ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Discussion and advice about emulating the QL on other machines.
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chernandezba
Chuggy Microdrive
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ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by chernandezba »

Hi!

I've uploaded a new ZEsarUX 8.1 stable version.

Go to the github released webpage to download it:

https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux ... es/tag/8.1

I recommend you to watch the video… ;)

https://youtu.be/hHBgPtUI6o8

https://youtu.be/hHBgPtUI6o8[/youtube]

Changelog is:


Version 8.1 - The Great Escape edition. 25 February 2020


Added ZEsarUX Network Gaming protocol (ZENG), which allows you to play to any emulated game, using two 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

Added Spectrum and ZX81 online game browser. You can search & play almost any game for these machines!
Added real joystick support on Windows
Added Pentagon 16C colour mode emulation
Added 1024 KB RAM emulation for Spectrum & Pentagon
Added ZIP files support: no more need to use external unzip program
Added SCL files support: can be converted from file selector menu pressing space
Added SNA saving support
Added PZX tape file support
Added SCR to TAP file converter

Added total run time statistics
Added checking for updates
Added sending anonymous statistics use
Added setting --disablemenuandexit: it closes the emulator when the menu is going to be opened.
It's the same behaviour as previous --disablemenu. Now --disablemenu only disables the menu but does not close the emulator
Added setting to disable looking for alternate character sets from sysvar 23606/7 on ocr functions
Added DataDrive HiLow emulation (beta)
Added Borland Gui Style
Added setting to reset configuration file to default values
Added setting to choose cpu type

Added ZRCP commands:
-cpu-code-coverage: working with code coverage
-cpu-history: working with cpu history
-extended-stack: having an internal stack for debugging stack value types
-get-ui-io-ports: to get keyboard state and joystick
-get-snapshot: get a ZSF snapshot from ZRCP
-print-footer: print message on footer
-put-snapshot: put a ZSF snapshot from ZRCP
-send-keys-event: simulates key press/release
-set-ui-io-ports: to change keyboard state and joystick
-write-port: write value to a port

Improved TBBlue emulation:
-New Wizard to automatically download and configure TBBlue official SD images
-optimized ula,lores render routines: 2% less cpu
-added scroll x,y on ula layer
-added 1-bit tile mode
-added tbblue register 63H: copper 16 bit write
-added tbblue register 69H: display control 1 register
-added tbblue registers 0x35-0x39, 0x75-0x79
-added copper opcodes NOOP, HALT
-increased tbblue.mmc MMC bundled image size to 64 MB
-updated to the latest tbblue SD distribution.
-enable real video by default
-added zsf snapshot support
-supports setting Core ID to ZX Dos
-supports changing Core version

Improved Debugging:
-added setting to dump .zsf snapshot when a cpu panic is fired
-debug CPU window: can now resize height and have more debug lines, legend keys expand as width increases, registers located at the most right position
-cpu transaction log: faster when opening transaction log file
-added key 'n' for "run" on debug cpu. Does the same as closing all menus and returning back to emulation
-debug CPU window: show interrupt routine pointer on im2 mode

Improved Hex editor:
-can now copy to a different memory zone
-shows the memory pointer when editing memory

Improved menu:
-added more cyrillic characters support
-can now use PgUp,PgDn to jump menu pages
-added setting to disable File Utilities menu

-Splitted source code repository: now extras folder has been moved to another repository. See:
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux-extras


Improved assembler: added defs command
Improved AY Sheet: now you can select which AY Chip to show
Improved Waveform: new scroll type
Improved file selector: when asking for a directory, only shows directories, not files
Improved curses driver: symbol @ simulates ESC on menu
Improved snapshot loading: now setting "--sna-no-change-machine" becomes "--snap-no-change-machine" and applies to .sna and .z80
Improved curses driver: now can use utf "blocky" characters and have 64x48 resolution
Improved accurate Z80 timing: IM mode 0 is 1 t-state shorter than IM mode 1
Improved real tape loading: acceleration is disabled by default, added setting to save configuration
Improved cpu speed change: now it's a lot faster

Improved accesibility:
-disabled menu items (the ones in red) are now called as "unavailable" instead of "disabled"
-selected item menu is called now "Selected item" (was called "Active item" before)
-say when a selected menu item is not available
-pressing F4 key on a window menu, it will read that window again
-Mac OS speech filter doesn't fail anymore when message has "-"
-when an error is generated on stdout driver, the message is sent to text-to-speech


Fixed Pentagon border: now ukflag demo is perfect
Fixed Spectrum 128k machines border: now ula128, scroll2017 demos are perfect
Fixed segfault error when using breakpoints like peek/opcode in config file
Fixed segfault error when trying to open a directory with no permissions
Fixed error when trying to open user files on MacOS Catalina
Fixed bug on zxuno changing video ram 5/7 when paging was disabled by bit DI7FFD
Fixed average cpu statistics when footer is not enabled
Fixed kempston mouse emulation on Next machine: wheel bits always return 0
Fixed bug extracting PAWS words when a word is a pronoun
Fixed undocumented opcode ED76: I had IM0 but it's IM1
Fixed RETI behaviour
Fixed Real Joystick support: buttons to event table is not set to defaults automatically anymore
Fixed loading and saving +3 .z80 snapshots
Fixed placing menu windows when using zx desktop and machines TSConf, TBBlue, CPC and QL
Fixed bug loading .sna files when rom 1 paged in
Fixed bug on return flags from tape load trap. It only affected Rocman game and enabling "any flag loading" setting
Fixed setting a configured memory breakpoint like this "--set-mem-breakpoint 0000H 2" which was fired on startup
Fixed f_seek call on esxdos handler
Fixed showing memory banks on debug cpu for Z88 machine

Fixed menu issues:
-fixed generic message splash: wait until key is released (if any pressed)
-fixed opening the menu on stdout driver on the first start of ZEsarUX
-fixed bug closing menu on Z88 machine and Real Video disabled

Fixed tbblue emulation:
-fixed clipping in 80x32 mode
-fixed error when paging rom in ram, on case pages 0,1,2,3
-fixed "bit 7 = Disable ULA output (soft reset = 0)" on register 0x68
-fixed turbosound and dac activation when tbblue fast boot mode
-added turbo mode x8 (28 MHz)
-fixed reading register 7
-fixed RTC emulation
-fixed autoload tape

Fixed Accessibility bugs:
-now menu settings (anything between square brackets []) are played at the end of the menu line
-now menu settings ([ ] and [X]) are played as "enabled"/"disabled"

Some other minor bugfixes and improvements


I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers
César


----

ZEsarUX
ZX Second-Emulator And Released for UniX
https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux
User avatar
badaman
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Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by badaman »

César, great job with this multi-emulator that includes the QL.
Last edited by badaman on Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.


Derek_Stewart
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Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by Derek_Stewart »

This the best emulation system, it even emulates the Spectrum Next. Saved me buying one...


Regards,

Derek
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Andrew
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Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by Andrew »

I tried Zexaurus 8.1 today. Spectrum emulation is ok, but if I set it up in Sinclair QL mode the screen is taller then my monitor !
The windows resolution is 1920x1080 - PC has no graphic card (uses the processor embedded one)
How do I make the window smaller ??


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badaman
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Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by badaman »

Andrew wrote:I tried Zexaurus 8.1 today. Spectrum emulation is ok, but if I set it up in Sinclair QL mode the screen is taller then my monitor !
The windows resolution is 1920x1080 - PC has no graphic card (uses the processor embedded one)
How do I make the window smaller ??
I have not tried it yet, but check if there is a menu that allows you to make changes to the screen settings, as seen in this video for Spectrum:

https://youtu.be/fXGBrNx6h2k?t=70


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Andrew
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Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by Andrew »

badaman wrote: I have not tried it yet, but check if there is a menu that allows you to make changes to the screen settings, as seen in this video for Spectrum:

https://youtu.be/fXGBrNx6h2k?t=70
Thank you - I found the menu. I reduced the zoom level to 1x and now all Zexaurus window is visible on screen.
But the aspect ratio is 1:1, not 4:3 as it should be (also for Spectrums) - so all running programs look deformed :(
Is there a way to set the correct aspect ratio ?


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bwinkel67
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1187
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:09 am

Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by bwinkel67 »

chernandezba wrote:Hi!

I've uploaded a new ZEsarUX 8.1 stable version.

... lots of good info...

I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers
César
I'm new to the ZX emulation world. I just started using EightOne and it seems to emulate the whole line of Spectrums, etc... Hopefully it's not insulating to ask the difference between these two engines. I want to first grab some old ZX81 software from tape and convert it to text and it's not been very intuitive on how to do that.

My plan is to eventually recreate the ZX81 environmnet -- well BASIC -- so as to run as a simple simulator on the QL and have it run some pure BASIC games...no emulation and I'd like to see an unexpanded QL run old ZX81 programs pretty quickly. Just for fun in case you're wondering why I would create a badly working wheel :-/


Derek_Stewart
Font of All Knowledge
Posts: 3929
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:40 am
Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: ZEsarUX 8.1 stable

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

Have look at ZXTOOLS, which allows list of ZX81 .p files, here is a link to the web (in French)

http://dskcenter.free.fr/zxtools.html

For Specttum, I use Basinc Emulator, which gives a nice development IDE, runs under Wine on Linux

https://arda.kisafilm.org/blog/?page_id=848&lang=en

But all that said, ZEsarUX is the best emulation system, even runs Spectrum Next OS. Which good, as I can not get the real thing...


Regards,

Derek
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