spectrum-next-fun

My explorations of the ZX Spectrum Next. These instructions are for Windows, Linux instructions to come.

Project contents

fullPalleteView (WIP)

A Spectrum Next program that let's you scroll through the entire colour palette of the Spectrum Next - i.e. all 512 colours from the 9 bit palette. This is intended to be a Spectrum Next 'port' of https://9bit-colour.pages.dev/ and evolve along with it.

loadPng

This Spectrum Next program loads a PNG image onto the Spectrum Next using Layer2. To prepare the image, use src\tools\pngDump.py.

tools\pngDump.py

This tool takes supported PNG images and generates palette and image data binary files, formatted in a way that is relatively easy to load onto the Spectrum Next (see program loadPng). Only 320x256 palatted images are supported.

Setup / build / run instructions

Python tools

Setup

• Python3 installed on the machine
• go to the .\src\tools folder and run pip install -r requirements.txt

Running

• from .\src\tools\ folder run python .\pngDump.py --help to see usage instructions

Spectrum programs

Pre-setup

An sd card image is required in the checkout. This is used for the emulator. These instructions taken from the CSpect readme:

• The sd card image should be in .\next-sd-card
  • when finished, there should be these files in the folder: diskimage.img, enNextNZ.rom and enNxtmmc.rom
• You can get a pre-made image here: http://www.zxspectrumnext.online/cspect/ unzip this file - and the contained ROM files - into the image folder
• Or you can make an image yourself
  • Get a Spectrum Next SD card, either by using your existing card or
    • Download the latest SD card from https://www.specnext.com/category/downloads/ or
    • Copy onto an SD card
  • Copy the files enNextZX.rom and enNxtmmc.rom from the SD Card into the image folder (on my card these are in \machines\next)
  • Use an imager (e.g. Win32DiskImager https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/) to make an .img file of the SD card and put it in the image folder. This file should be called diskimage.img
  • Note that taking an image of an SD card >= 16GB seems to cause issues so I use the pre-made image

Setup

To setup, these tools all need to be installed into the .\SpectrumToolchain folder:

• sjasmplus (assembler), which can be found here: https://github.com/z00m128/sjasmplus
  • note there is a zipped install that can be downloaded, no need to build
  • put the install in .\SpectrumToolchain\sjasmplus
• hdfmonkey (tool to work with FAT disk images)
  • can be found here: https://github.com/gasman/hdfmonkey
  • I can't remember how I built this and all links to download an exe seem to be dead, so there is one in the prebuilt folder.
  • put hdfmonkey.exe in .\SpectrumToolchain
• CSpect (emulator), which can be found here: https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect
  • unzip the install contents into .\SpectrumToolchain\CSpect

Other useful tools:

• Z80 Macro Assembler VS Code extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mborik.z80-macroasm

Build

• Make sure there is a .\build folder
• Open any file in the folder containing the main.asm file to be built (e.g. .\src\loadPng\foo.bar)
• Run the Build command in vs code (ctrl+shift+B > Build)
• This will create .\build\test.nex

Install

• This will add .\build\test.nex to the disk image in .\next-sd-card
• Run the Copy task (ctrl+shift_P > Type task > Run task > select Copy)

Emulate

• This will run the emulator using the disk image in .\next-sd-card
• Run the Launch CSpect task (ctrl+shift+P > Type task > Run task > select Launch CSpect)
• CSpect is a little hard to use, read the .\SpectrumToolchain\CSpect\ReadMe.txt for instructions
  • The emulator starts paused, to run press F1
  • From there you can use the Spectrum Next browser to find the test.nex file and run it
  • To pause, hit F1 again which will drop you in the emulator view

Run

• Copy the test.nex file from .\build to your (real) Spectrum Next SD card