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Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 4:02 pm
by darius
I'm looking for a good Spectrum emulator to play adventure games on which runs in Ubuntu Linux. It's okay if it costs money as long as it is easy to use and everything just works. The emulator that comes with Ubuntu (xspect a.k.a. spectemu) is so-so to use as long as the game is one part only. As soon as you have to save in one game-part to load in another it is practically impossible to use.

Any recommendations? (please remember Ubuntu, not Windows)

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:17 pm
by Mr Creosote
I use SPECTEMU all the time. It follows the KISS principle which makes it very easy to use for me. Of course, if you're used to wasting your time with a mouse, it can be quite daunting ;)

A commercial emulator (which I haven't used, so I can't say how good it is) is XZX.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:31 am
by darius
I have nothing against Spectemu per se and I have even enjoyed a few adventure games on it; I just cannot seem to be able to play multipart games on it. Have you managed to do that? I.e. load part one and play, save a game-state, load part two and restore the game-state from part one. Robin of Sherlock is such a game; Big Sleaze might be another.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:52 pm
by Mr Creosote
No, didn't need to do that so far. Do you need to save the emulator state or something on a virtual tape file to continue the game? Both is supported by the emulator in theory (I'm saying "in theory" because I haven't really tried it myself). Saving a snapshot is 6.3, saving to a tape file is section 8.3 of the README file.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:08 pm
by darius
I don't think it is an emulator state I'm talking about, but actually saving inside the game then loading again. Imagine entering SAVE in the game and RESTORE again. Then imagine entering SAVE in one game, starting another game and entering RESTORE to load the saved game. Some multi-part Quilled games work like that.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 6:57 pm
by Mr Creosote
Yes, that's definitely "saving to a tape file". The tricky part, I think, is that you need to tell the emulator to start recording at the right point of time. Just like you'd press the appropriate buttons on a physical tape drive.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:54 am
by darius
Thanks for the tips and for the link to the manual. I'll try it out next time I'm playing.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:01 pm
by darius
Hey, guess what. I just managed to load a saved game from part 1 into part 2. As you said, there's a difference between loading snapshots and loading stuff "from tape". Thanks for the help and the encouragement.

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 8:40 am
by Mr Creosote
Glad you got it working!

Re: Recommendations of Spectrum emulator for Ubuntu

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:42 pm
by terri
This is unique to linux. Happens in other systems as well.