Q-emuLator 4.2 for Windows

 Q-emuLator 4.2 is out. It is now possible to use Windows drag and drop to associate container files or directories to microdrive slots:

The BEEP command is a constant source of tweaks and this time I have also found and fixed a bug in some upward glissandos and improved the frequency accuracy of complex trills. A new 'Room Ambience' option makes the sound less dry.

The "Ext. ROMs" section of the QL Configuration window (corresponding to expansion ROMs at address $C0000 and up) now accepts ROMs of up to 256 KB.

At QL Speed, expanded RAM is now faster than the standard 128 KB QL RAM and runs at a speed comparable to Miracle Expanderam 512K and Sandy Super Q board.

For developers, the debugger has a "profile" command that collects machine code profiling information when running at QL Speed. Call it twice to start/stop collection.

Q-emuLator 4.1

 Q-emuLator 4.1 has a new GPU graphics engine that uses less CPU and adds optional scanline and monitor persistence effects.

Variable pixel ratio - a feature requested by many users - is finally available. It allows  MODE 4 pixels to appear square at the expense of a squished image.

   

The built-in debugger now supports the 'step out' command and allows using the mouse to toggle breakpoints and inspect stack traces.

Q-emuLator 4.0 for Windows

Version 4.0 of Q-emuLator has been released for Windows 7 SP1 and later.

Extensive research went into making the CPU emulation cycle-accurate (also simulating its interaction with the ZX8301 video ULA and the 8049 coprocessor), creating a new lower-level format for microdrive images and studying the hardware of the ICL One Per Desk computer (a cousin of the QL).

Q-emuLator 4 also adds emulation of the QSound interface (3 sound channels), can run the pre-existing extended graphics modes inside a window, includes an improved ram disk driver and has more extensive debugging capabilities

For the nostalgic, there are monochrome monitor colour options and simulation of the microdrive motor and tape noise.

The overall experience of running the emulator should be smoother, with new features like default directories for ROMs/software/configurations, reduced audio latency, a Pause command (Windows-Alt-P), auto CPU speed setting, ability to create new empty MDV, MDVRAW, QXL.WIN and IMG file containers.

The manual has been updated and expanded and there are now an online troubleshooting page and a 'check for updates' command.

For a more detailed list of everything that's new in version 4, see this web page.

Q-emuLator 2.2 for macOS

Q-emuLator for macOS version 2.2 has been released, now allowing the creation of subdirectories in QXL.WIN containers and on floppy disks. The included Toolkit 2 has been updated to a recent version that includes the SuperBASIC MAKE_DIR command.

Q-emuLator 3.5 for Windows

The latest update of Q-emuLator for Windows implements the extended system call to create a new directory in a QXL.WIN container or floppy disk (in addition to a Windows directory, where it was already available). It's also bundled with a more recent version 2.34 of the Toolkit 2 that includes the MAKE_DIR command.

The built-in debugger (accessed by pressing F11 while the emulated QL is running) has been updated and it now supports conditional breakpoints, complex expressions and text that is more readable on large displays.

Q-emuLator updates

Q-emuLator versions 2.1 for OS X and 3.4 for Windows are now available for download.

SMSQ/e support has been improved when using the emulator-specific build of SMSQ/e (available here).

Both formats of microdrive images (mdump_task and QLay) are now supported by the unregistered version of the emulator, since supporting only one of them was confusing.

The version for Intel Macs also catches up with the TCP/IP driver improvements recently added to the PC version, and audio emulation has been made compatible with OS X 11 Big Sur.

Q-emuLator 2.0 for macOS

Q-emuLator 2.0 has been released, for Intel Macs running macOS 10.14 "Mojave" or later.

Download it here!

Apart from recompiling the code for 64 bit (32 bit apps are no longer supported since macOS Catalina), there has been extensive work to update functionality that relied on OS X APIs that Apple has discontinued or modified with incompatible behaviour.

Other changes are related to adjusting to the evolving macOS security constraints and to including some of the recent emulator changes that have been released in the Windows version. A few of these changes have also been applied to the 32 bit app (version 1.3.1) to make them available on older versions of OS X.

There is a new Quick Start Guide to help users new to Q-emuLator, or even the QL:

If you purchased a registration for version 1.x, this is a paid upgrade, except for people that have registered in the last year. (If you've registered in September 2019 or later, you may find that the new version already accepts your existing code, or contact me if it doesn't).