EmulationThrough the wonders of Java you can now play some emulators right here in your browser! You need a Java-compatible browser to do this, of course, but most modern browsers should cope. As practically the whole world uses either Netscape or Internet Explorer you should be ok. Note: I use Opera, and that has problems with this... :-) This page is under construction. Expect information on running everything from the ZX81 (vintage speccy) to the N64, Gameboy Advance, Arcade machines and beyond! Sinclair ZX Spectrum 
This might be one of the most emulated computers out there. The sinclair had a VAST software library and programmers managed to squeeze astounding feats out of the little rubber-keyed 48K 3.5mhz 8-colour machine. The Spectrum was also my first ever computer. In the UK at least it was incredibly popular. You either had a CBM 64 or a Speccy! In the 80's this was the machine to have, even though it cost £175 when released!The Spectrum was an evolution of the ZX80 and ZX81 machines. It was released in 16k, 48k and eventually 128k formats. When Sinclair sold out to Amstrad after the C5 fiasco more machines were released (the +2 and the +3) but by then the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga were making inroads. The Spectrum, even with its humble specs, has everything you could want available for it. In its heyday the magazine racks were filled with Spectrum titles and the software shelves the same. Much of it is now freely distributable. Amstrads e-mailer phone even plays Spectrum games to this day! Some companies, notably Ultimate Play The Game (now the top developer Rare) request that their back catalogue are not released. The Spectrum really kick started the home computer market in this country and deserves it place in history. Many of todays PC users and hobbyist programmers started out here. It is easy to get lost in nostalgia remembering this humble machine and community that sprung up around it. For more information on the Speccy visit Planet Sinclair or this page. There are many, many, emulators available for the Spectrum. They are now near perfect. There are Java emulators for your browser and emualators coded to run on every machine under the sun. The Spectrum is probably the most emulated machine you can find! For things to use with it look for either snapshot files or tape-image files.  HOB Java EmulatorWorld of Spectrum's Emulator Archive Commodore Amiga 
The Commodore Amiga was the machine that kickstarted the 16-bit entertainment movement. It was the first ever Multimedia machine, though at the time no-one new what that was. It was, in 1985, way ahead of everything else.In a time when PC's still had 4 color CGA, or 16 color EGA if you were rich, the Amiga had advanced screen modes, graphics, sounds and a *true* multitasking OS and GUI. The machine was so good it was even used by TV studios - an important foothold the machine gained due to its video compatability. It's easy to underestimate the Amiga. The story of how it was developed would take a site on it's own. Jay Miner, formally a developer for Atari, along with RJ Mical, and Dave Morse began life as Hi-Torro, ostensably a joystick manufacturer. This was a front. Eventually they needed funding for their new breed of computer, and started to negotiate with Atari. Then Commodore sneaked in and took it right from under their noses. Atari rushed out the ST to become the first 16-bit computer on the market. So what made it special? It's custom chips! They even had names, such as Paula, Denise, Gary and Agnus and they were responsible for the dedicated handling of sound and video etc - letting the processor (the Motorola 68000 family) get on with important stuff. On a single (multi-sync) monitor or TV it could display different screen modes at once - something even today the PC can't do. The sound, 8-bit and 4-channel was nothing special but was adequate. The OS is still impressive today. A full GUI and a powerful command line interface (CLI) - but mulitasking at a low-level, not like windows fake multitasking. For a 7.14mhz machine quite impressive. Quite a few Amigas were released. The first was the A1000, a PC like box. Then the A500 appeared, a mass market machine that took the world by storm. The A500 had all the computer bits inside the keyboard casing, like the home microcomputers of old. Lots of others appeared, A2000, A1500, A3000 - but of course at their hearts they were the same machines, just different expansion possibilities. It's games that gave the Amiga popularity. Loaded from 880mb disks, but packing a lot into that. Companies such as Psygnosis (Lemmings), Bullfrog (Populous) and many more cut their teeth here. The Amiga had a vast software library, but unfortunately a lot of it wasn't up to standard. Like any popular machine companies were throwing everything onto the market. Unlike the consoles there was no licensing, so they had a free hand. Again, like the speccy, the newstands were full of Amiga titles. The end came for the Amiga as technology overtook it and it failed to keep up. 3rd party peripherals have always been available to the Amiga such as addon co-processors, processors, hard drives, RAM cards, graphic cards etc - but as a standard machine it eventually became underpowered. Later enhancements included hard drives, better `AGA` graphics modes, faster processors and newer versions of the Kickstart (that part of the OS stored in ROM). Unfortunately PC's were falling in price and gaining more power. Commodore was also losing money (by building PC's!) and rushed out failed machines like the CDTV, the A600 and the CD32 (the worlds first 32bit CD Console). Commodore eventualy went bankrupt. A string of buyers have owned the Commodore or Amiga trademarks since, including Escom - which itself went bankrupt along with its string of high-street computer stores! I owned a A500 Plus (A500 with workbench/kickstart 2.04 and 1mb chip ram) and a A1200 (14mhz 32-bit 68020 processor, AGA Graphics, 20mb HD). The A500, as a step up from the Spectrum 128, was amazing to me! The A1200 was just an evolution, but the little HD disk did wonders. It's a pity that Commodore went bankrupt and the Amiga never developed any more but perhaps the age of the home computer was dead as the Wintel PC became the norm. For emulation there are two main options. UAE - a very impressive Amiga emulator that began life on Unix, and is now available as WinUae, and Fellow - a much faster emulator but suffers in the compatibility stakes. Try both! You'll need ROM's to run the Emulators and a copy of the Workbench disks. There are lots of disk images on the internet in the form of .ADF files. For more information on the history of the Amiga look at this h2g2 article for a good technical overview, or this page or this one. General Amiga Sites: Amiga Interactive Guide Amiga In A Box Amiga Guide Amiga Zone And for the modern amiga, as it still survives in some form, try: amiga.com amiga.org |
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