ZX Spectrum (rainbow effects and others) and ZX80/ZX81 (UDG, CHR$128, WRX, HRG and some other hi-res modes)

Supports reducing the screen to 192x144 (0.75 scale)

Uses its own powerful window environment (ZX Vision) inside the program application window, having the same GUI style on all plattforms. Allows to have an extended display to hold menus and multitask windows in the GUI (ZX Desktop)

Partial support for Spanish and Catalan language on menus

Can be used with joystick and environments without keyboard, like Raspiboy / Retropie

Emulates all the oddities of the Inves Spectrum +: 64 KB RAM, RAM initialization with FF00H pattern, OUT ula AND RAM, EAR and MIC XOR, no contended memory, snow in border, colour ula delay, interrupt starts at end of top border (not at the beginning of the border), corrupt memory on every interrupt, no idle bus

Uses Video drivers: X-Windows, SDL, Cocoa (Mac OS X), Framebuffer, ncurses, aalib, cacalib, stdout(console), simpletext(console)

Uses Audio Drivers: PulseAudio, Alsa, SDL, DSP(OSS), One Bit Speaker (PC Speaker and Raspberry Pi GPIO speaker, without any kind of sound card), CoreAudio (Mac OS X).

Supports dumping audio & video to file

Allows to save screen to formats: SCR, PBM, BMP, TXT, STL (3D Model)

Supports loading from real tape (any external audio source, like tape player, mp3 player, etc)

Supports real tape loading of file formats: RWA, SMP, WAV, TZX, PZX, CDT, TAP, P, P81, O. It handles loading of turbo load tapes or any type of tape loading for standard/non standard loading routines

Handles binary tape format files (TAP, TZX, PZX, O, P, P81, CDT, CAS) on standard ROM routines for ZX Spectrum, ZX80, ZX81, Amstrad CPC, Jupiter Ace, MSX, Spectravideo

Handles real audio loading (RWA, SMP, WAV) on standard ROM routines for ZX Spectrum, ZX80, ZX81, Amstrad CPC, Jupiter Ace

Simulates real tape loading on standard ROM routines for ZX Spectrum, ZX80, ZX81

Handles snapshot formats: ZSF, ZX, Z80, SP, SPG, NEX, SNA, P, P81, O, Z81, ACE

Handles floppy disk formats: DSK

Handles MMC/SD card formats: HDF, IMG, RAW (.MMC)

Handles IDE hard disk formats: RAW (.IDE)

Handles cartridge formats: DCK, ROM, COL, SG

Handles RZX playback

Emulates the following Copy Interfaces: Defcon, Dinamid3, Hilow Barbanegra, Interface007, Microhobby Pokeador Automatico, Multiface One, 128 and Three, Phoenix, Ramjet, Spec-Mate, Transtape

Emulates Dinamic SD1

Emulates Datagear/MB02 DMA, ZX-Uno DMA

Emulates Nec PD765 floppy disk controller, used on Spectrum +3, CPC 664, CPC 6128, PCW

Emulates Betadisk/TR-DOS. Direct support for .trd files. scl files can be converted from file selector pressing space

Emulates ZX Spectrum MMC Interfaces: ZXMMC, DivMMC

Emulates ZX Spectrum IDE Interface: DivIDE, 8-bit simple

Emulates ZX Spectrum ESXDOS file access using files from your computer

Emulates Sam Coupe IDE Interface: Atom Lite

Emulates ZXPand MMC Interface on ZX80 and ZX81

Emulates ZX Dandanator! Mini, CPC Dandanator! Mini

Emulates Speccy Superupgrade

Emulates Kartusho, iFrom interfaces by Antonio Villena

Emulates SamRam interface by Gerton Lunter (author of famous Z80 emulator

Emulates HiLow DataDrive

Handles RAM, EPROM, Intel Flash and Hybrid (RAM+EPROM) cards on Z88

Handles QL microdrive/floppy file access using files from your computer. Allows reading Q-emuLator file headers. Allows EXECuting files without headers

Handles compressed formats zip (with internal decompressor), and tar, rar, gz through external utilities

Emulates AY Audio Chip, Turbosound (2 AY Channels), 3 AY Channels, MIDI channels, different DAC: Specdrum, Covox, ACB/ABC/BAC/CBA Stereo

Emulates General Sound

Emulates SN76489AN Audio Chip

Emulates Quicksilva, ZON-X81, and VSYNC-based sound on ZX80/81

Emulates Speaker and Soundbox sound on Jupiter Ace

Experimental simulation of the Sam Coupe Audio Chip (SAA1099)

Emulates i8049 QL sound

Supports RAM size up to 1024 KB on Spectrum and Pentagon

Supports RAM packs on ZX80/81 up to 56 KB

Supports RAM packs on Jupiter Ace up to 51 KB

Joystick emulation with real joystick and keyboard cursors: Kempston, Sinclair 1&2, Cursor Joystick, Cursor & Shift, OPQA, Fuller, Zebra, Mikro-Gen, ZXPand, SAM Coupe Cursors, CPC, MSX, Spectravideo, Cascade, DKTronics. Autofire function too

On Screen keyboard useful when playing with joystick, two types: one with keyboard letters, and another with words, useful for playing Text Adventures. Also a tool to extract words from text adventures (Daad, Paws, Quill and Gac)

Emulates Spectrum keyboard ghosting error feature

ZX Spectrum Recreated keyboard support

Emulates native turbo modes on ZX-Uno, Chloe, Prism and ZX Spectrum Next, and manual for other machines

ZX Printer emulation

Lightgun emulation: Almost perfect emulation of Gunstick from MHT Ingenieros S.L and experimental emulation of Magnum Light Phaser

Kempston mouse emulation

Supports Network gaming using its own protocol (ZEsarUX Network Gaming protocol - ZENG), which allows you to play to any emulated game, using two or more (up to 16) ZEsarUX instances, located each one on any part of the world or in a local network. Games doesn't have to be modified, you can use any existing game

Uart bridge emulation: allows you to use a real uart-wifi device connected to your computer, on GNU/Linux only (Windows, Mac can simulate it)

Can browse online ZX81 games

Can browse online Spectrum games

Supports Input spool text file to simulate keyboard press

Supports reading Pokes from .POK files

Audio Chip Tools: For the 3 emulated audio chips (AY-3-8912, SN76489AN, QL i8049): Sheet, Piano, Registers, export music to midi (.mid) files

Real Time playback from Audio Chip Sound (AY-3-8912, SN76489AN, QL i8049) to external MIDI device

AY Player: allowing to play music from .AY files

AY Mixer

Visual Real Tape: you have an audio render of your tape, see tape blocks and rewind or move forward the cassette player

Visual Floppy: allow to see floppy activity: disk movement, reads, writes, head seek, etc

Supports ZEsarUX remote command protocol (ZRCP). This is a powerful communications protocol between a client and ZEsarUX, using a simple telnet client. One of the things you can do it is enhanced debugging on ZEsarUX from Visual Studio Code (see github.com/maziac/DeZog)

Can use a reduced Spectrum core, with some features disabled, useful on slow devices, like Raspberry Pi 1/Zero

Can generate Automatic Snapshots to RAM and also do a Rewind operation

Powerful debug features: Reverse Debugging, CPU History, Assembler, Registers, Dissassemble, Conditional Breakpoints using text expressions, Watches, Step-to-step, Step-over, Runto, Show TV electron position, Load source code, Hexadecimal Editor, View Sprites, View Tiles, Find bytes, Infinite lives finder, CPU Transaction log, View BASIC, View BASIC variables, verbose messages on console

Text adventure debugger: On a Quill/Paws/Daad/Gac text adventure you can Step to Step condact, watch flags/objects, list messages (objects, user/system messages, locations, compressed tokens, vocabulary), connections, Text Adventure Map. Can also view graphics from a Quill, Paws, Daad or Gac aventure.

Use artificial intelligence to get realistic images for location description on Text Adventure games

File utilities menu: Allowing to view, expand and convert some common file formats: tap, tzx, pzx, trd, dsk, mdv, hdf, ddh, etc. Can also browse inside file system images (.mmc, .img, etc)

Accessibility support: Print char traps allows to capture generated text from almost any program or game, using standard ROM calls (RST 10H) or even non standard print character routines. Can send generated text from a game to a text-to-speech program. It's ready for text to speech support for blind or visually impaired people. Menu emulator can also be read by a text-to-speech program.

Translation support: Can translate text from almost any program or game using external scripts

Simulates upper RAM memory refresh on Spectrum 48Kb, losing its contents when changing R register very quickly

Supports command line settings, configuration file settings and per-game configuration settings

Supports execution on Docker, tested on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora containers

Other features: Visualmem menu, CPU Statistics, Toy ZXeyes, Toy ZXlife, Ascii Table, Sensors

Includes seven easter eggs. Can you find them?

Some screenshots

ZX Desktop, running multitask windows, on Solarized Dark GUI Style, running ZX Spectrum OverScan demo



ZEsarUX 11.0, running multitask windows, ZEsarUX Plus GUI Style, running Sound Tracker 20th anniversary demo, some Multitask windows



Default clean ZX Desktop starting from ZEsarUX version 10.2
ZX Desktop, running demo ny17 from TSConf, showing some windows opened



ZX Spectrum Overscan demo



ZX-81 Mazogs



Sinclair QL



Cambridge Z88



ZX Spectrum Sir Fred running on curses (text) driver



ZX Spectrum The Great Escape running on curses (text) driver + utf8 extensions



ZX81 Mazogs running on curses (text) driver + utf8 extensions



ZX-Uno



ZX-Evolution TSConf



ZX Spectrum Next



Prism 512



Chloe 280SE



CPC 464



MSX



Colecovision



Sega SG-1000



Sega Master System



Do you want to know how ZEsarUX looked like in the past? See this: PREVIOUS_SCREENSHOTS