Sinclair machines

Z88 was made by Sir Clive's new company which called Cambridge Computers. It was certainly not the first laptop, but it's design was new for that time. It was a very simple and relatively cheap machine; it had a good battery life due to the lack of disk drives, and a decently sized keyboard and a full width screen. Z88 runs for about 20 hours on four AA-size alkaline batteries. The rubber keyboard is soundless, though not as comfortable as a real keyboard.

A book on Z88.

• Spectrum [Amiga] Author: Peter McGavin [peterm@kea.grace.cri.nz]
  
  • Multitasks.
  • Loads/saves snapshots in Mirage Microdrive .SNA format compatible with JPP.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files from/to tapes [through a sound-digitizer] or Amiga disks [in this case, each block is written into a separate file].
  • Is reasonably fast on 68030/25MHz, but slow on 68000/7.14MHz machines. At least 68020/14MHz [A1200] and FAST RAM are recommended.
  • Color palette is a bit strange.
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with cursor keys on keyboard and Kempston Joystick with joystick connected to Port 2 of Amiga.
• ZXAM [Amiga]
  
  • Has realistic sound.
  • Needs at least 68020.
  • Has ability to read from tape [with a special adapter].
• KGB [Amiga]
  
  • Loads/saves snapshots in the format described below.
  • Doesn't multitask.
  • Loads/Saves Spectrum files from/to tapes [through a sound-digitizer].
  • Isn't completely compatible with ZX-Spectrum
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with cursor keys, and Kempston Joystick with a joystick connected to Port 2 of Amiga.
  • Has a pitch-compensated mode, that transposes the sound two octaves up (handy on slow Amigas)
  • Operates in a monocrome mode as well as in color.
• !MZX [Archimedes] Author: Graham Willmott
  
  • Multitasks (can also single task if required).
  • Loads/saves snapshots in .SNA format.
  • Doesn't emulate R register correctly, or certain undocumented instructions.
  • Runs at ~60% normal Spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine, and considerably faster on other machines - currently there is no speed control available.
• !Speccy [Archimedes] Author: Karsten Witt
  
  • Runs at normal Spectrum speed on an ARM2 machine and very fast on an ARM3 machine. The speed is adjustable.
  • Saves/loads Spectrum files to/from disk in its own file format.
  • At the moment does not load/save in any snapshot formats. Apparently, the author is currently working on making it run in the desktop (multitasking) and allow loading of .SNA files.
  • Comes with application and instructions for transferring files to/from tapes through the serial port.
  • Doesn't fully implement the R register.
  • Has an enhanced keyboard layout - there are keyboard short cuts to CapsLock, ExtMode, and also the cursor keys, the keypad, and other symbols (commas, colons etc.) can be entered easily.
• Speculator [Archimedes] Author: Dave Lawrence
  
  • Is not officially available at the moment - any copies circulating are pirate copies. As a result, documentation of the file format is not complete, and the conversion programs supplied with it do not work correctly.
  • Is extremely fast on an ARM3 machine. To get normal Spectrum speed an ARM2 machine or an ARM3 machine with the cache turned off is required.
  • Can save and load in its own file format.
  • It is possible to return to the desktop from the emulator, and then re-enter the emulator at the point you left off.
• ZX-SPECTRUM Emulator [Atari] Author: Christian Gandler
  
  • Works with ST (>=1MB), TT and Falcon030 in ST-low and ST-high.
  • Doesn't load/save snapshots.
  • Performance is ~70% of original Spectrum on plain STs.
  • Emulates Kempston and Interface 2 Joysticks.
  • Emulates Interface 1 (Microdrives and RS232).
  • Only keyboard ports read are those mentioned in the orange manual.
• JPP [IBM PC] Author: Arnt Gulbrandsen [agulbra@nvg.unit.no]
  
  • Loads/saves snapshots in Mirage Microdrive .SNA format compatible with Spectrum 1.7.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files from/to tapes digitized into .VOC files.
  • 386/25MHz or faster is needed for the best perfomance. 486/25MHz or 386/44MHz is needed for good sound emulation.
  • Emulates Cursor Joystick with arrow keys and ALT key. Emulates Kempston Joystick with IBM PC joystick.
  • Screws up system screen mode on quit. Restore with MODE 80 command.
  • Includes special program to convert snapshots between various formats such as .SNA,.PRG,.Z80,.SP and RAW.
  • Needs ROM image file (included).
  • Includes program reading and converting snapshots from MGT disks.
• Z80 [IBM PC] Author: Gerton Lunter [gerton@rcondw.rug.nl]
  
  • Emulates both Spectrum 48k and Spectrum 128k.
  • Is fast on 286 and *very* fast on 386/486.
  • Shareware. Some options are disabled in PD version.
  • Has lots of options including monochrome option.
  • Has small built-in debugger.
• SpecEm [IBM PC] (a.k.a. Irish emulator)
  
  • Works reasonably fast on 286 and a bit faster than necessary on 386/486 systems. 386/40MHz or 486/25MHz is needed for good sound emulation.
  • Allows to select between VGA and EGA modes.
  • Loads/saves snapshots in .PRG format.
  • Includes program loading snapshots from MGT/Datel Plus-D disks.
  • Loads/saves Spectrum files to/from disk.
  • Both Cursor and Kempston Joysticks are emulated by cursor keys. Kempston FIRE button is emulated with ALT.
• SP [IBM PC] (a.k.a. Polish emulator)
  
  • Doesn't load/save snapshots.
  • Works in either CGA or EGA mode.
  • Stores files in so-called .SPC or .ZX format. Each such file is an exact image of corresponding tape, with blocks written into the file one after another. Thus, .ZX file may contain several games. Program splitting .ZX files into separate blocks which can be later loaded into Spectrum emulator afor Amiga nd saved as .SNA files is available from fms@wam.umd.edu.
  • Needs ROM image file called ROM.SPC (not included, use one from JPP package).
• SPECTRUM [IBM PC] Author: Pedro Gimeno
  
  • Loads from tapes through a wire connected to the parallel port.
  • Uses .SP format for snapshots.
  • R register and I/O [other than tape] are not emulated.
  • Matches real Spectrum speed at 386/25MHz.
  • VGASPEC emulator is an illegal prerelease of this emulator.
• VGASpec [IBM PC]
  See SPECTRUM by Pedro Gimeno
  
• Elwro 800-3 Jr v1.0 [IBM PC] Authors: Piotr Schmidt & Piotr Wolter
  
  • Commercial only.
  • Doesn't have 100% compatibility with Spectrum (the real Elwro had problems with JetPac while other games were ok).
  • Capability of running CP/M.
  • Runs either in CGA, Hercules or EGA mode.
  • Emulates 2 disk drives accessed via * commands (e.g. SAVE * "file" ) with capacity of about 700kB. These are physically files.
  • Changeable interrupt frequency (45,50,65,70 Hz).
  • All system messages are in Polish.
  • No tape support.
  • Utility to read the real Elwro Junior disks on PC.
• MacSpeccy [Macintosh] Author: Danny Keogan [djkeogan@unix2.tcd.ie]
  
  • Seems to be extremely slow and requires 68040.
  • Loads .SNA snapshots and [probably] .Z80 snapshots.
  • Allows copying of Spectrum screen to clipboard.
  • No flash attribute emulation.
• PowerSpectum [PowerMAC] Author: Bo Lindbergh [d88-bli@nada.kth.se]
  
  • 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 screen emulation.
  • Runs at true Spectrum speed.
  • Has perfect sound.
  • Does realtime tape I/O (this probably requires 44kHz sound hardware).
  • Supports all undocumented Z80 instructions.
  • Emulates Kempston Joystick.
  • Reads and writes .SNA snapshots.
• xzx [Unix/X] Author: Des Herriott [dnh@mfltd.co.uk]
  
  • Emulates a 48K, 128K, and 3+ Spectrums.
  • Needs approx 486/33 to run at the correct speed (this is from general impressions, not exact timings). Sparc 10 or DEC Alpha will run it very fast.
  • Makes heavy use of the MIT-SHM X11 extension, and works a good deal slower without it.
  • Sound support for Sparc and NEC EWS workstations via /dev/audio. Sound support for Linux via direct speaker manipulation. X server bell audio for most X servers (traps ROM BEEP routine only).
  • Reads and writes .SNA and .Z80 snapshots (including 128K).
  • Emulates Kempston joystick with presettable keys.
  • LOAD/SAVE read and write programs and data to Unix files.
• xz80 [Unix/X] Author: Ian Collier [Ian.Collier@comlab.ox.ac.uk]
  
  • Faster than xzx.
  • True-speed emulation without hogging the CPU on fast machines.
  • Realistic sound output via /dev/audio.
  • ZX Printer emulation.
  • LOAD/SAVE and level-loader hacks installed.
  • No ZX Interface 1 or 128K Spectrum emulation.

The Quantum Leap computer was launched by Sir Clive Sinclair in 1984 and aimed mainly at the business market rather than the games market dominated by Spectrum sales. The QL was (and still is) supplied complete with a suite put together by PSION and including a fully functional wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database and a business graphics programs (bar charts, pie charts etc).
The concept of the QL is to plug in and go. The only extra equipment required to get started is a standard TV and over 10-15 minutes time you are able to start typing.