Rating:  4.0 / 5 

 Available for Windows - SpecEmu Homepage

This emulator looks very complete and is being supported and updated. I first installed and had a play with SpecEmu some years ago when I upgraded to Windows XP, and it was my favourite for a long time, and was only because of my fault that I stopped using it. It emulates nearly as many machines as ZX Spin, and to be honest, emulates the most important ones anyway - the 48K, 128K or +2 and the +3.

SpecEmu has a nice clean audio output and had no driver or directx problems. I had no problems using it as a spectrum within seconds as well, as by default when it starts, it boots into the 48K spectrum. There you can load practically any games into it - without problems. There is video & audio output available to external files, although the video output is merely a group of bitmaps, and the audio a raw WAV file.

The emulator has the ability, even, to emulate the different keyboards of the first ZX Spectrum series 1/2 & 3. This is useful for certain - much older games. The emulator can also load tapes in real-time as well as Flashload & Edge-Detection - for added speed. On trying a few games from this website, SpecEmu coped perfectly, without fault. My +2 test of Jetpac, did in fact reset the machine as expected. =) There is also a debug mode and a menu item to enter POKEs into the spectrum much like the Multiface enabled with the original micros. In fact, pressing F5, even emulates a Multiface 128. Over all a very faithful reproduction of the Spectrum, although I did notice issues with the keys not being recognised, usually when a game starts, and also problems when turning on "VSync" in the options which interfered with the speed of the emulation - speeding up and slowing down. Also, unlike other Spectrum emulators, this one does not emulate any of the joystick systems popular with the Sinclair. File formats supported are the SZX, Z80, SNA & SP snapshot formats, the TAP, TZX, CSW & PZX tape formats & the +3 didks formats DSK, TRD & SCL as well as an obscure ROM format for the Interface II.

Machines Emulated: Spectrum (16K & 48K - issue 2/3), 128K, +2, +3, Pentagon 128 (Clone) & Timex TC2048 (Official Clone)

SpecEmu V 2.6 Download