ZXBaremulator | Bare Metal Spectrum Emulator Running on Pi1!

[@RetroRecollections]

Thanks for watching! This is a great piece of software that boots to the ZX Spectrum in just seconds thanks to "bare metal" programming there is no operating system to get in the way! I am going to have hours of fun with this and if you (like a lot of people) have an older raspberry pi sitting in a drawer then do yourself a favour and install this and put it to good use! 👍

[@Wallygjs]

What was the link to ZX Spectrum overlay, I went there but it took me to Alex Murphy's home page and I couldn't immediately see anything to do with the Spectrum?

[@Wallygjs]

Actually, did some searching and found it I think: retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7907/does-anyone-have-a-good-zx-spectrum-overlay Is this what you were linking to?

[@Carl_Thompson]

Any news of when support for Pi4 is out? I can't find anything and I bought a Pi4 last month and thought this would be a good project until .... DOH

[@RetroRecollections]

@@Wallygjs The link to the overlay is in the description. Sorry didn't get notified of your question for some reason.

[@RetroRecollections]

@@Carl_Thompson The Pi4 is different enough to stall a lot of projects that run on earlier models. To be fair I doubt this will ever be ported to the Pi4, it's way too overpowered for this. Pick up a cheap Pi1 and you are good to go. 👍

[@idea1407]

Great video. One comment. I actually just formatted my SD card and copied all files to it. Then I put in in my Pi Zero w and it booted! It's amazing.

[@timwald2498]

Great use of an old Raspberry Pie

[@unlokia]

Gosh you’re a very calm, sincere and genuine bloke; I sense you’re very kind and peaceful. That’s why I’ve subbed. GOD bless❤ you.

[@andrewb9830]

Just pulled out an old RPi 1 and put ZXBaremulator on there also. Being an NA person and growing up with the C64, the Spectrum was an unknown until decades later when the retro bug hit me and I got curious. These bare metal emulators are great at bringing things so close to the real thing. I now have this sitting next to my BCM64 on my retro desk. Thanks for the video which gave me a few "getting started" hints.

[@RetroRecollections]

You're welcome, glad it was helpful to you 👍

[@Wallygjs]

Like you I have a couple of older Pi's that got replaced by newer models so this looks like a brilliant use of them. Thanks for posting this up.

[@AdamSommer70]

Awesome! Didn't know about ZXBaremulator, thanks for the great video.

[@JoseLuisSanchez-kx7fj]

Thank you for your extensive and kind ZXBaremulator analysis. Really, to install it on a SD you only need to get an empty SDCard formatted with FAT32 and uncompress the allfiles.zip file into it. Et voilà!. When you have any problem with ZXBaremulator, don't hesitate to ask me. :) Thank you again. ;)

[@RetroRecollections]

Thank you for your hard work! It is a fantastic project 👍 I did actually do it that way at first but it would not boot. I am not sure why. Overwriting the LibreELEC install did the trick for me.

[@pandoraefretum]

This is how I installed it (just copied allfiles.zip onto a blank SD). It's great. One thing... can I save anything ? I don't understand ZX Interface 1 usage (Alt F9).. it just crashes on me ! Please help !! thanks and thumbs up

[@JoseLuisSanchez-kx7fj]

@@pandoraefretum The SAVE feature was planned, but not implemented by now. In F9 you have a Multiface interface, that allow to put POKEs on games or examine the memory. Isn't an Interface 1. You can find the Multifac instructions in worldofspectrum.

[@stephengow]

@@JoseLuisSanchez-kx7fj Save function would be awesome

[@Just_lift_anyone]

Man, my Pi3 has found a new lease of life, thank you for this great guide!

[@zedmanatutube]

nice, i might have to do this

[@RetroRecollections]

Definitely do if you have a spare Pi lying around :)

[@joubinzargarbashi6545]

btw, happy birthday to Sir Sinclair who became 80 yesterday 🎂 😌

[@martinclark1411]

email from the author when i wrote to him said he would no longer develop it as the user base was so small, however this a few videos recently that suggest to me its gaining popularity and of course would even more so if further developed. please, please, please...............

[@aukondk]

I put a pi zero inside a replica 48k case and wired up the GPIO pins to the keyboard a couple of years ago. I did look at this emulator but it only worked with USB keyboards back then. I may have to give this another go.

[@RetroRecollections]

Fantastic. I am tempted to pick up a faulty Spectrum and do that. Only issue you will have is that this emulator does not support audio over HDMI on Pi1 and Zero.

[@aukondk]

@@RetroRecollections Yeah. I'm pondering if I should replace the Zero with my spare Pi1 to use the 3.5mm jack. Either that or configure audio to come from the GPIO pins (which requires building an RC filter) Either way, I'm happy to revisit this project. Blog post I did originally: bluedrava.com/2018/06/pi-spectrum/

[@JoseLuisSanchez-kx7fj]

@@aukondk You can't get sound using GPIO pins on PI Zero because many GPIO pins are devoted to real ZX keyboard handling. I'm sorry.

[@welshrob1703]

Great video and I'll be pulling my pi out of the draw to do this for sure . Is it possible to hook up a tape deck for that real authentic load - I have a few games that I created as a boy and would love to be able to load them in again.

[@HomeGameCoder]

I'm sad because the guy abandoned the projects. SAVE " " is still missing, and will never be implementes. It is sad :(

[@walterg74]

Really sucks that it does not work on the Pi400

[@richiemills7]

Great video! Having lots of fun with this. Do you have any idea if there is a "safe shutdown" feature within the software here, rather than just pulling power? I'd hate to corrupt my SD card. I am running a Pi Zero 2 W. Cheers...Richie.

[@RetroRecollections]

I don't think so, I think you're supposed to just cut the power.

[@methanoid]

Great video. Have you come across any other bare metal emulators?

[@Patrick-sp6zu]

I just love the fact this boots up so fast. I want to build this in a real zx spectrum rubber key case and thanks to your video I now know what to expect. Thank you! Great video. Unfortunately there's no sound on a Raspberry Pi zero W. I wanted to use that because it's fast enough for ZX spectrum emulation. It's small and powerconsumption is very low which is great if I want to add a battery. But since sound over HDMI is not an option on a Pi Zero and a Pi zero does not have a headphone jack, I need to use a RPI 2 which is fine too. I just hope it will fit my case, because a Pi2 is higher. The only real drawback I see is the lack of Z80 file support. Am I correct I can only load tap/tzx images, so no Z80 files? Also is instant loading not possible? I see in your video an option to choose high and original loading speed. But exactly how fast is high speed?

[@RetroRecollections]

Thanks. I need to revisit this to see if there have been any developments but at the time of making the video those were the limitations. Great idea of putting the pi in a spectrum case 👍🏻

[@Huddison]

I've only recently discovered this emulator & very much enjoying it on my Pi3 - any idea of how to force sound through the Audio Jack (rather then over HMDI) on the Pi3?

[@RetroRecollections]

I’m not 100% sure but there is likely a setting in the configuration file for that. Best check with the GitHub for the project.

[@mustafasuleman1401]

Add this line to config txt:. hdmi_ignore_edid_audio=1

[@Huddison]

@@mustafasuleman1401 Wonderful - thanks!

[@8tpercent]

Thanks for the video, just one thing, how do I get the overly graphic setup, I've seen you can download it but what you do next with overlay graphic? Thank You!

[@TanjoGalbi]

The Raspberry Pi B+ is not the original Raspberry Pi! 🤣🤣 For starters, the B came before the B+ and then there was the A model before that. 😛

[@joubinzargarbashi6545]

Hi, thanks for the nice video. I used a RP1 and hdmi, plus audio out to set this up. I am a bit disappointed to see slow downs in more complicated moments of games and sound chopping (or completely gone sound again in a more complex scene) is it something that you also experienced? it’s a shame I thought this would be a good replacement for my ZX but so far not!

[@RetroRecollections]

No problem 👍🏻 I haven’t had any issues or slow downs that I can recall. Hopefully it will get optimised in the future.

[@joubinzargarbashi6545]

Retro Recollections yes some ui improvement and saving capabilities would be welcome!

[@joubinzargarbashi6545]

Retro Recollections btw, the game is blade alley. really a nice one! I had recently tried it on my zx. the slowdown in emulators happen when you hit a target. but in baremulator the sound was also cut off at that moment,

[@joubinzargarbashi6545]

the issue was only present when using usb keyboard. using usb controller resolved the issue! 👍

[@RetroRecollections]

Joubin Zargarbashi Awesome! 👍🏻

[@anthonyleedickinson3491]

Hi do u have links to comador and amstrad versions please. I wouldn't mind trying them too. Thanks

[@nigerideout6662]

How do you safely shut down the raspberry Pi??????? after use

[@RetroRecollections]

Just unplug it :)

[@nigerideout6662]

@@RetroRecollections oh ok wont that corrupt the sd card?? By the way its a fantastic emulator and thanks so much for your video

[@RetroRecollections]

@@nigerideout6662 Thanks. No you should be fine as the bare metal OS is designed to be shut down old skool like old micros of the day.

[@nigerideout6662]

@@RetroRecollections excellent thanks for replying so quick, just need a c64 now

[@robhuanout5443]

Is it possible to dual boot with this OS? Say I want to be able to select from Raspian to zxbaremulator?

[@sotikmaster]

класс

[@kyubiplay]

Is It possible to do on old laptops?

[@RetroRecollections]

No this is for the raspberry Pi - for old laptops just install a good Spectrum emulator over the existing OS.

[@jandoor2068]

After using the amazing BMC64 (Bare Metal C64) I must say ZXBaremulator is horrendously user unfriendly - Space to select a file?!?! No settings options for changing screenmodes, aspect ratio, overscan etc, no way of changing joystick layout etc. It's a shame as this would be a worthwhile emulator is some time was taken to revamp the terrible front end. :(