Jonathan Needle - ZX Planet :: Spectrum Heaven!

Spectaculator is the world's premier Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulator for PCs running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000 and XP.

This program and all its support software is distributed as Freeware and comes with absolutely no warranty.

Spectaculator has the following features:

Play your favourite Sinclair ZX Spectrum games on your PC.
Play full screen or in a window, complete with TV-style picture on your monitor.
High fidelity 48K ZX Spectrum sound. Will even play the multi-channel music on games such as Fairlight and Arkanoid correctly.
Choose Kempston, Cursor, Fuller, or Sinclair Interface II joysticks and use your PC game pads to play (up to two players simultaneously). Any supported joystick can be emulated through the PC keyboard's arrow, tab and right alt keys.
Kempston and AMX mouse emulation.
Recording and playback of action replays (.rzx files)
Supports SNA and Z80 snapshot formats (loading and saving).
Support for virtual audio cassettes (TAP and TZX files):

and much much more.

Spectaculator the Windows based Spectrum emulator

Interview by Mark (ZX Planet site contributor and Piratemorgan webmaster)

Thanks to Jonathan for taking part in this interview.

Spectaculator running Head over Heels

Mark	Hi Jonathan, I'm a contributor to the Spectrum website ZX Planet - we've got an interviews section on there and I was hoping you might kindly answer the following questions for us to post on that section of our site! For the record, I personally think yours is the greatest emulator bar none (flattery gets you everywhere, eh?) Anyway, here goes with the questions, hope you don't mind!
Jonathan	Sure, no problem :)
Mark	When did you first own a Spectrum Computer and have you still got it?
Jonathan	I got my original 48k rubber speccy at Christmas '83. I've still got it along with a toast rack 128, a +3 and 2 further rubber 48ks.
Mark	What made you decide to code a Spectrum emulator - there's a lot out there now?
Jonathan	During my final year at Uni ('94), I saw Peter McGavin's Spectrum 1.7 on the Amiga which ran a treat on my A4000/030. I started writing my own emulator shortly afterwards but abandoned it as I didn't have the time.
Mark	How long have you been in the Spectrum emulation scene?
Jonathan	Depends what you mean. I originally saw JPP on a mate's machine at Uni sometime in '93. After completing my degree, I lost interest until I saw zx32 in the spring of 2001.I thought it was quite good, but had dated somewhat and had been abandoned by the author. The sound also never worked properly on any of my machines :( What I really wanted was Microdrive support as I had a bunch of old programs on carts I wanted to recover. I looked at Z80/WinZ80 but then decided to write my own. I started working on the emulation core for Spectaculator around June 2001 (after getting back from honeymoon!)
Mark	Are there any other projects you are working on, either Spectrum based or otherwise?
Jonathan	Not at the moment. Spectaculator currently takes all my free time.
Mark	Do you have further plans for the Spectaculator emulator?
Jonathan	Version 6.0 will have an integrated debugger.
Mark	Which areas of the emulator do you feel can be improved in the future?
Jonathan	Improvements will probably come in the form of new features. I'm really happy with the current state of the existing features.
Mark	Do you have an opinion that your willing to share, regards the legalities of playing emulated games?
Jonathan	I'm in agreement with this: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/permits/. We should strive to get as many free distribution agreements from software authors and publishers as possible.
Mark	What is your favourite game?
Jonathan	Starquake
Mark	And your favourite software house?
Jonathan	Hewson.
Mark	Have you ever created software for any machine other than the PC?
Jonathan	Spectrum (of course) & Amiga.
Mark	What did you find was the toughest part of the emulation process?
Jonathan	Tracking down why the odd game didn't work properly without a debugger.
Mark	Has your emulator been on any magazine cover discs, or will it be in the future?
Jonathan	It was on the May 2003 issue of LEVEL in Romania. It was also 'emulator of the month' in PC Zone last year.
Mark	Have you played any Spectrum game remakes?
Jonathan	Sabre Wulf & Lunar Jetman. Lunar Jetman is the business ;-)
Mark	How many people helped to write Spectaculator?
Jonathan	Just me but people certainly helped with bug reports, technical information (Mark Woodmass in particular) and suggestions. I am, of course, very indebted to all the people that contributed to the comp.sys.sinclair FAQ.
Mark	Why is Spectaculator the best?
Jonathan	Excellent emulation, vast array of features and an excellentGUI. The GUI part is probably what makes it stand out. I wanted to write an emulator that everyone could use without needing a degree in Computer Science or something. Most emulators are still written by techies for techies :( Even my Dad can open Spectaculator, load up Manic Miner, and start playing ;-)
Mark	THANKS for your time, we really appreciate it! Can we pop a link to your home page on our site (don't worry we'll not hotlink any downloads!) - plus we'd love anyone to link to our Forum...
Jonathan	Sure, put a link on there.
Mark	Once again, thanks (in anticipation) for helping, and thanks for a great emulator!!!
Jonathan	No probs, nice speaking with you.
Mark	If you haven't downloaded Spectaculator yet then i suggest you head over there NOW and get playing those classics: http://www.spectaculator.com/