Emulators
An emulator is a program which reproduces the behaviour of one computing platform while running on another.
There are a wide variety of emulators for Sinclair machines.
List of emulators
A more complete list can be found at WoS; many of the links here point to the WoS archive.
Multiplatform
Fuse (Free Unix Spectrum Emulator) by Philip Kendall.
Despite the name, also runs on non-Unix systems including Windows and Mac OS X.
- Fuse homepage.
- Fuse for Windows last version
- Linux Flathub/Flatpak download
- Fuse for macOS homepage, last version
- Fuse source code repository, libspectrum source code repository, fuse-utils source code repository; both Fuse and fuse-utils require libspectrum, but fuse-utils is optional. Your vendor/distribution may have a packaged version; the Fuse home page has links to some unofficial packages.
- Wikipedia article.
ZEsarUX by Cesar Hernandez Bano.
A ZX Machines Emulator for UNIX based operating systems (and Windows), including all the Sinclair computers (from MK14 to Z88) and also Timex, Sam Coupe, Pentagon, ZX-Uno, ZX-Evo (BaseConf and TS-Conf), NEXT and Jupiter Ace.
JSpeccy by José Luis Sánchez. Written in Java.
Xpeccy by Samstyle.
Speccy by Marat Fayzullin.
Unrealspeccy Portable by djdron.
Spiffy by Edward Cree.
- Spiffy repository
- Available as source, and binaries for Linux and Windows, and can be compiled for Mac OS X.
- Windows binaries are built by Guesser.
Windows
SpecEmu by Mark Woodmass. Freeware.
- Runs on anything from 95 onwards.
- No longer under active development.
- Latest version *Dead link*
Zero by Arjun Nair. Freeware.
- Requires Windows XP and above.
- Homepage
- Source code repository
ZX Spin by Paul Dunn. Freeware.
- Runs on anything from 95 onwards.
- No longer under active development.
- Last stable version
- Experimental version with ULAplus support
BASin by Paul Dunn. Not strictly an emulator, but a Spectrum BASIC Development environment.
- No longer under active development.
- Last stable version
- Experimental version with ULAplus support
Spectaculator by Jonathan Needle. Shareware.
- Runs on XP and above (older versions for 9x onwards exist).
- Spectaculator home page
Spud by Richard Chandler. Freeware
LnxSpectrum by Lanex. Freeware. Also a Spectrum development environment. The only MB03+ emulator. A lot of advanced interfaces, RTC, SAA, Turbosound, DMA, experimental HGFX and LnxBLitter. Needs a modern Windows PC setup.
RealSpectrum by Ramsoft.
- Originally DOS-based, runs on XP and older.
- No longer officially available.
Linux
FBZX by Rastersoft.
SimCoupe by Simon Owen.
Game Consoles
ZXDS by Patrik Rak.