FBZX, the Spectrum emulator for FrameBuffer

FBZX Current version: 2.4.1

FBZX is a Sinclair Spectrum emulator, designed to work at full screen using the FrameBuffer or under X-Windows. Its main features are:

emulates acurately the Original spectrum (both issue 2 and issue 3), the classic 128K, the Amstrad Plus 2, the Amstrad Plus 2A and the Spanish 128K. This include screen, keyboard and sound (both speaker and AY-3-8912 chip).
Screen emulation is extremely acurate, so it can emulate border efects and even atribute efects.
Supports Z80 snapshots, both loading and saving, and loading .SNA snapshots.
Supports TAP (both read and write) and TZX (only read) tape files, supporting normal speed loading and fast speed loading.
Emulates joysticks: kempston, cursor and sinclair.
Emulates the Interface I and Microdrive.
Based in a new, fully free, Z80 emulator (Z80Free).
Is distributed under GPLv3 license.

FBZX uses the SDL libpulse0 and libasound2 libraries, so you need them to be able to run the emulator (unless you recompile it; in that case you can choose which of them to use).

History of versions

Version 2.4.1 (2010-03-15)
Ensured compatibility with 64bit systems
Version 2.4.0 (2010-02-21)
Fixed a bug in SNA loader (thanks to Jose Luis)
Added a DC filter in PulseAudio sound, to avoid losing the sound when mixing with other audio sources (thanks to Paul N)
Added a help message at startup
Version 2.3.0
Support for PulseAudio sound daemon.
Allows to selectively compile the sound backends (OSS, ALSA and/or PulseAudio).
Version 2.2.0
Improved emulation, thanks to the use of Z80 tests from Fuse.
Version 2.1b
Renamed directory roms in the TAR.BZ2 package to spectrum-roms, to allow FBZX to run from a local directory, without needing to install it globally (DEB package with version 2.1 works fine, so has not been replaced).
Version 2.1
Changed the ROM format for compatibility with files in Debian package SPECTRUM-ROMS
Added new icon (thanks to Paulo Silva)
Version 2.0
Finally 100% free code, thanks to a new Z80 emulator written from scratch.
Emulates the Spanish 128K (thanks to J. Baltasar)
Can use ALSA or OSS to sound output
Stores the volume settings
Can be run from the local directory, without installing in /usr
Fixed a bug in the sound with some soundcards
Version 1.10
Allows to switch between window and fullscreen mode (thanks to Marcin Bukat).
Added a TURBO mode to load TZX files faster (thanks again to Marcin Bukat).
Shows FBZX as window title.
Version 1.9
Now stores the current mode (spectrum type, joystick...) and restores it the next time is launched.
Allows to close the emulator by clicking on the X button in the window bar.
Allows to put the screen in "double scanline" mode.
If it can't gain access to the sound, it will start without it, instead of failing.
Version 1.8
Fixed a bug when loading .Z80 snapshots
Added support for .SNA snapshots
Added support for Joysticks
Now creates an entry in the GNOME/KDE menus
Can load snapshots or tapes from the command line
Allows to asociate to it the file extensions .SNA, .Z80, .TAP and TZX so you can load games just clicking over the file.
Version 1.7
Fixed a bug in the creation of 128K snapshots
Fixed the memory access ports in 128K mode
Version 1.6
Fixed an stupid bug that can crash FBZX
Added support for rotated, 480x640 screens (like PDAs)
Direct support for 8, 16, 24 and 32 bpp (more performance)
Added contended memory emulation
Added support for ',' and '.' keys
Added FullScreen mode in XWindows
Added a picture with the keyboard layout
Added support for computers without function keys
Asks for confirmation before exiting
Fixed the version number
Version 1.5
Direct compilation under BIG ENDIAN arquitectures (eg. PowerPC).
Version 1.4
Added the hability to create .TAP files and save to them.
Added Interface I and Microdrive emulation (read and write).
Added emulation of Delete key.
Added emulation of SNOW effect.
Fixed a little bug in the fast-TAP loader.
Fixed a speed problem when used without sound.
Version 1.3
Better support for TZX files
Version 1.2
Added support for TZX tape files.
Fixed a bug in the file selector.
Added right emulation of register R.
Added a digital low-pass filter to enhace the 48K sound.
Version 1.1
Changed all the sound arquitecture. Now works directly with OSS instead the SDL layer. This allows to fix a sincronization problem and some glitches in the sound.
Now can be run without sound (you can use it in a box without sound card).
Version 1.0.1
Very little fixes to remove some innocent warnings during compilation. Thanks to Philip Kendall.
Version 1.0
First public release.

Download section

Click here to download FBZX version 2.4.1 (32 bits) in DEB format (95 KBytes).

Click here to download FBZX version 2.4.1 (64 bits) in DEB format (101 Kbytes).

Click here to download SPECTRUM-ROMS, version of December 24, 2008; needed when installing FBZX from the DEB package (not when installed from TAR.BZ2 package) (314 KBytes).

Click here to download the source code of FBZX in TAR.BZ2 (282 Kbytes).