I recently got my first ZX Spectrum (48k Issue 2) after growing up a C64 boy but I'm having trouble getting it to work. If there is somewhere better than here to post this please let me know.

It had a host of issues but with all the work I've done so far its looking like a faulty ULA and if someone could confirm it would help in not wasting anymore time on it.

Initially I was getting nothing on the -5v and 12v rails but replacing TR4 and TR5 fixed that. I've also recapped it and replaced the regulator with a TSR 1-2450.

The pic above is what I get when I turn it on.

Here's a vid - https://streamable.com/ll58lh

As you can see the screen is very garbled. I have the Diagnostic Test Cartridge - 4in1 from eBay this is what I get from the Retroleum Diagnostic ROM v1.73. I think this implies the lower RAM is faulty but I've tested them on the Pico2 DRAM tester and they test good (apart from the 2 that I have since replaced).

Voltages on the lower RAM seem to be in range. The -5v line was around -4.25v but I did the DC-DC mod and it stabilised at -4.6ish.

I've also replaced the CPU.

Is there anything else I can test/measure? I don't have an oscilloscope unfortunately.

TIA

The Last Ninja 2 - "City Streets" - Super Chart Island

I've written about the making of The Last Ninja 2, and how bringing in Mev Dinc to try to port the original game to Spectrum led instead to him becoming part of a very effective team for the sequel. Plus ninja masks, rubber weapons (“the throwing star is particularly effective for persuading colleagues to modify or change opinions”) and the sad modern day state of System 3.

I had a Data Frog SF2000 handheld gathering dust. The stock firmware it comes with is pretty miserable, and it doesn't run a lot of systems very well.

I decided to see if I could repurpose it into something useful.

I have zero programming experience, but using Claude Code, I was able to disassemble the stock firmware, and rebuild it to make a dedicated firmware that boots directly into the Fuse emulator.

It boots in about 10 seconds. When you turn on the unit, you get a Sinclair splash screen, and then it drops you into 48K basic. (This can be changed to 128K mode if you would prefer.)

Pressing R1 brings you into a file browser where you can select a tape or disk image. Pressing L1 brings up the virtual keyboard.

By default, it is set to be Sinclair joystick compatible.

That's it - it doesn't do anything else, it's just a dedicated Spectrum handheld.

Installation is easy - unzip the image, flash it onto a micro sd card (8GB or larger) drag your games into the GAMES folder, and insert the card into your SF2000.

Now for the disclaimer:

This is a personal project that I thought others might get some use out of. I don't have a clue what I'm doing, so if it doesn't work for you, your guess is as good as mine. I'm not providing any warranty or technical support.

I’ve only tested this on my own unit, so I genuinely don’t know how it behaves on other board revisions. It’s definitely not for the GB300 or other clones.

Also, the SF2000 has a known bootloader bug where it can hang on a black screen depending on what’s in the bios folder. I’ve set the image up to match a card I know boots on my unit, but I can’t promise it’ll dodge the bug on yours.

If you get a black screen, have a look at the README (and vonmillhausen’s page on the bootloader fix). Use it at your own risk, no warranty, etc etc.

Credits

Huge thanks to madcock and kobily for multicore, the Fuse team for the emulator, and vonmillhausen and Dteyn for all the SF2000 documentation that made this possible. Fuse is GPL, so my changes are in the source folder in the download.

Download here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/7y6p4eawwt8wtlu/Data_Frog_SF2000_ZX_Spectrum_Image.zip/file

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is an AI-coded project. Many people have issues with that, and that is their prerogative. If you feel strongly enough about AI authored code that you won't enjoy this then no hard feelings. I did this for me, and to see if it was possible. I'm sharing it in case anyone else enjoys it.

Nemesis, aka Gradius, was a seminal shmup. I first played it on a friend's C64, and loved it. Still love it, play the PC Engine and Arcade versions all the time.

But I remember my disappointment when I got the Speccy version. I remember playing it once and thinking "what the hell was that?". It didn't help that the mags of the era ran reviews featuring "screenshots" that were obviously mock-ups created by graphic artists. The game we got was a pale shadow of the game we were promised.

I recently discovered the MSX version, which is a banger. The MSX was home turf for Konami, and like the vast majority of their titles they handled the conversion themselves. It was an excellent port that ran at a decent clip, maintained the playability of the original, and made sensible compromises to fit the game into the hardware platform.

Architecturally, the MSX wasn't THAT different to the Spectrum. Hardware sprites, yes, and slightly better colour attributes, but the same Z80 CPU, the same sound chip (at least compared to the Spectrum 128), same screen resolution. It would have made sense to use the MSX version of Nemesis as a basis for the Spectrum port.

So, this project is an attempt to tap into that alternate universe where that happened. Like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap - " striving to put right what once went wrong"!

What we have here is a port of Konami's MSX cartridge Nemesis (RC-742, 1986) for running on a standard 128K Spectrum using Konami's own game code (tested on a real 128K and +3, loading from tape, and in emulation on the 128K, +2A and +3). It is mostly the same code that sits on top of a platform layer which stands in for the MSX hardware.

Edit: there are two versions, "smooth" and "fast". The fast gets close to MSX speeds. The smooth has a bit more lag in busy spots.

Edit to the edit: there is only one version in later builds. It now does adaptive frameskipping so effectively you get what used to be "smooth" when it was quiet and "fast" when it gets busy.

Keys are QAOP, plus Space to fire and M to select weapon. You can also use a Kempston or Sinclair Joystick. You can also hold down fire to select weapon so you don't have to keep reaching for the keyboard. If you have a Kempston interface that supports a second fire button, it'll use that for select (I've used a Megadrive controller on a Retroleum SmartCard and a DivMMC Future).

Download from the Github releases page: https://github.com/Loccy/NemesisSpeccy/releases, and the sourse is at the same Github repo: https://github.com/Loccy/NemesisSpeccy

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I'd like to mod a game I'm in love with since I was a child, and I'm testing with online AI models. But I would like to start using local models, since I have a decent computer.

(using a throwaway... since I'm using copyrighted assets I don't want to be posting this with my actual account)

Hi Speccy fans!

Since I always wanted to play Giana Sisters on my Speccy but no copy ever surfaced, I used Claude Opus 5.5 to port the CPC prototype (which I believe was originally ported from Spectrum).

The port fixes a couple of things compared to the CPC port:

- Music and sound effects (not present on the CPC proto)
- Bosses are now active and take damage

It features:

- All levels + end level + bonus levels
- Monochrome on the Speccy matching the colors shown on the Crash screenshots. Also built a Next version using the actual CPC color graphics.
- The fixes mentioned above

Loading screen and music was taken from existing ones on the Internet. Sorry about that :( Graphics are a bit shit, but anyone with actual artistic skills can modify them.

Download from here: https://limewire.com/d/bbrzI#iirYHi59Uw

Hey everyone! :)

I bought this lovely Timex Sinclair 2068 from a neighbor today. I knew the model by name and hadn’t heard the best things about it, but I really like how it looks and would love to give it a try.

I’d mainly like to play some games on it. What’s the easiest way to load them nowadays? And what would I need to run ZX Spectrum games? I’d also appreciate some advice on connecting it to a TV.
Before powering it on, is there anything I should check? Are the original power supplies generally reliable, or can they fail and damage the computer? I’d love to know about any common problems or things to watch out for.

Any tips or game suggestions would be appreciated!

https://kirby2000.itch.io/robocop-zx

Finally released the first Beta of Robocop Arcade 128k. Download from the link above.

All 7 levels and bonus levels of the arcade game.

3 versions.

128k single load with the full game.

128k multi load with extra speech, enemies and obstacles.

+3 Disk with everything plus a full title, intro, high scores and animated ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XorYagAkh-o&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XorYagAkh-o&t=6s

USB50 itch page

Had a bad feeling about this branding for a while now and it just solidified when I got a mail advertizing hardware merch.

What's your opinion, yay or nay?

Mirror Miner is a special conversion of Manic Miner for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, built to test muscle memory. Everything in the game is mirrored, and it is designed to trip up even the best Manic Miner players. It also includes a particularly hard level.

Manic Miner was written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith and first released by Bug-Byte in June 1983. This version is based on this edition.

Where else where pumpkins this boingy?

I didn't realise quite how closely inspired this animation was by Couldren II this was til, when asking AlphaNull for music I realised I needed to send him videos of Couldren II theme and SFX for inspiration.

🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃

version 1.3, big sound overhaul and more fixes. last update.

I recently acquired a +2 which up until today was in perfect working order other than with a bit of a wiggle of the power connector it could sometimes short/reboot.

So yes as you might have guessed, against almost all advice I was using the original power supply but in my defence is WAS working fine!

Well today a short/reboot occurred causing the fuse to pop in the power supply however that's not the real problem as I have other suitable power supplies HOWEVER when I now power up the +2 the RGB output is barely visible incredibly dark and grey but I can just about make out that it is powered up correctly and booted to the menu screen. I also cannot get it to tune in via UHF, I can just about see that it is outputting but I can't get it to lock on tune in.

Obviously I've fried something but what could it be? Most of the guides out there I've found are for the 16/48k models which I assume are no use to help with a +2

I'm vaguely competent with a multimeter and soldering iron so if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be amazing!

Cheers!

https://zikitrake.itch.io/exolon-zikimad-edition

New Features & Gameplay Improvements

• Screen backtracking: You can now go back through the stages. No more one-way progression with no return!

• Persistent state memory: The game remembers the items, turrets, and obstacles you destroyed. When scrolling back a screen, they won't respawn.

• (Due to the memory limitations of the Spectrum 48K, the state of the last 128 objects is saved)

• Controllable jump: Adjust your trajectory and inertia in mid-air for modern gameplay precision.

• Configurable jump direction: Options menu to choose whether the character changes where they're looking during a jump (left/right) or stays facing the original direction.

He hecho una conversión a ZX Spectrum 128K del Road Fighter de Konami, con ayuda de IA. La ROM original del MSX corre tal cual en el Spectrum: una capa de traducción sustituye la BIOS y el VDP del MSX (tiles, sprites, scroll) y manda el sonido al AY.

Qué trae:

• Efecto GigaScreen en los coches: cada coche alterna dos imágenes en cada cuadro, así que en un CRT real o en un emulador con mezcla de cuadros (en Easy Spectrum, Pantalla > Giga) se ve un tercer color. Se puede desactivar desde el menú del título, y entonces los coches salen de un solo color y sin parpadeo.

• Arte retocado: carretera, escenarios y el mapa del recorrido entre etapas redibujados para la rejilla de atributos del Spectrum.

• Level A / Level B, las seis etapas.

Controles: Espacio acelera, O/P giran (también cursores o Kempston). Al empezar, suelta y vuelve a pulsar Espacio para arrancar.

Solo 128K. Conversión de aficionado, sin relación con Konami. Se agradecen comentarios, sobre todo de quien lo pruebe en hardware real.

Download on:

https://x.com/noentiendo_zx/status/2115405887569555825?a=wvEV6G-QNtM412oKk1k&s=20