EMULATOR REVIEW - X128 V0.92
Rob takes a look at another SPectrum emulator. If he doesn't load up every one of his thousands of games and can drag himself away from them then there will be a review... I think! |
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Review:
X128 V0.92 X128 is a Spectrum emulator for DOS by xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx. Emulated is the Spectrum 48 and 128 along with clones such as the Pentagon and Scorpion machines. Unlike ZX32, this one is for DOS and covers a much larger range of hardware along with a huge amount of image files and snapshots. Along with the normal SNA (Mirage Microdriver and Sam Coupe format) and Z80 (Gert Lunter’s original speccy emulator) snaps, TAP, TZX (genuine crunched tape image) and TRD (TR-DOS disk image for, I believe, the Pentagon Spectrum clones). This covers about 99% of all Speccy images out there so you shouldn’t have problems locating a lost classic. While there isn’t a genuine 50hx refresh rate, as it is a DOS app it can be tweaked using SDD. There is the usual support for Spectrum Joystick interfaces and the whole menu system feels very like Massage the Master System Emulater. If you’ve used that then this will feel very familiar. Also present is emulation of TR-DOS and Multiface II add-ons. Loading of tape images is pretty simple once you get used to it. While TAP files load practically immediately, TZX images load at the same speed as a real sSpectrum! While this enhances the nostalgia factor of the emulator (some of the TZXs I got even had loading errors!), the joy wears very thin very quickly. Thankfully you have a ‘Loading Speed’ option for speeding up (and slowing down if your sadistic) the emulation during tape loading. This is very clever code as it seems to cope with whatever custom loader is thrown at it. Plenty of brownie points! Overall, if you want a Spectrum emulator for DOS which has more features than you can shake a stick at, this is quite definitely your bag. Baby! 9/10 Not much need for improvement apart from a Vsync and any other image formats not supported. The best! Coagulus / Rob |