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Swan emulates ZX Spectrum 8-bit home computer. Emulated ZX Spectrum models are 16K, 48K, 128K and +2. Swan emulator is devoted to achieving accurate emulation, as well as friendly user interface.
The latest released version can be downloaded here: https://github.com/zoran-vucenovic/swan/releases/latest
Note: to have sound in Swan, you need portaudio library (http://www.portaudio.com/). Without portaudio Swan will work, but will not produce any sound.
- In Windows, you can put the portaudio dll in the same folder with swan.exe. You can find prebuild dll for example here: https://github.com/spatialaudio/portaudio-binaries Important: You have to choose the correct bitness (32-bit or 64-bit -- must be the same bitness as swan.exe)!
- In Linux, install libportaudio from your Linux distro's repository.
Swan can open tape files (tzx, pzx and tap), as well as snapshot files (szx, z80 and sna). To load tape, in main menu choose Tape->Open tape file, then in the emulator type LOAD "" and start the tape (Tape->Play). To speed up loading, choose Options->Don't draw screen while tape is running.
To download your favourite old games, you can visit these web sites:
- https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/
- https://worldofspectrum.net/archive/
- https://worldofspectrum.org/archive/
As said above, emulation accuracy is the main aim in development of Swan. Now Swan:
- passes all Patrik Rak's tests (https://github.com/raxoft/z80test -- version 1.2, latest at the moment this text is written)
- emulates memory contention of ULA chip, particularly experienced in screen effects produced by screen-drawing timings of ULA chip (for a nice example, try https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/37853/ZX-Spectrum/Contention_Colours or other examples listed)
The tests images: https://github.com/zoran-vucenovic/swan/wiki/Swan-tests